A Meroitic Kushite civil war

 

Steven home usually means a game. So, he said 'Didn't you have a load of Zulus you used as Kushites?' Yep, looked up armies. Meroitic Kushite. Saw it could have a elephant general... intriguing, couldn't resist myself, so sorted out 2 DBA armies - Indian elephants acting as general as I don't have any Meroitic elephants.

Steven lost dice roll and had to set up first. I mirrored him to a degree except I put my Ps element next to my blades (well, guys with spears and shields pretending to be blades). Ready for spears mayhem in the middle as our generals slog it out.

I let my left flank get too close to him while he partially refused his...

OK, I thought. Lets take out the Psiloi element - straight dice roll, I win, he flees, unless he doubles up I just recoil. No, I died... Happily, one of archery elelents succumbed to a hail of arrows leaving a gap in his line.

Just before contact I had stopped a bit over a move away from Steven. That meant I got to be the one making contact and choosing order of combat. As I had given myself a right flank overlap to start with, and as I had also made sure his single ranked spears next to the general were facing a double rank, I had given myself a slight combat advantage...

Steven threw a 2 for PiPs...meant he took out one of my archer elements but couldn't then roll up my line... 

Anyway, the way the combats went I finished up with a double overlap on Steven's middle spear elements. Steven had a dice roll advantage over me early in the game; that changed and I got three sixes in a row. Including here... two dead elements, suddenly the game moved to my advantage...

Last move of the game. Steven's single element of spears succumbed.

I did actually get my flank attack in on that last move. It bounced! But, having taken out four elements, game over and I finished up winner!

So it proved to be a very close game. It would be easy to say that it depended on dice rolls - true, but that's true to a certain extent of every game. When his Psiloi took out my archers we both thought it was game over; I would his line being broken by the loss of his arher unit was more important - broke his line and made him more dependent on PiPs. At the wrong time he threw a two, couldn't dress his line and attack as much as he wanted and was left vunerable. Meanwhile, throwing three sixes at the right time helped me - but my tactics had given me a +1 or +2 advantage across the whole of my right wing and centre anyway. If the dice rolls on that combat that took out his two spears elements had been reversed I would simply have been pushed back!

'S' Range Persians or Medes

 Some Minifigs 'S' Range 'Medes' - actually Persians but the Persian/Mede codes were the wrong way round for these figures. So they are really Persians even if Minifigs called them  Medes.

Originally I was going to base these as Sparabara but finally decided on 3Bw and - well, spears on an 3Ax or     similar base.

Again, two different styles of figure for the spearman!

'S' Range Persian spears

This unit was a 40 strong unit bought from Harry. To fit my systems I've increased the size to 48 figures and included an extra officer and standard bearer - both Garrison - so it could double as two 24 figure units. One thing I couldn't quite match was the shield colour - so the shields on the extras might have to be repainted at some stage. Although actually Medes, not Persians, these figures were coded as Persians by Minifigs.

Other than painting extra figures and a minor repair on the original standard bearer the figures have just been rebased.

In common with many other 'S' Range figures there are two different variants.

'S' Range slings and javelins

 

These two units are a bit of an oddity. All the slingers and javelinmen I have other than these are either Garrison or PB figures! These are basically odd figures acquired with other figures/purchases. Harry, Charles Grant and Harry all had Garrison light javelins and slings; Harry and I had PB javelins and slings in our Macedonian armies.

The slingers aren't all 'S' Range though. Some are PB.

One thing about 'S' Range is that there were usually a least two variants. The front two figures are both 'S' Range  A.Gr.9s - according to the catalogue it's supposed to be equipped with a shield like the middle figure - but the front figure has the code engraved on the upper surface of the base. The figure at the back is a PB figure.

These figures are a bit strange. There is no light javelin listed, just 'Greek Peltast (Medium Infantry) Charging.' So I assume that this figure is the 'medium' peltast!

Again, two variations. In true Minifigs tradition, one of the these with spear held vertically was obtained by me in the 70s directly from Minifigs. It was in that order I've previously mentioned when an order for some Egyptians came with five different figures... so it could be a weird Egyptian figure with crescent shield :)

Minifigs 'S' Range Barbarians

 Having a quick look though Rick's blog Notitia Metallicum I realised that I don't really do justice in the area of figure identification/listings. One set I could include the Barbarian side of the 'S' Range - I've done a lot on Greeks, Persians, Egyptians and Assyrians, nothing on the Barbarians. Mainly because they're not painted.

