Suppiluliuma II and Warfare 2021 - Part 1

 

The MeG competition at Warfare is traditionally a "biblical" period competition. I took my recently completed Hittite Empire army. To find out if I acquitted myself well or suffered a bronze age collapse, read on ...

Thanks to the pandemic there was no 2020 Warfare and so the players gathered in the rather nice surroundings of Ascot Race Course for the 2021 edition with some excitement. The armies allowed were those in the three "Chariot" PDFs plus those in the Asian "Mandate of Heaven" PDF as this covers the early Chinese, etc. armies which are similar-ish to the more well known Middle-Eastern ones in the other books.

Originally had planned to take Later Sargonid Assyrian and had bought the figures and got about half way through painting them, However, following the podcast on the Armies of the Bronze Age we did where I created a Hittite Empire I list, I was so taken by it that I bought the army, painted it, and used it instead.

My list was:

The Runners and Riders for the competition were:

Although due to circumstances John Munro, Adrian Pitfield and Richard Jeffrey-Cook did not play.

The first round draw was:

Except Mark Spratt played Ian Newall due to the drop-outs.

So I started off facing a Minoan army run by Jeremy.

The table was mainly open with a couple of bits of rough going in the central area which were useful for me, and a wood on Jeremy's right. I outscouted the Minoans by 70%. Jeremy set up with all his infantry on his right and hic chariots on his left; whilst he had some loose formation foot he didn't choose to run them into the rough presumably as he didn't fancy their chances if they got shot at as the were Unprotected (and I had a lot of shooters).

I deployed a good chunk of my Hittite chariotry on the right along with skirmishers, my ally on the left to delay his infantry and infantry in the rough on my side of the table. After deployment it looked like this:

I must confess I was quite happy with this. I thought Jeremy had rather hung his chariots out to dry and that I would be able to gang up on them with a combination of shooting and quality chariotry. I could contain his infantry until I had beaten the chariots and then turn on them to (hopefully) win the game.

The position after turn 1.

On my right I have advanced in a partially staggered fashion to see if I can tempt Jeremy into a charge that will allow me to gang up my shooting at little or no risk to myself. Alas he did not take the bait. On the right the Minoan infantry advances cautiously; the Libyans stay in the wood.

After turn 2 it looks like this:

I have pinned back 2 units of the Minoan chariots with my Exceptional chariots and have got a unit of my Superior chariots into a position to flank charge next move when I am the active player.

Not a lot happens on my left. Move 3 sees some quite decisive action and at the end of the move it looks like this:

My flank charge broke the unit it hit in the charge phase and then pursued into the unit next to it and broke that as well. My Exceptional chariots fought 2 Minoan units and reduced one to 2 bases and took a base of the other (better) unit for just a single base loss myself. All in all, rather a good turn for me.

Again on the rest of the table the action was limited, however, Jeremy did move a spearmen unit into what i though looked a rather vulnerable position. The Libyans also emerged from the woods, but I didn't think they were much of a threat to be honest.

A different angle on the situation at this stage:

The next move saw me break the chariots I had reduced to 2 bases and also reduce the other chariot unit I was fighting to 2 bases. I was also able to move the chariots who had destroyed 2 units into a position to flank charge the latter next move.

Jeremy had, however, moved his last chariot unit into a position where a flank charge on my Exceptional chariots was possible; but I had another chariot unit that could move up with a double move (turn 90 for one move, followed by a full move for the second - hooray for being Drilled) and be in a position where they could make an Intercept which I hoped would prevent the flank charge, or at least reduce it to a single base contacting which should be survivable (being Exceptional).

In the centre my thought that Jeremy had pushed a spearman unit into a vulnerable position was confirmed as I was able to move a chariot unit into a flank charge position. I did have to move another unit right up close to other spearmen to allow this though, but as I can Run Away if charged it was not a dangerous thing as by doing so I could not be caught by the infantry.

On my left flank, however, I was getting a bit tied up having mismanaged my chariots a bit - the retreat paths of the 2 chariot units rather overlap ...

We had 2 more moves after this, however, I forgot to take pictures of them - apologies.

My flank charge on the 2 bases of chariots rather unsurprisingly broke them in the charge phase. The chariots I had moved up to intercept the threatened flank charge actually prevented the flank charge entirely and we ended up with a straight 4 base vs. 4 base fight which caused a bit of damage over the turn to both sides. However, the chariots who had broken the Minoan chariots with their flank charge pursued into a position to flank charge the remaining chariots the following move.

My flank charge on the spearmen didn't do too much damage, but it was a small unit so was weakened enough for me.

Where I had got my chariots into a bit of a fix I had to Run Away one unit and Skirmish the other which left the latter contacted by a unit of spearmen. Fortunately not a lot came of the combat; that said it would not have been much of a problem if they had suffered as I was well ahead in terms of units broken at this point.

The only meaningful action in the final bound was that the small unit of spearmen was broken by the arriving chariots. Somewhere along the line I lost a unit of skirmishers but I must confess I can't recall when.

At this point time was called on the game and the score was 12-3 to me.

Part 2 follows here - https://gamer-at-the-end-of-time.blogspot.com/2021/11/suppiluliuma-ii-and-warfare-2021-part-2.html