A small skirmish

With my son Steven at home for a bit longer than expected, we decided to scrape together some troops for a scratch battle on the dining room table - most of my armies are packed away so we were using the ones in easy reach.

Firstly, assorted troops thrown on to a 4x3' dining room table and Steven decided to go with the Assyrians.

Initially I set up, then Steven, then I moved 2 pieces, leaving one poor chariot stuck out on a limb. Actually, that proved a blessing later as the chariot helped split up his attacks.

I photographed the table after each set of 2 moves.

We both went for a left hook whilst holding the centre. In both cases, that left hook would have to go a long way...

The first casualty was Steven's extreme right wing Ax element, taken out by massed archery. At the time, neither of us could really think of ways we could improve on our tactics in the battle but in retrospect  this move demonstrate two things Steven could have done. Firstly, he did advance his centre a bit - perhaps it would have been better to keep it further back. Secondly, his Ax would have been better going through the wood on his left flank, leaving the right flank to his archers.

This shows both outflanking movements working. My left flank chariots didn't get anywhere - throughout the battle, Steven got as many pips as he needed whereas I tended to come up short. My Bw became the outflanking units.

In the centre, lots of people bouncing off each other as my right flank tries to move back and keep out of combat.

My left flank continues to roll up Steven's right. If Steven had been a bit further back and had a unit of Ax flanking me from the wood...

These ones shows the start of the crunch period. Steven catches up with my refused flank but we initially bounce off each other.

Meanwhile, in the centre, Steven manages to surround my right flank blades... a win would be an instant kill... we draw... and I take out the rest of his centre...

So I win, but it really finished up on dice rolls - in combat, I tended to roll better while Steven got the rolls for pips.