TTS AAR: Tribal Hebrews versus Akkadians
/A third game in a row for the Tribal Hebrews, this time against the Akkadians, commanded by friend Rob.
The two sides deployed and advanced rapidly towards each other, with the Akkadians trying for an outflank on the Hebrew left with their battle-carts, and the Hebrews making a play for the high ground on the left of the Akkadian main line.
The initial clash of the two main battle lines was indecisive, and it took my use of the Someone Has Blundered stratagem to give the Hebrews a small advantage.
But what, I hear you ask, of the Akkadian flank attack?
Well, using battle-carts to get around someone’s flank is all very well, but they are not very manouevrable and I had left some light infantry in a clump of palm trees to further delay their arrival.
Unfortunately, I got a bit too enthusiastic about the possibilities of hitting one of the battle-carts in the flank as it tried to turn onto mine, an enterprising tactic that failed dismally and left the lights out in the open to be destroyed by their erstwhile opponenents. This left the battle-carts well and truly on my flank and the situation began to look a bit critical!
Fortunately the cards were with me and against Rob, with one unit of veteran Hebrew javelinmen surviving being hit in the front and rear , and one battle-cart not quite managing to get into action yet.
This couldn’t last, so I needed to win the main clash as soon as possible, or face being rolled up from the left. Rob and I had already knocked off a couple of each other’s units, so I needed to kill another three or four to win the game before that could happen.
A superb effort by the ish bahor Chosen Men on the right managed to break the Akkadian Royal Guard, also taking out their General, began the process, with Rob also losing a couple of units of lights to morale to leave him teetering on the edge of defeat.
I then managed to sneak a unit of Light Slingers along the very right hand edge of the table to take an unoccupied Akkadian camp, giving me another three coins and the game!
A victory at last for the Hebrews, but a very narrow one as you’ll see from the pictures of the rest of the table in the gallery, below.
I do like playing the Tribal Hebrews - they are an unusual army, being comprised solely of light troops and veteran javelinmen - but have ordered enough chariots to allow me to morph them into two later variations: the United Monarchy Hebrews and the Regnal Hebrews. We’ll have to see if the addition of a mounted arm makes any difference to their success!
