New Kingdom Egyptians vs Hittites - Hail Caesar

The Battle of Kadesh - circa 127 BC by Brian Palmer

Time again for another run out with my first ever proper wargaming army, the New Kingdom Egyptians 

and after their recent fortuitous success against the Sea Peoples their opponents this time would be another 

army that has, shall we say, taken me a little time to get onto the wargaming table since its first initial

purchase 15 years ago (I’m a slow painter.)

New Kingdom Egyptians vs Sea People

The Hittites.  The Rules used were as usual Hail Caesar by Warlord Games and with the standard adaption’s for 

playing with 15mm.

Point’s value: 500 per side.

The Egyptians set up with all their chariots plus associated runners on their right, a centre consisting of 

medium spearmen and medium archers and with their left being made up of Light archers, Marines and 

Axemen.

The Hittites split their chariots equally onto both wings supported by some Long Spear infantry and 

Light archers; the centre consisted of the Hittite Guard, more Long Spears and the Canaanite allies. 

More Light archers screened the front along with the usual mix of skirmishers.

As is usual with our HC games everyone announced three moves straight ahead for their first move and 

equally as usual no one achieved this, the Egyptian right even managed a blunder first turn and then 

threw a 1 resulting in head long flight. Sensibly we let them stay on the table but Nathan playing his 

first game of HC didn't seam to realise that double 6 command rolls was not a sound tactic as he 

managed to throw another 2 during his time in charge, all be it not with such dramatic results as his 

first; in fact we had a total of five blunders thrown in the game, a new record. (I have to admit that the 

other two were done by me however a forced three moves headlong charge came just at the right time 

for an other wise reluctant division and the other roll only affected one unit).     

For this report it is easier for me to cover the game by describing each division’s action so first up is what happened on the Hittite left.

The Hittite chariots headed straight for their Egyptian counterparts who reciprocated but noticeably 

hung back a little to try and utilise their archery, tension mounted across the table as both sides careful 

jockeyed so as to time their charges along with the optimum positioning of supporting units. Strangely 

it was during this time that a well aimed Hittite javelin hit one of the Egyptian unit leaders and the rest 

of his men fled immediately causing a gap in the front line. (Nathan being a newboy to HC was given 

only one instruction prior to the game. Don’t throw double 1 and you will be OK. He obviously wasn’t 

listening.  

Seeing an opportunity the Hittites charged and their more powerful chariots pushed the 

Egyptians back, who quickly reforming (i.e. running away) onto the second line of Egyptian chariots 

charged back in to the fight and it was they this time that made the Hittite Maryannu unit flee by 

getting the infamous double 1 shooting morale roll. (see my opinion of shooting at the end). Desperate 

fighting continued for several turns with both sides soon teetering on division collapse however the 

imminent arrival of the Sherden Guard split off from the Egyptian centre looked like it would soon 

swing it the wrong way (for us that is)

Nick had one final chance to break the Egyptians and threw everyone that could fight into one last 

charge knowing that his flanks would be hanging but it was not enough, the Egyptians held and the 

Sherdens smashed their way in breaking the Hittite left.

Finishing off the story for this side, the Egyptians though victorious were badly wrecked and although 

valiantly trying to get across into the Hittite rear never made it in time, the Sherdens meanwhile rapidly 

counter marched back to try and shore up a now collapsing centre.

The Centre; by my cunning use of what appeared to be incompetent manoeuvring I had lured the 

Egyptians into an area bordering rough ground, I quickly occupied this with slingers and Habiru light 

infantry pinning several of their units, whilst in the centre my mixed spear/archers disrupted various 

Egyptians units and at a critical time saw one unit marooned out in front on its own. I smashed my line 

into it, having suffered six more casualties than inflicted, it had little chance of passing morale and broke 

immediately, this started a domino effect all along the front, the Egyptians were never able to get their 

whole line into battle at the same time and although my initial thrust was now weakening (medium 

infantry get quickly used up) I had the upper hand despite losing the odd unit.

Diverting a unit of Long Spears and a convenient but very confused (read: hopelessly lost) right wing 

chariot unit to guard against the possible intervention of the Egyptian right wing chariots , I consolidated
what usable units remained into a new battle line whilst waiting for the Hittite right to swing in.

