Battle Report: In Strife and Conflict: Battle of Kadesh II: Candle-powered How-do-you-do!

 

I want to eventually run an "Educational" game around the Battle of Kadesh at my local libraries.  This will be with people who don't know anything about wargaming and probably don't know much about ancient history.  Chances are they will be a mix of children, teens, and adults.  I have never done anything like this before.  

Therefore, I want to test run the Battle of Kadesh scenario from the In Strife and Conflict rulebook to see if it will do what I need it to do for the demo game.  Therefore, I ran this scenario a few times to see how different folks would play it.  

Forces

Egyptians

3 Light Chariots

- Composite Bows

- General

1 Professional Infantry

2 Auxiliary Infantry

- Composite Bows

4 Archers

Hittites

3 Heavy Chariots

- Javelins

- 1 General

1 Auxiliary Infantry

2 Levy Infantry

- Bows

2 Skirmishers

Mission: 

We followed the outline in the main rulebook for the battle.  

Set-up:

Of course, we will be playing today on a 72MU by 48MU board with each MU equal to 1 inch.  

Using the core rulebook rules, we set-up the table per the scenario.  The Egyptians start with a limited number of units on the table, representing the Pharaoh and his advanced force.  The Hittites get all their troops to start with on the other side of the river.  

Crossing the Orontes River is Dangerous terrain, but only Difficult at the Fords.  The fields around Kadesh are also Difficult.  The city itself is Impassable.  

King Muwatalli II and his Hittite Army

The Pharaoh is out ahead of the main army with his Sherden Guards and some Archers of the Ra division.  The rest of the Egyptian army will begin trying to get to the battle starting in turn 4. 

The Ra Division out front near Kadesh

I will be giving an overview of the battle below, pulled out into my usual three sections of Maneuvers, Battle, and End Phases.  I will then give some final thoughts at the end. 

Maneuver Phase

The Hittites seem to be following a more historical depiction of the battle.  The King and his chariots are going around the city and towards the fords on the South side of Kadesh.  Meanwhile, the Pharaoh confident in his divine heritage moves forward, as the Hittite infantry move to block him crossing the ford.  

As the Pharaoh moves across the Orontes, he draws first blood with a volley of arrows into the Hittite skirmishers.  His Sherden were on the shore looking to follow.  Perhaps the Pharaoh has bitten off more than he can chew?    

Battle Phase

Poor Command and Control by the Pharaoh allows the Hittites to reinforce the ford on the North side of Kadesh.  This blocks the Pharaoh from forcing his crossing, and gets him tangled up with Hittite Spearmen.  The Sherden Guards are following-up, but fording the river has delayed them from helping the impetuous Pharaoh, The Heavy Hittite Chariots begin to cross the Orontes River south of Kadesh, the upper branch.  

Hittite Skirmishers join the fight at the ford with the Pharaoh.  With the aid of the light troops, and some re-rolls; the Pharaoh is easily routed!  Meanwhile, other parts of the Egyptian army begins to enter the field of battle.  A unit of Light Chariots, 2 Archer units, and a Auxiliary Infantry unit with bows.  Too little, too late!  

The Hittites reinforce their shoreline on the North side of Kadesh, while the Egyptians rain arrows down upon them.  The Hittite King and his chariots race around Kadesh towards the second ford and the bulk of the Egyptian army.  The newly arrived Egyptian forces move to try to reinforce the last ford before the Hittites can get to it.  

Egyptian bowfire clears the Hittite Spearmen off the ford, and the Sherden begin to march across again.  However, the crossing is the target of murderous and accurate bow and javelin attacks from the Hittites as the Sea People cross.  

To the South of Kadesh, the Hittite chariots get to the second ford of the Orontes and find the Egyptians blocking their advance.  The enemy has been located at last!  The lead chariot throws their javelins but fail to cause much disruption.  

The Hittite Heavy Chariots are met with murderous Egyptian bow fire, and the initial attack is quickly blunted and sent reeling!  Failures of King Mutuwalli II with Command and Control lead tot he heavy loss of life.  

At the other ford, the Hittite missiles manage to rout the crossing Sherden Guards, failing to get across.  This causes the Egyptian forces there to start to waiver.  A Hittite skirmisher unit is set to wavering from Egyptian counter-fire.

The Hittites decide to bid all of their King's Decree except 1 to get initiative, and once they have it they launch a charge with their Heavy Chariots, determined to break their way across the ford.  The charge hits home, and pushes the Egyptians back and wavering, losing two courage but at the cost of 1 in return.

