ADLG Kushite Egyptian v Middle Assyrian

I own very few armies that I didn't paint myself. One such is a 25mm Kushite Egyptian army which I swapped for a Viking army back in the days when I was a regular at the Bun Shop club. The army was painted by Bob who sadly passed away a log time ago.

Bob was a fantastic painter and had a Maccabean Jewish army in 25mm which was one of the best looking armies I've ever seen with lots of individual conversions and so much character. The Kushite army was made up of Minifigs figures and I'd not used it in years.

After our last 25mm game Ted was keen to play again so I suggested the Biblical period so I could use the Kushites. Ted used the contemporary Middle Assyrian army.

When the army was first pained under 6th Edition WRG rules it was an interesting one in that the army list allowed you to upgrade all the troops in the army to 'Irregular A' religious fanatics who charged into combat at the drop of a hat (which was not necessarily great as many of them were bowmen and light infantry!).

Under ADLG however the fanatic option isn't there and they are a rather vanilla Biblical army mostly of archers with a few medium swordsmen. chariots and cavalry. Middle Assyrian has large numbers of elite impact swordsmen which are ideal against the Kushite foot and elite impact heavy chariots which are ideal against pretty much anything in the Kushite army so to have any chance of winning the Kushites would have to take advantage of their greater numbers.

The Assyrians elected to defend in the plains and most of the terrain fell on the Kushite left. Initial moves saw a strong Kushite cavalry force move forward on the left flank to attack the undefended Assyrian camp and the Kushite chariots, cavalry and light horse moving forward on the right. The Assyrians totally ignored their right flank relying on the terrain to protect them and advanced in the centre and on the right :

Kushite slingers move up to slow the Assyrian foot in the plantation:

The slingers are driven out of the plantation and the Assyrian heavy chariots split into two groups, one to support the infantry and one the light chariots:

Two Assyrian infantry rashly charge into the Kushite light chariots on the left. One infantry is destroyed and the other badly damaged:

On the left the Kushite cavalry are returning from looting the Assyrian camp and have managed to pick off a lone Assyrian mixed swordsmen and bowmen unit. In the centre however, things have gone unsurprisingly badly for the Kushite foot with one medium swordsman being killed at contact and the rest of the foot taken down two levels each:

On the right the Kushite archers have inflicted some hits on the Assyrian heavy chariots weakening their charge. The Kushite chariots and cavalry have contacted the Assyrian light chariots but done badly:

The Assyrian heavy chariots charge home destroying one base of Kushite archers. The other base of archers holds on though:

In the centre the Kushite foot has been wiped out:

On the right the Kushite cavalry and chariots finally make some inroads into the Assyrian light chariots while the Kushite archers hold on:

The Assyrians start to collapse on the right. With the loss of the camp the small Assyrian army is close to defeat. The Kushites are better off but their own camp is at risk and the Kushite infantry continues to be slaughtered:

In a flurry of charges and combats the Assyrians take the Kushite camp and finish off most of the remaining Kushite infantry. On the right the Assyrians lose more light chariots though:

A count of losses at this point shows that the Assyrian army has broken while the Kushites have lost 25 out of 26 break points! A hard-fought win for the Mighty Men of Kush!

It was great to get Bob's army out of the box and onto the table again. The game was an exciting and close one, for a while I thought I would win easily (as did Ted) but as I suspected the Assyrian foot and heavy chariots made short work of the Kushite foot who are pretty hopeless against them.