Kings of Bronze #2 - Hittite Hasty Defence

A rainy bank holiday here in the UK, but an opportunity to give another solo outing, testing the AI rules and Infamy tweaks for warfare in the Bronze Age.

On the far side of Al Shebbeh after a few hours of plundering the town of it's meagre pickings and a handful of slaves. Word reached Overseer Huharmati of Egyptian reinforcements looking to recapture the town. 

Huharmati deploys his forces to meet the attack spreading out across the open plain, he had little idea as to the composition of the forces approaching him, but from the dust on the horizon they appeared to double his number.

Hittite archers lined the wall of the previous owners Palace of the Egyptian vassal state.

Huharmati readied his chariots and sent his chariot runners forward to disrupt the advancing Egyptians.

Fortunately for Huharmati the Egyptians were coming on in a piece meal fashion, poor rolls meant that the bulk of the enemy forces started to enter the fray around turn 4 allowing him to block the narrow road into town.

Acting quickly to block the main street, Huharmati advanced his spearman in ordering them into close order to cover the approach of any Egyptian attackers.

The Hittite infantry slowly advanced. The Egyptians were massing but they were unable to make use of their light chariots in the narrow streets. Egyptian skirmishers fired down on the infantry block but were unable to slow their advance.

Battles can be won on the smallest of margins, the Hittite spearmen charged into the stationary chariot which had out stripped its accompanying Infantry driving it from the table. The advantage was now with Huharmati.

With the main street blocked Huharmati ordered his chariots to the right flank, he spotted a unit of archers advancing on his position. Being a veteran of numerous encounters he knew if he could break key units then the force morale of the enemy could be broken along the entire front.

The Egyptian archer formation loosed a cloud of arrows into the advancing heavy chariots, but time was running out for the attackers, the Hittites chariots circled and attacked from the front and the flank.

Huharmati charged, throwing his heavy spears into the formation and crashing into the unarmoured troops, their leader was killed with over half his men, they broke and ran.

The breaking of the formation, the loss of the officer pushed the Egyptian force morale below 0.

The Egyptian attack faltered and the attackers fell back.

Nice to get a game on the table, the blinds work well and add a real fog of war to encounters, I have a couple of extra units to paint up and hopefully next time I can put a human player on the side of Egyptians and test the rules properly.

Yet more Hittite Spears - Newline Designs

Well they took longer than they should.....I really should be getting the last of the chariots completed but figured I would clear yet more Hittite Spearmen from the painting queue...This time two groups from Newline Designs.

These match up really well against the existing Foundry and Warlord castings, they come with separate shield and spear.. The spears are sturdy and are mighty sharp. They could do with being perhaps 5mm shorter, but do have a 'heavy' feel to them.

Whilst wading through these I thought I would clear a couple of spares which I would turn into a rally point for the Hittites or perhaps a command stand or musician within Infamy Infamy. 

Next up... Something else from the lead pile.....

New Kingdom Egyptian Leaders - Infamy Infamy

With only 2 sleeps until Christmas and the Egyptian leadership finally enters the table almost a year to the day since the first purchase... Hopefully next year an actual game.

The officers are a mix of Foundry, Newline Designs and Rameses II is from Scarab Miniatures. Back row Wargames Foundry, Front row L-R Newline, Foundry, Foundry. A number of them are rather administrative so the new offering from Lucid Eye will be more war like and aggressive looking.

Rameses II is significantly larger than the foundry and newline offerings. Research suggests that your average Egyptian was around 5'6" so with Rameses II being a living God, I guess the extra foot and a half should be ok and won't be noticeable on the tabletop.

Seven Big Men should be more than enough for the New Kingdom Forces, The mix of head gear should mix well with the archer and spear units and the potential auxiliary units planned for January.

Next up something a little smaller....

Infamy Egyptian Archers - Newline Designs

These seem to have been hanging around for quite a while but finally make it off the paint table, great additions to the New Kingdom forces from Newline Designs.

I was spoilt for choice when it come to a potential archer unit, when looking at the choices Foundry felt a little to irregular and more suited to skirmishing. Warlord were a little too thin leaving Newline who gave a good mix of head gear and a sense of mass.

The newline regiment packs represent good value, a touch heavy on the flash, I lost a couple of casualties when trying to straighten them, they do seem a little weak at the ankles, but overall a good fit with the existing forces.

In terms of the stats for Infamy, I see no reason why they would differ from the Hittite main body so the following stats will apply.

Hittite Spearmen				Type	Inferior Warriors
Points Value	14	Weapon	Bow	Strength	8
Armour	Step Out	Aggressive Attack	Characteristics
None	2	2	Drilled, Darken the skies

Next up the Egyptian Leaders make there way on to the paint table.

Infamy Shock Markers - Hittites.

I have hit a touch of painters block of late, staring at the same 16 Egyptian archers who have been staring back at me for over a fortnight. Time to switch to something else to get the juices flowing.

I do like a mini diorama to hold my shock markers for Too Fat Lardies games. 

