Sunday, November 21, 2021

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!

42 comments:

  1. Fantastic looking game and the rules certainly give the feel of classical warfare

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    1. Thank you, Neil! Each game sees a few refinements and clarifications settling into my mind. Great fun to field these armies with some regularity of late.

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  2. A tremendous looking battle, the chariot resupply and scouting rules really enhance the game play. Not very knowledgeable on biblical warfare but it certainly looks and feels the part

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    1. Thanks, Phil! Scouting and resupply add some extra dimensions and decisions to the rules. This is a different combat model than I am accustomed to but it is growing go on me. Still, plenty of work before I am comfortable with the game engine.

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  3. Sounds like things were tight and well balanced for a goodly part of the game. Is it me or was there a greater sense of the whole army getting involved in this game, rather than the chariots totally taking centre stage.

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    1. Norm, this action was a tight match and nicely balanced. I was fortunate to have my elite bowmen outshoot their opposition.

      Interesting observation about the both armies getting more involved in this fight. I wonder if this general engagement was brought about by the chariots primarily fighting on the wings rather than tryin to control the center? This time the chariots did not take Center Stage but Stage Left and Stage Right!

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  4. Quite spectacular. Chariot army fights generally are hard to pull off but look great.

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  5. The scouting phase sounds interesting...one of the parts of Chain of command that I really liked was the scouting phase, so the idea that both players can compete to gain a deployment advantage sounds intriguing. I agree with Norm, the bat rep certainly seems to indicate a more general engagement that previous outings!

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    1. Keith, the introduction of the scouting prelims did add an extra and interesting dynamic into the game. I think the designer (Ian) thought I discovered his battle line too early in the process. We will see if there are amendments before the next playtest.

      The patrol phase in CoC is a favorite mechanism for me too. See my response to Norm above on thoughts on the general nature of this battle.

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  6. Another lively game. We played Elamites against Sumerians on the weekend and thoroughly enjoyed that. Biblical ancients really do seem to have a particular flavour to them.

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    1. Lively, for sure. I enjoyed the contest and think Ian did too.

      Will we be seeing a battle report from your Elamite v Sumerian game?

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    2. At around turn five I was thinking to myself that it would have made a good AAR, but forgot to take any photos as usual. To be honest, because it is over at a friend's place I feel a little awkward about interrupting the flow to take photos. If I was hosting I wouldn't think twice about it.

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    3. I usually ask if OK to take photos when I am not hosting. No one has no yet! I try not to slow the game by taking photos when my opponent is making his move.

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  7. An interesting period of warfare and nicely portrayed on the table top.

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    1. Interesting, for sure, especially given the dynamic nature of chariot warfare.

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  8. I like the "competitive" scouting dynamic leading to a random outflank. It introduces an element of tension, and I imagine it was a factor for the Hittite player as well. The 3 hour resolution is promising as well - all day games are great, but a ruleset that produces a game one can resolve comfortably in an evening is the holy grail for me; I so rarely get to devote more time to gaming than that.

    You mentioned learning about Hittites - any particular source material you'd recommend?

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    1. Markus, we did quite of bit of chatting during the game with sometimes long diversions. I bet if I put a stopwatch on actual game time, two hours may be closer to the truth.

      As mentioned above, the scouting phase certainly added an interesting dynamic into the game.

      I have a few sources on Hittites but my particular, favored source during these rules' developments is Ian, himself! He is a wealth of knowledge on the topic. I will ask Ian is favorite published sources.

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  9. Great to see your chariots in action again.

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  10. Another good outing with these rules and your armies certainly look the business:). I liked the scouting option at the start and the Egyptian flanking force arrived just in time to help roll up the Hittite flank. As Norm said above, it looked more like all units got involved rather more this game?

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    1. Steve, this was another good outing, for sure. With each playing, a few more questions are clarified while new situations materialize and are resolved.

      With the chariots fighting out on the wings, the center was left more open for the foot sloggers to engage and contest the ground.

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  11. Very enjoyable. The best one so far I think.

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  12. But the Hittites had that shiny new king to lead them and still lost? I sense trouble in the royal bloodline. 😀

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  13. Great looking collection, it's been good to see it grow and now gamed

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    1. Thanks, Paul! It is good, indeed, to see these Biblicals out on maneuvers. The collection continues to grow. Perhaps a new army planned for 2022?

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  14. Fabulous Johnathon, the chariot dust is a good touch

    Cheers
    Matt

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    1. Thanks, Matt!

      The chariot dust serves a gaming purpose to denote a "No Man's Land" for non-skirmish foot troops.

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  15. A cracking looking and sounding game Jonathan…
    It makes biblical wargaming even more tempting than it already is…

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Thanks, Aly! This battle was a very tense clash as I wondered if my Egyptians could hang on long enough for their flanking force to arrive.

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  16. Impressive Ancients gaming, Jonathan. Great to see Biblical armies on the table.

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  17. You can hear the rumble of chariots! Nice looking game Jonathan!

    Christopher

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    1. Thanks, Christopher! It has been a long time. Good to see you back!

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  18. Interesting mechanism with the scouting shown on day 1. Does this carry over if there is no result?

    Fantastic batrep and great to see those chariots rolling.

    Cheers, Ross

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    1. Hi Ross! My understanding is that scouting can continue across multiple days but when I found the enemy on Day 1, no need to continue!

      Glad you enjoyed the BatRep and the chariots! You will be seeing more of these armies, for sure.

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  19. Other than a handy outflank, what other results does the Scouting Phase provide?
    Also, the chariots heading to the rear to resupply arrows is a good idea, but what about the regular units of foot archers?

    As has been commented on above prior, this battle felt like there was more of an overall inclusion to the conflict over the previous battle. I enjoyed the report very much Jon.

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    1. Hi Dai! Good question on what other impact scouting has on the table battle. At this point, I am not sure all is fleshed out but scouting can result in a skirmish fight taking place before the man event.

      For now, regular foot archers have an unlimited ammo supply as they remain close to the supply point/camp.

      Glad you enjoyed the battle report! Expect more to come.

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