Last night, Andy from the Aylesbury club came over to MKWS for a game.
This is our first fight since late last year, as as usual we chose to fight in the chariot period.
*WARNING*
Those sensitive wargamers who can't stand proxy figures or unpainted kit, please look away now!
My Mitanni, since the 2019 repoints, have lost the ability to have a legendary general, and a unit of foot, so I'm down to 10 units, breaking on 5! Andy's Mycenaean Army break on a 7. EEEK! BIG ARMY ALERT!
Andy had asked for a training game, where we could talk through all possible options, and I was quite happy to do this. It meant that the game would not be finished (SPOILERS) but we got through a lot of key concepts and ideas of how to fight with our two respective armies.
The difference in the armies:
Mitanni - lots of bow armed shooting light chariots. Some superior, some skilled. Very fast, manoeuvrable, and expensive! Aiding these were two units of multi-armed loose order foot, one unit of skilled shooting, combat shy, unprotected bows, not much else!
Mycenaeans - four chariot units, 2 fours of superior battle chariots (massively upgraded under the 2019 list jinks), 2 sixes of javelin armed light chariots, SHED load of long spear, integral archer close order foot! Some light terrain stuff, similar to mine, plus two decent sized units of skirmish foot too.
A very difficult force to deal with, I had come off the wrong end of Mark at MKWS's on at least two previous occasions!
The terrain:
Andy won the roll off, and chose to defend. Mycenae is either coastal, or mountains, and he went for mountains. He dominated the terrain cards, so we ended up 'very dense' with rocky ground on one flank.
Lots of terrain we tried to add was lost to this flank (it was insatiable) so the rest of the table was moderately open. There were woods, and a small Mitanni village to fight over, with a hill just near my base edge.
The reason I did not win the terrain, I was holding back these! Andy scored 30%, I achieved 90%, so Andy had to deploy 8 units from his army. This was almost the same as the whole of my army!!! Expensive troops, even when successfully out-scouting an enemy, can still end up with their opponent being able to deploy a horde of dross after your super-troopers come out!
Not a bad hand really... The left. My three loose foot units were enjoying the protection of the rocky ground. Andy had chosen to match me with two units of unprotected archers and a skirmish archer unit too. Facing my superior chariots (with nearby floating talented CinC) was a solid wall of Macedonian Mycenaean foot, with the chariots lurking, ominously, behind!
Andy was anchored between two terrain pieces that my chariots had no intention of going through!
One he had stuffed with the aforementioned bows, the other with javelin armed loose foot. He had thought about mixing his bow into the line, but I explained that my skilled bows would love an unprotected target (yellow dice shooting, with 8 files, yes please)! Also he was pondering whether should deploy wide or deep. AS we discussed, if he had deployed in 2 wide, three deep for his units of 6.This meant I could not concentrate firepower on to one unit (but I could try), I might slow him with shooting, but I would be hitting him with less.
"Come on then, I'll take ya all on!"
My general deals out his cards, then moves up into a useful position for the next go. Professionals are cool! These are Mycenaean, not Macedonians backed up with Assyrians!
My right hand flank headed towards his spears, via the gin & tonic flavoured wine gums (an interesting experiment, one neither of us will be repeating, needed more bergamot, less cheap lemon)!
He was not on his own for long! Andy advanced, yes, he was following my 'Don't corner sit' tactics. My aim was to pin the front, then try to take on some of his weaker units on the flanks.
First lesson for Andy, how to deal with 'chaos theory'. Could he keep his line in tact or would he get pulled in all directions? Andy went for the charge, I would have sat and shot with his javelins for a turn or two more first, as although only two wide, he had 6 in his unit compared to my four, so casualties would tell, whereas I could shoot and scoot, with skilled friend (yeah the painted ones, I know...)
Andy met this new situation with some shock, as my chariots turned to flank (drilled, with general, is a white card) threatening his charioteers rear. My flank might be slightly threatened by by his spears, but I knew I could outrun them.
The general situation, three units facing down two on my left. I was killing a base here and there on the shieldwall, but it would take me days to break that lot! Andy was swinging his battle chariots through the gap created by his lines deliberate wheel. My right was still attempting to dance with the Greek cavalry.
In the choss, my spears thunked into the bows. My skilled archers had weakened his skirmishers, and they had fortunately ducked at the right moment when he had shot back with green dice.
On the right, there was a series of run aways! This was starting to pull apart his line. Had the battle gone on further, I would have started moving in on these oh so juicy flanks!
The battle chariots rumbled in. I had choices, shoot, run, scoot or fight. Knowing that battle chariots only move four Base Widths away, and he was three bases away before charging, and his general was out of range to buy back his movement. I was able to slow the nasty chariots so they did not contact. I was also able to manoeuvre my other spears onto their flanks.
Much reforming of the lines on the right, from both sides.
The battle chariots crash in again, my spears hit their flank, while his bows tried a countercharge, unprotected foot vs protected short spears, not going to end well!
I threw in some chariots on the right, just so Andy could see what a well positioned flank charge can do. Yeah, it did not end well there! (0-2)
Told you those chariots of mine were in trouble! Fighting in two directions, Andy does not even have to pursue.
And at this point we were the last guys left in the club, not done that since the 90s!
Andy was playing it perfectly. A well held line would push my chariots slowly back. I was whittling his end unit (it had lost two bases out of 6) but that would not be quick enough to secure a victory. I was confident I could take his second archer unit. My spears would be inn trouble vs his second battle chariot unit on the charge (I would have been +2, he would have been +5, yowch), but once melee started I would have weight of numbers, plus my own chariots to assist! I would probably pick up three more unit before he caught and throttled my chariots...