At the Northern ford, the Egyptian Light Chariots seize the initiative and push across the Orontes.  They open fire on the disrupted skirmishers and send them fleeing to the four winds.  However, the Archers are too busy re-organizing to press the archery duel.  However, Hittite counter-fire is enough to drive the Egyptian chariots back, scattering them yet again!     

 

End Phase

The momentum of both sides has been blunted, and the battle is winding down.  The Hittite Heavy Chariots try to push through the last ford South of Kadesh, but the disrupted Egyptians manage to stay strong with support from a nearby archer unit.  At the other flashpoint, Egyptian archery forces the last Hittite skirmisher to switch to Open Order and fall back.  This leaves them disrupted.  However, the Egyptians do not try to force the ford yet again.  

In a last push, King Mutuwalli II throws everything he has into the battle South of Kadesh along the shores of the Orontes River.  However, despite disrupting the Egyptian lines, he can not break through.  For their part, the Egyptians are content to have held the Hittites back, and do not try to cross the Orontes again.  

Conclusion

Some big divergences from what we know of the historical battle.  The Hittite Chariotry followed a more historical approach, but were held by the Egyptians.  Meanwhile the Pharaohs efforts to cross the Orontes and act aggressively were obviously and painfully halted.  He was forces to flee back to his camp with his tail between his legs!  This looks like a much closer battle than the last Battle of Kadesh we fought. 

Hittites earned 24 point but lost 18 points for +6 points.  The Egyptians did the inverse.  Therefore, the Hittites win the battle again!  

This less than decisive win matches what we know of the aftermath of the actual battle.  Kadesh seems to have stayed in Hittite control, Egyptian influence in the area waned, and the Pharaoh did not venture forth again into the Levant.  A relatively historical outcome for this one.    

Final Thoughts

Crossing a contested river is hard!  Both sides failed to manage it!  Missile power ruled the day.  A single missile unit was not enough to stop a determined advance, but the force that was better able to coordinate their firepower was able to route attackers.  In addition, the chariots were very mobile and allowed rapid re-deployment and maneuver, but were not overwhelmingly powerful in the attack.  That seemed about what I wanted out of this ruleset.

I think the next step is to create some unit cards with one side being game details, and the other being some historical details.  I.e. why chariots?  Who was Ramesses II?  What was needed for Bronze weapons?  Why Bronze?  Etc.  I would also like a timeline of the "historical" battle that I could project during the game as we go through some of the phases of the battle.  Maybe a map of the area as well?  Anyway, the tools to make it a "learning" game.  Then, I will be ready to take it to the local libraries and college for some demos!  Two players on the Hittite side, three on the Egyptian side, and me as the GM should be do-able.   

Until next time! 

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Battle Report: In Strife and Conflict - Egyptians vs. Hittites in a prelude to Kadesh

 

Exciting times my friends.  This was a practice game in the run up to the big Battle of Kadesh game I want to host.  Therefore, the forces are not at maximum size yet as we get used to the rules.  We are having a "what-if" type of scenario where our two opponents forward forces have a meeting engagement prior to the big battle we know about at Kadesh.  

Forces

Egyptians

3 Light Chariots

- Composite Bows

- General

1 Professional Infantry

2 Auxiliary Infantry

- Composite Bows

4 Archers

Hittites

3 Heavy Chariots

- Javelins

- 1 General

1 Auxiliary Infantry

2 Levy Infantry

- Bows

2 Skirmishers

Mission: 

As the Egyptians are operating in the Levant against the Hittites, we made the Egyptians the Attackers and the Hittites the Defenders.  We then randomly determined the scenario using the method in the rules.  We were going to play a supply run.  The Hittites were moving vital supplies to Kadesh prior to the Egyptians getting there and laying siege to the city! 

The Hittites have three supply tokens they need to get off board in 8 turns and without breaking. 

Set-up:

Of course, we will be playing today on a 72MU by 48MU board with each MU equal to 1 inch.  

Using the core rulebook rules, we see a relatively open battlefield that is bisected by some hills.  The rest is fairly flat and open terrain, with one edge bordering a coast line. 

Egyptian Forces

The Egyptians from there left flank across are two archers, the Pharaoh, the Sherden Guard, some Auxiliary Infantry with bows, two light chariots, some Auxiliary infantry, and the last two archers. 

