Clubbing it! Chariot Wars! Trojan vs Sea Peoples Game Week 1

Yesterday being a second week after returning and starting back at the club, we set up a 3000 point WAB V.2 Chariot Wars game featuring the Trojans vs The Sea Peoples! There is almost certainly no direct historical link between the Trojans and the Sea Peoples, though it is not beyond the scope of imagination however tenuous a link we might conjure. Besides, they're the only two chariot wars based for WAB at the club. Many thanks to Matt for lending us the armies.

I was playing the Trojans and Graeme the Sea Peoples. 

All the images are "clickable, should you wish to enlarge them for a better view.

I took control of the Trojans and Graeme the Sea Peoples. As for deployment, I got into a bit of a tangle from the get go due to a combination of indecision and the terrain. The battlefield contained a large wadi starting from about two thirds of the table length on the Sea Peoples table edge and coming into the table at an angle (from left to right from the Sea Peoples perspective) and almost splitting  the table in two (again mostly from the Sea Peoples perspective). also there we had several sandy hillocks that we decided blocked line of sight if a unit was not on top plus a few areas of rough ground. At first glance, the copious amount of terrain might seem to make for a difficult slog of a Chariot Wars battle; in fact, quite the opposite was true with the terrain presenting several tactical conundrums making the battle a much more interesting affair then a straight forward up and at 'em game.

Trojan Right Flank

Due to the wadi's position on the other side of the table in the middle, I guessed I might be playing a game of two halves so tried to deploy my army to reflect this. This would mean splitting my forces in two, that much was clear; how to achieve it was not so clear and this was certainly reflected in my deployment! On my right flank, the Army General, the Army standard Bearer and a unit of 6 Light Chariots including a Hero character were backed up by the half decent Trojan Infantry (with a rank of archers to the rear). Both units contain a Hero in a Light chariot apiece hopefully adding to their staying power should they find themselves too far from the Army General and the Army Standard Bearer to benefit from the Leadership of the General any re-rolls from the Army Standard Bearer. (Spoiler alert! As it happened, I managed to pass all my leadership tests first time around including some dice rolls at rather low odds! This is unheard of and I'm not sure what to make of it!)

A unit of Trojan Chariots pegs it to the right flank.

The same unit of Chariots moving to my Left Flank- but was it all a ruse? Even I did not know at this stage!

Deployment and dispositions after movement of both armies.

The Sea Peoples Warband infantry including a Sheridan Guard (Stubborn- unit in the middle) surge forward as do the the Trojans on the right whilst sending two units of their Chariot units sweeping to the right.

A shot from my the Trojan Left side of the table further elucidating the positions post Turn One.

And again with a unit of Sea Peoples Chariots on the left.

The Sea Peoples then continued rolling forward on their Right Flank to cover the sweep of the Trojan chariots to the left.

Sea Peoples Centre:

This image does not convey my confusion as to where I could best use the two units of Trojan Chariots to the left of my army. With only two units of Infantry to play with, it seemed wise to push at least one unit of Trojan Chariots to the left to face the same from the Sea Peoples; rather it was exactly what do do withy the Trojan Chariots in the centre that was troubling. The wadi was preventing an easy flank charge in support of the main Trojan hitting power on the Trojan Left.

Oops! That's one failed Warband test then!

General Positions:

My next turn would see the Trojans making again committing to to sweeping left with the their Chariots units. This would prove to be a mistake later on and I would end up reversing the unit in the rear but too late to get stuck into the flank of any Sea Peoples units. Charging a Close Order formed unit to the front in WAB (quite rightly) would be a disaster. A flank move, maybe not so much. 

The Trojans were peppered with arrows from three units of Sea Peoples Skirmishing bowmen who luckily were armed with short bows. It is important, at this point, to point out that Graeme's dice rolling started badly and apart from a few rolls punctuated with luck, and was quite dire throighout the turns we played this week. I was beginning to feel like, at least for yesterday, I fell into the "I'd rather have lucky generals than good ones" category!

The Trojan Skirmshers (actually Chariot Runners) were equipped only with Javelins so early one I made up my mind to use them only for screening purposes and not to bother getting them within range to shoot unless they happened to accidentally found themselves in such a position.

A word on Chariot Runners. I had surmised that Chariot Runners are a very useful unit when played on a normal sized 6' x 4' or 6' x 8' table but our table was very deep ergo their 5" move would significantly slow the chariots down so there seemed to be little point in using them as a anything except a screen for the precious Chariot units.

The Sea Peoples up and at them attitude gets the better of them again with another failed Warband test! 

So much for my idea of using the Trojan Chariot Runners as a screen! Peppered with arrows and legging it to the rear. I did not hold too much hope of this unit rallying as they have a very low leadership value.

The (my) Trojan Right Flank was definitely where the action was. It was certainly beginning to hot up as the  Heroes, Chariots and Infantry of Troy marched forward vying with the Sea Peoples for position on the Trojan Left Flank

The one and only moment in the game where I decided to loose some Javelins at the enemy resulting in absolutely no casualties and wasting the (now infamous) valuable time and movement for said Chariot unit. Certainly a very dumb move on my part.

A better shot of the action beginning to hot up on the Trojan Left Flank. Both our Generals and Army Standard Bearer's lingered on this flank sensing the action to come.

The Generals, Army Standard Bearers and a unit of Chariots from both armies face off with a charge looming from one or the other.

The Trojan "cannot make their minds up at all what their role was to be, not ever" unit of Trojan Chariots managed, by choosing to loose Javelins in my previous turn, to just about get themselves into charge range and had to Flee in order to avoid annihilation! They also failed to Rally and got within an inch of the table edge before finally turning around and growing a pair!

Graeme's Sea Peoples Warbands keep on a coming from his Right Flank cramping the Trojans for room.

At one stage I forgot to move the unit of Chariots I had on the Right Flank. Deciding that the only way to learn was to do so by making mistakes and punctuating said mistakes by not moving out of turn.

This flank was to soon turn into a game of cat and mouse with both the Trojan and Sea Peoples Chariot units dancing around one another but neither, thus far, able to gain an advantage.

A nice overhead view of the game. 

What is not immediately obvious in this picture is the position of the Sea Peoples Chariot unit. This is plus one combat resolution and made for a very difficult decision as to whether the Trojans were to charge, In the end they did so, lost the combat but passing their Break Test! 

One of the Trojan Infantry units charged a unit of Sea Peoples whilst the Trojan Chariots, Hero and Army General simultaneously charged at the Sea Peoples main Chariot unit. The other Trojan infantry marching to their right (out of shot) in order to support both the Infantry and should the General's Chariot unit be dealt with death and scarper, would be in place for the sea Peoples Chariots to Over Run into and potentially be a problem.

Meanwhile another Warband Test failed by the Sea Peoples, but this time to their advantage urging more Trojan Chariot Runners scarper!

The combat carried on with the Sea Peoples unit rolling exceptionally badly, failing their Break Test only to be caught by the Trojan spearmen. Luckily enough for Graeme, this time his dice rolling didn't let him down and the resulting Panic Tests from the failed Break Test were all good.

The all so important (for both sides) Chariot melee continuing into a third turn resulting in the Trojans losing but passing their Break Test again! Two (maybe three?) in a row! Both Hermes and Tyche must have been present and rooting for the Trojan army! 

And again! Trojans lose yet another combat but again pass the requisite tests! Meanwhile a unit of fresh Trojan spearmen position themselves to the rear of their kindred in the Chariots in the event it all goes pair shaped next time.

To Be Continued.....