Both armies in this game were supplied by myself and
comprised 500 points using 15mm figures. The game was played at the Swindon
club and lasted 2½ hours. These armies had been in their boxes for over 10
years and have not been used since I fell out of love with the DBM rules. My
late Bronze Age armies had been heavily used in a DBM campaign fought over many
months at the Scimitar club in Coventry in the 1990’s. This was another test
for the Sword and Spear rules (Mark Lewis; Polkovnik Productions, 2014). I had
previously been introduced to these rules a few weeks ago (see last AAR).
I commanded the Hittites, whilst Steve commanded the Egyptians.
The 6’x4’ table was again fairly open with a couple of gentle hills and rough
areas, none of which had a significant effect on the game. The more open left
flank (from my perspective) was the scene of a clash of chariots, the centre
was occupied by infantry of both armies. The right flank was occupied by most
of the light troops and was slightly restricted by a couple of areas of rough
ground. I failed to take my camera, so there no pictures of this game (sorry!).
Both armies advanced and soon the chariots were engaged.
Steve’s Egyptians were fairly successful in their archery which reduced the
effectiveness of my light chariots when they clashed. I did hit a unit of
Egyptian archers with a unit of heavy Hittite chariots, but the dice badly let
me down and, too the surprise of both of us, they destroyed the chariots in a
single turn! The game progressed smoothly and in a fairly balanced manner. Both
armies became demoralised in the same game turn. The resulting morale tests hit
the Hittites more than the Egyptians. The following turn the Egyptians had a
good (6:1) dice draw and could really apply pressure on key weak Hittite units.
The Hittite units were rapidly destroyed and the army collapsed.
A narrow win for the Egyptians, although the Hittites were
only 1 unit away from victory. The direction of the battle lines had shifted, the
Hittites were in the ascendant on the right flank, while the Egyptians had
turned the Hittite left. This was another very enjoyable game. The rules flow
smoothly and fast, with little reference to the main rulebook (or even the
QRS). As a player you are faced with interesting decisions and dilemmas with
regard to dice allocation. The comparative combat dice rolls work well and have
a good balance between predictability and uncertainty, and the loss of my best
chariots to a unit of bowmen came as an unlikely surprise. A 500 point aside
battle can easily be completed within 2-3 hours, and this makes the rules very
applicable for club games.
I have played half a dozen solo games with the rules using
Bronze Age chariot armies, Hoplites against Persians, and Hungarians against
Ottomans. All these were playable match-ups and a couple photos are shown below.
I have found Sword and Spear work very well for solo play, and may possibly be
one of the best solo rules I have used. The core mechanisms of dice allocation
and combat resolution are solid. I can already imagine adapting these basic
mechanisms for other periods where I’m searching for a rule set I like. This is
possibly a high complement for a rule set, but it is a potentially dangerous
reaction: I have seen many rule sets becoming devalued by tinkering and out of
period adaptation (e.g. DBA).