Hittite Forces

From the Hittite right to left is the Heavy Chariots, backed up by the infantry with the auxiliaries in the middle.  On the far flank on a hill is two units of skirmishers.  The Hittite commander has dispersed his supplies with the General, the spearmen infantry, and a unit of skirmishers.   

As usual, I won't be doing an exact play-by-play of the battle,  I will break it into the Maneuvering phase, Battle Phase, and End Game for brevity and simplicity.

Maneuver Phase

The two sides move-out.  The Egyptian chariots are on the opposite side of the board for the most part, as the Hittite forces lurch to their right flank.  The Egyptians are more evenly spread, but their Chariots seem to be more to their own right.  The Pharaoh is in the center.  One of the Hittites units with the supplies clambers up into a hill for extra defense.  

The two sides manage to do a bit of skirmishing early.  The Pharaoh gets a bead on the supply skirmishers on the hill and opens fire with their bows.  The cause a few troopers to fall.  In return, the escorting skirmishers charge into the Egyptian leader, he stands his ground and fights with them; eager for glory.  The fighting is a draw, reminding the Egyptian player that Light Chariots are best for shoot-n-scoot!  

Meanwhile, the Heavy Hittite chariots carrying supplies attack the Egyptian flank.  The heavy charge of the chariots easily routes the Egyptian archers they come in contact with!  The second Heavy Chariot peppers the other Egyptian Archers with ineffective missile fire. 

With the first Egyptian unit routed, the battle starts in earnest! 

Battle Phase:

The Egyptians start by firing a volley of arrows at a group of Heavy Chariots leading the Hittite advance.  They inflict minimal courage loss.  In response, the Hittites try to steal the initiative, and succeed!.  The supply carrying Chariots manage a flank charge on the archers and scatter them like seeds in the wind.  

The Egyptians try to regain the Initiative, but fail.  The Hittite Levy infantry fires at the Egyptian elites, who shrug off the attack. However, the Hittite skirmishers with the supplies manage to get behind a Levy Infantry screen.

The Royal Sherden Guards rush to the defense of the Pharaoh and easily smash their way through the Hittite Skirmishers and protect their paymaster.  They have proven their worth to the Pharaoh yet again! This allows the Pharaoh to regroup with his other light chariots, and start to move behind the Hittite line.  They pepper some Levy Infantry on a hill with archer fire, but for little effect. 

The battle has reached the half-way point, the Egyptians appear to be out of position, as the Hittites surge forward.  In an attempt to salvage a bad situation, the Egyptian Infantry on the hill use their Composite Bows on the Hittite King racing past below them, and cause minor injury on his entourage.  The Sherden guards charge the Levy infantry anchoring the Hittite rearguard, and attempt to scatter them off the hill.  They exchange courage loss, but the Levy is disordered from the Professional soldiers ferocious assault.  The Egyptian chariots desperately try to race around the flank and get behind the advancing Hittites, but it maybe too little too late.  

The Hittite King and his escorts throw Javelins back at the Egyptians on the hill, and with some luck manage to inflict minor injury on their attackers.  The Levy Infantry move up, blocking the enemy infantry from getting off the hill and after their supply bearers.  

The Hittite king swings around the hills, and charges into the Egyptian archers.  They try to Evade, but the Hittite King has too much momentum.  He crashes into them, but fails to scatter them.  The remaining Chariot and Infantry fire arrows and throw Javelins into the infantry on the hill, but fail to cause any damage.  The Hittite Levy infantry manages to throw the Sherden guard off the hill with few casualties, they manage to refrain from following up.  The supplies with the Hittite Heavy Chariot escape the board successfully.  

The Egyptian Infantry on the hill charges down to attack the Hittite Levy Infantry blocking their way.  They manage to push the Hittites back in the combat.  The Pharaoh and his chariot guard see the Hittite troops breaking away from them, can they catch them in time?  

End Phase

The Hittite Skirmishers with the supplies dash for safety.  The Egyptians manage to steal the initiative to try and chase down the enemy.  The Egyptian Light Chariots manage to catch-up to the fleeing Skirmishers, and shoot down the fleeing soldiers with ease!   However, the Hittite spearmen are made of tougher stuff, and shrug it off.  

The Egyptian Auxiliary Infantry charges at a Heavy Chariot, but they manage to deftly evade the attack.  As they race past, they pepper the impudent Egyptians with Javelins causing minimal damage.  The Disordered Hittite Levy Infantry on the hill, pulls itself together long enough to charge down into the flank of the infantry battle, but fail to sway the fight.  The Hittite King again fails to scatter the Egyptian archers.  

