Nagamemnon looked over the field as the sun rose to his right. Directly in front of him was a small area of trees. To his right a spine of the Anatolian hills stretched out towards his troops. They would have to assault that. On his left lay the flat plains of this coastal valley. And stretched out on the other side of those woods, extending in both directions, the army of his nemesis, Fozzisilis - Lord of Hattusas. He had discovered that Fozzisillis was gathering a large army to attack Anatolian towns under Nagamemnon's protection. Fortunately, Nagamemnon had already begun gathering his own forces for an early spring raid farther along the coast. He just redirected his fleet to land him near here and he had marched to intercept Fozzi at the most conveniently defensible spot. Unfortunately things hadn't gone as planned and he had ended up here with these infernal woods in front of him instead of covering his flank. Fozzi had also brilliantly maneuvered himself in between Nagamemnon and his town, so now he had to fight. Nagamemnon's had had several reports of Hittite scouts probing his position, damn those Syrians and their Onangers. (One day he would exterminate those fuzzy beasts) His only hope was they hadn't discovered his reserve that was out of sight on the right. Nagamemnon's plan was simple. His own scouts had reported that those fungus-eating Hittites had more chariots than he. However, all of the heavy chariots and Hittite spear were deployed to his left. Facing his right were some Syrian chariots and militia spear. He would refuse the left, attack the right and send some skirmishers to occupy those woods or keep whatever was in there busy. Fozzisillis received the reports from his scouts while keeping his nose firmly imbedded in a perfumed handkerchief. "Those darn Onangers smell, if they weren't so useful I would exterminate those beasts," he thought. Nevertheless, and despite the stink, he was happy. He had cut the Assahiyawa from their base of supply. True he had been surprised to find them here before he had sacked one of their colonies. But no matter, he was Fozzisillis- lord of Hattusas, he outnumbered those olive eating scum and he had his royal bodyguard with him. Additionally he had put them in a position where they had to attack with their delicious flanks exposed! Fozzisillis's plan was simple: occupy the woods with skirmishers and militia spearmen, try to attack the flanks of the Assahiyawa with his fast Syrian chariots, refuse his left and attack with his heavy chariots on the right. He had wanted to place all of his chariots under his right wing commander Quarrot, but in order to keep army morale up he had placed 2/3 of the Syrian chariots on his left. This forced him to place infantry under Quarrot, a chariot commander, and chariots under Camelog an infantry commander. But they would manage, particularly since he had placed the fermented malt those Egyptians had given them under guard. Unfortunately this had made the guard a little less then clear headed and he was afraid they might rumble off in a bloodlust! The Battle Begins! The Hittites occupied and reached the far side of the woods with no trouble. Syrian chariots advanced on the left and fired ineffectually into the flanks of some Mycenaean skirmishers. The chariots then charged and the skirmishers dissolved. Camelog watched them retreat as some Mycenaean spearmen, not included in the scouting report, advanced. The Mycenaen infantry advance. Slingers throw rocks at some Syrian spear to no effect. Phesussus the Mycenaean infantry commander watches in alarm as hittite militia spear burst from the woods heading directly for Nagamemnon. Only some mercenary skirmishers and light bow stand in the way. The Libyan skirmishers throw a hail of javelins and the advancing militia stop as they fall into confusion. The militia recover enough to push the Libyans back even in the face of another javelin shower, but still do not reach the commander. Meanwhile Mycenaean spear engage Hittite regular and militia spearmen on both sides of the woods. The Hittite regular spear are shaken but recover to rout the Mycenaean spear. The militia wage a valiant struggle, one determined group manages to disrupt some Mycenaean, but the militia's lack of morale shows and they rout. On the Hittite left: the Syrian chariots continue to fall back in front of the advancing Mycenaean spear. A spunky group of chariot runners pop forward and dart the spearmen throwing them into confusion. This gives the Hittite chariots on the right time to advance to within striking distance of the Mycenaean chariots. Fuzzi waits for his lone group of Syrian chariots on the right to advance into flanking position before giving the orders to strike. Neleus, heroic commander of the Mycenaean chariots, uses this delay to move his reserve to cover his flank and gives the order to charge! The chariots clash: Mycenaeans rout, Hittites rout, Mycenaeans pursue, Hittites pursue, Syrian chariots hit flank of pursuing Mycenaeans and rout them, Mycenaean reserve hits Syrian chariots and routs them, Hittite reserves hit Mycenaean reserve and routs them! The swirling mass of chariot was confusing to Nagamemnon and he could not follow it, but he watched in horror as the Hittite guard reformed and flanked his infantry line. The moment of crisis had arrived. Nagamemnon knew not what to do. His left command was shattered. His only hope lay in his right command. Phesusus received his orders from the Nag and read: "You must win on the right!" Phesusus the infantry commander, ordered his spearmen, whom he had finally managed to bring back into order after their conflict with the militia, to flank the Syrian bow. Unfortunately at this time those damn chariot runners sent flying another hail of javelins which routed his spearmen on