Tuesday 23 March 2021

Chariots on the Move!

Our game last weekend saw the welcome return of our Bronze Age armies to the table and the debut of a new army. As we were getting the 28mm figures out of their boxes we wondered aloud why we had left it so long between games with these appealing looking armies. Lots of different reasons combined I suspect but I was a bit nervous of the reason being that the rules we favour for ancient games (Piquet: Archon) not really working for this sub-period.

The Allied army deployed. Chariots in the foreground and levied infantry beyond.


The newbies appearing for their first game were Les' Hebrew army; an Ebay purchase that had been waiting patiently for some time to be rebased. As most of the figures we own are solidly of the golden age of chariot warfare (New Kingdom Egypt, the Hittites and Canaanite city states) these residents of the Levant would be of a slightly later period. Although we are not too prissy about strict historicity of our wargames, I decided that Les' new boys would on this occasion represent their probable ancestors, the semi-nomadic hill tribes that eventually coalesced into the Israelite nation. These are probably what the Egyptians termed "Apiru" or "Habiru" so that was good enough for me.


The Habiru army deployed with skirmishing Edomite mercenaries leading the way.


The slight issue this left was the decent sized chariot force in the army. Strictly speaking the Habiru would not have fielded them, being unsuitable for very hilly terrain and very much associated with the ruling class of the city resident Canaanites. My way around this was to label the chariot part of the army as semi-willing allies from Canaanite towns that the Habiru had already conquered. (Probably using unorthodox tactics involving trumpets!) 


The game scenario was thus fleshing itself out nicely. We would have a Habiru host with a lot of good quality spear wielding infantry some mercenary bowmen and allied chariots on one side. On the other would be a scratch coalition from the Canaanites and Syrian city states and some reinforcements sent by their Hittite and Egyptian overlords to try to nip the chaos in the bud.

Allied right wing chariots; Egyptians, Philistines and Syrians.


I thought it would be interesting to see how well the elite chariots of the Allies would be able to handle large quantities of good quality infantry, usually a rarity in this period. (That is a generalisation of course, the Egyptians can field a core of well trained infantry in this period but most armies rely on the chariot as the main, and sometimes only, strikeforce.) With an advantage in numbers and quality of chariots the Allies would however be balanced by having a small infantry force, with a preponderance of levied spearmen. It being assumed that the Hittites and Egyptians have sent only chariots due to the speed required in responding  to the crisis.

Allied foot, mainly levied Syrian spearmen.


The Habiru Army

5 units of trained militia spearmen with shields

2 units of Gibborim (Regular Guardsmen) with body armour and shields

3 units of Edomite bowmen (skirmishers)

6 units of Allied Canaanite chariots, all 2nd rate Militia (being unwilling allies and their best cadre already dead or exiled.)

Unenthusiastic allied chariots of the Habiru army.


The Allied Army

2 units of Hittite chariots, both well armoured, one of them elite

2 units of NK Egyptian chariots, both well armoured, one of them elite

4 units of vassal chariots, a mix of Canaanites, Mittanians and Anatolians, all competent.

3 units of Syrian levy spearmen, 2nd rate militia

1 unit of Canaanite palace guard, armoured regulars with bows

1 unit of Levy Syrian bowmen, 2nd rate militia

1 unit of mercenary Shosu skirmishers, javelins, no armour


Apart from driving the enemy from the field the two armies also had secret objectives: The Habiru needed to capture and destroy an old pagan altar beneath a ruined royal pillar and the Allies needed to occupy and hold the central pass through the hills. As always with scenario construction it is tricky to get the balance perfect, With hindsight the quality difference between the chariot forces may have been too great but then I was concerned that the Allied chariots were going to have to do the bulk of the work in stopping the enemy infantry. The chariots do have an Achilles heel in that they only take 2 hits per base from shooting or melee, so can quickly evaporate if things do not go their way.

The ruined Royal Pillar and altar.


The game was staged at our usual venue in Coggeshall, which, although mid-renovation, was warmer and brighter than previously at this time of year. The armies (new and old) looked suitably impressive deployed on the table and my new piece of resin scenery, the Royal Pillar, looked fab! In Piquet games we have tried a variety of initiative systems, mainly to try to mitigate against some legendary poor dicing performances. For this game we used a deck of playing cards to ENSURE a balance of black and red initiative. Naturally the Habiru got about the first 25 point of initiative!

