Biblical at Warfare 2022
Achean (Mycenean) vs Assyrian Empire and Sargonid
Game 1 Achean (Mycenean) vs Zhou and Spring and Autumn Chinese
Game 2 Achean (Mycenean) vs Ancient Hebrew
Game 3 Achean (Mycenean) vs Ancient Bedouin
Game 4 Achean (Mycenean) vs Assyrian Empire and Sargonid
Game 5 Achean (Mycenean) vs Syria, Canaan and Ugarit
Into day 2 of the competition, with everyone now familiar with how to get into the venue and enthusiastic to crack on so as to have a good crack at the trade show and lunch queue between both Sunday games.
The opposition for this battle was the textbook Assyrians, commanded by list podmeister Richard, famous for interesting designs and innovative allies.
The lists for the Achean and Assyrian Empire and Sargonid from this game, as well as all the other lists from the games at Warfare can be seen here in the L'Art de la Guerre Wiki.
The terrain had fallen more kindly this game, with fields and plantations arrayed on both flanks through which the Assyrians would not be able to drive their potent chariots.
This allowed the Achean army to pretty much fill the table with a solid line of troops daring the opposition to come and have a crack at them wherever they fancied their chances
As if hypnotized by the lack of imagination displayed by their opponents, the Assyrian army kicked off by immediately attempting to reorganise and redeploy most of the army on the fly.
Chariots dashed hither and thither, with fleet-footed infantrymen only just avoiding being crushed under the panzers wheels as the formations exchanged places at high speed
The Assyrian's Libyan ally, comprising a load of Mighty Mighty Meshwesh and standard-issue Impetuous warriors, had a much more straightforward task - rush towards the Acheans and charge them as soon as possible.
This was a task the mysteriously-originated tribal infantry took to with an eagerness and enthusiasm thoroughly befitting of their nutter-like reputations
As the initial Assyrian traffic chaos started to subside the shape of the battle slowly emerged.
The Assyrians would attack on both wings, but lacked enough troops to fully join up those two assaults in the centre - an outcome the Achean army was keen to expand upon as it rushed slowly forward to try and instigate combat as soon as possible all along the line
The Mighty Mighty Meshwesh were almost in position, and the Achean plan seemed just to stand there and take whatever the enemy wished to dish out.
(In case you've not been paying attention, that is exactly what the Achaean plan is)
A sporadic flurry of shooting and perhaps some extra width seemed all that the spear-carriers had in their locker to withstand the furious charge of the North African desert warriors on this part of the playing surface.
To Farnborough came the famed troops of Nestor.
Their plan, to find foes to molest(er)
Armed all with long spear,
But they were nowhere near,
Troy, although they weren't far from Winchester.
(Homer, The Silly-iad)
The Mighty Mighty BossTones
Nestor and his Pylian spearmen were again plonked in the middle of the battle line, and their rear support shenanigans were almost certainly what had motivated the Assyrian chariot force to swap places with the mixed shooting infantry in an attempt to find easier targets to barrel into at speed
The complex shuffling involved in doing so had however left the chariots some way behind, and so Nestor's men decided that rushing up to tackle the half-hearted combat shy swordsmen of the Assyrian infantry formation was very much on the cards for this mornings entertainment
As the Meshwesh and lesser Libyans continued their headlong charge, the Acheans waited patiently for what they were about to receive, shuffling the deckchairs of their defence as best they could in an effort to engineer the odd overlap or move up a lone chariot to threaten a counterstrike once battle had been joined
Everything was now coming to a head, as the Assyrians shook themselves out of their self-generated traffic jam and started to array their panoply of forces for a decisive strike
They had just about avoided the nightmare matchup of Chariots vs the deep and resilient formation of Nestors Pylian spearmen, but in so doing had gotten dangerously close to the rough terrain of a ploughed field, an area of the table which could easily unseat the most dogged charioteer, pitching them out of their cabs and onto the muddy ground swarming with Achilles' warriors
The Achean warriors were waiting, quietly tidying up their line as the inevitable chariot charge gathered speed as Nestors Pylians hoisted their pavise-like shields to fend off enemy archery as best they could.
Odysseus' Invidious Affiliates! The Mighty Mighty Meshwesh meanwhile were taking no prisoners, blasting their way through the Mycenean archers who had been cunningly placed as a deliberate weak point in the line of spearmen in order to tempt enemies to charge instead of standing off.
Well, that plan hadn't exactly worked as intended, had it?
The Mighty Mighty MeshWesh
As had happened in the previous battle, Nestor's Pylians were now engaged with the mixed shooting formation of Assyrian infantry, and again seemed to be defying the odd to come off slightly worse in the initial rounds of combat
This time however, both Achean heroes were side by side fighting the Assyrian foot - Nestor commanded one of his units of spears to hang back, leaving room for Achilles and his Myrmidions to steam into the rather shell-shocked enemy formation at some speed,
Elsewhere on the table, The Mighty Mighty MeshWesh were widening the aperture they had created in the Achean line
Yet more fanatical almost sea-person-like warriors overran the reeling spearmen, catching them off balance and trampling them into the desert dirt in a rampaging tide of martial fury.