One reason for this is that I have PB Range (though S chariots!), Garrison and Airfix armies already. Most of these are ex-Harry, some were originally mine as part of my 70s Successor armies, passed on to Harry, then came home when I acquired Harry's collection!

However, I do have a load of S Range infantry lying around, even a few I undercoated grey a long time ago!

Now, it's worth noting these are Minifigs. Most of my ids could be wrong... Minifigs would produce several figures with the same code (sometimes at the same time) and some S Range figures transitioned without change into the PBs Range!

AF1s Frank Axemen Advancing - I'm publishing these in the order they sorted themselves on my hard drive rather than catalogue order.

AG1s Gaul heavy Spearman Advancing. The first figure I take to be an early version, the second figure is S Range 'cos it's shown in the picture in the catalogue...

AG2s Gaul Standard Bearer. This is an early version. You will see a different standard bearer in the chariot - that could be later S Range, could be PB...

AG10s Hun Archer... It's Minifigs, don't ask!

AG11s Gaul Heavy Spearman, early version. Later version could well be the back figure listed as AG1s of course - there's no number on the base.

AG12s. The one on the right has the code on the base (as AG12), the other one is assumed to be a variant.

AG13s Gaul Spearman (Ancient Briton) - id assumed but there is a worrying spike on the shield rather than just a boss.

AGC1s Gaul Lancer - assumed it's the lancer, not the javelinman! Early one piece casting. My two piece casting of Minifigs Gauls all seem to be PB Range figures.

AGC4s Gallic Chariot. Ex Harry, chariot painted by me, no idea who painted the PB Range crew.

APt1s and 2s, Pict Spearman Advancing and Pict Archer, Kneeling Firing.

Makes sense to include a catalogue page with this!

It wasn't my fault...

Minifigs 'S' Range or very early Persian chariots. How could I resist?

They came with some of the generic chariot horses. Should have a few more lying around to make up the numbers.

The buy included these horses. Don't recognise them - they had H7 on the base, no idea who the manufacturer was! Might use them for an Egyptian general's chariot.

There were a few other pieces in the box, little of use. A couple of the pieces may be from the same chariot as those two horses, not sure.

So anyway, the figures are now in Dettol, so it gives me some time to decide what I want to do with them!

'The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold' - Part 3

The Egyptians are well on the way to destroying the Assyrian left.

 

Between flank attacks and kind dice the Assyrians are starting to crumble.

In fact, things are looking bad forAssyria.

However, the king is coming...

And takes out the opposition.

I was seriously considering the game was over until that 6:1 happened...

But although the chariots went, the Assyrians were still losing elements.

A few good dice rolls and who knows....

But they didn't get them - game over.

 Fun game. Again, dice rolls had a major effect on the result and the game was in doubt for quite a while. On balance, I think the Assyrians were just a couple of units short. Or possibly the Egyptians had a couple too many.

'The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold' - Part 2

Overview of the battle. Probably the main point in this picture is the Egyptian chariots and light archers widely swinging out on their right flank. It always surprises me the effect a couple of terrain pieces can have on a battle, especially when it comes to slowing down outflanking movements.

The other, less obvious, point in the above picture is that Young speciality of rolling 1s! In this case, 4 out of 5!

While archers are proving fragile in this battle, the spears are doing what they do best. Slogging things out. It's very difficult to get a kill in a spear v spear fight, usually just back and forth pushbacks!

Right flank out flanking manoeuvre by the Egyptians..

The Egyptians are gradually taking out that Assyrian heavy archer unit, Egyptian chariots are holding things up on the other side of the slugfest.

The Assyrian general and his chariot strike force have caught the Egyptian horse archers.

While the Egyptian chariots facing Assyrian left flank spears and slingers are finding things difficult.

While one Egyptian chariot is still hanging on, the other Egyptian chariots have gone through the oasis and contacted a detached slinger element. Of course, the chariots will be fighting on a -2 because of the oasis!

The light horse die.

And the onesie curse strikes the centre again! 4 out of 6 - sadly for them the ones include remains of the Assyrian archers and the lone slinger element near the copse.

And now the way is clear for the Egyptians on the Assyrian left.

While the remaining Assyrian archers have gone.

While the Assyrian general and his chariots are slowly getting round the Egyptian left - just a few more elements of archers to go.

This is the battlefield when I had to stop for the day. Hopefully, battle will commence tomorrow. The Egyptians seem to be in the better position though the Assyrians are just ahead as far as elements lost go. Archers don't seem to last long.