Mycenaean is always a really difficult army to fight in this period, it has solid foot which practically no one else does. Knowing there will be two at Warfare in November fills me with some dread, as does the fact Andy will be getting more practise with this lot when his are painted up!
This is our first fight since late last year, as as usual we chose to fight in the chariot period.
*WARNING*
Those sensitive wargamers who can't stand proxy figures or unpainted kit, please look away now!
My Mitanni, since the 2019 repoints, have lost the ability to have a legendary general, and a unit of foot, so I'm down to 10 units, breaking on 5! Andy's Mycenaean Army break on a 7. EEEK! BIG ARMY ALERT!
Andy had asked for a training game, where we could talk through all possible options, and I was quite happy to do this. It meant that the game would not be finished (SPOILERS) but we got through a lot of key concepts and ideas of how to fight with our two respective armies.
The difference in the armies:
Mitanni - lots of bow armed shooting light chariots. Some superior, some skilled. Very fast, manoeuvrable, and expensive! Aiding these were two units of multi-armed loose order foot, one unit of skilled shooting, combat shy, unprotected bows, not much else!
Mycenaeans - four chariot units, 2 fours of superior battle chariots (massively upgraded under the 2019 list jinks), 2 sixes of javelin armed light chariots, SHED load of long spear, integral archer close order foot! Some light terrain stuff, similar to mine, plus two decent sized units of skirmish foot too.
A very difficult force to deal with, I had come off the wrong end of Mark at MKWS's on at least two previous occasions!
The terrain:
Andy won the roll off, and chose to defend. Mycenae is either coastal, or mountains, and he went for mountains. He dominated the terrain cards, so we ended up 'very dense' with rocky ground on one flank.
Lots of terrain we tried to add was lost to this flank (it was insatiable) so the rest of the table was moderately open. There were woods, and a small Mitanni village to fight over, with a hill just near my base edge.
The reason I did not win the terrain, I was holding back these! Andy scored 30%, I achieved 90%, so Andy had to deploy 8 units from his army. This was almost the same as the whole of my army!!! Expensive troops, even when successfully out-scouting an enemy, can still end up with their opponent being able to deploy a horde of dross after your super-troopers come out!
Andy was anchored between two terrain pieces that my chariots had no intention of going through!
One he had stuffed with the aforementioned bows, the other with javelin armed loose foot. He had thought about mixing his bow into the line, but I explained that my skilled bows would love an unprotected target (yellow dice shooting, with 8 files, yes please)! Also he was pondering whether should deploy wide or deep. AS we discussed, if he had deployed in 2 wide, three deep for his units of 6.This meant I could not concentrate firepower on to one unit (but I could try), I might slow him with shooting, but I would be hitting him with less.
"Come on then, I'll take ya all on!"
My general deals out his cards, then moves up into a useful position for the next go. Professionals are cool! These are Mycenaean, not Macedonians backed up with Assyrians!
My right hand flank headed towards his spears, via the gin & tonic flavoured wine gums (an interesting experiment, one neither of us will be repeating, needed more bergamot, less cheap lemon)!
He was not on his own for long! Andy advanced, yes, he was following my 'Don't corner sit' tactics. My aim was to pin the front, then try to take on some of his weaker units on the flanks.
First lesson for Andy, how to deal with 'chaos theory'. Could he keep his line in tact or would he get pulled in all directions? Andy went for the charge, I would have sat and shot with his javelins for a turn or two more first, as although only two wide, he had 6 in his unit compared to my four, so casualties would tell, whereas I could shoot and scoot, with skilled friend (yeah the painted ones, I know...)
Andy met this new situation with some shock, as my chariots turned to flank (drilled, with general, is a white card) threatening his charioteers rear. My flank might be slightly threatened by by his spears, but I knew I could outrun them.
The general situation, three units facing down two on my left. I was killing a base here and there on the shieldwall, but it would take me days to break that lot! Andy was swinging his battle chariots through the gap created by his lines deliberate wheel. My right was still attempting to dance with the Greek cavalry.
In the choss, my spears thunked into the bows. My skilled archers had weakened his skirmishers, and they had fortunately ducked at the right moment when he had shot back with green dice.
On the right, there was a series of run aways! This was starting to pull apart his line. Had the battle gone on further, I would have started moving in on these oh so juicy flanks!
The battle chariots rumbled in. I had choices, shoot, run, scoot or fight. Knowing that battle chariots only move four Base Widths away, and he was three bases away before charging, and his general was out of range to buy back his movement. I was able to slow the nasty chariots so they did not contact. I was also able to manoeuvre my other spears onto their flanks.
Much reforming of the lines on the right, from both sides.
The battle chariots crash in again, my spears hit their flank, while his bows tried a countercharge, unprotected foot vs protected short spears, not going to end well!
I threw in some chariots on the right, just so Andy could see what a well positioned flank charge can do. Yeah, it did not end well there! (0-2)
On the left, things were far more palatable, Andy's battle chariots and supporting archers broke under the weight of numbers, but not before inflicting casualties on my two units. His second unit of bows was within a point of breaking too, which would have comfortably have given me three units vs 1 (6-2).
Told you those chariots of mine were in trouble! Fighting in two directions, Andy does not even have to pursue.
Andy was playing it perfectly. A well held line would push my chariots slowly back. I was whittling his end unit (it had lost two bases out of 6) but that would not be quick enough to secure a victory. I was confident I could take his second archer unit. My spears would be inn trouble vs his second battle chariot unit on the charge (I would have been +2, he would have been +5, yowch), but once melee started I would have weight of numbers, plus my own chariots to assist! I would probably pick up three more unit before he caught and throttled my chariots...
Mycenaean is always a really difficult army to fight in this period, it has solid foot which practically no one else does. Knowing there will be two at Warfare in November fills me with some dread, as does the fact Andy will be getting more practise with this lot when his are painted up!
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