Biblical Dry Run - Turn Eight

Situation at the start of turn eight

Hebrews

The unengaged auxiliaries between the two bits of rocky ground advance towards the ongoing melees.

The one-base Benjaminite slingers shoot at the royal chariot squadron, but inflict no damage.

The four-base Benjaminite slingers in the other rocky ground shoot at the marine archers, scoring two hits, which are halved since their line-of-sight is partly obscured by the uneven ground, and the hit stands.

The Gadites hurl their javelins at the chariots rushing down the hill, scoring one hit. Light chariots have a saving throw of 5+, but I roll 1.

In the largest melee my Sherden inflict a hit, but suffer two. The Hebrew auxiliaries negate their hit, but my men are not so lucky, despite having medium armour.

There is some action in the one-base melee, when my men inflict a hit, only for it to be saved.

Finally, my unit of ordinary spears is eliminated, although managing to inflict a hit.

The Hebrew breakthrough in the centre leaves my archers looking vulnerable

Egyptians

I declare a charge by my righthand chariots against the Gadites. The latter are armed with javelins, which can have defensive fire in such circumstances, but only if the charge starts from more than 8cm away. Light chariots against open-order infantry is an even fight under the rules, ie each side receives one die per base. The charioteers inflict two hits and only suffer one. None of the hits is negated, which means that under totting up the Gadites are reduced to one base.

On the other flank I decide, perhaps belatedly, that my chariots have been spending a lot of time doing very little, so I order the righthand squadron to rush behind my lines to try to intercept the recently victorious Hebrew auxiliaries.

My marine archers turn to face the same auxiliaries, so as not to be charged in the flank by them, and my other close-order archers advance slightly to the left, but not deviating more than 30 degrees from a straight line (otherwise they would lose half their move-allowance of 8cm).

The royal squadron shoots at the one-base Benjaminite slingers, inflicting one hit, which is halved because of the latter's cover, and lost completely on a 50:50 chance.

My Sherden inflict a hit and suffer one in their continuing melee, neither hit being negated.

At last there was some real action in the one-base melee, with my men inflicting a hit that Reg is unable - for a change! - to cancel.

The next turn looks crucial