As regards composition the army is heavily bow-orientated, pretty much every element being bow armed. I usually take an ally with a choice of Babylonian, Bedouins or Assyrians and in this case took Babylonians. Simon brought middle Assyrians by co-incidence so it was a great historical match-up though not a great match-up for the Elamites as previous meetings between the two armies have usually resulted in the Elamites being cut down in droves by the far superior combat abilities of the Assyrians!
Most of the terrain fell on the Elamite side of the battlefield and they deployed with the Babylonians on the left, archers in the centre and a mixed Elamite command on the right. The Assyrians had some javelinmen and chariots on their right, more chariots in the centre and the dangerous elite impact swordsmen on the left:
As can be seen the Elamite army is much bigger and there seems to be a great opportunity for the Babylonians on the left to outflank the Assyrian line. The Elamite infantry move to either side to avoid the approaching chariots while their light horse and own chariots delay the Assyrian advance:
The Assyrian javelinmen come under fire while the Babylonian chariots and cavalry advance:
The Elamite light horse and chariots are hit by Assyrian shooting:
The Elamite chariots engage the advancing Assyrians to delay them:
The Babylonians are slow getting into action allowing the Assyrians to bring some more troops over to face them:
The Assyrian infantry are also getting close to the Elamite infantry:
On the right the Elamite chariots continue to resist bravely:
The Babylonians have failed to take full advantage of their position with the Babylonian general unwilling or unable to commit many of his men to combat:
Babylonian and Elamite infantry are now under heavy pressure from the Assyrian infantry:
On the left the Elamite chariots have been destroyed but they have greatly disrupted the Assyrians allowing the Elamite foot to engage the Assyrians from a much better position:
The Assyrian elite swordsmen have charged home. Elamite archers resist valiantly but are badly out-matched in the combats. The Babylonian mounted have totally failed to make progress and the opportunity is fading fast:
The Elamite camp has been captured while the surviving Elamites on the right prepare to take on Assyrian chariots:
The bowmen are cut down with the Babylonian mounted failing to take advantage of their opportunities:
On the right the Assyrian chariots close on the Elamite infantry. One Elamite has headed off to attack the Assyrian camp:
Fighting continues on the left, the Elamites are close to breaking while the much smaller Assyrian army is damaged but still going:
The light infantry in front of the chariots stop the Elamite infantry shooting at the chariots. This skirmish screening is something I'm not keen on in ADLG:
A lone Elamite archer tries to fight off numerous Assyrian infantry. The Babylonian mounted's contribution has been limited to eliminating a single Assyrian heavy chariot though even then the archers did most of the damage to it!:
Assyrian chariots charge home and damage the Elamite infantry taking the army over it's break point for an Assyrian victory:
This was a bit of a disappointing defeat for the Elamites really, my plan was sound and worked well but the Babylonians just didn't get enough pips to exploit their advantage, for several turns they only had a single pip apart from the generals one, if they had had even one more pip on a few turns the result would have been very different.
As ever with ADLG I made a number of mistakes, I should not have split the Babylonian cavalry into several groups (though to some extent that was forced by lack of pips), having the Babylonian general included in a chariot unit meant he couldn't leave to command other troops and I could have placed my camp better.
I'd have liked to have the Babylonian general as brilliant as well (he was only competent) but with a command rating of 3 that wasn't really possible. I'm not sure how you rate the command capabilities of an army 3000 years ago and I often feel with ADLG lists it would be fairer to give them all the same command value and choice of generals as the ability to choose a strategist for example seems to be limited to 'generals people have heard of' which obviously disadvantages armies about which little is known!
This game was certainly an improvement on my last ADLG against Simon though as I put up more of a fight......
No comments:
Post a Comment