the far right. "Damn, why didn't I restore that situation first?" The Syrian Light chariots, freed to their front, turned to flank the other group of spearmen. To their credit the spearmen stood up to the attack and turned to face their offenders. But the Syrians, finding some heroic backbone, drove down on the spearmen with clubs and javelins, sending the spearmen running. Phesusus sighed, there was no right to win with anymore. He gave the orders to retreat. Nagamemnon barely escaped being captured, Neleus was not so lucky. However, they only lost one town to the Hittites. The losses they inflicted had been substantial enough that Fozzi didn't have enough to continue his campaign of subjugation. It was strange that those woods in the middle had never really amounted to anything. It had to be Fozzi's fault. Instead of chasing skirmishers and Nag, they could have threatened the flank of the Mycenaean spearmen that had routed their fellow militia. No love lost there. Nagamemnon wanted to blame the loss to Fozzi's guard, but in reality, if Neleus could have let the reserve rout the Syrian chariots and flank the Hittites...before ordering a across the front charge. Also the right had been winning, but stupid Phessusus let things get out of hand with those chariot runners. Oh, well, time to patch up the chariots, another spring awaits us! Order of Battle and Rules Amendments: The Mycenaeans 4 units of medium "shock" chariots (1 battle hardened) 6 units of spearmen (1 Battle hardened) 2 units of "line" bowmen 2 units of skirmishing bowmen 1 unit of slingers 1 unit of Libyan javelinmen Special rules – Mycenaean bowmen skirmishers can freely interpenetrate spearmen. Mycenaean spearmen must be in battle mass formation. The Hittite/Syrian forces 4 units of heavy "shock" chariots (1 guard status) 3 units of syrian medium chariots 2 units of Hittite spearmen 1 unit of Syrian spearmen – battle hardened 3 units of border spearmen (trained militia) 1 unit of Syrian line bowmen 1 unit of Syrian skirmish bowmen 3 units of javelinmen Special Rules: All chariot units with bow were capable of skirmish fire as defined below. Syrian chariots could not frontally engage non-disordered Mycenaean spearmen or chariots. My Morale Table: 1 hit 1D4 2-3 hits 1D6 4-5 hits 1D8 6-7 hits 1D10 8-9 hits 1D12 10 + hits +1 for every two hits above 9 Battle Hardened Units: A form of elite status with a +1 for melee and morale die values. Chariots: I go completely at odds with the chariot rules as written. While one may seriously postulate that chariots were not used as the cavalry of the ancient world, I would disagree, with the exception of Scythed chariots of course! Therefore, I group my chariots into units and rate as medium, heavy or extra-heavy chariots. I haven't tried using the bow armed chariots as Light cavalry, but I might in the future. I limit heavy chariots to 45 degree turns on the cavalry move card. I also require chariots to be in Battle line formation, but again may experiment with skirmish formation for light chariots later. Movement: I use 15mm for this period and have adjusted both missle range and movement to 2/3 – 3/4, whatever came close to giving me reasonable whole numbers. Melee: I use mandatory morale checks for melee and the melee results only to determine hits inflicted/disordered status. Morale checks from melee, unless a rout, only lead to the unit falling back the difference in die rolls in inches. A rout only occurred if a unit was disordered and received a second disorder, or if a morale check rolled 3x times the morale roll of the unit. Any other results lead to the unit falling back that number in inches determined by the moral check roll. Skirmisher fire could only rout a unit through a second disorder. Units routed by 3x roll or through 2 disorders could be rallied. Units routed by 4x roll or routed units receiving a second disorder or rout could not be rallied. Losers in melee were determined normally and were automatically disordered. No moral chip loss for losing the melee, just for the disorder. Any units in contact after melee need to resolve upon the next melee resolution card, first, before any other impetus expenditure. This went on until one side fell back/routed, a maximum of three rounds of combat. Chariots did not fall into disorder until the melee was completely resolved i.e. one side or the other retreated. Skirmishers: See above about skirmish fire. Before rolling for hits, the player had to decide to spend a morale chip to roll on the morale table or not and roll on the skirmish effect table. No stand loss was allowed for either kind of fire. Usually a quick check with the missile fire table decided whether it was worth the morale chip and of course an army with zero morale did not have this option. I may tweak these more for other periods. Morale: No winning unit thrown into disorder (i.e. pursuit) will rout or cause a morale chip loss. These changes really did work! First, thanks to Ken B. for his inspirational style of battle report. Second, thanks to Eric for his excellent Archon tables. I discovered no flaws in the course of play. I will be making adjustments only to reflect my style of play. Finally, this was by far the most fun I have had playing Archon. The amended rules I employed worked well for me. Some disordered units driven back were rallied and thrown back into the fray. Melee sometimes went an extra turn but that was fine by me and felt more like the slug it out battles that I believe ancient battles to be. I may still tweak these changes and I'll keep you informed of them as I find time. <> Back to The Gauntlet No. 15 Table of Contents Back to The Gauntlet List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by Craig Martelle Publications This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com