Going into turn 7 of 8, the Egyptians are closing in on their prey.  The Hittites spend all their King's Decree to get their last unit off the board and for a win.  However, they make it to the board edge.  The Egyptians have 1 last chance to stop them from escaping.  The Egyptians let them play out the rest of their turn, with the Hittites scattering an archer unit, and the Levy Infantry pushing the Egyptians back!  However, the Hittite infantry is on the brink of routing.  

An Egyptian Light Chariot desperately charges forward at full speed to tie-up the supply unit, but fail to get there and are disordered by the effort!  The follow-up Light Chariots rush forward and fire arrows, but fail to stop the Hittite troops.    

The Final turn, the Hittites spend all their King's Decree.  The Egyptians do too.  This forces a roll-off, which the Hittites win.  They activate their Infantry unit with the supplies and flee the board, ending the game.  

Conclusion:

A Hittite victory as they get 2 out of 3 supply tokens off the board edge.  It went down to the last die roll of the game, which is usually a sign of a well-fought battle!  

Two mistakes occurred during this game.  First, I deployed 1 Egyptian archer unit too many in deployment.  Second, we rolled up the Bad Water complication and then completely forget to use it during the game!  Woops. 

Here are some additional final thoughts.  First, heavy chariots are deadly!  They smashed through whole units in a single turn.  Granted, they were archer units, but still pretty impressive.  Second, Light Chariots are great at flitting about and shooting stuff like crazy.  They also allow for quick re-deployment and response.  They were a ton of fun to control!  Being on terrain helps a lot to defend against missiles and assaults, dug in infantry is hard to move.  The changes to infantry movement, charging distances, missile ranges, etc. all give this a very different feel than my Greek/Roman games.  There is a lot more movement and less line-up and bash!  I like it!  

Hopefully, this gives you a good feel for the game.  Next up, I am going to do a dry run of Kadesh, and then figure out when I am going to put on that community game with it!  You can pick-up these rules now on my Blood and Spectacles page on the Wargame Vault now.  

Until next time! 

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Battle Report: In Strife and Conflict- Scouting Engagement in the Levant

 

Now that the armies for Kadesh are sorted, I figured it was time to do a playtest of the basic rules.  I have done some playtesting using templates previously, but this will be the first time with actual miniatures!  Exciting.  

I Ramses the II, he who makes mortals tremble, have marched north past the fortress of Tjel.  My intention is to reclaim the city of Kadesh and the Kingdom of Amurru.  The foolish rulers there have turned from my munificence and have taken council with King Muwatalli II from the North.  I shall teach them the error of their ways.  

As part of this effort, my might army has probed the coast scouting the best way forward.  Local vassals of the Muwatalli have come forth to challenge me.  Foolish mortals.  We shall sweep them aside like so much dust. 

At some point, the Kingdom of Amurru which was led by the city-state of Kadesh.  They had been vassals of the Egyptians in previous centuries, but overtime had drifted to the Hittite orbit.  This angered Ramessess II who wished to rebuild Egypt's empire in the Levant and return the region to Egyptian control. The year prior to the Battle of Kadesh, Egyptian forces were all ready active in the Canaanite lands.  

Today's battle will represent some of the scouting and blocking forces engaging in southern Canaan.  

Forces:

Today's battle is speculative in nature.  Therefore, we will be using the standard Lines of Battle to choose forces up to 24 points.

Egyptians

1 Light Chariot  

- Composite Bow 

1 Levy Infantry

- Bow 

1 Auxiliary Infantry

1 Archer

Hittites

1 Heavy Chariot

1 Light Chariot

Levy Infantry

Skirmishers

Mission: 

We will be playing the Scout the Area scenario found in the main rules.  The intention is not to destroy the foes, but to understand the terrain.  

For ease, we decided not to use any complications for the raid scenario.  

Set-up: 

We are using a 48 x 48 MU table, with 1 MU being 1 inch.  Therefore, a 4 by 4 space.  

The Western edge of the table is the Mediterranean Sea.  The Egyptians get the South, and the Hittites the North.  We divide the area into four zones and randomly determine terrain per the rules in the booklet.  The North side is 1 and 2, and the South is 3 and 4.  

1 = 2 level hill

2= Pond 0r Dangerous Terrain

3= Grove or Difficult Terrain

4= No terrain  

Hitties in distance with skirmishers, Levy, Heavies, and Lights. 
Near side is Egyptians with archers, levy w/bows, Auxiliary, and Lights

As normal, I am covering this battle in three phases.  I will not be talking about each individual decision, unless it is relevant.  However, I took careful notes of the outcome as this is a playtest game.  

