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Tuesday, March 14, 2023

A Loss of Pre-Biblical Proportion

After finally clearing away the remnants of the Montebello game (I still have one more Montebello battle report to chronicle), out come the five-inch hexes and the Sumerians.  First was a Sumerian parade and now a game.

Always ready for a game, Steve accepted my offer to take to the field in command one of the Sumerian armies.  The contest would be a remote, one-on-one game using my Basic Impetvs (BI) variant.  Armies would muster out on equal terms, each having 12 BMUs.  A veteran of these BI games, this would be Steve's first experience with commanding Ancient Sumerians.  Steve would command the Blue Army.  Introduced is a modification to the way in which battle carts retreat from melee.

Let's see how the battle unfolded. 
The two armies arrayed for battle.
Red Lugal assesses his opponent.
As the two armies close, battle carts attack on the left. 
In the initial clash, Blue archers are driven back
while Red skirmishers are scattered.
Already, Red Army has lost one unit.
In pursuit, Blue battle cart attacks the massed bowmen,
The archers stand firm unleashing a volley into its attackers.
Seeing the archers stand, the battle cart veers off. 
Blue battle cart, now behind enemy lines,
drives off another skirmisher.
In the center tension mounts as the distance closes.
 Red advances, attacking with both heavy foot and cart.
Red spear drives off the enemy but its battle cart is repulsed.
Red wins one combat and loses one combat.
As the lumbering cart slowly wheels to retire,
it exposes a rear to the enemy.
Is this an opportunity?
Watching this error unfold, Blue pounces,
attacking with both heavy foot and cart.
One Blue cart and massed bow are crushed.
Is the attack over?
No!
Blue moves skirmishers up to harass the heavy foot
while the cart rattles on.
Massed archers and skirmishers rain missiles
 into the heavy foot.
The heavy foot weakens.
When it rains, it pours.
The Blue cart, already in the enemy rear, 
charges into the Red center.
A skirmisher is hit...
and destroyed.
With enemy in its rear, Red's massed archers crumble
 when attacked by heavy foot to its front.
Red Army breaks.
The battle is over. 
The victor is pleased.
Steve's Blue Army claims a resounding victory.  Congratulations to Steve on a game well-played.  He is wily opponent.  Rarely have I suffered such an ignominious defeat.
Red's center is hollowed out.
Could the defeat really have been that bad? 

Yes!

A quick glance at the Dead Pile leaves no doubt.
Dead Pile.
Hopefully, I will have a chance to avenge this embarrassing, Manic Monday loss.

How did the revised battle cart retreat rules work out?  A topic for another time, I think.

Victorious Lugal surveys his victory.

59 comments:

  1. Ooh you had a right spanking there mate. Nice looking game on some very neat hexes. I’ve never gamed anything this early so battle carts were a new one on me! Think I’d like a real one to nip into town with, lol.

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    1. Yes, Mark, a right spanking, no doubt! Steve was enjoying himself maybe too much.

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    2. Devil to park, though :)

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    3. Yes, parking asses is a tough job.

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  2. Very interesting to see the carts in play, are they hard to take down?

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  3. Great to see chariots in action.

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    1. Chariots are cool and fun to have out on the table.

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  4. We all have games like that Jonathan. It still looks good that and the enjoyment(?) is what counts.

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    1. George, glad you liked the look of the game. We fought on a barren field but I thought the armies looked good.

      The game was good fun with plenty of laughs. Winning or losing matters not.

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  5. Beautiful looking armies and the naming convention was easy to follow, thanks to the coloured dice! A rare loss for you, as you say Jon, but even Alexander and Napoleon lost occasionally, so you are in illustrious company!

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    1. Thanks, Keith! Happy to see that the colored dice made following the report less difficult.

      As for losses, an early trend is forming that sees me tending to lose to Steve on the field of battle.

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  6. Sometimes things just don't go your way. Write it off to experience and move on to the next game.

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    1. Loses are easily forgotten with the exception that we chronicle these games within the pages of our blogs.

      Every game offers a chance to learn. I learned from this one as mistakes were made.

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  7. Well that didn't go to plan for you, but the game sure did look good!

    Christopher

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  8. Great to see the collection in action. If you enjoyed the game against a great opponent then the result is secondary to a fun days gaming

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    1. Neil, results are (almost) always secondary! Facing a good opponent in a fun and challenging contest is first.

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  9. How nice!
    Love to see chariots in action!

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  10. I’ve skipped the report on the basis it may provide too much prior knowledge 👍

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    1. Reading this account will neither help nor hurt. It is an equal contest on an open plain. You certainly do not want to duplicate my effort.

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  11. Great to see your super Sumerians arrayed for action. I can sympathize with your crushing defeat the late Imperial Romans I endeavoured to lead to victory had a similar today. Good fun nonetheless, now where are those dice and my lump hammer🙂

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    1. Yeas, very good to get them out onto the table and into battle. The Sumerians have three more games planned over the next ten days. Maybe I can win one?

      As you say, always good fun regardless. Even my opponent suggested I change dice!

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  12. Well, since it was a virtual game, you could say it was only a virtual rout, if that would help.

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    1. No, this was an actual rout and a well-played game by my adversary. These same armies take to the table for a F2F game later this week. We will see how I do.

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    2. Of course--just indulging in a bit of word play.

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    3. A virtual rout is probably better. In a virtual rout, no one can hear you scream.

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  13. Well a lovely looking game and nice to see your armies in action, even if you did get a completel kicking on the table! The red and blue die really did help to follow which side was which:).