Achilles had done the business yet again - destroying his unit's opponents and carving a big hole in the Assyrian line
With the Assyrian Chariots now committed to imminent combat against a wall of Achean spearmen, Achilles suddenly looked well poised to wreak havoc in any direction he fancied
The Assyrian chariots were as a result now in two minds as to whether to commit.
The Achean plan needed the Assyrians to commit - it was only by drawing the enemy into a protracted close quarters ruck that their superior numbers and attritional mindset could start to work its mathematical magic.
That would however involve giving the Assyrians a chance to imagine they could win - so part of the Achean infantry line stepped up, offering the Chariots an opportunity of an overlap in order to encourage them to have a go.
The famed Myrmidons of Achilles ,
Give all their opponents the willies.,
Though they're hard to defeat,
'cos they're Impact Elite,
But they're still not that good on steep hill(ies).
(Homer, The Silly-iad)
The plan worked all too well - the instantly triggered Assyrian charge successfully overran the vanilla Acheans, suddenly forcing the almost-Greeks to rearrange the second wave of deckchairs to prevent the Assyrian battle carts from running amok.
Achilles - The man, the myth
Menelaus' on a Motorbike! The Mighty Mighty Meshwesh had suddenly run out of steam.
Their heroics in bursting through the Achean line had turned into organised chaos as the impetuous infantrymen lost control, unable to prevent the more organised Acheans to reshuffle sharply, turning into the flanks of the somewhat exhausted wild men of the Mediterranean coastline
With the chariot charge largely (but not entirely) blunted, and the half and half shooters suddenly crumbling under the weight of solid Achean spearmen and fierce Myrmidions, the Assyrians suddenly collapsed to defeat as the Meshwesh over-extended themselves and were rolled up in short order by devastating Achean flank attacks coming in from all sides.
The Result is a 4th straight win, this time 85-25 with 22/28 losses (almost as many as the Assyrian's 24-strong army) for the Mycenean side
Click here for the report of the next game in this competition, or read on for the post match summaries from the Generals involved, as well as another episode of legendary expert analysis from Hannibal
Post Match Summary from the Achean Commander
The night's rest and repose has not stopped the relentless march of my spearmen and archers as we drive all before us in our inexorable march to a clean sweep of victories that is now within grasp for sure?
With the MeshWesh being soaked up by spears, and Nestors men absorbing a tidal wave of Chariotry with aplomb the stage was set for an active assault from Achilles and the rest of the spearmen that utterly crushed the half-hearted combatants making up the rest of the Assyrian army.
My army is a Sponge of War, an Absorbent Pad of Military Excellence, a huge and hard-fighting blancmange which absorbs the worst that the enemy can throw at it, and then hurls it back in their faces wit interest and aggression to spare.
It is as if I have invented an entirely new method of warfare to be honest, and one which will go on to dominate the entire world for ever and ever.
Hannibal's Post Match Analysis
Amazing as this fourth win is, I cannot believe that one as daft as you can be driving such results - I look at you and think that never did you go forth to the place of gathering, where men win glory nor ever to war, but instead you are a man who wasted away his own heart, and tarried where he was; and never longed for the war-cry and the glory of battle
Agamemnon, king of men, would have seen dishonour in this outcome achieved in no small part by traffic related problems in the enemy marshalling yard, and a victory achieved by weight of numbers and lack of innovation rather than any great skill or elan.
Strange one, you and your four victories are always suspect, and my gaze does not allow the oddness of this outcome to escape; yet you should surely be able to accomplish nothing with this linear approach, which shall lead you even further from the hearts of all who crave the glory of combat; and that shall be the worse for you in the end no doubt when you come up against a more well prepared and traffic-conscious foe
I cannot for one wait for that to happen, as surely this will then prove to be sorry work that is no longer bearable? If you are to wrangle thus for mortals' sakes, and set the gods in tumult with this dullnes of tactics then neither loss nor victory will give any joy in the excellent feast, since it is a shame to see worse things prevail - perhaps this will change in the last game in this event?
Click here for the report of the next game in this competition
That's the end - so why not go back to the Match Reports Index and read some more reports?
You may also like....
Game 1 Achean (Mycenean) vs Zhou and Spring and Autumn Chinese
Game 2 Achean (Mycenean) vs Ancient Hebrew
Game 3 Achean (Mycenean) vs Ancient Bedouin
Game 4 Achean (Mycenean) vs Assyrian Empire and Sargonid
Game 5 Achean (Mycenean) vs Syria, Canaan and Ugarit
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