Battle Of Ulai - Setting Up

HOW the battlefield looked is largely conjecture, but I have included all the significant elements, although whether each is in its correct place is impossible to determine.

Looking from the south, with the River Ulai curving around high ground in the centre of the battlefield

In the foreground is a large deciduous wood, with a smaller wood in the centre-east and a marsh and a copse in the north.

There is some uneven ground east of the hill, but this will only have the effect of slowing chariots and cavalry, reducing their movement allowance by 50%. Infantry will not be affected, and the ground will have no effect on shooting or melees.

Looking from the northwest gives a better view of the swampy ground and adjacent copse

The Assyrians were marching from the west, with an army much more suited to hand-to-hand fighting than were the Elamites, so King Teumman used the Ulai as a barrier to protect his forces, made up mostly of open-order troops, skilled in archery, but without shields or armour.

How the Elamite army may have looked as it awaited the Assyrians coming from the west, assuming the army had chariots, and the Royal Guard of close-order archers, with the rest of the force made up of open-order bowmen

As I explained earlier, King Ashurbanipal and the Assyrians bypassed the main Elamite position, and came at them from the other side of the battlefield, forcing the Elamites to turn and fight with their backs to the river.

That is hardly a position any army would want to be in, as the Ulai here is unfordable - one of the reasons Teumman thought it would make a good barrier to protect his men. So any troops forced into it will count as drowned, and their bases removed from the table.