The first two turns are the Maneuver Phase, Turns 3-6 is the Battle Phase, and turn 7-8 is the End Phase. 

Maneuver Phase

The speed of the Hittite force pays off, as they are able to grab 4 of the 6 objectives early.  

The Egyptian light Chariots go out dangerously ahead of their support to grab an objective as well.  The last objective is under the bows of the Egyptian archers, and the javelins of the Hittite skirmishers.  The skirmishers overlook it from the hill top.  

Battle Phase

The Hittites get the initiative and begin the attack! The heavy chariots manage to rumble towards the Egyptian lights at a gallop.  The Egyptians try to evade, but can not get away fast enough and are caught by the Hittites.  A swirling melee ensues and the Egyptians are pushed back.  The battle is joined by the Hittite light chariots, and things look bad for the Egyptians.  All is not lost, as the Egyptian Auxiliary infantry manages to charge into the fight.  

The Egyptian Archers manage to get the last objective, but are under threat from Hittite skirmishers on the hill top.  

Meanwhile, the Egyptians disorder the Hittite Heavy Chariot, but their Chariot forces and Auxiliary infantry are forced to fall back!  

The Archers are hit by a rain of javelins from the hill, but keep enough courage and discipline to fire on the Hittite Levy.  Along with the fire of the Levy Egyptians bows, the unit is reduced to half courage, but stays in formation. 

The Hittite Heavy Chariot hits the Egptian Levy in the flanks.  Despite the flank charge, the Levy put up fierce resistance.  Both sides are heavily injured and disordered.  The Hittite Levy join the fray, and further demoralize the beleagured Egytpians.  

The Egyptian Archers and Hittite skirmishers trade shots, but the cover of the Hilltop gives the Hittites the advantage.  

End Phase

In the fight in the center, the Egyptian Levy manages to send the Hittite Heavy Chariots and Hittite Levy packing.  However, the Egyptian Levy also have to fall back.  

However, Javelins from the Hittite Skirmishers also rout the demoralized Egyptian archer unit.  This leaves the field to the Hittites. 

Conclusion

A Hittite victory no matter how you slice it!  I did not have the speed for this mission compared to what the Hittites brought to the table.  My focus on needing to dash forward also restricted my ability to shoot and scoot with my Light Chariots, their main advantage over the Hittites.  

The Hittites grabbed 4 objectives, and I grabbed 2.  In addition, my forces were completely routed.  We did some damage to the Hittites though.  We routed their Heavy Chariots and their Levy infantry.  We also pinged some courage from the skirmishers, so it wasn't a completely 1-sided victory for them.  

In reality, I would image the Hittite Light Chariots in my rear would have made sure very few of my Egyptians made it back to the Sinai and out of Canaan.     

King Muwatali II am displeased with the Egyptian dogs entering the kingdom of my vassals.  Gather the soldiers o Hattusta so we can whip these mutts back to the desert where dogs belong.  Our mighty armies will teach them a lesson not soon forgotten.  Let us march to Kadesh! 

Final Thoughts

How did the game play function?  Well, chariots were much faster than any foot mounted troops.  That was exactly as how it was intended.  In addition, skirmishers in cover were hard to dislodge.  Everything else seemed to work as intended.

Evasion by the Light Chariots against foot foes would have worked great, but I was charged by chariots that also had Pursue.  Therefore, the two options sort of negated each other this game.  I think I need some more playtesting using evade and pursue with chariots.  I have seen Egyptian Light Chariots with bows very effectively employ hit and run tactics, but not today.      

I went back and tweaked the set-up rules a bit, because as written now they overly favored the defended.  I also did not notice that once all tokens were gathered, the game ended!  Whoops. I played that a bit differently.        

Overall, I was pleased with how it all went.  It was relatively easy to wrap your head around, with the most questions coming around joining a combat that had all ready been resolved.  I might want to add an example of play to clear up how this section of the rules works.  It is not 100% intuitive 

 as it is delayed support + charge dice rather than a full attack dice + charge dice.  More to come in that space. 

Bonus Content

I painted up a lone, 28mm Whizkids pre-primed model for a member my RPG group.  I was not super impressed with the "pre-prime" and recommend anyone else just prime them again.  They did not work well with Speedpaints at all.  Instead, I had to use my standard base and wash techniques.  

