Sea People vs Early Achemenid Persian
A friend of mine wanted to test his early achemenid persian army versus an aggressive foe, so I fielded my sea peoples. The composition is very simple: two lines of shock troops supported by PsI. The main skill required is the coordination of the three corps, and possibly the exploitation of any weakness or opportunity given by the opponent. Still is a fun army to play.
The battlefield was quite open, I chosed to set up just the sea to see if I could stand the enemy cavalry in the open. I defended but deployed second. I expected that the Persian would use the difficult going to protect a flank and avoid my corps along the sea, so I deployed there the corps with the small chariot group, to eventually outflank the enemy line with my faster troops.
The Persians decided to send along the sea their heavy chariots. The enemy plan was to use the CiC corps to smash my wing. This created a big gap in the center, with the immortal flank exposed. This was not good, because the Immortal corps had the lower pip dice and because the isolation of the persian CiC corps denied the combined arms advantage
The persian center turned 180° and retreated, while both wings engaged my advancing army. Sea people were able to march to contact enemy with a small group of IBdF, while trying to use the central gap to threaten enemy flanks. The CiC corps along the sea did not advance, waiting to better position the central troops
The Persian, aware of the danger in the center, advanced to attack and smash my left wing. I kept the light chariots a bit back to use overlaps and eventually hard flank enemy chariots should they follow up deep in my lines.
On the far right the Persian well used the dunes to engage my flank and protect the sparabara. A combination of low pips, bad combat rolls and above all good enemy tactic slowed me there
Sea people best chance to survive on the left was the fast arrival of relief columns from the center. This was a bit dicey, because I needed high pips to manouver.
This pictures show the turn before the IBdF charged the Immortals. They were wiped out in one combat turn, in a sequence of horrible persian die rolls. Thanks to the skirmish tactic used by persians, a gap developed in my lines and I had a flank exposed
On the left the combat was bloody. The Persian heavy chariots were unsuccessful, while the persian cavalry killed many sea people foot.
Also the persian right was under attack, but thanks to the excellent service given by persian light troops, I was not able to destroy the corps. When time was called, the result was a draw. 14-11 to the Sea People.
The persian manouver was very important in this battle. Achemenids were able to gain a marked superiority on the left wing, but this came to the cost of leaving unsupported and exposed the center. It could be a disaster if the right wing did not play an excellent defensive game