Rein-Bow Warriors: Another Test

Ian and I convened for a Friday session with another round of playtesting of his Rein-Bow Warriors rules.  Ian would take command of the Hittites while I commanded the Egyptians.  Orders of  Battle would remain as in the previous gaming session.  Thrown into today's mix was a trial of the pre-battle scouting routines. 

The Egyptians committed more resources to scouting activities than did the Hittites.  With luck, the Egyptians discovered the Hittites' camp on Day 1 of scouting and out-scouted the enemy.  This meant that the Pharaoh could detach a portion of his army to try to outflank his opponent.  The Pharaoh promptly committed three units to these activities and these troops disappeared from the Egyptian battle line. 

While the Egyptian flanking force would arrive at some point during the battle, no one knew exactly when this group would actually appear.  After assessing the situation (the Egyptians rolled a high flank arrival target number), it looked like the battle may well be in full swing (or over) before any Egyptians would appear on the Hittite flank.  

Let us see how the battle developed.

Battlelines drawn

Chariots race out.
Chariot on the wings are opposed
but the Hittite chariot in the center is unopposed.

Failing to break the Egyptian bowmen in the center,
 Hittite chariots begin caracoling into the enemy archers.

Meanwhile, chariot dogfights continue on the wings.

The Egyptian bowmen are putting up a solid
defense against the caracoling chariots.
Casualties mount.

Out of arrows on the wings, chariotry
from both combatants head back to restock.

Hail of arrows continues in the center
while infantry close on the left.

Egyptian chariots return to restock their arrow supply.

More returning chariots.

The Hittite infantry line stands firm.

Clash of spears in the center!

Restocked, chariots return to battle.
Center chariot runs out of ammo and returns to restock.
The Egyptian bowmen breathe a sigh of relief.

Melee continues as each grinds away.
Casualties mount.

The main Hittite battle line remains firm.

Finally!
  Egyptian flanking force reaches the battlefield.

Chariots on the wings resume their dogfights
while Egyptian bowmen find the range to the Hittite line.
On the Egyptian right, infantry clash.

The infantry fight in the center is teetering in balance.
Both combatants are ready to break. 

The Egyptians in the center melee break first
but fortune smiles upon the Pharaoh.
The Egyptian flanking force drives off a chariot
 and the Hittite left collapses!

Nubians run to the rear.

The Hittite army in flight as the Egyptians press home.
The Hittite King sues for terms.

Hoorah!  A resounding victory for Pharaoh!

Adding in the pre-battle scouting phase increased the tension as first we attempted to out-scout one another and having completed that, waited for the flanking force to arrive.  I began to wonder if the Egyptian flankers would ever arrive.  The flankers arrived but the battle was nearly decided since the Hittite left was wavering from the Egyptian archery.

The keys to this engagement falls on the Pharaoh putting his emphasis in his archer line.  Both units of bowmen were upgraded to Elite status at the expense of downgrading his chariotry to Veteran.  In the end, the Veteran Egyptian chariotry outshot the Elite Hittite chariotry so that was a wise gamble by Pharaoh.

My recollection is that the battle was decided in under three hours.  More questions surfaced and more questions clarified.  Post-battle, I sent off another battery of questions for review.  Good fun and thanks to Ian for allowing me to get my Biblical armies back out onto the gaming table for another fine scrap.  I learned a lot about Hittite history too!