The Hittite Right: There’s always one division that continually fails its movement dice and I suffered 

all day with poor control on this wing, after a while this division was horrible split up (remember that 

headlong blunder from earlier?)  and I was having to roll unit by unit every move , its surprising how 

often a 9 comes up on two dice and I must admit I forgot about the "follow me" command which might 

have helped to get things back into some sort of order . However the two Egyptian Light infantry 

archers holding the flank weren't going to stop my chariots for ever, who it appeared were otherwise 

engaged on an arrow collection mission, but eventually after a lot of cursing I finally got them going 

and proceeded to break both of those annoying Kushite units, victorious at last I pushed on into the 

Egyptian rear. Elsewhere the extra unit of Spears on this wing now helped by beating off the Marines 

and with that result we broke this division.

The Egyptian centre tried to re deploy away from the broken ground and form a new flank but the dice 

had decided enough was enough and wanted to go home so refused to give the Pharaoh sufficient 

moves to do so despite his repeated re-roll attempts. One unit of spears was also shaken so immediately 

became the target for anyone that could throw or shoot something pointy and if it broke, then so would 

the Egyptian centre .Oddly enough for two turns I either failed to hit it or if I did manage something 

then Steve saved everything and therefore avoid having to take a tricky morale roll but eventually after 

only getting a single move for his remaining infantry for the third turn running the Pharaoh decided to 

concede the game.

Thoughts on Hail Caesar:

I guess I must be in double figures now for games using these rules and having switched all my 

Ancient armies across to it and with more on the way it’s obviously my set of choice.

So far every game has been a bit of a blood bath with heavy casualties on both sides and I don’t expect 

that to change, also we are still getting some rules wrong or haven’t understood them correctly, this 

game for example we actually remembered that supporting units must also take a morale roll if its main 

unit breaks and that it should use the same difference in dice when doing so. Also we have finally got 

our head around the shooting morale rules; we have played around with it a lot as its felt that the effects 

are too significant. Only requiring a single 6 to cause a morale roll seemed overly harsh but it must be 

remembered that at long range you are usually hitting on 6 or worse (which therefore will require two 

6’s for a morale roll to be made) and if you are daft enough to be sitting in javelin range then you 

deserve all you get! Plus to get any really bad results for a normal unit then it’s only a double 1 (odd 

that we managed to get this twice), and that it’s also the best way to get rid of those pesky skirmishers 

who are treated more harshly on the shooting table.  

Finally, the rulebook which has been commentated on by several forums leaves, shall we say, some 

lack of clarity regarding various aspects. I spent the best part of two hours over the weekend trying to 

understand the rules on shattering units (it did come up in our game). To shatter a unit you need to 

inflict double its stamina value in one turn, so that’s 8 for small units and 12 for standard, not very 

likely. It appears that what we should have been playing is that once your unit reaches its stamina 

level (of 4 or 6) it can be shattered if you then score a further four or six hits in one turn on top of its 

carried balance. (Remember unless the unit had reached its maximum stamina level already then you 

will have to discard/reallocate surplus hits). I can see this changing our next game a bit.

Thanks to Nathan, Nick and Steve H for taking part.

The 15mm Figures are my venerable Egyptians from before the internet era and the Hittites are from 

the earlier Chariot Miniatures days finished off with the newer Magister Militum versions.

This has been a Mr Steve production.

Pictures by JJ

Battle of Barossa 5th March 1811

The charge of the 28th (North Gloucestershire) Regiment against the 2nd Battalion, 54th Ligne
 David Rowlands.

David Rowlands.co.uk

Every now and then, it's fun to recreate a battle close to the centenary of the actual engagement, and so it was that we had the chance to fight out a very famous battle fought two hundred and four years ago this month, the Battle of Barossa or sometimes referred to as the Battle of Chiclana; fought between General Graham, leading the British contingent of an Anglo-Spanish army marching along the coast road to raise the siege of Cadiz, and Marshal Victor at the the head of his Corps who was conducting the siege.

David Rowland’s great picture that heads the post, brilliantly captures the close up, sometimes desperate nature of the fighting, where the first French Eagle was captured by British troops in the Peninsular War.

The Map of Barossa, shows the British counterattack against French forces on and around Barossa Hill

http://www.britishbattles.com/peninsula/peninsula-barossa.htm

General Sir Thomas Graham

Marshal Claude Victor Perrin - Marshal Victor

Recent photos of the battlefield today show it dominated by a golf course stretching down to the azure blue Mediterranean Sea, so I don't feel so bad having my game fought out on my unrelenting green Games Workshop mat, with Barossa Hill looking like the 18th hole.