Rather frustratingly the guys at Foundry do a split pack of Hittite causalities and civilians, but a complete pack of dead and dying for the Egyptians, I had hoped to trade the civilians for more dead and wounded but they were unable to break the pack up.... A shame as the civilians have limited use at the moment.

It did mean that I had to create a couple of extras from some of the spare shields and spears from the recent Newline purchase, Still the dis-guarded weapons do compliment the wounded rather well and give me enough bases for the first outing.

Might just have to watch Exodus: Gods and Kings to give me that extra push....

Hittite Guard - Infamy Infamy

Well it looks like next week game is off.... 

So a little less pressure to complete the current ancient lead pile, however I am managing to get in a couple of hours of hobby time in a day, I suppose lockdown has some advantages...

After last weeks officer types, the first of the Newline Hittites hit the table, a bit of a hidden gem if you ask me, some really nice designs which mix in really well with the other manufacturers.

They do require a little more cleaning up, with excess flash under the arms, legs and underside of the base, plus a number of the models need the hand drilling out to take the spear, but they take paint really well and with a mix of shields give you plenty of modelling options for units.

The unit above represents a Hittite guard unit more formally dressed than the previous units. These elite Warriors will bolster the infantry arm of the Hittite army. I lifted the colours straight off the Newline Website, the oranges and yellows give a superior feel to the mixed colours of the regulars.

Next up something a little different from the unfinished box.... 

Hittite Leaders - Infamy Infamy.

Having posted the assembled Hittite warband last week, first up of phase two, the leaders for the Hittites.

The  officers are a mix from, Warlord and Newline Designs, I have not come across the guys at Newline before but they have a wide range of figures for a number of ancient armies and are a lower price than their Warlord and Foundry counterparts.

The Newline castings mix in well with both Warlord and Foundry, they need some cleaning up, with excess flash under the arms or the underside of the base and in some cases the hands need drilling out to insert the weapons, but once based and painted you can see no real difference and do add some variety to the Hittite forces.

The Hittite officers are in bronze mail shirts and come with a number of shield options. Front row L-R Newline, Warlord, Warlord, Back row all Newline.

I have based them on the new command bases which I have custom made from Warbases. All I now need is to get a game in.

Next up Hittite Guards.

Dispatches from the front XIII - Lock down special.

Locked down, Locked in, Locked up....Well it's only month right.... 

Day 1.

First up.....time to stock pile.. nope not toilet rolls or pasta but Foundry, Newline and Scarab to keep me going over the next month. With the first Egyptian game put back to December time to fill the ranks with some extra's...

Scarab's Ramesses II is a touch on the large side but he is a living a god so can probably justify the extra height. Before these hit the paint table I need to crack the first of the Egyptian chariots.

Meanwhile much like a supermarket delivery slot I managed to secure an order from Pete at Baccus, an early Christmas present and the start of next years project - 6mm Pony Wars, a very very little project for next year.

We managed to slip in a final game before lock down an adventure to the Barbary Coast. A great table to play on and a fun encounter using Sharp Practice

I played Keiff al Vaz some would say a terrible pirate but I would argue a successful businessman and man of the people. Just ask my band of jolly pirates !!!!

The British Marines came to interfere in our business interests by sending in row boats full of sailors and Infantry. The Brits had to storm the beach, secure the fort and rescue the prisoners a tough ask but they went at it in true style.

But the pirates were having none of it and defended the fort with cannon and musket and lots of wallah's with pointy sticks to defend the village.

A great days gaming with the battle raging across the beachhead and coastal village. In the end it came down to whose morale would last the longest.

The pirates nicked it in the final round securing the slaves in the compound including Lady Sarah Boyles and forcing the plucky Brits to get back on there boats.

To help while away the winter evenings I found a great Korean series on Netflix - Kingdom.

Shogun meets the Walking Dead what's not to like and perfect timing after the recent Water Margin outing.

Inspiration for a couple of Elizabethan Zombie solo outings in the weeks ahead and perhaps a quick order to the 1st Corps for a few extra's for the Sung Chinese.

This was an interesting find on Kickstarter and rather timely as additional inspiration for the Elizabethan Zombie Wars. The Dee Sanction. I don't play as many RPG's but this has some potential good ideas for scenario's.

A tabletop roleplaying game about serving Queen and country in the late Tudor period, in a time where kingdoms vie for power, the Church splinters under the pressure of reform, and creatures of folklore emerge from enforced hiding seeking revenge against those who imprisoned them.

You're a bad person — sentenced to hang for dabbling in magic — given a chance to redeem yourself and earn freedom in service to Queen Elizabeth's newest line of defence.

You can find more details here.

I spotted this on Laphams Quarterly and thought it was worth re-posting which could add a little colour to games. If you have not come across Lapham's before it's well worth taking a look if you are interested in oddities in history. I must be able to weave this into the forthcoming games or the Kickstarter above.

For those that are interested and once we are allowed outside again this is a great source of interesting places to visit on your door step.
http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/

Something to look forward to in the spring.....