6mm Hail Caesar, battling in the desert again.

 For today's game I adopted ideas from some of the scenario's in the HC 'Age of Bronze' supplement, tweaking things a bit to suit our collection of figures and terrain. 

I randomly set up the scenery and then allowed the players (Ian and Nigel) to dice for who deployed first, highest chose. The first player to deploy also had to place the whole of one of their divisions within 6" of the oasis which was  in the centre of the table. 

Then each player chose a card with their battle objectives and scenario specific rules on. These were as follows...

Player A: Ian

1: You must try and get one of your chariot units off your opponents table edge as it is carrying important messages. Please mark which chariot unit it is. 

2: You must be in control of the Oasis (the only water supply for miles) by the end of the game. 

3: Assign a baggage base to one of your divisions. The baggage represents the baggage and several hostages belonging to the enemy. It is vital that you are still in possession of these hostages at the end of the game. 

Player B: Nigel

1: You must be in control of the Oasis (the only water supply for miles) by the end of the game. 

2: The enemy has several important hostages, (sons and princes) which are being kept by their baggage. You must try and capture them back. 

3: The enemy is trying to escape off your table edge with important messages, you must prevent this from happening. 

So with Ian as first player he had to deploy a division by the oasis and 'lucky' for him the dice decided I as on his side and he put me in charge of the left most chariot division of Elamites and the infantry division in charge of the Oasis. Ian placed the army general  mid-table and another division on the right flank. Nigel then placed his tough, 5 unit strong Assyrian chariots division left of centre from our viewpoint with infantry divisions either side. I should also point out that Nigel was using the Earlier Assyrian list today as that is more compatible with our armies. 

Elamites on the left, Assyrians to the right. You should be able to make out the oasis top centre, now surrounded by Elamite infantry. 

Assyrian Cavalry which hardly moved all game? Forward a bit, back a bit!

In the centre, Nigel tried to charge his chariots into our General's division but an amazing round of 'closing shots' from the Elamite archers halted and dis-ordered the attack on my left and then the other chariots drew their combat. We won the next round. 

At this point it became clear that today was never going to be Nigel's day as he twice threw a double 1 on break tests so the units involved broke and fled. 

A shot along the battle lines, note the red disorder counters still on the Assyrian Chariots. 

The non-disordered Assyrian chariots charge in again only to be repulsed by the Elamite infantry. Withdrawing, Nigel re-grouped his chariot division and came after my chariots who opted to evade as they were outnumbered. His left most division (from my side) finally broke and had to withdraw. By this time it was looking bad for Nigel and his troops and none of his game objectives looked achievable so he nobly conceded the game and was last heard muttering about useless dice and the need to order some new ones!

Great fun as always. Next week we move forward to medieval times.