General Graham, using the hand of God, makes his first moves towards Leval's division

I am a confirmed C&GII Napoleonic player, but am in search of a paper based set of rules that allow me to quickly put a game together for a club meeting and are easily mastered to allow for gaps in playing them due to my preference to C&G. Thus I inflicted the first play test of James Purky's one sheet "Der Alte Fritz Rules for 18th Century Warfare".

http://fifeanddrum-minis.com/rules--articles.html

There are aspects of the d10 stats for firing, melee and morale that are attractive and easily adaptable, but I needed to see how they play under "combat conditions". There are aspects that don't fit with Napoleonics  that needed changing, such as the troop classifactions, lack of tests to charge and respond to charges, no additions for Generals being with a unit. Things I tagged on.

Duncan's ten gun British artillery brigade dominated precedings

The final thing was an army morale system to cause a natural break point, so I simply tacked on the Army Morale from Sam Mustafa's Maurice, that ended up giving us a nail bitter of a finish.

The last piece of the jigsaw was to grab a ready to go scenario set up for the battle, as I haven't researched this battle and it's orbats for my own scenario, so I grabbed a copy of Dave Brown General de Brigade Scenarios with Barrosa.

General Graham (centre) oversees the deployment of Wheatley's brigade, with Dilke's and the Guards behind

Our game pretty much followed the historical battle with the two British brigades preceded by their light battalions, tackling the respective divisions of Laval and Ruffin.

General Wheatley leads the 87th, 67th and 28th foot forward as Browne leads the Light battalion into the woods

The British artillery under Dilkes is listed in the scenario as being ten 9lbr guns which when firing counter battery at the French 6lbr foot battery on Barossa Hill, quickly shot up one of the French gun teams, causing an army morale loss from fifteen to thirteen points, with the British starting on twelve.

Barnard's Light battalion attacks the French under Ruffin on Barossa Hill

The light troops of both armies were soon facing off, with the 95th Rifles and Guards light companies soon driving in the voltigeur screen on the hill, but Brown'e light battalion getting the worst of the battle in the woods and being driven back behind the supports of Wheatley's brigade.

95th Rifles start to bring the French under fire

The skirmish battle is taken up in the woods

The two formed bodies of troops closed on each other and with both sides artillery in support, bases of troops were starting to be removed from the table, with both side's army morale into single figures.

Wheatley deploys his brigade to contest the advance of Leval's Division

The Guards on Barossa Hill met furious resistance from the combined grenadiers and 9me Legere, with the 95th Rifles dealing with the 24me and 96me Ligne as they tried to flank the Guard line.

The Guards under Dilke's attack Barossa Hill

In the open ground near to the woods, Wheatly's brigade were locked in a battle of attrition with Leval's division and his leading battalions, and although able to inflict damaging losses on the first units, were suffering from attritional hits from the follow up units supported by their dominant voltigeurs.

An overview of the battlefield from behind Leval's Division

With army morale at six points each, the British grabbed the initiative and brought Duncan's artillery to face Leval's troops delivering a telling bombardment, taking out a battalion of the 54me Ligne and severely battering its sister battalion. The resultant army morale loss left the French teetering on three points and the British on six points.

The 2/87th deployed in line with the 67th and 28th guarding their right flank

The French on Barossa Hill used the cover of the ridge line to avoid the attentions of the 95th Rifles

The game was finely balanced as the fates chose to swing events in a different direction and the French grabbed the initiative on the next two turns. This enabled the voltigeurs of Leval's division to close in on and decimate Duncan's gun crews and dropping two points off British army morale.

The battle for Barossa Hill at its height

The 95th Rifles and Guards were desperately clinging on to the slopes of Barossa Hill, with neither side able to get a decisive hold, and thus it was that in turn 10 with the KGL Hussars and French 1st Dragoons appearing on their respective table edges; Wheatly's brigade collapsed taking the British morale to zero and ending our game with Barossa Hill still contested but with a minor victory to the French forcing the remaining British troops to fall back on the Spanish at Cadiz.

The British guns dominated their French counterparts reducing them to the single team replying to their fire

The rule set certainly has possibilities for use with Napoleonics. We didn't like the initiative system of opting to fire or move first in given phases and I will change that together with the troop gradings and use of Generals. The Maurice addition worked very well and with a few additional special events could add to that component.

I am looking forward to playing this battle using Carnage & Glory, but with action focused on the Talavera campaign, and Massena's invasion of Portugal to do, Barossa is away away yet, so yesterdays game made a nice little test run.