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    1. Thanks, Steve! No doubt I had my head handed to me in this fight. Without the red and blue dice, once the armies are intermixed, it would be impossible to distinguish who is who.

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    2. Once inter mixed, I do wonder how they knew which side was which, given the dust, noise and confusion of battle. Maybe rather like the ECW or say the SYW, it was all rather linear and there was a lot of push and shove, so you kept contact with your opponents for most of the battle. Once one side 'broke', maybe any running away was the enemy? Guess we'll never know for sure...

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    3. Interesting question. As you say, we may never know for sure.

      My hunch is that 'armies' or warbands were relatively small in number. A soldier in these armies may be capable of identifying one's own.

      Hand-to-hand fighting would be left to the spear or hand weapon phalanxes while missile troops would engage at range. Missile troops, fighting at range, would be easier to distinguish friend from foe. Densely packed phalanxes would require linear formations. When pushing and shoving an enemy to the front, one would likely be able to distinguish the enemy. I wonder if these combats were micro-fights in that combatants were really only concerned about the enemy to the front.

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    4. I think your latter point may be the answer Jon. I remember a line from the BBC TV series Soldiers, presented by Frederick Forsyth, where he said something like "For centuries, although battles involved thousands of men, they were really just a series of individual fights....."

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  14. How wonderful to see the Sumerians in battle. You take on a Reject at your peril.

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  15. Having those battlecarts marauding around in Red's rear certainly didn't help matters. That's a nice way to put on a battle Jonathan, splitting the army in half and playing on equal terms.

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    1. Quite right. Allowing those battle carts to roam in my backfield was my undoing. There were still more units I could put out on the table but a dozen BMUs per side seemed a reasonable number for each player to command. The game was finished in about two hours too.

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  16. Well at least the troops looked good and the company was pleasant. 😀

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    1. Indeed! I learned a thing or two too. Maybe I can improve the outcome when I replay this on Thursday?

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  17. Great to see both Sumerian armies out and about, my recent Penisular game was a bit like that, luck deserted me while my opponent was on fire!
    Best Iain

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    1. On dice, we were playing in opposite tails of the probability distribution.

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  18. Looks like the Sumerians invented Blitzkrieg a few thousand years earlier 😁 Great looking game and report Jonathan.

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    1. Good to see you again, Ben!

      While there is no form of hip shooting from the air, Basic Impetvs does offer the chance for deep penetrating breakthroughs as seen in this game.

      Glad you enjoyed the post-game presentation!

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  19. Good to see the collection "stretch its legs" again! Commiserations on the loss; obviously the scenario was unbalanced. :-)

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    1. I cannot claim “unbalanced” as both armies are exactly the same.

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    2. Indeed not, hence the smiley (an irony emoticon is long overdue!)

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    3. Peter, since I do not speak Emoji, you could not see that my reply had an implied smile. While I cannot claim "unbalanced" I could claim "incompetence!"

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  20. Yep, definitely need that irony emoticon! :-)
    Myself, I'd blame the dice. Always a good scapegoat!

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    1. Well, my opponent even suggested I get a handful of new dice. I could blame the dice...but I won't.

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  21. Another picturesque report. Well done! I have yet to deploy and command Sumerians on my tabletop. Hmmm.

    Surprised to see that no one made any biblical reference to you being smitted (or is it smoted?) on this hexagonal field of battle.

    I just might have to do something with Sumerians . . . perhaps adapt a historical battle? That might be interesting.
    Would have to think about those battle carts, re what rules to use.

    Thanks for posting.

    Cheers,
    Chris

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    1. Thanks, Chris! Happy to see you enjoyed the battle report.

      If you work up a historical scenario and rules for Sumerians, please pass them along. These battle carts are not your Hittite, Assyrian, and Egyptian chariots. The way I field these battle carts on the table offers up a more cumbersome and less maneuverable platform.

      No Biblical references yet.

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    2. At the risk of piling on . . . stumbled upon this related post and thought you might like to take a look. (You have to scroll down a bit to get to the pictures. Sorry, but no battle carts were on this miniature field.) Hopefully, the following link works:
      https://forum.wgcwar.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=711

      Regarding the historical scenario . . . Nothing set in stone yet, but was thinking that maybe a Gettysburg-style engagement might be interesting? To be sure, the PA farmland would be replaced by harsher terrain. To be equally sure, I am not thinking a 3-day battle resulting from a meeting engagement. Perhaps something like Day 2 of the great battle, but adapted for 3000-2700 BC troop types?

      Cheers and continued good gaming and safe cycling.
      Chris

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    3. Gettysburg 3,000BC. Interesting…

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  22. Remarkable battle report-well done! I noticed you use Basic Impetvs 2. I've used a combo of DBA and Triumph (modified) and was wondering how Impetvs compares. I never seem quite satisfied with what I have.

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    1. Thanks, Bruce! Great to see you dropping in and leaving a comment.

      I like BI2.0 and, for me, it is easy to remember the rules when adjudicating. That is a bonus in my book. I have not played Triumph do I cannot compare. BI is more toward game than simulation but the games are always fun and challenging. If you are ever interested in giving BI a test run in a remote game, drop me an email.

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  23. A cracking looking and sounding game Jonathan…
    The dice gods were certainly not looking kindly on your army this day…
    All the best. Aly

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    1. Thanks, Aly. The dice gods were not looking kindly on me.

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  24. That Battlecart in your rear really made the difference from the way I read this. Clever ploy by your opponent and one I would have attempted as well.

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    1. It did! I made the same mistake in Sunday’s game too! I must be a slow learner. My opponent is a clever fellow.

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