Suppiluliuma II and Warfare 2021 - Part 4

 

So we come round to the last game of Warfare 2021 and I get to play the MeG author himself, Simon Hall who is using New Kingdom Egyptian. I have despatched one Egyptian already, can I do the same again...

For those who want to review my army the list is in the first part of this series on my games at Warfare - https://gamer-at-the-end-of-time.blogspot.com/2021/11/suppiluliuma-ii-and-warfare-2021-part-1.html

The Pre Battle Sequence was mixed. I got a mainly open field that I wanted, however, Scouting went in Simon's favour and he outscouted me slightly. There was a wood on my left flank which I expected Simon would use to push infantry, but there was a large piece of rough ground on my right which looked like a useful place for my infantry - or at least some of it. As Simon had a good chunk of infantry I knew I would outnumber the Egyptian chariots with my chariots.

After deployment it looked like this:

My plan was to hold up Simon's right with my ally as the Egyptians pushed through the wood, my centre was my big push using massed chariotry whilst on my right I hoped to beat Simon's outnumbered chariots and turn on his infantry whilst my skirmishers and Hittite infantry attrited the Egyptian foot. I also hoped that as I had 13 discs to Simon's 10 would be an advantage.

More deployment pictures:

This picture is interesting as it shows Simon about to make an uncharacteristic mistake that will impact on the game ...

As mentioned above Simon started the game with an error. His first move was to double move (as a block move) his left wing infantry forward as far as they could go - aiming to get at my infantry of course as he would (probably) have an advantage. The mistake was that by going the full double move it would allow me to move my 18 skirmish archers forward to shooting range and shoot at the Unprotected Egyptian archers from a range where the Egyptian close fighters could not charge to drive them off. Some good shooting here could heavily influence what happened on this flank.

Although I spotted that this was potential mistake I had to be a bit careful and not just rush my skirmishers forward as my first move but to advance chariotry either side of where I wanted my skirmishers to make sure Simon could not double move to get up close to the skirmishers - by having chariotry in support I could get my archers into a position where they were guaranteed a shot. A reminder of why it is important to consider such things due to the alternately moving units in MeG - and one of the things that makes it such a good game IMO.

Elsewhere both sides advanced and I repositioned my allied archers to where they should have started waiting outside the wood for the Egyptian infantry to come through it.

Here is my right wing showing the skirmishers ready to shoot the Unprotected archers.

The shooting was, shall we say, satisfactory ...

Bang, and 3 bases are gone (the other 2 dice were a blank and an S) and slowed by 2 BW.

This means that Simon's attack with his right wing becomes a bit disjointed but is still far from de-fanged. I need to split my chariots to contain the Egyptian infantry and chariots and so end up with a 4 base unit of mine facing off against a 6 base unit of Simon's - my advantage is that I am Superior but he is Average which affects the shooting (and any fighting of course).

In the centre I push aggressively with my Exceptional chariots supported by a Superior unit with the former facing off against Simon's one Superior chariot unit. On his right Simon's discs are poor and he cannot do much this move.

The matchup in the centre:

Having a chariot unit facing a skirmisher unit felt good for me.

The following move Simon is again hit by poor discs - think this is where having just 10 for the army can hurt as a run of poor command can stall you badly especially against an opponent who has significantly more discs as I did.

In the centre I charged my chariots facing the skirmishers and unsurprisingly ran them down giving me a unit in Simon's backfield with options to go for the Unfortified camp or swing round to attack flanks/rear. I chose to not charge the Exceptionals this move - might have been a bit overcautious but I wanted to see if I could get any advantage with my shooting.

On my right my 4 base chariots outshot Simon's 6 base causing a base loss for no damage in return. I also knocked another base off the damaged archers. In the centre I had to push a chariot unit into the face of an Egyptian one to stop the latter being able to flank charge the Exceptional chariots and also brought up my Hittite infantry to draw in the Egyptian infantry opposite them.

Again on his right Simon's options were limited to a minor advance, and like on my right a shooting exchange between a 4 base unit of mine and a 6 base unit of Simon's left his unit a base down to no loss for me.

Photos run out here for the usual reasons.

Next move saw the damaged Egyptian archers try a last ditch charge on my skirmishers - might as well as they're going to be shot anyway - and they break from the shooting on the way in. I charge the Superior chariots in the centre and they managed to just get away but did very little with their shooting as they did a Run Away; they they turned to face in the Movement phase but would be hit next move as any further evade would be stopped by the camp to their rear.

With the chariots that had got into the backfield I decided that going for the camp was the better move. However, with my 2 units so far forward I did have to move their general to keep them in command range - I nearly forgot to do that and that would have been a big mistake. I also moved my Hittite infantry into a position to flank charge a unit of Egyptian close fighters next move which would stop the latter attacking some of my chariots in their flank.

Next move my chariots charge the Egyptian camp and despite taking losses they did sack it, and the KaBs at the end of turn do quite a bit of damage. My Exceptional chariots charged the Egyptian Superior ones and broke them fairly quickly - can't recall if it was in the turn they charged or the following one.

Simon countered my flank charge on his infantry with a Countercharge and we ended up with a Green on Green fight which Simon ended up winning quite handily - got to love the volatility.

Elsewhere in an attempt to recover things Simon did charge his chariots at mine, however, the combats went my way and I collected the additional unit I needed to break the Egyptian army.

A very pleasing 15-3 to me, and Simon reckoned it was his heaviest MeG defeat so I'm happy with that. I think overall Simon's initial mistake was quite important, and then poor discs and shooting compounded things.

This put me on 54 points for the competition and in 2nd place behind Will Denham who scored a perfect 60 - damned impressive.

I got a rather nice trophy: