The Clash of Spears

The "Sons of the Enlightenment" (Renaissance) meet the "Hawks of the Pharaoh" (New Kingdom Egyptians)? Er, that's a relief for a moment I thought it was an army of The Tomb Kings instead. Studying the gait of the figures I notice they have a certain retro feel to them. I am duly informed that they are some forty years old, nearly as old as myself! This bizarre match-up is one of the joys of "bring and army" and have a fight ... still I just want to learn the rules so one army is as good as another for that. In reality would an ancient army stood five minutes against gunpowder, methinks not, but here the statistics only pertain to relative effectiveness, so amongst the ancient papyrus warriors there lies potentially hidden killer VBU statistics.   

The armies line up (see above).

Pharaoh has Spears, Skirmishers and a stack of powerful (in ancient times) chariots to ride down unwary foes. All clad a little too lightly for even a warm Italian summer (see above). The bulk of Pharaoh's Spear, Bow and Skirmish foot with a man (I presumed wrongly) as their General in the background (see below).

Pharaoh stayed static as I pounded his infantry and captiously advanced my central Pike and left flank (see below). In theory I could have stayed back for a while but these "sand lovers" looked a pushover (remember the stats a little voice in my head warned but to no avail). 

Keen to see how my mounted crossbow performed I pushed them into missile range, only to be ambushed by cotton clad javelin infantry (see below). 

My perception of how these "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" could easily draw away from any danger was flawed as a roll of bad dice rather showed them up. They subsequently retired rather sheepishly to a safe distance (see below).

Meanwhile the killing block of Pike and Burgundian Knights maneuvered into position (see below). So far Pharaoh had been content to sit back and lob a few arrows and javelins to try and disrupt the attack, rather feebly. However the though of a large pike block colliding with his front line infantry stirred the "Eagle of the Dessert" into action.

There was a sudden movement to the left of the Egyptian line as Pharaoh's chariots rolled forward with great aplomb ...