Nothing special, but now we have a full party of painted minis when we play.  Our current campaign is pretty OSR and "Combat as War" so far, so the minis on a battle mat are pretty nice to have handy.  If we are using minis, I prefer for all of them to be painted.  I'm strange that way!   

Until next time! 

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On The Painting Desk: Battle of Kadesh - The Soldiers of Hattusa March!

 

My latest rules project was focused on Assyria.  The focus would be chariot warfare, Bronze Age, and even early Iron Age warfare.  Of course, that meant one of the historical scenarios had to be the Battle of Kadesh.  Despite not having any Assyrians in it, I started building armies for Kadesh as I figured it would make a great display game and demo!  It is one of the most famous battles of all time.  

In 2023, I finished off my Egyptian army for the battle (and other scenarios) here: 

These are all 6mm from Baccus and mounted on 60 x 60mm bases.  

After finishing the Egyptians, it was time to turn to the Hittites!  I have all ready finished most of the army.  But I still have the Royal guard, with and without Bow support, and the rather large chariot corps.  

Here is the Hittite army so far....

With two infantry units left, I got to work on those first.  These guys represent the core of the Hittite army and the most disciplined of the King's forces.  I had two units, one with just the infantry, and the second with bow support built-in.  I have to say, the Baccus minis have an amazing level of detail for 6mm models and they looked great! 

My camera has a hard time getting good detail shots at 6mm!  However, I used my standard techniques and soon had two more units of Hittite infantry done.  Here is a quick photo-montage of the process.  If you have been following the project on the blog, you are well aware of the steps I take.  

So, the Guards got finished up and added to the rest of the Hittite infantry force.  Here you can see them in action at the forefront of the army. 

Next up, was the Chariot corps.  The Hittites actually made use of two types of chariots.  They used a lighter 2-man chariot and a larger, heavier 3-man chariot.  The why's and the how's are still a but up in the air.  However, many feel they used their chariots in a more "shock attack" and charging role than the Egyptians.  Egyptians preferred a mobile archery platform.      

Anyway, I realized right away that my typical techniques for painting 6mm were not going to work.  I had a hard time getting the chariot draught pole and yokes attached.  I decided to skip having those as part of the models.  It was not going to be worth the effort.  

That means I also had issues mounting them on the sticks to paint them.  I was going to have to change everything up.  I started by undercoating the horses, and then I tried to mount the light chariots and horses to their bases.  Then, I undercoated the Cars and Crew from there.  Overall, this was much harder than my preferred method.  For the Heavy Chariots, I just undercoated and did some painting separately, but again it was not as easy as the Egyptian chariots.  

Hittite Light Chariots

Once assembled on their bases, I went ahead and painted them all up and got ready to finish them off.  This was a bit harder than doing them on the sticks.  However, it was easier than I had feared.  Thankfully, the models have pretty decent detail and painting 6mm models is more like sticking a dot of paint in the right place than any real detailed painting.  

Heavy Chariots in front, Light to the rear

You will notice that like the Egyptian Pharaoh, I gave the Hittite King a four horse chariot to help them stand out a bit.  I also tried to color-code the units to help differentiate who-was-who a bit better.  Heavy's are White, Purple, and Yellow; while the Lights are Red, Green, and Blue.  This will make them easier to ID on the field at arm's length. 

From here, I finished up the bases using my usual method.  Territorial brown, a drybrush of khaki, some green ink, and black around the edges of the base.  

With that, the last step was to take a few action shots out in the arid lands of the Levant.  I also wanted a group shot with the rest of the Hittite forces.  The soldiers of Hattusa march to Kadesh under the command of King Muwatulli II.

With the armies done, I still had one last thing to complete for this project.  That was the city of Kadesh itself!  You may recall that my friend Kelly made a 3D printable version of a Bronze Age city for me.  Well, I had to get it painted up for the demo game! 

I primed it Seer Grey and busted out my Big-Box Acrylics.  I used the same basic colors as I used for the bases; Territorial Beige, Khaki, and Nutmeg Brown.  I used a few spots of color on the marketplace tents in the design.  After the base coats, I washed them with a Light tone wash.  

I made up a QRS and put it in the main rulebook this time.  I am learning!  Now, the last steps is to play-test the basic rules a bit more and the Battle of Kadesh scenario specifically.  Then, I think I am ready to take this around as a demo game for wargaming.  

Until next time! 

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Blood and Spectacles Patreon! 

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