Wednesday, February 5, 2025

DotS 36 Ancient Battles


I started playing the battles from 36 Ancient Battles for Dominion of the Spear

These are the first four battles. They all feature chariots in some form.

Megiddo 1479 BC
New Kingdom Egyptians (red) vs. Canaanites (blue)

End of the battle. The Egyptian chariots ran roughshod over the Canaanites.

Final score: Egypt 3 units remaining, Canaanites 1 unit remaining

Notes: 
  • You can see some of the markers I use. The orangey looking (supposed to be gold) tokens indicate Elites. I use the white flags to mark destroyed units.
  • I also added hills to the battlefield. DotS does not use terrain. Instead, it accounts for advantageous terrain in the unit ratings. For example, the Canaanite spears were historically deployed on hills. To account for this, DotS treats them as armored. That's what I did as well. I just used hills to indicate this rather than using an armored token.

Kadesh 1274 BC
Hittites (blue) v New Kingdom Egyptians (red)

A rough turn for the Hittites - 2 units lost!

Final score: Egypt 4, Hittites 1

Note: Speaking of armored tokens, here are some in gray (silver).

Arrapha 616 BC
Neo-Babylonians (blue) v Assyrian Empire (red)

Early in the battle. The opposing archers wipe each other out in the center.

A bloody battle. The Assyrians were near defeat, down to 2 units. But they rallied for the victory.

Final score: Assyrians 2, Babylonians 1

Thymbra 536 BC
Lydians (red) v Early Achaemenid Persians (blue)

In the center, the Persian chariots break on the Lydian elite armored spears. But the Persian archers dominate the flanks.

The archers would continue their dominance, routing the Lydians.

Final score: Persians 4, Lydians 1

Notes
  • Estimated time to complete these 4 battles: 30 minutes!
  • Only one close battle - Arrapha. We'll see how the Greeks fare.
  • I thought I had enough chariots for all possible armies but I fell short for Kadesh. The Hittites had to borrow Egyptian chariots. Worried that my math was wrong, I went back and checked. My math was not wrong; I can do all the armies in the core book. But the Kadesh scenario has different orders of battle than the standard lists.

2 comments:

  1. Fantastic! And yes, the armies in the 36 battles do sometimes vary from the generic ones in the main rules as they are tailored to what was there at those particular battles. And after the chariots, come the Greeks!

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