Sumerian Remote Wargame

I participated in a remote wargaming session with Jon of Palouse Wargaming Journal today. While it was Friday morning for me, it was Thursday early afternoon for Jon due to the time zone difference. The game was an an Early Bronze Age battle using Jon’s beautiful Sumerian armies which he has been printing over the last couple of years. The rules used were a hex-based variation of the Basic Impetus rules modified by Jon. 

Sumerian War Chariot

Each army had 12 units:

• 5 skirmish units of javelins, slingers, and bows
• 3 blocks of bows and spears
• 2 large blocks of heavy infantry
• 2 war chariots

Not being familiar with this historical period and their armies I was looking forward to the game, in particular the heavy chariot units which looked impressive but came with manoeuvring challenges.

Since this was my first time using Sumerians and this variation of Basic Impetus rules, the game was played the game on a tabletop with no terrain. Jon had depolyed both armies into three lines. The first line consisted of skirmish units, the second line comprised blocks of bows and spears, and heavy infantry, while the war chariots were positioned in the third line.

The start of the game saw both armies push forward their troops and start to manoeuvring the war chariots into position for later attacks.

Both armies advance with skirmishes harassing and clashing as they closed. Blue army (the ones with the blue dice) split their war chariots. While Red army move both chariots towards their right flank.

Having won the initiative on turn 2 or 3 both Red’s heavy infantry advanced forward into their Red counterparts forcing them to retire in disorder creating a hole in their centre.

On Red’s right flank one of their war chariots trundled forward and was repulsed by an opposing Blue chariot. The run of play had certainly turned against Red.

The second Red chariot is repulsed and was soon after destroyed.

On Blue right flank their war chariot charges forward mopping up the skirmish line.  Red army was in disarray and their exhaustion point had been reached.

Discussing the game afterwards, it was very hard for Red to recover once the two heavy infantry units got a roll on and started to pursue their opponents. The chariots really do make for an interesting and fun game, they are very powerful, but also quite brittle once they lose their impetus and are forced to retire.

The screen shots of the game don’t do justice to Jon’s wonderfully painted armies.