I was facing an Early Zhou Chinese, so I chose to use the following:
IC, TC
1x4 Elite Light Chariots Drilled Bow
4x4 Superior Light Chariots Drilled Bow
2x6 MF, Average, Drilled, Protected Lt Spear Swordsmen
2x6 MF, Average, Drilled, Unprotected Bow
2x12 MF, Average, Undrilled, Protected, Impact Foot Swordsmen
I had PBI 3 to my opponents 2. But I contrived to lose the initiative.
I chose as much terrain as I could, my opponent picking very little. All the terrain finished on the outskirts of the table. It was during my opponents second deployment that there was a query along the lines of "you can't have Superior, Armoured, Impact Foot in an Early Zhou army". It was then that I found out that I was facing Sea Peoples. This changed things somewhat.
My opponents army was:
IC, 2xTC
4x8 MF, Average, Undrilled, Protected, Impact Foot Swordsmen
3x8 MF, Superior, Undrilled, Armoured, Impact Foot Swordsmen
2x4 Heavy Chariots, Superior, Light Spear
This only seems to add upto 836 pts, I'm certain my opponent only had 9 BG's and nothing could fire!
I had planned to put all the Egyptian foot in rough going and hope to face off the protected Chinese foot. Against a mass of Superior Armoured Impact Foot, they were more likely to be road kill. So I put an IC with them and deployed my chariots in the centre and right with my own impact foot charging towards the average impact foot from the sea peoples.
My opponent had all the armoured superior impact foot on my left, with the average impact foot in the middle and the two heavy chariot battlegroups on my right.
After deployment this looked like:
I won the "who moves first" roll and ran my chariots forward, whilst my Egyptian Foot turned right and tried to find a place where the Sea Peoples weren't.
The unimaginative Sea Peoples moved forward, with a slight kink to try and chase my Fleeing re-deploying Egyptians.
I continued to move forward, my elite chariots were on the far right, hoping to get a flank on the Sea Peoples heavy chariots.
My Chariots guarding the left wing were facing seemingly thousands of superior Armoured Impact Foot
The Sea Peoples heavy chariots charged away my lights but my lines were looking pretty well dressed on the right wing. I had lured away a single battlegroup of impact foot from the main line.
I was still slightly outnumbered on the left though. My Egyptian foot were nearly in a position to turn left and provide rear support to the impact foot.
My elite's proved they were worth the points spent on them and a heavy chariot was left floundering on the desert floor.
My chariots expanded on the left wing to look a bit more like an army. The space they had gained was so that the impact foot could move forward without getting pincered by the greater numbers of the sea peoples.
The heavy chariots charged - I decided to stand as I was elite to superior, but minus at both impact and melee. However, if I survived impact I would have 8 dice v 6. Fortunately, I did more than survive and actually won! The heavy chariots dropped to disrupted. The lone impact foot had failed their test to charge (despite the IC being with them) and "clipped" my own impact foot.
On the left, the superior impact foot charged my chariots. It was then that my opponent had his own "chinese" moment, he had expected the impact to be evens, only to find out that he was using an old quick reference sheet and he was actually on a minus as Light Chariots get a POA against all foot in open ground as well as the medium foot in the open POA. There appeared to be some Sea People's muttered curses coming from the far side of the table.
I won the medium foot fight on the right and my opponent dropped to disrupted, despite the IC being present. My elite chariots ground down the heavy chariots to fragmented and 50%.
Predictably, on the left, the Sea Peoples took quite a kicking. One unit disrupted and lost a man, the other just lost a man.
There was practically no movement, and the disrupted Superior unit dropped to fragmented and lost a further man in the melee phase. The other impact foot unit survived unscathed.
My other Impact Foot unit charged the mass of sea peoples in the middle. The Light Chariots on the left who had broken off re-charged
My Elite chariots had by now disposed of the heavies and were thinking about turning around and exploiting the open flank.
My impact foot unit was clearly unimpressed and I lost two bases at impact, but remained steady. My kinky chariots were returning to the fray.
On the left, I disrupted the superior impact foot and killed yet another base.
I broke the fragmented unit and charged into the disrupted unit who had survived the melee and their friends breaking. Following the glorious impact phase, my foot in the middle lost another man and dropped to fragmented. Clearly the pharoah was having communication issues...
Sensing elite chariots approaching from the rear, the remaining Sea Peoples Heavy Chariots charged both my Light Chariots to their front, who elected to stand. I got one hit from 12 dice at impact and both units lost. The only result was that the unit with the general disrupted.
It was clear that my chariots had been keeping their powder dry for the melee though. A magnificent seven hits from ten dice (at a minus) gave the heavy chariots something of a headache. They lost TWO bases and dropped to disrupted. The blasted fragmented Sea Peoples foot in the middle had managed to bolster to disrupted though.
They dropped to fragmented again in the melee though and the heavy chariots broke.
On the left my chariots broke through and one unit "clipped" an average unit. I lost impact and disrupted. I then dropped to fragmented in the melee phase and when the fragmented impact foot broke the chariots routed. Awesome.
At this point the game ended, the Sea Peoples had lost both heavy chariot units, two armoured superior impact foot and the fragmented unit in the middle giving the egyptians the 9 AP's they needed.
The egyptians lost 4 out of 11, meaning the game was a 31-8 using the brand new scoring system. Or 21-4 in old money.
