TTS AAR: Tribal Hebrews versus Hittites, Round One
/Earlier this year I competed at the To The Smallest 15mm To The Strongest tournament at Firestorm Games in Cardiff. One of the other competitors fielded a Tribal Hebrew army using Red Copper sculpts, something I have coveted for some time: troop types specified by tribe, deep veteran javelinmen, the Ark of the Covenant…what’s not to love? A discussion was had, an offer was made, and now the Hebrews reside chez moi, and it was time to get them onto the tabletop. I even had suitable opponents for them: a Hittite army also using Red Copper sculpts.
The Hittites opened the proceedings, sending their chariots forward in the centre, with their Syrian allies attempting an outflank on the left. This was very worrying: my only consolation being that their infantry seemed content to stand by and just watch.
As the Hittites were obviously trying to overwhelm the left hand end of my line. I thought I’d better send reinforcements. I therefore turned one of my commands sideways and marched them to the left.
Unfortunately, I had underestimated how fast the Hittite chariots could move, with the result that half the turned-left command got hit in the flank and annihilated. Not my finest hour as a general!
This left a hole in my line into which more Hittite chariots poured, and soon I was in danger of being overwhelmed not on the left but in the centre!
Meanwhile, the Syrian chariots on the left had finally managed to get into a position to do some damage. I held them up briefly with light infantry, but soon they were nipping at the flanks and rear of the two Hebrew units of deep javelinmen that were fighting more Hittite chariots there.
Whilst all this was going on, I had sent one infantry command forward on the right flank, thinking I might occupy the rough ground there, giving me an advantage if the Hittite infantry ever did come forward.
This advance didn’t really achieve much, particularly as I had to siphon off some of the force to reinforce the rest of my line (still under threat from enemy chariots) and soon I was regretting that decision as well, especially when the Hittite infantry finally got off their backsides and came forward.
I even had to commit the fanatics protecting the Ark (that unit is worth six coins so should really stay out of danger) to bolstering the centre.
Now although the above sounds as if the Hebrews are being soundly beaten, after the initial disastrous Hittite flank attack, the various combats hadn’t been going too badly. Yes, I’d lost plenty of coins and had the rest of my infantry disordered, but I’d also managed to kill a couple of enemy units and, even better, kill not one but two Hittite generals. You can see all the main action in the gallery, below.
Beleive it or not, we were now at the stage where both sides only had two or three coins left, which meant things were very much at the “sudden death” stage.
Unfortunately, the poor old Hebrews had taken too much damage to survive another turn: the coup de grace coming from those pooping Syrian light chariots, who managed to run over a unit of Light Slingers, takin g my last coin and the game.
An absolute cracker of a game that I had effectively lost once the Syrian light chariots had outflanked, lost again after my error in turning some jevelinmen sidweways and seeing them blown away by Hittite chariots hitting them in the flank, then started to win again (especially, and fittingly, when the Ark was committed) before just losing on the turn of a card. Great stuff!
