Tuthmele IV's Egyptian Army campaigns in Bassano
To play the Bassano first period tournament (3000BC-500BC) I choosed New Kingdom Egyptians. The selection reasons are several: I like this historical period of Egypt, the army is gorgeous, and the tactic to be used is rather sophisticated, for RCvS, RBwO and RBdF are not easy to coordinate in an effective way. Imho this is quite a difficult army to play. I like the challenge.
My army list is:
I/22 New Kingdom Egyptian - 97ME
C1- CiC RCvS, 6 RCvS, 8 RBdF, 4 IWbF - 30ME
C2- SG RCvS, 6 RCvS, 8 RBwI, 1 RLhI, 6 IPsI - 28ME
C3- SG RCvS, 6 RCvS, 8 RBwI, 6 IPsI - 27ME
C4- 6 RBgI - 12ME
The doctrine is to use in a coordinate way the strong mounted arm and the infantry in each corps.
I choosed the RBwI for the presence of RKnS and Wb in first period makes the archers survival problematic. RBwI have the same shooting power and manouverability of RBwO and cost just 1/2ME should they die. Furthermore they can be an useful bait. I think they could work. No one has ever used massed RBwI in NKE to my knowledge, and this should prove an advantage.
The 4 IWbF are just an expendable tool under CiC control to smash enemy infantry. I hope they will prove worthy.
I field as many RCvS as possible, and up to the last moment I was tempted to switch one chariot in CiC corps to add more psO. In the end I sticked to the army doctrine I thought, but this option is a good one.
The army was efficient, mobile and able to manouver very well. The three main army types worked well together and gave me an advantage when facing mounted. RCvS proved quite weak versus enemy infantry and the infantry support was necessary. Both the inclusion of IWbF and the use of RBwI made me win a game. It was a succesful experiment.