Scenario help

[Deleted User]

After our successful SAGA “tournament” on Australia Day, I’ve been tasked with organising our next game, sometime in March.
I’ll provide the forces, layout & venue. I will umpire for the two teams of 2 players. The game will be Bronze Age, using the Mycenaeans & NKE (and I still have to paint the Shasu- Bedouin).
I’ve been working on a scenario; something FoG doesn’t usually use. I want the game to be more than the usual slug-fest so here’s what I’ve got (& please comment & make suggestions):

” Field of Glory: Bronze Age scenario

Battle of Hequat Wells.

Forces:
Mycenaeans – 850 points
New Kingdom Egyptians – 900 points (including Shasu allies)
Army lists will be sent to the relevant team.

Premise:
A raiding Mycenaean army has found itself in the desert, short of water. The army will only be saved if the majority of its units manage to fight through a blocking NKE force.
Victory Conditions:
The usual FoG Victory conditions will apply ie the army that accumulates sufficient attrition points to spark an Army Rout will lose. However, if before either army has routed, the Mycenaeans can get 7 of its 12 units to the wells, it will be deemed to have won. Any Mycenaean unit in contact with or up to 6 Movement Units beyond the wells is deemed to have watered.

Number of turns:
The game will run for 8 turns. If no result has been reached, the NKE will be given the victory.

Special Conditions:
The NKE have sent their Shasu (Bedouin) allies on an outflanking march. Before the beginning on the game, the controlling player must decide which flank they might enter. Normal Outflanking procedure will apply.

Deployment:
The usual FoG deployment rules will apply. EG 4 equal deployment batches, beginning with the side who don’t have initiative.
However, the NKE will automatically have the initiative.

Points to Note:
No map will be provided. On Game Day, both sides will be allowed 15 minutes to plan their deployment.
Camels will be used in this scenario, as we have never used them before, players are advised to read the rules on their abilities & limitations.”
donald

[zippyfusenet]

I like your scenario.

Some annoying know-it-all may point out that dromedary camels seem not to have been widely used as mounts and beasts of burden until after about 1000 BC. I could email you a paper on the subject, if you like, and then you can know-it-all too.

New Kingdom/Mycenaean era Shasu, c.1200 BC, would still be walking, and packing their gear on donkeys. Or you could set the scenario a few hundred years later, when the Shasu have got camels, and make your raiders Dark Age Greeks. Or you could ignore me. It’s all good.

You'll shoot your eye out, kid!

[Deleted User]

Zip, I knew about the camels & agonised over buying a unit of them for quite a while.

And I decided the Shasu without camels were just another bunch of javelin-carrying skirmishers, of which I had enough.

So sue me (I also have a unit of Mycenaean cavalry – playfully called, ‘The Trojan Horse’. Arguably, these are more unlikely).

Thanks for the comment on the scenario. The trick will be is 8 turns enough but not excessive for the task set.

 

 

donald

 

[Mike Headden]

Don’t know the rules at all so can’t comment on the particulars but it seems odd to me the the weaker army (points-wise) is the one forced to attack. Is this deliberate and/ or balanced out by the Shasu being on a flank march?

Overall looks like a nice little scenario.

It’s true we have little evidence of camels being used in Egypt before 1000BCE indeed not much evidence of them until the time of Camyses invasion of Egypt in the 500’s BCE but absence of evidence is not evidence of absence so a little licence seems perfectly excusable.

Hope you have fun. Would love to see pictures and an AAR of the game later.

There are 100 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who can work from incomplete data

[Deleted User]

Thanks, Mike. Good point. My reasoning for the imbalance is there is a possibility the Shasu don’t arrive & also because the NKE will have to defend a cordon whilst the Mycenaeans really only need to punch a hole through.

Possibly needs further thought.

 

 

donald

[Rod Robertson]

Ochoin:

An interesting scenario. A couple of questions occur to me. What is the water source which the Mycenaeans are intending to occupy and exploit? A desert well? A desert village with a well? A wadi with ground water near the surface? An oasis? It occurs to me to ask you why the NKE forces are trying to block access to the water source rather than simply occupying the water source themselves and forcing the Mycenaeans to fight on the Egyptians’ terms. Is there some other consideration which keeps the Egyptians from occupying the water source? The Shasu might then be used as scouts mounted on mules/onagers/camels and as a foot-screening force to warn the NKE of the Mycenaeans’ approach or to harass and exhaust the Mycenaeans before the battle. The flank arrival being them catching up to the Mycenaeans as these foreigners meet battle with the main force.

You say the Mycenaeans will be fielding cavalry? Aside from mounted scouts would it not make more sense for them to field chariot units rather than proto-cavalry at this early time? Why go with cavalry? If the terrain is rough going would any cavalry or chariots be appropriate?

What kind of terrain will the battlefield be dominated by? The terrain could make the difference in the game. If it’s flat and open then the NKE forces will be at a big advantage. If the terrain is more broken and rough then the NKE chariots, archers and close order infantry will be far less useful, the Shasu more valuable and the Mycenaeans might enjoy a real tactical advantage.

I’m looking forward to learning more about this proposed battle as you flesh out the conflict more fully.

Cheers and good gaming.

Rod Robertson.

[Deleted User]

Rod,

you ask hard questions….which is why I like you.

The water source is (not surprisingly) a model I already own. It’s, I guess, a sinkhole in an arid expanse, filled with pure, cooling water (or resin, to be more accurate). So why isn’t it walled, guarded, poisoned? My guess is it’s sacred (falling back on the explanation for anything an archaeologist doesn’t really understand). So, the NKE deem that if you reach the water, so must the gods want you to reach it. Inshallah! (wrong language but correct meaning).

The Mycs have 3 units of chariotry (the NKE have 5). The Horse are just a quirky extra unit & none too formidable. As you realise, the Egyptians are, overall, more nippy than their proto-Greek enemy, who have some Heavy infantry as well as the usual Mediums, some archers, skirmishers etc.. This means the battlefield will favour the NKE as you point out. It will be largely flat, desert expanse, with some soft Sand, some Rough Going & a few palm thickets to provide some challenge.

If I was the Egyptian commander, I would mass the archers on some gentle rise, support them with the Close Fighters as protection & shoot up the invaders; sending in the Sherdan & chariotry for the coup d’Grace. I daresay the Mycs may have something to say about that.

Have you noticed the similarity between my battle & the real Battle of Hattin – Saracens against invading Crusaders?

 

donald

 

donald

[Rod Robertson]

Deleted User wrote:

Have you noticed the similarity between my battle & the real Battle of Hattin – Saracens against invading Crusaders?

No, I hadn’t made that connection until you pointed it out. So is the Egyptian commander Salahmenese of the newly discovered 20.5th Dynasty now known as the Fatimeush Dynasty? Is the commander of the Mycenaeans the wreckless but innovative King Ray-Nauld of Chatpilos, known to the Egyptians as Arnostes? Enquiring minds want to know?

Cheers and good gaming.

Rod Robertson

[Author]

Posts