Hittite vs Makkan

A clubmate asked me a training game with first period armies. I still had ready in its box the Hittite army that I used in my last tournament, Sotto il segno di Anubi, so I fielded it again, facing a makkan host.

The Makkan was organized around 4 corps, two allied with WbF and IBwI, and two more withy ICmO and IPsS.

I attacked, and as expected faced a bad battlefield for my troops. In addition to that, a corps was missing and I guessed a flank march coming from the left. The advantage I had was tha I could choose very good match ups. My plan was to keep back the PkF corps, fearing the IWbF, ad manouver them in the right spot, using the superiority in mounte troops to destroy the enemy. Makkan by the way could simply sit in the terrain waiting for the flank march to appear, and this was quite bad for my chariotry.

What changed completely the game balance, was that I had my RBdF facng enemy CmO in a difficult. They were hopeless there, and forced to come out. More troops entered the plain to protect the flank and this offered me a target. Also the pikes could attack an enemy BwI corps

The flank march appeared immediately, and this forced me to try to win the game before having the flank rolled

The camels were no match for the hittite guard, and soon several gaps appeared in the enemy line

Once the PkF charged enemy IBwI, makkan losses started to be very high

Makkan flank march corps could not support the other commands fast enough, and soon all their army was crumbling

With two commands down, the Makkan army broke.

This game was valuale for several lessons when using the "wall of crap" style armies with low Ag.

Being sensible to match ups, for these armies is important to use some stratagems to put the opponent off balance. Flank marching is a good idea, and using concealed command and ambush even more. Having BwI protected by lines of IWbF in their rear is also useful. In this game PkF faced IBwI in four lines. Once contacted the first, it was like cutting the butter with an hot knife. Troops sensible to match ups like ICmO should be used as a reserve. They are the only elements worth 1ME and are the perfect target to destroy quickly makkan style armies. Also the terrain should put an emphasis on rough going, to improve command and control. This is expecially true when facng a biblical army that has chariotry hampered by rough going. Better could be to use the compulsory DH as 1/2 FE to not hindrance the rough going placement

As usual pre battle planning is important, even more when playing these armies, that are so rigid that once deployed can just play an attritional game