Sunday 18 September 2022

Early Achamenid Persians vs Etruscans - posted by Dirk Heinsius, 13 September 2022

Darius Remains Undefeated
Saturday 10th September, Darius took on Che Tibby's Etruscan League at the Hutt Club.
The Etruscan League, are an interesting army to take on. Despite the fact that they are mostly inferior, there are a lot of them, and they have a good mixture of troop types: Cavalry, Spear, Blade, Warband, and Auxilia (Superior at that)
Darius' plan was to choose a field that would disrupt the Etruscans, and prevent them forming a solid block, hopefully luring them forward on a narrow frontage, where the Persian Archers could soften them up and the Cavalry, and light troops could work the flanks.
As it happened the field was almost perfect for this plan, with a couple of gentle hills; one conveniently in the Persian deployment area. A wood and a marsh guarding the Persian flanks to make a defile for the Etruscans to advance through, another marsh on the Etruscan deployment area, to make things even more difficult, and finally a BUA on the Persian far left.
Darius deployed first, with the Sparabara and the Hordes holding the centre. Assyrians and Egyptian Marines in a second line in case of disaster, assorted Psiloi in the marsh and the Libyans sent wide to occupy the village. The Immortals were held in reserve, able to redeploy if necessary along the road, and finally the Cavalry were massed on the open flank, to screen the second marsh, and to be able to threaten any Etruscan advance in the centre.
The Etruscans deployed with their own left refused, clearly not wanting to play with the Persian Cavalry. The Warband, Hoplites and Blades in the centre, Cavalry in reserve, and the allied Auxilia on the right to contest the village.
The Etruscans immediately attacked, with the infantry centre, advancing with the Warband heading straight towards the Sparabara. The Cavalry reserve, came up to protect the flank of the Warband, and the Auxilia went to clear the Libyans out of the village. Darius held his position, just bringing up the Cavalry wing on the flank, sending the Babylonian chariots to support the Sparabara (just in case), and bringing forward the (Elite (Reg Bw(I))) Chaldean Archers to provide flanking fire into the flank of the Warband.
The Etruscan cavalry, made a move on the Chaldeans, but quickly saw the error of their ways and retired again, which meant that the advancing warband, were shot at from both the front and the flank and very quickly disheartened, at which point the Chariots came to finish them off. Bow with supports do nasty things to Wb(F), as do Kn(O) 🙂
One the other flank, after a quite brief engagement, the Libyans were wiped out in the village. Lets face it I didn't hold out hopes that Ps(I) would hold off a greater number of Ax(S) for long, but they did their job and tied up the Auxilia, to prevent them supporting the attack in the centre.
Following the collapse of the warband, the Etruscan Blades and Cavalry, formed a new left flank, whilst the Hoplites in the centre, managed to engage and break though the hordes, only to have their advance grind to a halt in front of the Persian second line, as their flanks were now exposed.
The Chaldeans, chalked up a second battle honour, by chasing off the Etruscan cavalry again, this time shooting down their General. (I was thinking about an Etruscan vase, as a battle honour to go with the Samurai banner, but Potbelly Miniatures won't print it for me 🙁 )
Finally the advancing fire of the Sparabara and the Chaldeans, with concentrated attacks by the Babylonian Chariots, broke a second Etruscan command, and the Army, resulting in a 25-0 victory for Darius.
Overall what won the game was the Persian Archery, and the fact that due to the terrain the Etruscans couldn't launch a concerted attack all along the line. Concentrated bow fire is deadly to inferior troops, when they can be caught piecemeal.
Unit of the match has to be the Chaldean Archers (again). Destroying a third of the warband, chasing off the Etruscan cavalry, twice, shooting down a general, and finally shooting up some Blades.

Thanks very much the Che, for a most enjoyable game. It was great to see his beautiful Etruscans on the field. 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/824840264342234/posts/2160413370784910/

Opening moves on the field of Battle
Preparing for the final assault


The Hoplites have finally broken through the hordes, only to meet the Egyptian Marines

Che's Etruscans are georgeous

The Libyans about to lose the village

The final blow, with the Chaldeans facing off against Bd(I) and Cv(O)

The Libyans have taken the village

Kaspian Horse Archers just keeping the Hoplites Honest

The general appears to be missing from the cavalry

The Libyans had taken the village

Preparing for the final assault

The Etruscans advance on a constricted front


The pride of the warband, before their fall

Firing into the flank of the warband


The Warband having reach the hill suffer withering bow fire

From the Persian right



Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)