Brand new painted army! The Sea Peoples from...er... well the sea I suppose. {quickly hits up wikipedia} Well that is interesting, "The Sea Peoples remain unidentified in the eyes of most modern scholars, and hypotheses regarding the origin of the various groups are the source of much speculation" so really could have used any minatures for them, no one knows what they looked like!
Been playing a bit of ADLG at the moment, but life keeps getting in the way of writing it up. For at least one battle I have regrets that I can't remember what happened, cause the photos tell the story of a general who had not had enough sleep, or too many beers, or both. Anyway a new army and some spare time sees me trying to learn from my mistakes once again.
The baddies. When you hear classical Indian your brain goes elephants, many many elephants. This list attempts to turn that on its head. Taking the mandatory two and supplementing it with heavy cavalry impact. Which is not what my brain goes to when someone says Classical Indian. The four mediocre cavalry are an interesting choice. They don't really want to fight anything. So they are good for flank harass. Am wondering if you really need four of them. Could two not do the job and 10 points go elsewhere?
Woo Hoo! I love this list! Complicated it is not. Shoot and scoot command. 6 Elite heavy swordsmen that fear nothing in period (don't love heavy chariots, would say they are wary, still not scared of them) and a swamp of medium foot. They fear many things and are terrified of heavy chariots. However, there are a lot of these guys and if we can beat them in a straight up fight them we will bury them in bodies.
Am trying to think of anything more nasty than an elite elephant with included general (one on the left)? Nup, got nothing.
Hill with a plantation covering it to the East, two fields and another plantation to the West. So here is my plan. Am going to turn my line and walk my heavy foot diagonally backwards. Basically going to have a wall of troops from the bottom corner of the Western plantation on my base line to the base of the hill with the plantation on it. The light chariots will triple move along my baseline while this is happening, performing a huge out flank. This is all to be combined with the ambush on the hill. Genius!
....right. Except I don't have the first turn, and the Indian lights mean no double move for the heavy foot. The heavy foot are impetuous so can't turn and move {cost impetuous troops and extra UD to turn} which means I don't have the time to redeploy. I get that no plan survives contact with the enemy, but this has got to be a personal best in plan scrapping. Didn't survive till my first die roll.
Right, new plan. Collapse opponents East flank before he gets round my West flank. Step 1, get those bloody chariots away from bow and approaching elephants. Step 2. Angle line and hope opponent plays along. Ambush is sprung and four mediums come charging off the hill, the Indian lights scarper .
Looks like a plantation in the South... its not, its an elephant friendly field of doom.
CHARGE!
So what's going on here. The Indians didn't expect the swarm of mediums in ambush. The impact cavalry can't evade and is ZoC'd. So it could pull back 2 UD take a cohesion hit and get charged by the mediums next turn, or go in fully functional and... well pray really.
In all truth the Indian General accepted him as dead, just wanted him to take some Sea Peoples with him.
and he does. Even money on the dice roll. General +1, IMpact +1 and inherent +1 , vs medium +1 and two supports. Indian General wins by three, furious charge kicks and for a glorious moment hope is alive.
While this is going on, the Indian bow in the centre take one look at the swamp like mass (yes, swamp is my word of the day) and think bugger that for a game of alligators and turn around. The West sees the Indian line getting closer.
Why did I change the angle of photos? Just to make it harder to follow what is going on really.
The Indian general has lost the benefit of impact, and the dice also seem to have deserted him. He was one down on the dice, but elite and armoured, still took two hits. Some Sea Peoples lights get behind him to stop any pesky 'withdrawal' from combat nonsense. The bigger question is what am I doing with my light chariots. The answer... not really sure. They are there to protect the flank of the heavy sword line. Couldn't really come up with a better plan.
.....the Indian General leaves the battlefield in the worst possible way. Interestingly points wise he was worth exactly what he killed, six points. Elite Heavy Cavalry Impact 12 points - six points for being included and unreliable. Even from a moral point of view the Indians are only one worse off at the end of this combat.
Okay, lot going on here so lets break it down. In the far North East a medium sword and a light horse fight it out. The medium sword wins! That Indian command is reduced to a single light horse, so long as it rolls a 3+ for pips can keep moving for the rest of the game. Spoilers, it rolls 3+ for the rest of the game and keeps moving. Doesn't achieve anything, but gets to trot around.