Seven Years War - Koenig Krieg

Hanoverian Infantry

This month's meeting at the DWG, saw "Mr Steve" get his lovely SYW toys out on the table to fictional clash between an Anglo/Hanoverian - Allied army vs his Franco-Swiss using the rule set Koenig Krieg

http://www.siegeworksstudios.com.au/cart/index.php?dispatch=categories.view&category_id=255

The last time we played with these rules was back in September 2013, so needless to say we were a bit "ring rusty" when we got going, and some of us had never played the rules at all. If you want to get a better idea about them then follow the link to our previous game where Steve H posted a bit of an overview.
http://devonwargames.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/seven-years-war-koenig-krieg.html

One of the principle drivers in the rules is the gaining of the initiative and using it to do something with your units immediately or to force your opponent to commit to an action before they necessarily would have chosen to do so. Actions are therefore not simultaneous and the classic situation is to fire before your opponent thus hopefully inflicting casualties that reduce the return fire, or to force an opponent to use his initiative with a force that allows you to approach to a closer range without interference.

In this battle the Allies were plus one on a d6 roll vs the French straight d6, giving the Allies a slight advantage.

French line to the left, Allied to the right - "here I am, stuck in the middle with you!"

As you can see in the picture above, the two sides faced each other across couple of valleys one with a town in the centre the others on each flank being broken with woods on the valley floor.

The French on the left of picture chose to keep their better Swiss infantry in reserve, with the Grenadier brigade nearest to camera, their basic French infantry and levies in the centre forming two brigades and their Foreign allied brigade further along, As with the Allies the French massed their cavalry on their left flank facing off against their Allied counterparts.

French Grenadiers hold the extreme French right flank

French line infantry with artillery support

The terrain caused both armies to choose a similar deployment. The interest in the game developed as the two armies wrestled to gain the upper hand in different sectors of the battle. The choices made in the initial deployment started to influence the success gained, or not, as the game went on.

French cavalry massed on the left flank

The only off table reserve force was held by the French, looking for an opportunity to force an advantage in the town sectors or to support an attack on the Allied left flank using the next best brigade in the French army, the Grenadiers.

Allied massed cavalry massed on the Allied right flank

The beginning of the battle saw the two armies seeking to grab a terrain advantage in the centre table area. The town sectors and hills gave advantages in protection and combat and became valuable pieces of real estate.

Hanoverian infantry and artillery massed in the centre

The French despite their initiative disadvantage managed to make good use of their successes by doubling up to the town and grabbing two thirds of the buildings, and their cavalry getting the best views out over the lower lying land.

A small but very effective British brigade of infantry with their heavy dragoons beyond the next infantry brigade

The French line infantry and Hanoverian Guards fought for control of the town

The Allied force had mixed success in the early clashes with their cavalry winning the first melees and pushing the French off their hills.

The French got possession of more of the town and had more artillery in support

The Hanoverian Guards sent into contest the town leaving their lower quality line comrades to defend in the open, had a torrid time as French guns and line infantry occupying more of the buildings poured on a withering fire that wore down the large elite battalions as the game progressed. The French were then moving fresh infantry into the towns to relieve damaged units and thus keep up the attrition.

More Hanoverian infantry held back to stop any flanking move on the Allied left 

The Hanoverian infantry had a small toe hold in each town sector 

The Allies sought to take advantage of their early success with their cavalry, by following up with the British infantry and break the Foreign brigade in the French centre.

The British and Allied infantry prepare to move forward in support of their cavalry to their right

Unfortunately the French grabbed the initiative pouring in galling cannon and infantry fire onto the British line and disrupting their attack.

The Allied cavalry make a general move towards the French

British cavalry break though onto the ridge forcing the French Foreign brigade to turn, whilst British infantry move forward

In addition the French cavalry started to win a few melees and cause the French left to stabilise just as the French Grenadiers and Swiss Line started to develop their attack to the right of the town.

In response to the cavalry attacks pressed on the French left, the Swiss and French Grenadiers attack the Allied left

The British infantry bring up artillery to support their attack in the centre right

French artillery played on the four battalions of Hanoverian line infantry, causing casualties on two of them as the eight battalions of Franco Swiss infantry closed on them. Meanwhile the fighting in the town was swinging to the French line infantry and with a rousing cheer the French charged in a bayoneted the surviving Hanoverian Guardsmen, clearing the sector nearest the French Grenadiers of Allied Infantry.

As the French infantry gain the upper hand with the Hanoverian Guards in the town, the Swiss lead the move to flank it

However it all proved too little too late as the janitor was threatening to lock us in and I had to get back to cook tea.

The Hanoverian line comes under French artillery preparation fire 

So based on the final situation who do you think would have grabbed the battle honour had we been able to play on?

Leave your thoughts on a comment.

