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Sunday, September 4, 2022

Sumerian First Game!

A little over one year (13 months, actually) after starting a Sumerian Army (well, actually two!), my Sumerians take to the field of battle.

Following on Graham's Sumerian battle in last week's remote game, I offered up my Sumerians for another look at Ancient Mesopotamian warfare in this week's game.  In preparation for hosting the weekly remote UK game, Kevin volunteered to help me put the armies through their paces with a Basic Impetvs variant I devised.

Battle lines are drawn

We would use two matched armies in the contest with the victory condition of breaking the enemy army in a straight-up fight.  Each army would contain 17 BMUs.  Plenty of units for a big battle.  I would play the Red Army.  Kevin would play the Blue Army.

Notice that one unit of heavy infantry (spear) on each side of the table is of the opposite color.  Whoops.  That was a last minute mix-up on my part.  To even out the two armies, I swapped one of the red shielded spear with one of the blue unshielded spear.  I forgot to swap their colored VBU dice.  This would cause me some confusion later in the game during the heat of battle.

The armies advance.
To begin the battle, Red launches a broad advance across the battlefield (remember I am playing Red and positions are relative to my place standing behind the Red deployment zone).  With skirmishers ineffective against skirmishers in missile fire, the skirmishers in the Left Battle Group (BG) charge the skirmishers facing them.  In the melee, one Blue skirmisher is scattered.  One of the Red skirmishers is damaged and disordered.  Marginal success!  I try the ploy again, this time using my Center BG.  Unfortunately, my two-skirmisher attack is repulsed with heavy casualties.
Skirmishers contest the center of the battlefield
while control of the pond is up for grabs.
Seeing the success of skirmisher vs. skirmisher melee, Kevin attacks my weakened skirmisher on the left.  His attack sends both my skirmisher and its support into retreat.  In the center, his slingers damage the javelinmen screening my center.  Kevin's army plods slowly forward.  My skirmishers on both left and center sectors are running for cover.  To cover their retreat, the heavy infantry advance while the battle cart in my Left BG trots forward through the skirmishers.  Is the enemy within striking distance?   
Red skirmishers in flight.
Red Lugal surveys the situation.
He is!  Wasting little time, my Left BG's battle cart strikes!  Seeing the activity on the left flank, my Right BG plunges into enemy skirmishers.  Luckily for Kevin, all of his skirmishers manage to successfully evade my heavies.  Hope my attacking formations have not over-extended themselves.
Red attacks!
The attack with my battle cart on the left goes much better than the attack on the right.  While my cart is disordered in the clash, the enemy spearmen are driven off with loss.  My attacks are looking good as the battle unfolds with roughly even losses to each.  An enemy cart stands vigilant protecting the retreating infantry while awaiting its chance to pounce on my disordered cart. 
The enemy is driven back!
but at what cost?
As expected, the enemy battle cart does not wait long to strike.  It moves forward, wheels, and attacks!  Beaten, my battle cart retreats to safety.  The enemy Lugal, in his battle cart, charges ahead into the Red battle cart of my Right BG.  Again, my cart is overpowered with heavy loss.  It, too, is forced to make a hasty retreat.  The battle is turning against me.

In a futile attempt to stabilize the situation and salvage the battle, Red's Lugal charges forward into enemy heavy infantry.  In a prolonged melee, the Lugal goes down and the cart destroyed.
Red Lugal in melee!
Red Army begins to waver.
With Red Army reeling, the enemy Lugal, flushed from success, pursues into the wavering skirmishers.  The skirmishers are cut down like standing grain.  As the Red center collapses, the left fares no better.  Blue heavy infantry are hunting down the buckling enemy.  In an instant, the battle is over.
Hunting down the vanquished.
Victory to the Blue Army and Kevin!

What looked like an evenly matched battle that was developing into a slugfest, quickly changed to a destruction of my Red Army.  The key to victory for Kevin was that he pushed his pursuits against units that had taken casualties and were in no shape to offer up significant resistance.  When it rains, it pours.  I went from an army in good shape to broken in two turns.  I think Kevin was surprised by his success.

As for the rules, I think they did the job.  Having a warm-up game before the six-player remote game on Tuesday was a good choice.  This game provided a chance to bring up a potential kink that is easily resolved.  With activation by BG, it was easy to lose track of which unit belonged to which BG.  Now, VBU dice will be color-coded so this confusion will not interfere with the next game.  Having the results from this contest and the QRS fresh in mind, Tuesday's game has a chance to proceed more smoothly. 

Thanks again to Kevin for a very useful and enjoyable outing.  Oh, and congratulations on a resounding victory.

64 comments:

  1. Nice to see your splendid Sumerian army/armies out in full array. A splendid game too the unintentional extra fig if war addition notwithstanding πŸ™‚

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    1. Yes, it was very good to get these fellas out and onto the table for a game. The misplaced spear did cause a bit of confusion until I realized what I had done. Luckily, my opponent did not insist that the blue unit in my backfield was actually his!

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  2. Excellent game and report Jonathan. The armies look delightful. Glad the rules worked well for you and hope everything goes smoothly for your game on Tuesday.

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    1. Glad you liked it, Richard! The game progressed mostly without incident. Tuesday's replay will hopefully progress without incident. One never knows when managing six players remotely.

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  3. A great looking game and nice to see your Summerians on the battlefield

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    1. Thanks, Neil! Yes, very nice to see the Sumerians on table and in battle.

