Wednesday, November 3, 2021

Another Test of Rein-Bow Warriors

Ian and I convened for another remote playtesting session of his developing Rein-Bow Warriors rules.  There were a few changes to the QRS emerging from our last playtest and subsequent group game but no radical changes.  Orders were introduced into this game for the first time.  

Movement rates for chariots were reduced, turn sequence clarifications made, and troop quality and status saw minor adjustments.  Overall, the core concepts remained relatively stable.  That is good.  Rules' stability allows one to begin testing and refining tactics.

Our session lasted about two hours and we fought through six turns with a winner declared.  Again, Ian commanded the Hittites and I took the reins in the Pharaoh's chariot.

Let's see how the battle unfolded.
Arrayed for battle. 
Egyptians in the fore.  Hittites in the distance.
Battle begins with a clash of chariots. 
 The chariots on each wing are opposed but the Hittites
 in the center find no chariot opposition.
Trailing dust clouds mark barriers to entry for foot.
Egyptian chariots are gaining the upper hand on the right
but are evenly matched in the chariot clash on the left.
Hittite chariots in the center pull up and caracole
 into the line of Egyptian bow.
Already one Egyptian bow is wavering.
And it breaks.
  Running toward the rear and safety (it hopes).
Chariot clash on the right sees the Egyptians
wearing down their opposition.
With chariot inferiority, it would be useful to take out
 a Hittite chariot or two to even the odds.
On the left, each pass of chariots causes more damage to both.
How long can this continue?
Not long.  All quivers are empty.
Hittite chariots exploit the gap
in the center of the Egyptian line.
On they storm but their quivers are almost depleted.
Pharoah looks on with concern.
Following up in the Hittite spearhead, infantry clash.
With quivers empty, Egyptian chariots return to resupply.
Battle continues in the center. 
 The Egyptians look to have the upper hand!
Seeing Egyptian chariots converging on the Pharoah,
the Hittite charioteers skedaddle out to safety.
On the far right of the battle line,
 enemy skirmishers are heavily engaged.
Resupplied, chariots return to the fray.
Another infantry clash as enemies pound one another.
  Who will break first?
Actually, the battle is breaking up all along the line
as troops flee to the rear.
When the dust settled and the bodies were counted, Battle Honors rest with the Hittites.  The battle was hotly contested and the Hittites won narrowly by forcing the Egyptians across their Army Breakpoint threshold one unit before the Hittites did likewise.  Congratulations to the Hittite King for a well-deserved victory.

A lot of action packed into a two hour session.  Play moved along at quicker pace as we both become familiar with the capabilities of the troops under command and the rules, themselves.  A number of questions arose and notes taken.  Clarifications and discussion occurred on the fly.  I have unanswered questions out to Ian for further clarification.

Great fun especially to see my Biblical armies out on the table in an almost regular fashion!

49 comments:

  1. Jonathan,
    Great AAR as usual, not my period (before squash) but well done. Sounds as if the rules are pretty usable now.
    Joe

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    1. Much appreciated, Joe! Still refinements possible but the rules are usable, for sure.

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  2. I must admit I have no idea about this period, but glad to see all becoming more accustomed to the rules, which is always a good thing.

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    1. I am no expert on the period either but my compadre, Ian, is a noted author on the topic. Yes, the rules are coming along and play was much quicker this time.

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  3. Rules sound good and looks like they play out nicely.

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    1. Play was smoother this time, Dean. The mechanisms, troop types, and sequence of play are beginning to make sense to me.

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  4. Excellent AAR and what's not to like about chariots

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  5. Nice looking armies and I like the idea of arrow re-supply. Good that you have reached rule stability and are on the ‘tweaking bit’.

    I suppose a big test for the rules is how they would handle a historical engagement such as Kadesh, which has some unusual aspects compared to a ‘line up and go’ typical ancients game.

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    1. Thanks, Norm. I am not sure the rules are stable just yet. Still work to be done but the core game engine seems to be firing on most cylinders.

      Kadesh will be an interesting test. I am sure it will be trotted out at some point and recreated on the table.

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  6. Great looking game! Interesting to see just how much of an impact chariots had on a battlefield n this era.

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    1. Thank you! In each of these playtests, I ask for an OB and suggest we should keep it small for testing. Each time I get an OB and battle deployment back and the table is FILLED with troops!

      Chariots are Queens of the Battlefield in this era and in this game.

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  7. That's a very nice report although I ask myself if you could make a more interesting battlefield too?

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    1. Glad you enjoyed the report, Andre, but sorry the battlefield let you down. The battle took place on an open plain with few impediments. I suppose I could dress the table up a bit but for a play test and me being somewhat of a minimalist, I played on an unadorned, flat table.

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    2. I would imagine most battles in this period did take place on flat, open ground, to allow the chariots to operate as intended?

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    1. Thanks! Big table offers plenty of maneuver space.

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  9. Always glad to see chariots on a table...Superb looking game!

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    1. Chariots armies attract a lot of attention whether in battle or from observers. Merci!

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  10. A great looking game Jonathan…
    I also like the chariot arrow re-supply…

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Thank you, Aly! The arrow resupply takes the chariots out of action for a few turns allowing foot troops to get into action without the worry of being overrun.

