Neo-Babylonians vs Egyptians - "Saving Jerusalem 586 BC

[Sabratha]

Get this scenario from any of the 4 sites here:
http://uploading.com/files/f86d2ba1/Sav ... salem.zip/
http://depositfiles.com/files/ecq7rdr40
http://www.filefactory.com/file/c28b399 ... usalem.zip
http://www.crocko.com/196C23822CD2438AA ... usalem.zip

In the early 580s BC the Kingdom of Egypt under Pharaoh Apries and the Neo-Babylonian Empire under king Nebuchadnezzar II were engaged in a cold war with each trying to incite revolts and uprisings in the other's sphere of influence. Suddenly, in 587 the war became hot. Zedekiah the king of the jewish state of Judah, who for 9 years was a vassal of the Babylonian king, rebelled. In response, Nebuchadnezzar invaded Judah and laid siege to the city of Jerusalem.

The Pharaoh saw this as an opportunity to brake the Babylonian dominance over the middle east and marched with his army to relieve Jerusalem and aid the Jews in their war.Most jews rejoiced hearing this, but the prophet Jeremaiah (who was a mamber of the pro-babylonian faction before the war) was not impressed, his words being recalled bby the Bible: "Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise. He has missed his chance".

Jeremaiah had a right to be worried. Apries and Nebuchadnezzar met on the field of battle and the Egyptian army was defeated. Soon after, Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians and the kingdom of Judah was wiped from the maps, starting the period of the "Babylonian Exile" for the Jews.

AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Well, seems we aren't going to get "Swifter than Eagles", which is a shame. However, this is absolutely no reason not to try to create historical scenarios set in this era. The game as we have it now, allows for a wide range of Egyptian unit graphics, as well as some more or less generic "middle eastern" units that might be used for armies like the Assyrian or Neo-Babylonian. This scenario is made both as a test (to see if "Swifter than Eagles"-like units can be reasonably handled by the AI) and as a "cheer up!" message sent to all those FoG players who like me are sad to hear about "Swifter than Eagles" not being made for PC in the near future.

Now about the details of this particular battle. As with most battles of this period we know that it took place, we know the outcome and we know the general region where it happened, but we lack detailed info on the order of battle. This is the way I see this battle: The egyptians have superior numbers, especially in infantry (because they are closer to their homeland, while a part of the Babyloanian army is not present as they are still pacifying Judah, garrisoning important fortresses like Lahish etc). The Babyloanians however have an edge in cavalry and can try to outflank the Egyptian forces. The neo-Babylonian units are like what you can find in the "Swifter than Eagles" corebook, with one notable exception. The Babylonian spearmen are "Protected average light spear swordmen" instead of the "superior armoured" guard spearmen we have in the rulebook. This is to represent that this is not an elite "royal guard" type of unit, but rather regular mesopotamian infantry, armed with short spears, axes, wicker sheilds and helmets.
The scenario seems quite balanced, both sides have their strong and weak sides.

Ok, I hope you will enjoy this scenario. I may make more "Swifter than Eagles" period scenarios if enough players would be interested in seeing me do so.

[Micha63]

On the first glance it seems to be a nice scenario, thank you.

[john2412]

Usual resposne from Uploading.com - and not been on it for weeks :

"Daily Download Limit

Sorry, you have reached your daily download limit"


many thanks
John

[Hoplite1963]

I had the same problem and tried again a second time getting through to make the free download. I think DropBox as a much more user frieldly system. Great Scenerio though.

[redcoat2]

Usual response from Uploading.com - and not been on it for weeks :

"Daily Download Limit

Sorry, you have reached your daily download limit"

I have the same problem.

I'm interested in scenarios for this period.

[Sabratha]

Allright, I playtested the scenario via multiplayer and it seems rather balanced, various people managed to win with both sides.
I also sent it to Kieth, so it may get added to FoG official under a patch or in a future expansion if they so wish.

Here are the file links, I'll re-add themt o the 1st post too.

http://uploading.com/files/f86d2ba1/Sav ... salem.zip/
http://depositfiles.com/files/ecq7rdr40
http://www.filefactory.com/file/c28b399 ... usalem.zip
http://www.crocko.com/196C23822CD2438AA ... usalem.zip

[Micha63]

Thank you for your work.

[Sabratha]

Thank you for your work.

Thanks. Some people had trouble downloading from uploadingcom, so I added 3 other different mirrors and hope this will help solve the technical or transfer issues uploadingcom obviously seems to have.

[Sabratha]

Well, its now available under "Battlepack1" in the last patch I saw. Seems the publishers liked it

The scenario in the battlepack is left almost unchanged in comparison with the one I made. Only thing that was changed were some minor edits in the scenario description and the Babylonian spearmen image was changed.

[john3905]

Would love to see more scenarios!!! Earlier the better, are you interested in Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian, or more Egyptian. The greatest challenge of course is lack of recorded battle details and orders of battle. What do you think?

[Sabratha]

Would love to see more scenarios!!! Earlier the better, are you interested in Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian, or more Egyptian. The greatest challenge of course is lack of recorded battle details and orders of battle. What do you think?

It may be difficult, given the lack of unit graphics. We have the ones for egypt, but as far as let's say mitanni, there just aren't any unit graphics that will look properly.

I was going to make a Kadesh scenario battle, so I may come back to this.