Field of Glory, Assyrians v Egyptians, 6 December

Orhan and I began the FoG training for next year's Anderida with a Biblical bash involving Orhan's first version of Neo-Assyrians (with Phrygian allies) versus a scratch list I put together of Libyan (ie Late) Egyptians - based around the figures I had for the 2002 Anderida DBM army (complete with Stargate).

The first thing that was apparent was that 850 points provides fewer units and a greater amount of blank space on the table: Orhan's Assyrians were 13 strong; my Egyptians 15 but with only 3 commanders. The terrain was Agricultural with pretty much all of it falling on Orhan's side - several pieces of Open and Enclosed fields messing up his deployment somewhat (very few places for his heavy infantry to go for example). I was left with the challenge of stacks of medium impact foot (Invincible Meshwesh) and light foot making a dash for the terrain on Orhan's side. I deployed the 3 units of Light Chariots to screen Orhan's centre and my right flank - which was totally open and dominated by his 2 Heavy Chariot units.

The battle opened with the sole unit of Light Horse (Orhan's Skythian mercenaries) catching one of my javelin skirmish units in the middle of the field - I fled, Orhan caught me. Curtains I thought, but some excellent dice for the Libu and woeful roles for the Skythians meant that the Libu held (albeit Disrupted and then for one turn Fragged) until a Chariot unit could get in and flank charge the Skythians, who broke the next turn. However, this engagement held the Chariots long enough for them to be hit in turn by Orhan's Elite Guard cavalry. These wiped out the Chariots over a couple of turns due to good dice rolling (and being able to re-roll 1s, 2s and 3s coz Orhan threw a general into the fight). The Guard cavalry, although Superior, a bit shooty, and with light spear and sword were nevertheless not quick killers, lacking lances. We both weren't sure that that they were really worth the points.

Elsewhere on the field, my Light Chariot on the right held off the Heavies long enough for them never to get into the battle. The Meshwesh that got into the rough marmalised a couple of units of light and medium foot facing them. My superior Nubian light foot and a Light chariot unit broke through shooting alone a heavy foot spear/bow combo unit. And two more units of my light foot broke through Orhan's centre.

We stopped at the point where it looked like a clear victory for the Egyptians and then analysed the army lists and options. Some thoughts:

850 points is quite small. Going for lots of Superior, Armoured units didn't feel sensible.

Light Chariots are quite hard. We weren't sure how hard Heavy Chariots were coz they were too lumbering to carry a wing. If they'd got into the fight though they might have been nasty. Impact foot destroy average medium foot quickly. Having lots of light units was quite effective. We didn't bottom out whether 4 troop commanders or 2 x field and 1 x troop was better. I think that we both considered that getting some early playtesting in with armies for next year will be worth it - the game feels very different to the Pike/Blade/Elephants/Cataphracts of Anderida 2009; which is good.