Author Topic: Medieval Germans v. New Kingdom Egyptians (DBMM 200)  (Read 1936 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Orcoteuthis

  • Guest
Medieval Germans v. New Kingdom Egyptians (DBMM 200)
« on: November 06, 2009, 02:23:24 PM »
What's 2500 years between friends?

The Germans found themselves invading the Nile Valley, with a the great river itself on their right and an enclosed field and a patch of rocky ground on the left. In the centre there was a lot of open ground. The battle was fought using 1.0 rules and the latest draft of the Medieval German list.


The Egyptians, setting up first, had two commands of mostly foot (Bw (O), Bd (O) and (F), Ax (O)) with a few chariots in multiple lines on their right, and a command of six chariot elements in column on their left. This left a huge gap in the middle of their deployment zone. A Reg Bge (I) pipdump skulked back on the board edge behind the infantry.

The Germans, somewhat bemused by the Egyptian deployment, put their foot-heavy command (Reg Bw (O), Irr Sp (I), Ps (O), and a single Reg Bd (O), + a Kn (O) general) on the left, facing the Egyptian foot, except some of the psiloi who were angled off in column to enter the enclosed field. On the right, facing the chariots in column, was a command of a few Kn (O) and LH (F) Hungarians. In the centre, facing nothing in particular, was the CinC with the bulk of the knights.


The Egyptians pressed on aggressively with their foot wing, sending the Ax off to contest the bad going with the German Ps, and the rest quickly getting into shooting distance of the German foot, while the chariot command stayed in their column in several bounds to see what the Germans would do. The Germans mostly went straight forward for the first couple of bounds (except for the psiloi heading into the field), with the CinC's knights thereafter dividing into two groups and turning outwards to threaten the Egyptians internal flanks towards the central gap.

On the German's left the archery duel was largely indecisive despite the Egyptians' superior numbers, only one German Bw (O) eventually going down. Some of the Egyptian bowmen had angled off to confront the knights threatening to flank them, which gave the German Bd (O) the opportunity to flank them instead, and eventually destroying two elements with the help of some Heerbann spearmen. The remaining bowmen, however, managed to destroy one German Kn element, albeit for the loss of another of their number. The German CinC found himself forced to retreat lest he was surrounded by the bowmen and the Egyptian CinC and another chariot that had moved up to contain the threat.

On the other wing, the charioteers eventually reformed into line and shifted left to face the Hungarians. The gods were not with them, however, and their attack only destroyed a single LH (F), while leaving them to be flanked by the German knights.

Back on the (Germans') left, largely ineffectual shooting continued, the only casualty being a German Irr Sp (I), while the general of the German foot command repeatedly failed to destroy the Bw facing him. The German Bd (O) got surrounded by enemy elements but somehow managed to destroy one and retreat back to safety. Then, a Kn (O) that had detached from the right arrived, and joing the German CinC attacked the Egyptian CinC and another Cv (S) element, destroying them both and breaking the command.

In the same bound, the Egyptian chariot command was broken as two further Cv (S) were destroyed by flanking Kn (O). Together this, of course, broke the army, and the Germans, with just over 10% losses, could count a 23-2 victory.


With their entire army subject to QK by knights, this is a cruel matchup for the Egyptians, and it certainly didn't help that the terrain offered little room for manoeuvre. They got a lot of pips - much more than the Germans did - but did not have all that much to use them for. They propably should have pressed harder with the infantry, in particular getting the Bd (F) into combat rather than relying almost solely on shooting. A fair lot of Egyptian infantry never got into combat whereas almost all German elements fought (except the Ps, who spent the game staring at the Egyptian Ax in the enclosed field - the Egyptians being disinclined to attack, the Germans never having the pips to do so).

The attack on the Hungarians went much worse than it statistically ought have, but the command was cunningly structured to survive the loss of even all the LH, so shifting sideways to attack them opened the charioteers to flanking from the Kn for limited potential gain. Of course, the charioteers did not have too many better alternatives, as a frontal attack on the Kn would have been high-risk to say the least.