Battle of Tell Dapur: A Playtest

With all of the remote gaming, rules' development, and playtesting conducted during the Tuesday gaming sessions over the last twelve months, Ian decided to toss his development hat into the ring.  Although relatively late to the party, my understanding is that Ian's rules, Rein-Bow Warriors (RBW), have been in various states of development for a number of years.  Now, he has added RBW group playtesting into the fray of his Late Bronze Age rules.

RBW saw its first group outing a couple of weeks ago as Ian hosted a remote game using 6mm figures.  I was unable to attend but Ian made it through his first remote hosting trial undaunted.  To follow up, I offered my 25mm Biblical collections and table to a remote playtest session for Ian and myself on Thursday.  We wanted to further development and work out any kinks before dropping it onto the group as a whole. 

What follows is the battle report of my first encounter with RBW.

Ian put together a hypothetical battle between the Hittites and Egyptians near the ancient Tell of Dapur with deployments as,

Battle Deployments
courtesy Ian Lowell

I translated Ian's deployments (while rotating the battle 180 degrees) into,

Initial deployments

Initial Deployments

Hittites

Egyptians

With Ian commanding the Hittites and I commanding the Egyptians, on to battle!

Ian's remote battle view from webcam
with three cameras from which to choose.

Chariots and flanking skirmishers head out onto the plain.
Chariots kick up dust as they drive forward.

Egyptian chariots on the left.

Hittite chariots in action.

The third pair of Hittite chariots swings out onto
 the Hittite right while enemy chariots clash in the middle.
  The chariots in the center pass through each
 other firing arrows as they pass.
Yellow circles denote a chariot "No Enter Zone for foot."

Close-up of clash on center-left.
Egyptian slingers pass a Mettle Test as the
Hittite chariots approach.

Egyptian bowmen on right flank are not as lucky
 and waver at the sight of oncoming chariots.

Battle seen from Hittite left.

Chariots wheel around and pass back through
 each other a second time.

Egyptian front line shudders at approach of enemy chariots
(green dice showing erosion of Mettle).

Intense chariot battles rage as the third Hittite chariot
 pair begins harassing Egyptian slingers via caracole.

Out of missiles, chariots retire to resupply.

Back to the supply wagons!

Egyptians resupply.

Hittites resupply.

With chariots out of battle, the fight is continued by foot.

Hittite skirmishers on the Hittite left put a halt to the

 Egyptian advance on that flank while Egyptian bowmen

 begin to make their presence felt.

Infantry advance.

Shaken by javelin fire from skirmishers,
Egyptian infantry buckles when attacked by formed troops.
  They flee in rout. 

Egyptian bowmen keep up a heavy fusilade.
The Hittite line is beginning to break apart.

The battle is in the balance.

Distant view of the game in progress.
  A bit messy on the far end, I think.

Chariots are back in action but not for long.
Chariots retreat for the rear after a brief clash on the left.
The Hittite army is breaking for the rear.

With the Hittite King wounded and his army crumbling
 around him, he orders a retreat.

Victory to the Egyptians!

This battle provided a very interesting introduction into the design of Ian's RBW.  I have been monitoring game development as he sends out bits of documentation, explanations, graphics, and reference sheets leading up to the game.  Many concepts were foreign to me and I was not sure what to expect.  After a few turns of maneuvering chariots and combat, game design and application began to gel.  An enjoyable playtest and a very interesting perspective of Late Bronze Age warfare.  Oh, and while my figures are not based in accordance with rules' specifications, my basing scheme worked fine.

Ian and I have a second playtest scheduled for Monday to reinforce changes made during this game.  On Tuesday, we host this battle for the weekly, remote gaming group.  

Thank you, Ian, for a very enjoyable five hour gaming session!