Pages

Friday, October 3, 2008

Tale of 5.5 Gamers - 500 point battles (a)

This was our 1st Tale of 5.5 gamers’ battle day. We played only one game as only two people showed up ready to play. Old man Ray is old and had to rest, Robin had some Space Orks to paint, Adam had 5 business projects due that night and Mike had to eat a can of chili.

Proto-Assyrians vs. Mycenaean Greeks 500pt Battle.

Forces :

Mycenaean Greeks
3 Chariots with Hero (Force Commander)
8 Chariot runners
2x 20man mixed (L/S/M) Spearmen/Bow units

Chad played his nicely painted Mycenaean Greeks. He put a lot of work into them and they were lovely to look at. Hopefully he will chime in at some point and maybe share some of pictures of them.

Proto-Assyrians
15 man Assyrian Heavy Infantry (S/M) plus Force Commander
24 man Assyrian Auxiliaries (L/S/M) (cheating - 20 is max in 500 point games)
8 man Chaldean Slingers
10 man Aramaen Javelins

I played some Proto-Assyrians. I had to scramble the night before the game as I had not based my chariots and I had no plasti-card for basing. So I came upon the idea of using my newly painted Neo-Babylonians (O.G. Assyrians) as early Assyrians and the rest of my Hittites as Assyrian Aux. The idea here is that one of the border Hittite client cities decided to switch sides rather then fight the Assyrians. I’ll finish up my Hittites for next time but the important thing is everything was painted.

Setup

We went with the standard meeting engagement. We only had five hundred points so we wanted to keep it simple. We played in 4x4 area. After selecting our table sides (basically where we happened to be standing at the time) we rolled to place terrain on the table. Chad won the roll to go 1st. Using the random terrain table Chad rolled up a small hill. I then rolled up a stand of trees. Chad then passed so I rolled the final time and happened to roll up river/stream. I selected the stream option so I could go across the table without needing Chad’s permission. In the end, the table was set up as shown above.

Turn 1

Mycenaeans
We rolled to see who went 1st. I won the roll and graciously allowed the Mycenaeans to go 1st. For their turn, the Mycenaeans boldly stood still.

Assyrians
Both my heavy infantry and auxiliary infantry moved forward. My slingers moved forward as well, going just as fast the heavy infantry. My javelins moved double time through the trees to the treeline. Both my heavy infantry and auxiliary infantry moved far enough to be in range of the Mycenaeans. My heavy infantry fired at spear 2 to no effect while my auxiliary fired at the chariot runners to no effect.

Turn 2

Mycenaeans
Prodded into action by Assyrian bowfire, the Mycenaeans moved forward slowly. Seeing they were in range, the bowmen cowering in the ranks of the spearmen took some ineffective pot shots at the naked slingers.

Assyrians
Having the Mycenaeans right where they want them, the Assyrian heavy and auxiliary infantry stood pat. Both the slingers and javelins moved forward to better firing positions. Everybody let lose with their weapons. The slingers and javelins combined to kill 1 person in spear 1 while the heavy infantry killed 1 person in spear 2 and the auxiliary killed two chariot runners.

Turn 3

Mycenaeans
The Mycenaeans continued to slowly move forward and reached the edge of the stream. They took some more pot shots at the javelins and killed one of them.

Assyrians
The javelins were a little to close to spear 1 so the backed up a little. Outside of that, everybody stood still. The shooting was a repeat of the previous round with the slingers and javelins combining to kill 1 person in spear 1, the heavy infantry killing 1 person in spear 2 and the auxiliary killing two chariot runners. At this point, the runners had had enough and retreated behind the chariots.

Turn 4

Mycenaeans
The turn started with chariot runners failing to rally while making good progress toward the boards edge. Now entering the stream, the Mycenaean spear 1 managed to move partway through it. The chariots where able to cross the stream and put themselves in a position to charge the enemy next turn. Spear 2 also made good use of the bridge, putting themselves in a position to charge next turn as well. After moving, the archers concentrated on the slingers and managed to kill one.

Assyrians
Counting on massive bowfire and expecting a decisive blow, everybody stood their ground and maintained two ranks. It started out well with the javelins killing 4 in spearmen 1 and the auxiliary archers killing two of the chariots. Unfortunately, the heavy infantry could not finish the job and take out the final chariot nor could the slingers with double-shot kill a single Mycenaean in spear 2.

Turn 5

Mycenaeans
The Mycenaeans were in prime position to take advantage of the thin lines of the Assyrians. That is, if they survive the Assyrians standing and shooting. So the chariot charges the Assyrian auxiliary who pass their fear test, shoot their finally volley and prepare for the chariots impact. Spear 2 overcomes their fear of the Assyrian heavy infantry and charges in under a hail over bowfire. After the dust of the charges settle and the airs ceases to be darken arrows, both the chariots and spearmen made it into combat without a single causality. Watching the rest of their comrades, spear 1 continued across the stream. The combat between the Assyrian heavy infantry and the Mycenaean spear resulted in one dead Assyrian and no dead Mycenaeans. But with three ranks of Mycenaeans to the Assyrians two, the Mycenaeans won the combat and Assyrians failed their leadership roll. Fortunately in this case, the Assyrians were the faster as they fled from the combat. The more decisive combat ended up being the Mycenaean hero in chariot against the Assyrian auxiliary. Two assyrians died but bolstered by their addition rank and a standard they held their ground and got a draw. But there was an auxiliary musician. He pounded out a droning beat during combat and this apparently unnerved the Mycenaean hero. The hero promptly fled and was run down the axillaries.

With this, both the spearmen in stream and spearmen who defeated the Assyrian heavy infantry lost heart and also fled from the battle.

End
At this point, we were tired and decided to end the game. Do most WAB close combats seem to last just one round?

No comments: