Eye Candy : July 16th

 Today's Watchword : 'Run Like Hell!'

These unwary Iroquois have been flushed-out of the bush.

The Battle of the Pyramids, 1798

At our club's last game night we did a rare refight of the Battle of the Pyramids, using a slightly modified version of the popular Blucher ruleset. Participants included Doug (Ibrahim Bey) and Daniel (Moodrad Bey) as the Mameluk leaders, with Will (Berthier) and his young son Arthur (Napoleon) as the French! 

The game was played in mighty 2mm; mighty, because this scale really lets you go-to-town on mostly scratch-built terrain -- which is great fun.

Looking downstream along the Nile with a 2mm Cairo glistening in the distance. The famous Hanging Church is in the middle distance.

The actual battle was a walkover for the French, due mostly to their use of pretty much impervious divisional squares and the medieval stupidity of the Mameluks. 

Our Mameluk leaders, however, had learnt a thing or two about operations and tactics. Using all of the tools in their toolkit, they turned both French flanks and wore them down. For their part, the French deviated from their use of squares and advanced in Ordre Mixte, exposing themselves to massed Mameluk attacks (although those units which stayed in divisional square throughout didn't take a single loss!). The result: a smashing Mamluk victory. Loses, though, were about even.

'See the pyramids along the Nile.' On the bottom left is Cairo's citadel. Above that is the Coptic Hanging Church on the shoreline, with Giza on the west bank and the Giza plateau in the distance. A tiny Sphinx lies languidly next to the pyramids. 

A Sergei Bondarchuk style view from 16,000 feet. Armies are deploying on the left.

The action opens with the gunboats hammering away at each other and the French advancing in column on the left.

The French flotilla continues to blast away, making short work of the Mameluk shipping. Ibrahim Bey's lads usefully shout encouragement. 

The action well underway. Reynier is sticking to divional square. "By the Sacred Blue and Death of a Life, citizen General," he says to Berthier. "That's a lot of Mamluks!"

Lowly slaves are pressed into action, waiting to be ferried across the Nile. Their role in battle was to follow up the horse; cutting throats and robbing the wounded.

Thanks to Doug, Daniel, Will, and Arthur (who looked quite the young Buonaparte!) for being adventurous and taking part.