Biblical Bash: New Kingdom Egyptians v Hittites, 15mm Hail Caesar

They say that you should always start with a joke. so here goes:

Is your crocodile friendly?
Yes.
Then why is it eating my baby.
That’s not my crocodile.

I know, it’s not that funny, but I spent over an hour unsuccessfully trying to translate and then copy it into Hieroglyphics so it’s staying.

Talking of fun, we had an amusing time last meeting with a six-player game of Hail Caesar (HC) using some of my Biblical armies, this saw a Hittite army taking on my New Kingdom Egyptians, both with substantial Canaanite allies. This was the first game of HC for many of the players but they picked it up quite quickly even if a little unsure on what was the best thing to do.

Both sides split their allies off into a separate division and with nearly seventy chariots on the table there was some discussion on the best way to deploy them. The Egyptians decided to parcel them out to each division whilst the Hittites overloaded their left wing with the more melee capable ones and placed the lighter Canaanites in the centre.

The Egyptian left wing consisting mainly of Canaanite allies launched their attack against a mixed group of Syrian and Hittite infantry backed by a few chariots, with this ending up as a too and fro affair with both sides having some success’s but, as the Canaanites got more and more worn down, the Hittite right had sufficient strength to finally repel the assault and to start to push them back. 

A lone unit of Sea people mercenaries heroically holding them off allowing the remaining Egyptian forces to retire safely. 

In the centre the Egyptians got a little mixed up and were not able to launch a coordinated attack which resulted in individual units trying their best to advance through the arrow storm coming from the Hittite forces. It would be fair to say that this was where the Hittites had the most success with the majority of their units well able to continue fighting after both defeating the Egyptian centre and beating off a limited assault from their right as the Egyptian left wing tried to assist their centre. On the remaining wing JJ did ok.

The Hittites as previously mentioned had overloaded their left wing with all their melee chariots backed up by some Syrian infantry. Facing them was a division of Egyptians consisting of the usual mix of spears, bows and chariots which didn’t look like it would be sufficient to hold off the advancing horde trundling towards them. 

However, the Egyptian bows consistently halted the lead Hittite chariots blocking those behind from pushing through, then with well-timed charges from the outnumbered and lighter Egyptian chariots they swept away the supporting infantry and even looked for a time to dangerously threaten the Hittite centre from behind, fortunately for the Hittites they still had sufficient un-committed reserves who swiftly dispelled that idea. 

The Egyptian spears, bows and the remaining chariots attacked the disordered Hittite chariots who were now without their infantry support and after a tough fight with heavy losses to both sides broke this division.

With this being the only success on their side, the Egyptian general was seen rapidly heading back to
Egypt, chisel in hand to tell the people of his great victory.

Hopefully somewhere there is a clay tablet still waiting to be discovered which tells the true story of this Hittite victory.

Rules used: Hail Caesar by Warlord Games

Figures: old Minifigs and a lot of Magister Militum
Cloth: Zulu mat: Tiny Wargames

This has been a Mr Steve production