Where Are My Arrows? Hittites at Chariots of Fire 2023 - Part 2

 

Part 2 of my short account of the "Chariot Period" MeG competition held at Boards and Swords Hobbies in Derby over the weekend of 16th/17th September.

I used my Hittite Empire army and in the first 2 games they had apparently forgotten to pack their arrows. To see if they found them for the next 2 games read on ...

A reminder of my army:

Despite the arrows issue I had defeated a Minoan army and drawn with a Sumerian army in the first games, however, I now faced the Sea Peoples who are a difficult army for the Hittites to face. I would definitely need those arrows in this game.

Probably appropriately given the history I was invaded by the Sea Peoples. Obviously I wanted as open a table as possible, but this was not to be. There was Deep Water on my left, which wasn't too bad, but we also ended up with some vineyards in my half of the table which was an issue as it constrained me. I also added to the problem by moving one in such a way that it got more in my way that it could have done; rookie error there.

I did outscout the Sea Peoples but I'm not sure it made much difference in reality. They were a mass of infantry aiming to push forward and get to grips, whereas I lined up my chariots to get as much shooting as possible. I did have chariots, including the Exceptional ones in the rather constrained space on my left with a hope to get round the end of the line there - but that would take some doing.

So we ended up deployed like this:

First moves went as you'd expect. The Sea Peoples advance on a broad front and I shoot at them. On my left I manage to engineer a situation whereby the Golden Chariot Fighters block off 2 Sea Peoples units in such a way that I can just, and only just, aim to squeeze a Hittite chariot unit round the flank - as long as they can ride down some skirmishers that is.

You may note a lack of commenting on my shooting. My army had left their arrows behind again ... next to no effect 😭

The chariots on the left did their job riding down the Sea Peoples' skirmishers. This dragged the Sea Peoples chariots over to counter; this could eb vulnerable to my (better) shooting so i was happy with this.

Elsewhere the Sea Peoples were somewhat slowed by my shooting, but actual casualties were negligible. My army was starting to look over its shoulders at the rear table edge.

It would be nice to report at this stage that my army finally found its arrow supply, but they didn't ... 

I lost a chariot unit which was chopped up by a Sea Peoples unit which was hardly damaged in the process. I did, however, destroy another skirmisher unit by fighting it with 2 of mine.

The one bright point was that my Golden Chariot Fighters started to kill Sea Peoples in combat - face it, shooting was never going to do anything 😖

The rear table edge drew ever closer ...

We will draw this game account to a close by just saying by the time we ran out of time the situation was more or less the same only that much close to the table edge.

All rather disappointing. Still enjoyable in an odd way. Ah well, on to the final game.

So the final game of the weekend saw me facing off against Keith Spedding who was using a Later Sargonid Assyrian army. This is an army I have and Keith's list was pretty much how I field it. When I used it in competition last year I faced off against a Hittite army and bullied it - the Assyrian quality plus the Shield Cover or Horse Armour that much of the army has means that the Hittite shooting can be quite ineffective - mind you, so far mine had been anyway 😂

Oddly, the way the competition panned out there was a scenario where if I was to lose badly I could finish in last place. That would be quite amusing and, as I have never yet done that, it would fill a gap in my wargaming palmares 😁

To make a change I invaded with a Strategic Intercept. As usual I wanted an open table. The Assyrians wanted to close it down somewhat and we ended up with a bit of both.

Keith deployed with his left covered by a Village and his chariots and best cavalry on his right. I weighted my better chariots to my left with my ally on my right - but basically had plenty of shooting all along the line as I interspeced my skirmishers with the chariots. My Hittite infantry deployed behind a piece of rough ground on my left - by getting in that they would be able to influence and threaten the Assyrian powerful mounted wing.

It looked like this:

I pushed forwards as quickly as I could to get shooting and as planned occupied the rough going on my left. The aim was to force the Assyrian infantry to charge my chariots as Shield Cover does not count in the Charge Phase so my shooting stood a better chance.

The Assyrians were happy to push forward as at some point they needed to come to combat and pushing forward would cut down my options for skirmishing. On their left their Loose formation infantry moved through the village and wheeled to threaten my ally command.

Shooting did little to begin with, but the Assyrians had not been forced to charge yet.

As the Assyrians pushed onwards they had to drop back a chariot unit to cover the Hittite infantry on my left. That bit of the plan had worked at least 😀

In the centre I finally got lucky with some shooting and in 1 turn took 2 bases off a Superior infantry unit despite the Shield Cover 😁 This had an immediate impact as Keith had to bring up an Average cavalry unit to support them and take the pressure off - and these were far more vulnerable to shooting as my Skilled shooters would get Green dice against them. I even got lucky and took a base off the Assyrian guard infantry (Exceptionals).

For the first time all weekend I felt I had some breaks with my shooting. Keith was less impressed as I always seem to get good shooting against him.

However, on my left my shooting wasn't doing much and the Assyrian quality troops kept coming on. I was going to have to fight there at some stage and really needed some casualties. I was slowing the advance a bit so I was getting plenty of shots in - patience needed.

At the same time the Assyrian left was starting to put my ally under some pressure. They had to keep falling back.

The game now entered the critical phase.

My Golden Chariot Fighters were left to stand and fight the best Assyrian cavalry in what could be a 50:50 combat - but this left me with 2 chariot units facing a single Assyrian one and I had some skirmisher support as well.

In the centre I had reduced the Average Assyrian cavalry to almost broken and they now needed support from some archers who immediately took damage themselves. I felt I was winning the exchanges here.

On my right I felt that as my chariots were Superior I would probably soon stand and fight the oncoming infantry. I was better quality and had shooting, they had superior numbers. Could be close.

Sadly on the left my Golden Chariot Fighters didn't last very long. Thankfully they did do some damage to the Assyrian cavalry. However, my chariots and skirmishers reduced the Assyrian chariots to a single Wound from breaking so it all felt OK.

In the centre one of my chariot units ended up in combat with the badly damaged Assyrian infantry unit. This ended in both breaking, but this then caused the Assyrian cavalry close by to break as well - so a 2 for 1 exchange for me 😁

On the right my allied chariots started fighting the Assyrian Loose formation infantry and were getting the better of it.

Following this I shot down the fragile Assyrian chariot on my left and followed up by also breaking the Assyrian cavalry. On the right my allied chariots broke the infantry they were facing and that broke the Assyrian army.

All in all I was happy with that game on most counts. I did get bit lucky with some of the shooting, but after the other games it felt like it was balancing things out - poor Keith, however, was again on the receiving end.

Overall it was a great weekend and I thoroughly enjoyed getting the Hittites out on the table again. Did miss out on filling that last place gap though 😂