The Allied chariotry await their Habiru opposite numbers.


The Habiru generals used their initiative windfall to push forward their chariot force to engage the right wing of the Allied army. Here they had superior numbers having concentrated all their chariots on one wing (6 units) against half of the Allies (4 units.) The hills across the centre of the table did cause some problems with manoeuvring the chariots but they were still swift enough to be the first part of the army to engage. Although the Habiru chariots were outclassed in quality some lucky dice did intervene as they rolled for their basic battle readiness. Three rolls of 18 on a 20-sided dice gave them some chariot warriors who were well up for a fight. The leading Egyptian unit also rolled a 20, so there could be no complaints (except from me.) My dice have NEVER performed like that when I am rolling them!


The Habiru army heads for their secret objective.


The first fight went the way of the Habiru. Deadly bowfire was followed up by a move into contact and the Syrian charioteers were soon streaming away in rout. The Egyptian chariots struck back but early in the game the Allies on their right wing found themselves with one unit in rout and two disordered versus a wave of yet uncommitted enemy chariots. The odds were on quality winning however unless the better troops rolled a 1 on the dice. They rolled a 1 (one of Jim's few poor rolls of the day to be fair...) The Habiru unit needed anything but a 1 to rout them and leave the Allies flank in ruins. A massacre of levied foot was sure to follow. The Habiru chariots also rolled a 1! By the skin of their teeth the Allied chariots had held the line.


Chariots tangle amidst the hills.


The rest of the Habiru army steadily advanced towards the hills and their target at the Royal Pillar. The Allied response was to keep the levy foot skulking at the baseline whilst just the Shosu and Palace Guard advanced towards the central pass. On the Allied left the other half on their chariots headed forward to tackle the Habiru foot.


The Habiru horde occupy the pass through the hills.


My initial concern about the Archon 2 rules facility with representing the chariots was misplaced. The rules deal with the interaction of more or less mobile troop types with the Melee Qualification Table. This dictates which troops may melee opposing formation types. The light chariots when contacted by formed foot have the choice of evading away or staying to fight. This makes the chariots very powerful in this period as they can choose to fight when they have the advantage (such as when they have first disordered the enemy with bowfire.) Seems fair enough for the late Bronze Age when the chariot was the king of the battlefield.


Hittite chariots ready to cause havoc to the enemy foot.


The left wing Allied chariots employed just these tactics. One squadron charging in after disordering the enemy foot with their bows. Another backing off when their shooting was less effective. Although the Habiru foot could keep chasing after the evading chariots they would risk being isolated and charged from all sides.



Anatolian and Hittite chariots deal with the Habiru foot who have no chariot support on this flank.




Both flanks were now looking dicey for the Habiru. When they next turned their "Appeal to Jehovah" card the Habiru generals decided now was the time to try it. They did successfully roll the dice score needed (less than their number of routing units) to gain a bonus on all future melee and morale dice, but was it too little too late? The Habiru's Canaanite allies flung their last reserves at the enemy chariots but were beaten back. They had however held the flank long enough for the Habiru bowmen to occupy the Royal Pillar.


Edomite bowmen capture the hilltop with the Royal Pillar and temple.


On every movement card the Habiru players were now able to try an engineering test to destroy the altar. Unfortunately even with the Jehovah bonus it was a struggle to beat a D8 with a D6. The Habiru flanks were imminently about to crumble, and now the Allied players knew that something was up. A "Heroic Moment " card was turned for the Habiru and I offered that an unusually strong and hirsute Habiru soldier would have the chance on this card to bring down the temple on himself, destroying the altar and his own unit of bowmen. With the Heroic Moment bonus a D8 vs a D8. They rolled and succeeded!


The temple comes crashing down wiping out the Edomite skirmishers, I wonder if their heroic captain will be remembered?


As the Habiru would not be able to defend the pass for much longer I ruled that there would be nothing to stop the Allied army completing their objective of taking the pass post game. Thus the game was a draw, maybe a winning draw to the Allied army having had much the better of the combats on the battlefield.


It was good to get the chariots on the table after a long absence.  Although the Habiru generals felt hard done by that their chariotry was so outclassed, they almost won the game for them. It came down to a couple of crucial dice rolls that could have gone either way. The rules seem to give the chariots a distinct flavour, making them very effective but not unkillable tanks. I am sure we will have these boys back in action very soon.




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