"Oh, here we go again!" he muttered "Pre-Vedic Indian. Maybe we should just wait for them to find Vedic?" he mused.
Arbath Ray dusted himself off, spitting grit out of his mouth and taking a swig of water. "Wonder what they did to upset Psamtic? He's looking a bit miffed."
"How can you tell, he's wrapped in bandages?"
Last Saturday I headed up to the gaming hub of Battlefield Hobbies to help Si out with demoing MeG Pacto (think DBA, but with teeth) to some keen new players, then in the afternoon Rob and I settled down to a game of Meg Maximus (the normal sized game I report on here) using our two armies that did not meet at Warfare.
Pacto Gauls vs Romans
I had drawn up two lists based on what I knew Si had in his collection of rebases.
The Indomnitable Gauls was a BIG force of 14 TuGs, the Romans was 9 TuGs including an exceptional and two superior legions, all fully tooled up! The Romans deployed centrally, facing the wall of Gauls while Gallic chariots and cavalry on each flank threatened to envelope Rome. Rome lost 15-9 on this one, due to a series of catastrophic KaB ripping the centre out of our forces while the plucky celts JUST held on..
The other game was Rob's Indians vs Si's Thrco-Macedonian (piloted by Steve B). Rob won this one.
So after lunch, Rob and I settled down to a nice game of Maximus, his Pre-Vedic Indian vs my Warfare winning Saitic Egyptians. Deployment and terrain was skewed somewhat by Rob chosing a maximal sized vineyard and getting it slap-bang in the middle of the table! His four archer units were firmly holding this area, to move them I would have needed to have served an eviction order! So, I had to go hunting his 24(!) chariots on the left, or two units of melee expert infantry(!) supported by 4(!) elephants on the right. I really had nothing that could go and play in those vineyards. My plan, therefore, was to detach one Greek spear to support Psamtic and the the chariots, send t'other Greeks and Egyptian spears to deal with the nellies, while my Egyptian spears, skirmishers and archers would lurk left in the ruins to snipe at the chariots but not get involved in the fighting.
It's a pretty big and scary, but beautifully painted, army Rob has there! It's also a bit deeper than mine.
My Greek spears split off to the left, assisting my chariots and my smallest command under Ptepid against the solid wall of twenty-four chariots Rob had brought with him. If they weren't already shades, I suspect theire would have been a sharp intake of breath! The other spears moved right to assist the skilled bows and the Egyptian spears in dealing with the elephants and friends.
Rob brought four units of bows forwards, knowing they are more or less immune as long as they do not poke their nose out of the vines. Look carefully at that left hand unit... Just saying!
Its a big discard pile! My superior spears are basically parked in front of Rob's bows to draw his attention. Expensive I know, but would pay off. My chariots try to break up his line but 10 vs 24 is a bit of an ask, even when you are better in charging, melee and get shoot and charge!
CHARGES! All over the place... Spears charge both the bows and the right hand chariots, joined by the four chariots of blue squadron who contact two of Rob's chariot units. Why? It might be suicide (difficult when you are already dead) but it keeps two units pinned back out the way. The Medjal watch the fourth Indian chariot unit with interest.
Shoot and charge - powerful? Nah, all five dice missed it!
The spears start the long, slow process of grinding through unprotected combat shy bows a base at a time. My four chariots, despite being superior and short spear vs superior, fail to do enough and die a bit too quickly .In the centre of shot, my six chariots of red squadron show how to do it, slaying two enemy horse draw buggies.
On the right, the fight I was more concerned about was the elephants and melee expert infantry. The left-hand Greek spears were making full use of their shield cover to advance (slowly) and then buying off the damage later.
Oops! Blue squadron disintergrates (0-2), but red squadron having expanded in the previous turn were not liable to getting flanked. Phew!
CRUNCH! Four nellies and their accompanying foot crash into my Greek spears. To stop a flank charge, my skilled (but protected, non-combat shy) bows commit to fighting the enemy bows. Thankfully, we got in to two files so Rob missed the flank charge (thankfully I had the deck).
Two sets of Greek long spears vs 4 elephants. Could be a diaster, but quickly we were collecting ivory! The left hand spears were suffereing a little vs the melee expert Indians, and losing a rank means that Rob will be up and ahead on the kills quickly.
On the left, Rob's chariots pile in to Recd Squadron, but his original unit break (2-2) (should have trimmed the bottom off this shot, sorry).
Well, that's consistent on the left, the right, not so!
On the left, where it counts, Rob's left hand 6 of chariots (4 6s, it's rude) dismounts to show its nasty 2-handed cut and crush weaponry, waiting to smash into my combat shy bows. However, 6 medjal, 6 bows, and 6 javelinmen decided that they had other plans, killing two bases and causing a wound in one go!
This was repeated the next go, and his charioteers decided that this was not a good idea and went looking for Vedic mantra inspiration elsewhere (4-2)
My red squadron realligned itself to Rob's chariots as my superior melee experts were starting to tell on his superiors. The spears were slowly (one base a go) killing archers, and then also fighting off superior chariots too, both slow combats, but meaning two of Rob's units were busy ad not helping elsewhere (he never had the cards to break off).
Over on the far right, Greek ivory prices were about to bottom out as Rob's elephants dissolved (6-2), and my average Egyptian spears looked to assist their Greek friends against the Indian chopper weilders..
Rob's third batch of chariots decides that fighting skeletons and mummys is a REALLY silly idea, and quits the field. (8-2)
Pursuit happened, but not very far! The Pharoah Psamtic leads the charge into the remaining Indian carts, the spears polish off the unfortunate Indian bows that had stuck their noses out at the very start of the game (10-2)
My bows were making a decent (skeletal) fist of beating up their unarmoured adversaies in the vineyard, while Greek and Egyptian spears were slowly grinding away at their melee expert opponents. Note my superior Egyptian spears, having been hit four times, on a -3 move, so basically weathering the arrow storm!
But it was all over, Rob's Indians were off to the races, and the forces of Saitic Egypt had won 15-2. Quite an emphatic victory by the score, but it felt a lot closer. I could do nothing about his bows in the vineyard. His melee expert foot was as good as my long spears, especially when he started knocking ranks out which effects their effectivness, effectively! My superior spears, facing the fire of three units of bows for most of the game, should have perished. It was my chariots and spears that won it for me, slowly grinding out his chariots and bows, while the spears killed the elephants too. Great game, again, a giggle all the way through.
Arbath Ray looked at the shattered remains of the Indian chariot wing, smiled at Pteppic and held out a hand, "Grape?" he grinned, "we appear to have just 'inherited' an awful lot!"
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