The French attempt to stalemate the Allied cavalry attacks whilst their infantry start to apply pressure on the Allies left flank

Thanks to Mr Steve for bringing his figures along and running the game, or should that be "herding cats"? Also thanks to Ian, Steve L, Nick and Tom for playing.

Devon Wargames Group goes large with X-Wing

My original scenario had involved Jar-Jar Binks having to be rescued from a moon however I soon realised that both sides were planning to combine into one joint fleet and that also the inhabitants of the moon were prepared to blow themselves up just to get rid of this annoying tw*t. (Honestly, how much funny tobacco had George been smoking to come up with this character {apparently my lawyers have advised me that the answer is zero and it was a committee decision and nothing to do with Mr. Lucas}).

 

Therefore, here is version 2.

In a Galaxy far far away (I cannot do the scrolly thing so just use your imagination), two intrepid Rebel spies, cunningly disguised as journalists from Evil Dictator Monthly had arrived at Darth Vader’s Star Destroyer for an interview with the great man and whilst he was busy buffing up his helmet they naughtily stole the secret formula for his new improved asthma medicine. Making their excuses they quickly fled back to the rebel base which was hidden somewhere on the twin moons of Whipton.

Vader now had to urgently track them down as his current asthma prescription was running out, so he sneakily sent a package by Parcel Force addressed to: The Rebel base, care of the Twin Moons of Whipton, for a next day delivery, before 10.00am. Three weeks later it arrived and whilst Luke was signing for the delivery, the scouts who had secretly been following the delivery shuttle raced back to report on the location of the base. The waiting invasion fleet was now despatched, strengthened with one of the new Decimator ships and to make sure that everything went to plan, Vader went with them.

Meanwhile on the twin moons the Rebels had checked the senders address on the package so they knew now that they were in trouble , two A-Wings were therefore sent up and kept on constant patrol looking for the first signs of the expected Imperial fleet’s arrival , soon enough they picked up something on their scanners.

The A-Wings moved out to investigate the blips on their screens which turned out to be two Tie Interceptors on reconnaissance for the fleet , everyone then automatically said “Don’t let them get away to report back “and headed into combat . Quickly one of the A-wings was destroyed but the other ships then did very little damage to each other until the first wave of Imperial fighters started to arrive at the end of the board.

Strangely both sides scouts then simultaneously broke off to head back and report , the Rebels had spotted five Tie fighters lead by a Tie Advanced flying at maximum speed towards the Twin Moons and the Interceptors had seen five X-Wings just leaving orbit.

The two fighter squadrons engaged in combat along with the remaining scouts, A Tie Interceptor exploded and both sides took damage before the Imperials broke away and headed for the moons because they had just spotted another wave of rebel ships taking off consisting mainly of B-Wings and Y-Wings and which could be a much bigger threat to their plans; rather than follow them the X-Wings chose to engage the second wave of Imperial fighters that had now arrived, another five Tie fighters and Darth Vader himself in his Tie Advanced.

The battle split into two parts, the first Imperial squadron raced past the Rebel fighter-bombers, turned around and headed back, the Rebels tried to ignore them and flew flat out towards the now arrived Decimator; all their ships had been loaded up with missiles with the intention of tackling this big ship however the Tie fighters easily outpaced them and were snipping away from their rear. After three turns of this the Rebels realised that they either had to abort their plan or be destroyed so they turned back to take on the Tie’s following them, this was bad news for the Tie’s with two of them lost in exchange for the Y-Wing

Meanwhile further up the board the second wave quickly lost a Tie Fighter to the X-wings in first contact and then a pell-mell melee ensued whilst the Decimator, now accompanied by the remaining Tie Interceptor flew steadily on.

The Imperial second wave unfortunately at this stage got tunnel vision and concentrated on finishing off the 2 X-Wings fighting with them instead of following their orders and protecting the Decimator . The rebels had concentrated all their nearby remaining ships on taking it out and over several turns the prolonged fire from two X-Wings , the A-wing and two B-Wings quickly wore down its shields and then …

Boom !

Knowing it was now a lost cause the Imperial’s collected up their remaining ships and retreated with no one being too keen to be any where near Darth Vader .

Overall both sides’ losses were quite similar, with four rebels lost against six Imperial but the Rebels better shields helped them stay in the fight and survive long enough to take out the Decimator. 

Imperials = 15 ships

Rebels = 11 ships plus lots of unused toys

Points = 280 each

Thanks to Steve Land for the additional ships and all who took part

This was a Mr Steve production.

Stay tuned for 7YW in February.