Team Yaakav Meeting Engagement - On the road to Damascus

When it rains, it pours.  I got a lot of posts to catch up on.  This is a meeting engagement battle between the Syrians and some Jordanian support teams against the Israeli armored force.  I signed up to put on the game at our local gaming club Tuesday night game night.  There are about 10 of us and we rotate putting on games every Tuesday.  I tapped into my friend Bill's hoard of Syrian infantry for this battle.  We both recently rebased all our Middle East figures from Peter Pig basing to Team Yankee.

I used the lists and unit stats I've been posting about the last year.  I have a point cost for them now too and it was about a 130 point game.  I was anticipating six players and didn't want everything on the table at once so I went with the Meeting Engagement scenario from the book.  So we started with half the units on the table and the other half coming in as delayed reserves.

Syrians OOB

Syrian Infantry HQ

Player 1 =  T-72 x 6, T-55 x 6, Commando company (4 AK47, 3 RPG-17, 2 Sagger stands), Mechanized Infantry company (7 AK47, 6 RPG, 1 PKM LMG stands, BMP-1 x 9)


Player 2 =  T-62 x 6, T-62 x 6, Commando company (4 AK47, 3 RPG-17, 2 Sagger stands), Mechanized Infantry company (7 AK47, 6 RPG, 1 PKM LMG stands, BTR-60 x 9)


Player 3 (Jordanians) =  Khalid x 3, Mechanized Infantry platoon (4 M16, 3 M60, 1 Dragon stand, M113 x 4), Shilka x 2, MI-24 Hind x 2

Israeli OOB

Israeli Infantry HQ with M113

Player 1 = Merkava I x 3, Mechanized Paratrooper platoon (4 FN MAG, 3 RPG-17, 1 Dragon stand, M113 Zelda x 4), TOW Jeeps x 4, M163 VADS x 2

Player 2 = Magach 3 x 4, Magach 6 x 3, Mechanized Paratrooper platoon (4 FN MAG, 3 RPG-17, 1 Dragon stand, M113 Zelda x 4), AH-1 Cobras x 2

Player 3 = Magach 3 x 4, Magach 6 x 3, Mechanized Paratrooper platoon (4 FN MAG, 3 RPG-17, 1 Dragon stand, M113 Zelda x 4), M125 Mortar carriers x 2


I setup the terrain and pre-placed the objectives.  One of each side of the board, one in the hills and one in the town.  The board was 8' x 5'.  I made the Syrian Commando's veteran for this battle, so 4+ to hit which probably wasn't a good idea.

Quick synopsis of battle:  Syrians started with commandos on the board, dug into some hills back up by some T-62s and T-72s.  The Jodanians had their Khalids on top of a hill with their infantry ready to push into the village.  The Israeli's had a unit of Magach 3 and Magach 6 pushing into the Khalids on the right.  The center had a mechanized infantry platoon moving into the town supported by some Magach 3s and the left had the paratroops holding the flank with the ATGM jeeps.

The tank rush on the right got demolished by the Khalids.  That left the city pretty much open to the Syrians with only one Israeli mechanized platoon to hold it.  The jeeps and paratroopers kept the left flank secure.  Tanks died all over from ATGM and other tanks.  Replacements came in peace meal, just enough to plug a gaps left by destroyed units.  The Syrians were able to move one commando company into the village to support the Jordanian infantry.  They kicked the Isareli infantry out and took the objective.  The Israeli's had some help coming from reserves but not fast enough (especially when the Syrian mechanized companies rolled on the board).  A strong Syrian win.

Here are a bunch of random pictures of the game taken by my friend Rene.  The full set of pictures is over at:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/124196980@N02/sets/72157680628229005

Update

It's been quite a while, almost a year, since I have updated my blog. I was out of doing much gaming for quite a few months due to a family illness, but everything is back to normal now. So let the gaming commence! Here is a little update of what is coming up.

Syrian Wars

Jeff J and I have played one game of our Syrian Wars campaign using the new lists out of Armies of Antiquity 2. I forgot my camera for that game but Jeff has a nice write up on his page. I'm glad to see some of our suggestions have been adopted in the latest AoA2 Errata posted over on WABForum. We will have some more games in this campaign soon hopefully. I have some Galatians and Scythians I'm painting up that I'm looking forward to put on the table. My Agema Cataphracts are in the dog house and threatened with replacement from their last debacle of running from a unit of Thureophoroi they charged.

Bog Raiding

Tony Rodgers down here in San Diego has a big Late Roman and Age of Arthur British army. I usually throw my Goths against them and get stomped. Now I have a Pict army from Age of Arthur ready for a stomping. It's a total Gripping Beast army I had for a few years now. I ended up sending the whole thing to Fernando to get painted since it would just sit in bags if I didn't. I did the basing and shields/banners (Little Big Man Studios).

