The above lines are from The Destruction of Sennacherib by George Gordon, Lord Byron:

The Players

The Assyrians:
Larry Reeves, High Commander, also general of the center force
Phil Young, The High Priest, 'Blessed caster of Initiative Die', also general of the right wing
Jim Pitts, General of the left wing

The Egyptians

Bill Hamilton, Beloved of Pharoah - Commander of the center
Sean Pitts, Commander of the left wing
Ed Sansing, Commander of the right wing

Game MasterJay Stribling, also writer of the rules.

Photo by Jim Pitts

Assyrian left wing and center, massed to attack and secure one of the oases. With 12 units, they faced about 9 or 10 Egyptian units. This photo was taken during the set-up.

Photo by Jim Pitts

Assyrian right wing at game set-up. With an oasis very close to the deployment line, this wing of 7 units faced about 9 or 10 Egyptian units.

Photo by Jim Pitts

The Assyrian heavy chariots (right rear), heavy infantry (center), and light infantry and light cavalry (left) assault the Egyptians on the first turn. Superior Assyrian archery and fighting prowess was the key of victory on this flank.

Photo by Jim Pitts

Assyrian horse archers and light cavalry contest a piece of rough ground on the far left flank. The horse archers were eventually destroyed as a fighting force but the light cavalry earned their "spurs" and then went on to reinforce the beleaguered right flank. The rough ground areas were valuable because enemy chariots could not enter them.

Photo by Jim Pitts

Assyrian heavy chariots commanded by Larry Reeves prepare to smash into the Egyptian light chariots who evaded and ran away. Large black "hoops" on some of the chariots show "hits taken." On a cavalry or infantry stand, one hit removed one figure. On the chariot stands, five hits removed a heavy Assyrian chariot from the battle, and three hits removed a lighter Eyptian chariot.

Photo by Jim Pitts

A Nubian spear unit of the Egyptian army attempts to outflank the Assyrian left. The Assyrian forces shown here successfully held through two turns of melee, driving the Egyptians away.

Photo by Jim Pitts

A final view of the left flank. Fleeing Egyptian infantry and chariots can be seen in the distance, as Assyrian infantry advances across the plain. Assyrian archers hold the oasis, supported by horse archers on the far side. The Assyrian left wing commander, Lord Pertussin, commands from the purple colored chariot near the oasis.

Photo by Jim Pitts

Meanwhile, on the Assyrian right, Phil Young has taken the oasis and held it against ferocious Egyptian attacks. But his units are under pressure from newly deployed Egyptian infantry. Luckily night falls and the Assyrians hold both oases and have lost only four of their 19 units plus their commander who was mortally wounded by as assassin in the early stages of the battle. The Egyptians lost many, many more units and fled the field as darkness fell.

Photo by Ed Sansing

A look at the Egyptian lines before the battle. This shows some of the detrius of battle in the form of rules, playsheets, tape measure, cards and handfulls of dice. The Jackson gamers can not seem to get rid of this stuff. We would probably need another table or two, each almost as big as the battlefied, just to hold this stuff.

Photo by Ed Sansing

The Pharoah's light chariots dash forward in the Egyptian center-right. Bill Hamilton commanded these forces. The dark brown hill mass shown in the background divided the battlefield into two arenas. Only light troops could cross this. Towards the end of the game, the Egyptians, conceding their right flank, began to move forces to the left, but not in time to influence the game's outcome.

Photo by Ed Sansing

The Assyrian line looking from their left flank. This shows the massive power of this army.

The game master notes that "The game was not balanced because the armies are not balanced. It became apparent that the Assyrian army had more close combat troops. I will have to paint one or two more Egyptian units!"

Photo by Ed Sansing

A close up of one of the command chariots. Ed Sansing says, "I played the part of General El Teb. At the end of the battle this stand was about the only unit that I had left on the board." This is one of the newer units in the army, made by Irregular Miniatures.

Photo by Ed Sansing

This shows the battle on the Egyptian right, about 2 turns into the game. Ed Sansing says; "I moved up and fired bows at Jim Pitts' Assyrian troops from medium to long range. Jim's cavalry rode to point blank (close range) fired and rode back. He inflicted 6 hits and I hit him 2 times. In the background you can see Larry Reeves' (The Assyrian commander) heavy chariots and the space in front of them has been vacated by Bill Hamilton's light Egyptian chariots, who had gone to the rear."

The rings to the rear of the units represent shooting casualties received. At the end of the shooting phase, they will be applied to the figures and stands removed.

The Miniatures.

No your eyes do not deceive you. These really are ancient miniatures. These are 20mm Ancients designed and made by Jack Scruby in the 1970s. Eric Teuber purchased and painted this army when he lived in Memphis TN, prior to moving to Jackson MS in the late 1970s. They were individually mounted on pennies, and most of the figures are at least 30 years old.

Through dark and devious channels, Jay Stribling came into posession of this army and painted several new units of new figures, obtained from Historifigs the successor to Scruby Miniatures. These new figures filled out units and replaced some old broken figures. I also touched up (NOT repainted) some worn figures. In every case I attempted to match Eric's painting style.

There are now also some new 20mm Irregular Miniatures troops which are made in England.

Three of the Egyptian chariot units are mounted in plastic 1/72 scale Atlantic chariots, drawn by Historifigs horse. Both of the Assyrian chariot units are similarly plastic, crewed with metal men and drawn by metal horses. All the other figures are 20mm metal soldiers - not much bigger than moddern "18 mm" figures.

Photo by Ed Sansing

Some of Jim Pitts's Assyrian cavalry take advantage of the rough and hill area where the Egyptian chariots cannot go. From here they pelted the chariots with arrows.

Photo by Ed Sansing

Ed Sansing remarks: "On the Egyptian left (Sean and Phil) it's a back and forth fight between chariots and cavalry. Some of Bill's infantry advance toward the oasis."

The single stand of heavy cavalry with the red banner are trying to catch the Egyptian chariots in the rear, but they were so reduced by the Egyptian shooting as to be ineffective.

Photo by Ed Sansing

Larry Reeves and Jim Pitts push their Assyrians toward the second oasis - on the left of the photo. The battle took place between the two oases, both of which were prime victory point targets.

Photo by Ed Sansing

Some of Jim Pitts' heavy guard infantry. These troops are Persian 'Immortals'. Did any of these troops actually fight for the Assyrians during battles against the Egyptians in Syria or Lebanon? Probably not, but the previous owner of the army liked them and he painted them, so here they are!

Photo by Ed Sansing

Ed Sansing again: "In the foreground one of Jim 's units hits one of my units in the rear. One of his cavalry units has circled around the second oasis and fired on my last chariot unit. An Assyrian bow unit occupies the oasis."

Phil Young slipped this unit into the oasis pretty early in the game and the Eyptians never could push it out.

Photo by Ed Sansing

Ed Sansing continues: "In the foreground one of Jim's units hits one of my units in the rear. One of his cavalry units has circled around the second oasis and fired on my last chariot unit. An Assyrian heavy infantry archer unit occupies the oasis."

Photo by Ed Sansing

Jay Stribling (game master) in blue shirt and Phil Young in black, watch the carnage. Phil's units still hold the oasis. While Sean Pitts, the Egyptian commander on this flank, might have been able to take it, had the battle continued, the game ended before that could happen.

SO - who won the game?

Posession of the palm-shaded springs was the most valuable victory condition at 3 points each. Enemy units destroyed were worth 1 victory point each, and if either side exited units on the "enemy" side of the field, those would be worth 2 points each. The Assyrians won the game, with a very respectable total of points - they had 14 points and the Egyptians had only 4.