Hyksos vs Egyptians

There is no point setting up a PRESTAGS if you don't play it, is there Paul? So with a Chariot battle set up, why not play it.

In this battle, the Egyptians have inferior leaders, inferior units, inferior stacking and inferior panic level. The main thing they had going for them was terrain, and perhaps a willingness to go out in a blaze of glory. Their other benefit was better and more archers. The notional goal of the battle is for the Egyptians to stop the Hyksos from taking the oasis (in their rear), but really this is about hurting each other.

I set the Egyptian foot soldiers on the slopes with the archers on the hill tops above them. I put the best Egyptian units, axemen with a 3L leader, in the valley ready for a counter attack and covered by skirmishers. I left three militia guarding the camp (and victory from a rogue charioteer). With stacking of 1, the army looked more impressive than it was.

The Hyksos adopted the standard attack pattern for PRESTAGS - form circular blobs around leaders. Only two of the chariots have transported troops. The rest just hang around to look good. A strong right flank of axemen will be the main strike force. With stacking of two and axemen reducing the defence strength of spearmen and militia infantry by half (Chariot rule [3.2]), these boys are not taking prisoners.

The Battle

The battle opened with the Hyksos charioteers charging in to unleash missiles upon the Egyptian horde. The Chariots move during the chariot phase. At the end of this movement, the archers jump off and fire on the skirmishers.

Some PRESTAGS notes:

• The Fire Protection Strength of clear terrain is 2 and slopes is 3, so the archers aim at that.
• Two Egyptian archers are in range of the chariots, but may not fire. I think this is an error by John Michael Young. There is no way those boys on the hill would not have shot at the chariots milling around below

Anyway, one Hyksos attack succeeded and the other failed. The bowman got back on the chariots and raced away while the axemen charged forward. The right flank hit the militia infantry on the slope and destroyed it with a 7:1 attack (15 attacks 2 with the defenders doubled for the terrain and halved for the axemen against militia). They advance after attack because in PRESTAGS, attackers are halved when attacking along the slope, and the slopes have better fire protection strength, so they are very safe there.

The Egyptian response is muted. The archers on the hill disrupt a stack of axemen. The foot soldiers are still in a solid position, but they try a flank attack on the axemen - the best they could do would be to knock out the leader, but they do not succeed. They do kill a useless chariot, and take it back to their chief scientists for study.

I think one of the saddest part of PRESTAGS is the contact marker. It makes perfect sense: when a battle is happening, the lines should be locked in combat. However, it makes the game look ugly, and leads to confusing situations where contact floats around the line. I will be able to make it nicer in MA.

The Hyksos second turn sees more of the same. The chariots disrupted one of the skirmishers and ducked back. The axemen hack their way up the slope. One of the axemen was disrupted by the skirmishers, so they are not invulnerable.

The Egyptians finally retaliate with their axemen. A clever leader on the hill noticed the chariots were "stuck in soft terrain" and launched a counter-attack. Unfortunately for the Egyptians, they handed the die to Admiral Brendan Mahoney and almost every attack failed. The one success against the odds was that the original axemen into action was checked with a disruption. In game results, this kills the leader and leaves the troops as before. (It also nicely gets rid of some contact markers.)

Here is another beef I have with John Michael Young. If you kill a leader, you get one victory point, the same for killing one MI. If you reduce a leader, you get no VP. History is full of battles where the death or injury of the leader loses the battle. I propose in MA to have the loss of leadership strength count against VP (and panic levels).

The Hyksos grind forward and the opportunity for the Egyptians evaporates. Both wings are advancing and the counter-attack in the centre is checked. Some of the axemen have died under defensive fire, but it is too little to late.

Note the line of chariots with nothing to do. The chariot unit (under the bowman on the left) is stuck with no leader, effectively out of the battle.

Next turn the game is over. Although the Egyptian skirmishers did a reasonable job knocking out two stacks of axemen (good rolls at the wrong time), the losses elsewhere means the army panics.

It is an interesting scenario. The Hyksos have the advantage and it is up to them to lose the battle. The terrain hindered the Egyptians more than served them: it slightly slowed the Hyksos axemen, but stopped the archers from getting good odds on slopes (and no disruptions too [14.3]). It also made it very hard to manoeuvre around the flanks of the Hyksos.

If I had more time and patience, I would be interested in seeing the impact of Egyptian axemen on the slopes and MI moving around the flanks, or just ignoring the hills and defending the river with archers (easy to get 4-1 there). Perhaps that will be my first Chariot scenario in MA.

At turn 4, the Egyptians have 13 VP and the Hyksos have 23 VP. The Egyptians panic at 17 (Hyksos) points.

Comments

[Steven Winter]

I've found this scenario is more interesting than it appears. Victory depends entirely on who controls the oasis; nothing else matters. The Egyptians always panic after a few turns of combat, but with five leaders to keep control of at least five units, they can still mount a last-ditch defense of the oasis. Driving those final handful of defenders away from the oasis can be a tough slog, since they all have leaders to absorb Disruptions. Taking the oasis before nightfall against the Egyptians' last-stand defense can be a touch-and-go thing. It can easily come down to a hail Mary attack against the oasis on the last turn, and I've seen the Egyptians win more than once - but never with more than one unit remaining, desperately clinging to the oasis.

[PythonMagus]

All photos are taken with the smart phone under natural light, so nothing amazing.

Given the constant references to typos in PRESTAGS scenarios, I am surprised John Michael Young was never pushed to provide errata.

[Paul]

Great photos. It's hard to get the light right on the maps. See, PRESTAGS does play well as a solitaire. I remember playing Roman Civil War scenarios from Legion solitaire. Far be it for me to criticise John Young, but I agree with you about killing leaders and VPs. There should be more VPs for killing a leader (at least the main leader) and points for reducing leaders.