TTS AAR: Tribal Hebrews versus Akkadians

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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!

TTS AAR: Tribal Hebrews versus Hittites, Round 2

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After losing to the Hittites played by John, the Tribal Hebrews would now take on the Hittites again, but this time commanded by Rob.

Although I lost the scouting, the Hittites chose to deploy in a tight formation in one corner of the battlefield. This looked like a good opportunity for an outflanking manoeuvre, and soon a portion of my army was heading down the right flank ready to turn and pounce on the Hittites’ open side.

Meanwhile, battle had been firmly joined in the centre, with Hittite chariots crashing into the mass Hebrew javelinmen across the board.

The chariots would usually win the initial clash, disordering their opponents, but be unable to immediately break the javelinmen…which gave my flank attack the opportunity to land a devastating blow on the Hittites before their infantry could bolster their position.

Unfortunately, the flanking command suffered some terrible “good” cards - drawing 10’s on their first activation twice in a row - meaning that although they were moving towards the Hittite flank, it was at a snail’s pace rather than the hoped for tsunami. This gave the Hittite infantry time to manoeuvre to both defend their open side and to support the right side of their line in the centre: definitely not part of the Hebrew plan, especially when the unit defending the Ark of the Covenant was destroyed!

Although the centre was pretty much lost, and the right flank an area of some concern, the Hebrew flanking attack on the left was still quite capable of winning victory.

Unfortunately, the cards decided that it was not to be, with the Hebrews pulling some terrible cards for their movement and attacks, and the Hittites getting an extraordinary run of cards for saves!

The Hebrews were beginning to run out of steam at this point: they had lost two generals, the Ark of the Covenant, and a couple of deep units, meaning they were down to the their last handful of coins. The cards were still criminally against them as well, with even the simplest of flank attacks failing to land with any effect.

This couldn’t last and, as the final photo in the gallery above shows, the last Hebrew coins went, somehwat appropriately, with a unit of Chosen Men hit in the front and the rear and drawing an Ace for their final save!

So a second defeat in a row for the Hebrews, but this time not so much down to a mistake on my part (as in the previous game) but to the cards kicking me firmly in the fork time and time again!

The Hebrews would fight again almost immediately, but this time against the Akkadians…

TTS AAR: Tribal Hebrews versus Hittites, Round One

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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!