Tony and I decided to start a little campaign using "The Raiding Season" campaign from the back of the Age of Arthur book. Each of us got a pool of seven characters that we have to use through out the campaign. If they die they die but if they can improve through glories deeds! The Picts are the aggressors, raiding into the fertile southern British country side. Tony is using the "Twilight of Britannia" list while I'm using the "Early Southern Pictish Kingdoms" one.

Back to Syria

After a long rest, Jeff and I got back together to throw down in the next installment of his Syrian Wars compaign. I've been painting quite a bit and wanted to use all my new units, so we decided on a big 3,250 point battle.

Here is what I had for my Seleucids (broken up in Characters, Cavalry, Infantry, Special, Mercs):

Antiochus III - Successor King
Army Standard
Taxiarch

Companions (10)
Elite Light Cavalry (10)

Silver Shields (28)
Katoikoi Phalanx (28)
Katoikoi Phalanx (28)
Elephant Escorts (8)
Euzonoi (10)

Armored Elephant
Normal Elephant
Scythed Chariot

Thureophoroi (18)
Thorakitai (18)
Ne0-Cretans (12)
Thracian Peltasts (10)
Iranian Levies (44)
Arab Cavalry (12)
Arab Archers (12)

Jeff had 5 pike units (3 normal, 1 Machomoi, 1 mercenary), Companions, some cavalry with thrusting spear, Galation Noble cavalry, an African elephant, some Greek allies, thureophoroi, thorakitai, the dreaded Cretan archers, and some other skirmish troops.

We had two new players (Alex and Jen) acting as sub-commanders. Jen had my right and Alex had Jeff's right. So each side had an extra Strategos sub-commander.

Here is our set up. We wrote down our deployment then just set up. Pike in the middle, Jeff's strong right flank with Companions vs my weaker left with Elite Light cavalry and Scythed Chariot, my companions where on my right with the Arab cavalry against his Greeks.

Some random pictures of figures at the start.




Not much happened the first couple turns. Skirmishers ran out. Archers shot some stuff. Both right flanks played a little cautious. My Thracians got their rhomphaia handed to them by some upstart Neo-Agranians. The thureophoroi were in open order so they went stamping through the woods.

On Jeff's right, his Companions were getting pretty shot up by the Arab archers so them and the Ptolemaic cavalry pushed up. I send in my Elite Light cavalry to to punch through his Ptolemaic cavalry and set up my chariot to charge into the Companions if they charged my Arabs. If things went right I could bust open that flank. My elite cavalry couldn't hit a thing though and ended up being run off.

The Arabs ran from the Companions when they charged. I did manage to his Companions with my scythed chariot and bring them down in numbers so they weren't effective anymore. But all I had on that flank to stop his Ptolemaic cavalry now was my massive levy unit with their flank to them... which can't reform due to being levy.

On my right not too much happened. My Companions were in position behind the woods ready to exploit whatever happened on the either side but nothing much happened to expoit. The Arab cavalry and Jeff's Galatian nobles tangled a bit with the Gauls coming out on top after a few turns.

In the center, I turned my Phalanx to try to meet his so Jeff wouldn't get a too much of an overlap on my left. I had my thorakitai, armored elephant and levy to try to hold up his phalanx there. When the pike did meet, my Silver Shields took a beating from his mercenary phalanx and they took off running. Luckily they rallied next turn. Jeff Machimoi phalanx turned out to be WS2 (you roll to determine their WS when they enter combat) but still dealt a lot of damage. I put my king with my center phalanx to make them stubborn (his randomly determined King ability), which they swiftly used. They ended up falling back leaving one one of my pike units in combat.

Alex charged in one phalanx into my thorakitai and another into the elephant. My thorakitai stayed but the elephant got poke in the eye by a pike and stampeded off. Not looking good for the Seleucids. At this time the Ptolemaic cavalry charged by levy in the flank which failed their panic check and all 44 of them ran into the rear of my line.

The stampeding elephant ran through my fleeing levy and destroyed them. The Silver Shields lost again and ran off. The thorakitai couldn't hold the phalanx any longer and broke. Poor Antiochus III decided enough is enough and called it there. A massacre if I ever saw one. Here's a few ending photos.

So the Seleucids were stopped on their run to Alexandria. We'll have to see if I can keep what's left of my army intact fleeing back to Damascus as I'm hounded by the Ptolemaics. The levy only got chased off so I'm looking forward for them to come back and redeem themselves!!