The Indians contact the line of Sea Peoples heavy foot. The cavalry vs foot is even money, but the cavalry is armoured, and has furious charge. One elephant is +1 up the other elephant is +3 up with furious charge. Only big fly in the Indian ointment is the mediocre medium sword (1/2 bow 1/2 sword fight as mediocre) against the elite Sea Peoples heavy.
If you look closely you can see that the Indian medium foot has crossed the flank of the heavy on the end of the line. Which means flank charges are in the near future. The combats results are all pretty even, except for the Indian general who was +3 up. He rolls a two to the Sea Peoples six and its a DRAW (elephant is elite). It was all I could do to not leap out of my chair a cry out in thanks. That seemed to be a touch unsporting. So instead offered an "that was unlucky mate". This result was close to game changing. The elephant general was still going to win, but it was going to take much longer and I needed that time. Medals all round.
Though it looks like I may not be given that time. Combats along the centre were indecisive, except for the Elephant general who is attempting to make up for lost time and drops the Sea Peoples two levels of cohesion. To protect the flank sea peoples chariots have moved up. So they are sitting there being peppered with arrows. If the Elephant breaks through they will have to leave. You can see a 'relief' column of medium foot moving behind the main combatants, but they still need time. Centre East medium foot have engaged the Indian light horse. If the light horse evade the Indian heavy cavalry will be hard flanked. So they are taking the chance.... works to as they little blighters with the combat!
(blue line is current battle line)
Indian turn. First breakthrough and it goes to the sea peoples as an Elephant routs! Flipping mediocre mediums still in fight vs elite heavies, would whinge more but the heavy holding the line at +3 down to the elephant general still has not died so feel that luck swings both ways. Indian General joins the light horse fight...woah.... though not really as woah as it gets. If the light horse dies, that flank collapses and the war is over. Light horse takes a hit, but doesn't rout.
What a turn! So excited switch the camera angle again. Impetuous foot charge the bow in the far North of the shot, blowing straight through one! The Indian centre collapses, kinda. They do have a reserve of mediocre cavalry. An Indian light foot after being routed through twice (once by an elephant) has had enough and leaves the field. Indian Elephant general routs the Sea Peoples! There is ALOT for this Indian General to accomplish. Anyone else notice that there are three medium foot sword Sea Peoples that haven't moved in turns? Well.. that's not going to change.
Light horse with General vs Sea Peoples sword is ongoing.
Blue line of battlefield lines. Needs a better name. Sea Peoples heavives rout last of Indian cavalry and the All Bodies are Beautiful spokesperson is warming up her lungs to begin her first song. Light horse with General vs Sea Peoples sword is ongoing....grrr.... Indians do have some good mail though. In the North a Indian bow flank charges and Sea Peoples dropping them two cohesion. While the Indian general does work! Charges a light chariot (which flees) hits a medium sword, routing it instantly and putting a hit on the unit behind it. Imaging what this bad boy could have done if he had been doing this two turns ago! Medium indian foot move up to protect elephant flank. Bow move out of field to protect medium foot flank. Lot of communal flank protecting going on. Warms the heart.
Elephants and impetuous units have to pursue. This can sometimes put you in the weird state of wanting to win, but not all the win.
This Elephant general has won in its turn, but now has to advance. Which means no flank protection.
Now the elephant general is hard flanked. The ultimate war machine has gone from being +2 up to +2 down and that is never a place you want to be.
The Elephant general is swamp swarmed and goes down. With that the fight leaves the Classical Indians and the Sea peoples ... well who knows how the celebrate? They may not have even have really existed.
I think I would have liked to re-setup this battle at the time the elephant general hit my lines and reversed that die roll. So the Elephant gets the six, the elite sea peoples the three. Means the sea peoples unit routs on contact. The relief column of mediums is a turn or two away. What would I have done? The elephant goes straight forward, its not scared of the chariots. The chariots could run... but then the Indians medium foot and bow are in the flanks of the heavy sword. Not saying I would have lost, just saying it could have been close thing... with many more dead chariots.
Two things I need to take away from this game. One is basic math. My redeploy plan was never going to work. I don't have first turn, have impetuous troops, have competent general. You don't try and get clever with impetuous heavy foot. Should have just deployed them diagonally from the start... or had a better plan.
Secondly. I need to REALLY think before breaking up my groups of impetuous troops. Every chance they may never move again. Am not so concerned about the one that went light horse hunting, but there was another group that I broke up in an attempt to hard flank the Indian cavalry general on both sides... why? One flank is plenty!
I really need to see how this list does when matched up against heavy chariots. Is it actually possible to bury them in bodies?
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