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  4. A great game for a great period, thanks fpr sharing!

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    1. You are welcome, Phil. With August over, you must be back from holiday!

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  5. Great to see these in action Jon which really do look lovely. Nice to know the rules worked more or less as planned too.

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    1. Seeing the armies in action was a treat for me too. Yes, rules worked more or less as planned. I am thankful to have the run-through before tackling the UK-based group. They can be toughies!

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    2. We're just a big bunch of softies.

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  6. Great looking armies and a wonderful game Jon - as both sides were newly painted first timers, one of them had to suffer the usual fate of recently painted figures - unfortunate for you that the Dice Gods chose to pick on the Red Army!

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    1. Thanks so much, Keith!

      Let the Dice Gods pick on me! Much better to see a friend win in the first game, don't you agree? That way, I can count on him returning to the table for another game. Cunning plan, no?

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    2. Aha, very clever thinking Jon πŸ˜‰

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  7. Looking forwards to giving this a go next Tuesday.

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  8. It is always a good feeling getting completed armies on to the tabletop for a game. The armies appear to be quite sizeable 15 or more units per side?

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    1. Yes, putting newly completed armies onto the table is a relief after months (or years) of steady painting. This was a large battle for a test drive. We each fielded 18 units in 17 BMUs.

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  9. A very impressive project to get two lovely armies up from scratch and onto the table in 13 months, even more-so with all the other plates that you are spinning. Like the colour coded dice idea.

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    1. Thank you, Norm! I, indeed, have many plates spinning at all times. I don't suppose you saw the US-based Ed Sullivan Show in the '60s, did you? I am reminded of the regularly featured spinning plate act.

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    2. On the use of colored dice, necessity is the mother of invention.

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    3. Ed Sulivan, no, but here in the UK, plate spinning was an act that would crop up on all sort of high profile TV events.

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  10. Great looking armies and a superb system to use Basic Impetus by battle groups.

    Cheers, Ross

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    1. Thank you, Ross! Battle Group activation works especially well for multiplayer games.

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  11. Great looking battle Jon, I do wonder how organised battles would actually have been in this period ? Would they have just charged ahead certainly they wouldn’t have had much control when the battle started

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    1. Thank you, Matt! Well, I certainly did not seem to hold much control once this battle started. After a few turns of give and take skirmishing, my army wavered and then fell apart quite quickly. In a wargame with multiple players, dividing the commands into battle groups under each player's control and direction seems to make sense to me. Perhaps this is not historical but how do we know for sure?

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  12. Would not be a proper battle without some confusion!

    Great stuff as always.

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    1. Thanks, Greg! A battle with me in command naturally produces some confusion.

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  13. Looks great J! Building two armies and fighting a first game in a year is pretty quick by my standards. Well done.

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    1. Thanks! Had I not other projects competing for resources, it might have been quicker.

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  14. Yes, great looking period and very, very nice game Jonathan!

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  15. Great to see them in action Jonathan, and a short sharp game. I was on the end of one like that with Tibetans versus 100 Year War English, which turned out to be a Himalayan version of Agincourt. Took us longer to put out the terrain than it did to play.

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    1. Lawrence, this was not quite that sharp and short. We played for about two hours before my army began to melt away.

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  16. Great to see your two lovely armies on the battlefield whatever the result I always enjoyed basic impetus 1 when I played it, I'm sure basic impetus 2 is even better, I bought the rules out of z sense of duty having enjoyed the previous free set but there is no one who uses them around here!
    Best Iain

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    1. Much appreciated! BI and BI2.0 both produce engaging and interesting games in my book. BI works as a solo game too. Give it a try.

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  17. Congrats on getting your two new armies on the table. This is your hexed version of the rules yes? It probably was a good idea for a practice game 1:1 before the ‘big show’. Good luck with it. πŸ˜€πŸ˜€

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    1. Yep, this is the hexed version of the rules. A trial game is a useful way to get the rules more solidly situated into my head.

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  18. Good battle report and I enjoyed seeing Sumerians in the field as that`s an army that`s always intrigued me

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    1. Thank you, Justin! The Sumerians will see action on the table again on Tuesday.

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  19. Great to see the toys out on the table Jonathan…
    It looked and sounded like a splendid first game.

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Yes, it was fun on all counts. So much fun, I do it again today.

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  20. A fine looking game Jonathan and good to see the rules working for you!

    Christopher

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    1. Thank you, Christopher. Yes, the rules seemed to work. More testing will be good to solidify the ideas.

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  21. Cool game! Hexes look very unusual 8)

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    1. Thanks! What is unusual about the look of the hexes?

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  22. Great to finally see them in action. Hurrah!

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  23. Good one to follow. Those carts sound a bit "glass cannon-ish" no?

    The forces looked splendid though, you should be proud mate.

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    1. Thanks, Dai! "Glass cannonish"? Perhaps but they can cut a wide swath if given a hald chance and a compliant enemy. They are much easier to get stuck in than extract!

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  24. So the Sumerians have finally made it to the table! And what a fine sight they are! Lovely game Jon, shame about the defeat though I’m sure you’ll make up for it in future.

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    1. Yes! Sumerians finally made it to the table. The armies look good arrayed for battle and the game on a grid worked well.

      Win or lose, it matters not!

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  25. Great to see all of your Sumerians, Jonathan!

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    1. It was great to get them out onto the table and into battle!

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  26. They have looked great in your posts of painting the units, but absolutely superb all on the table 'in action'!
    Regards, James

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