Mortiem et Gloriam - Chariots of Fire Biblical competition - Round 4 vs Richard and MY Siatic Egyptians!

The sky twisted, turned, warped and bent.
"Well, that's a first!" Ptepic excplaimed, "I really feel different this time."
"Oi, Ptepid's got the chariots!" Abarth Ray scrambled yto mount up with his men.
"I've got the archers and no one else!" Ptepid shouted after the fast departing secret policeman.
"We've got a camel," Ptraci laughed.
The camel shrugged, chomped on a tasty arcacia bush, and calculated the odd of losing these two idiots, permanently!

Due to none of us being sufficently awake when we did the draw for round 3, round 4 had resulted in a double rematch situation if the draw went from top to bottom. AND a double rematch if we went bottom to top. So, we let the bottom four players play the unplayed opponent, and Richard and mysef, with only a point between us, followed Richard's idea of swapping armies. Elegant, graceful, beautiful. Richard's idea wasn't bad either!
So, Sea Peoples!!! Hordes of short spear melee experts. If I could repeat Richard's performance from game 1, I would be extatic, if I couldn't, at least I would have tried a differnt list entirely!.
It was excatly what I faced in round 2 (quelle surprise), just on the wrong side of the table. Bonus news: Meant I got too see my forces from the right side for once!
For some reason, my computer will not allow me to edit images at the moment, so welcome to the world of unprocessed phone shots!
A coastline, a mountain, a hill. As far as terrain went, that was it! Richard put Ptepic and the two units of archers on the left on the mountain. The Greek mercanary spears are the dark smudge between them and the darker smudge which is the superior Egyptian spears. The average spears make a second line behind (and would not move all game). The chariots and the Medjai hold the right. My deployemnt - the CinC , who started as talented, a superior warriors and two aveage warriors were on the left, and the distinctly average chariots rested behind. Then two competent commanders with a superior warrior and an average warriors hold the middle, on the right, a second talented commander with two average warriors, two skirmishers and a superior warrior guard the camp on the right.


A general advance, generally. The Saitic chariots pile forwards, the rest of the line hangs back apart from the archers who reposition for a better firing solution. I try and advance the CinC on the left, but naff cards hamper and turns (all troops apart from skirmishers and chariots are tribal in this force, you need big cards to turn). My centres and right hand manage to work out how to walk forwards though..


The Greek spears still hang back, but the Egyptian chariots get into bow range, supported by the Medjai and the diamond dogs skirmishers.


I mean, the cards COULD be worse...
I hold the lion's share of the reds, and a decent amount of zebras too! Can't even group wheel on those two left hand hands, whereas the right can do what they want!


Not that you can tell on this wide shot, but the action has hotte dup. The CinC's command elected to send one unit forwards at the double and trudge with the others. Both central commands move as fast as possible towards the Greek line. I withdrew the skirmishers on the right and allowed Richard to shoot me with the chariots and skirmish away with the Medjai and Blue Squadron. He brought Ptepid oer to the Medjai so they could switch from skirmish to formed.


The centre left command goes into the Greek spears, killing one base on the right-hand unit. To their right, a slightly worried average warrior unit of eight realises it is staring down eight annoyed Greek spears and six irrate Egyptian superior spearmen too. They were meant to be accompanied by a superior warrior unit, but they were facing off against the chariots.

 
The master surveys his domain.
The Egyptain archers advance to close the range on the slightly more mobile right hand command, whose superiors are swinging round to get to the end of the Greek line. The chariots have moved up. while the average warriors have met the massed Greek spears and Egyptian combat monsters. On the right, Richard's ten chariots are already proving their worth by tearing into average and superior warriors. The only positive here, I had managed to shoot away the Diamond Dogs skirmishers (1-0)


The first warrior unit fails. having caused no Egyptain casualties. (1-2). The superiors too their left are not happy either! Green dice rolling blanks for me, skulls for Richard. It's a game of skill!


Despite horrendous losses, the Greek spears hang on. The Sea Peoples are not doing too badly here (if you ignore the unit to the right).


Red squadron loses two chariots, but the superior Sea People warriors disintegrate under the yolks of Egyptian chariotry. (1-4)


There's a theme to my cards here!
On the left, I move up skirmishers to counter Richard's shooting threat. He had already taken off two bases on my left hand warriors. In the main line, the Greeks had thinned out one of the warrior units, but one of the Greeks had legged it, but the average Sea Peoples fighting two units on their own was looking flakey! (3-4) On the right, Blue and Red Squadrons continue to hammer my/his Sea Peoples of all varieties. The Medjai are just visible leaving to the right as they make a dive for the camp. Cheeky!


The inevitable happens, the average warriors break against superior numbers. They had killed four bases on two units on the way, not a bad swap I guess (3-6).


Blue squadron crashed through another average unit (3-10), and found itself assisting the Medjai attacking the camp. The Medjai had lost two bases to supported missile fire from my skirmishers and the camp followers fighting back (they were equal in combat, poor protected vs average unprotected). But as Blue squadron (superior short spear vs loose in the open) hit the camp, killing one and a half out of it's three bases. Yes, that is a lost general next to the camp, killed fighting with his men, a hero!


Richard moved some of the reserve spears! Sea Peoples chariots face off with the pursuant Greek spears. Sea peoples pile up the mountain to try and catch the combat shy archers, killing a base, but too little, too late, another average warrior set fell to Red Squadron (3-12)! It was game over as the Saitics rampaged through with a (3-15) win.


It was interesting fighting against your own army, you know it's strengths and its weaknesses, I just could not exploit them as efficently as Richard did with mine, Well played that man! What a great game, and a fabulous laugh all the way through.

The results:
1st Richard J-C 50-19* (swapped armies with me for game 4 due to rematch)
2nd Nik 40-19
3td Me 40-48 & bloodiest player (swapped armies with Richard for last game due to rematch)
4th Peter 29-42
5th Keith 27-49
Wooden spoon & best Painted Phillip Powell 23-38

Which leads to army points
*Army rankings
Saitic Egyptian 52
Hottie Empire 🦊😘 40
Sea peoples 38
Minoan 29
Later Sargonid Assyrian 27
Sumerian 24

Phillip with the Wooden Spoon and well deserved best painted.


A slightly embarrassed me with third place.


Nik (being stalked by Keith) and his second place. 

Bloodiest player, most points for AND against! Me! Richard laughs on over my shoulder.


The man, the myth, the legend, Richard, our overall and well deserved winner.


So, my army was the most successful all weekend, just not always in my hands! Hilarious. A great weekend, only six of us, but I will remedy that before next year. Love the chariot period, and here's to more games!

The skies twisted, the army returned to their tombs, the Medjai ever at alert. Ptepic and Ptraci waed goodbye as they turned on Youbastard towards the flaring pyramids of home, They had done well, and would return to this legendary land of Der-Bi for more adventures soon!