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  11. I enjoyed the report and seeing the armies. I also liked the idea that the chariots had to withdraw to resupply with arrows.
    I've read the comment about the chariots being queen of the battlefield but was surprised that the Hittite Chariots in the centre weren't shot to pieces by all those Egyptian bowmen but instead it was an Egyptian unit that broke. How did the rules handle the firepower and targetting of the two sides in the centre during the "caracole"?
    thanks

    Stephen

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    1. Stephen! Great to see a new name appear in the comments section!

      Glad you enjoyed the battle report. As for the Egyptian bowmen. In earlier games one unit of bowmen, alone, caused a collapse of the Hittite center. In this battle my bowmen only scored hits with great difficulty. Hittite chariot success v bowmen came down to the dice. I should have shot those chariots to pieces and bowmen need no resupply.

      For caracole, the chariots stop at effective range and fire into the bowmen. Bowmen fire back at effective range. Chariots have a much better troop quality than bow so chariots can take much more punishment before retiring. For the bowmen, they are brittle.

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  12. A great looking battle Jon and nice for you in particular to be able to get all thos beautiful chariots onto the table after the hard work of painting then all! I must admit I had similar thoughts to the Duke of Baylen in respect of the relative firepower of a group of bow armed chariots v bow armed infantry - maybe the chariots constant movement makes them a harder target to hit?

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    1. Hi Keith. Yes, it has been great fun to get these armies out onto the gaming table.

      As you can see from my reply to the Duke, my dice rolling in the firefight was abysmal...

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    2. Right, I see now - makes sense then!

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    3. When a situation makes no sense, the culprit is often my dice...Sigh.

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  13. Great game! and the armies look great too! The supply rule is interesting- I have never played a rule like it in an ancients game.

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    1. Much appreciated!

      Resupply requires some thought and tactics to properly cycle the chariots in and out of battle so they do not all retire at once.

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  14. Lovely stuff, and worth the wait ;) Sounds like the game is pulling together. Am I correct that there's an evolving balance between "chariots as critical pieces" and "nothing but chariots matter"?

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    1. Good to see this was worth the wait!

      Tactics and rules are still evolving, for sure. At this point in testing, it seems almost to be two games within one. First the chariot battles and then when the dust settles and the chariots are exhausted, the infantry battle. Can the chariot battle be lost and the infantry battle won? Too early to say.

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  15. Great looking game, there is resupply for missile troops in to the strongest, which I think is a good feature of that and the system your working on.
    All the best
    Iain

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    1. Thanks, Iain. I have not played TtS! in so long, I forgot about missile resupply there. I will be the rulebook out and see how it works in those rules.

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    2. Its pretty simple Jon - when you run out, you just have to pass an activation with that unit and they are resupplied - the trick is, you only have limited extra missiles and once they are gone, thats it!

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    3. Got it. Thanks! Much easier to resupply than having to return to base and load up in the backfield.

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  16. Not a bad bash for a two hour game, nice armies.

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  17. It certainly looks and reads well which is promising. Early days, but promising.

    Given that we keep finding evidence that many of our thoughts on tactics 100 or 200 years are wrong at least in part, I can't help but suspect that our views on thousands of years ago must contain a fair amount of informed conjecture but sometimes getting a set of rules to represent our best understanding, as well as providing a good game, is as good as it gets.

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    1. Promising, for sure. To me, the rules provide a different perspective than how I am accustomed to thinking about chariot warfare.

      Since, as you say, we really do not have hard evidence about warfare in the ancient (and Biblical) world, almost anything is fair game for consideration.

      Having rules produce an enjoyable game is often all we need.

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  18. I'm liking the way the rules are emerging and the chariots having to withdraw to resupply also seems "right" to me. Still trying to convince my group to give TtS a go though, so I dare not contemplate yet another set of rules at this stage.

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    1. THe rules are moving in a good direction, I think. Foot units tend to be very brittle. Too brittle, I think and somewhat thrown into a double jeopardy when they take a hit.

      If you can convince your group to try TtS! then the door may be ajar for other rules.

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  19. Your biblical armies are looking great on the table! That’s hot to be understandably gratifying. 😀

    I’m glad that play testing is still an enjoyable experience for you.

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    1. Stew, it is very good to see these armies out on maneuvers. The Egyptians and Hittites have seen a lot of action of late. Perhaps the Assyrians will get a turn at some point?

      Yes, playtesting is still an enjoyable exercise. The process actually works quite well remotely.

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  20. A fine report and a great looking battle, really liked the ebb and flow. Neat idea to have the chariots having to re-supply, it's not as though they are in a position to gather up the enemies spent arrows and send them back🙂

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    1. Thank you, Phil! The chariot resupply gets those deadly weapons out of action for a few turns so that the other arms can have a go at one another.

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  21. An excellent looking bash Jonathan. The chariots look great in action.

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    1. Glad you liked the action. Ray. I am sure more to come.

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  22. Good to see the biblical armies out on the battlefield. Whilst I might be tempted to try hex based my preference is for rules with a more free flowing style. Catch up soon hopefully 👍

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    1. No hexes here, Matt! Yes, very good to get the Biblicals out and into battle.

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