Their only hope was to disrupt the unprepared Egyptian with their chariots closely supported by all their infantry. Crush one army, then turn and deal with the other.
It's not the girl's fault. Her teacher has only taught her to do what he says, not to think for herself. It's the teacher's fault - he assumed control of the whole battle, thinking that he knew best - when in fact his companion general had the better ideas.
A pity, I really think they were asked to pull off a hard one. I really think once they didn't make an all-out attack right from the word "go" they were doomed, which is far too harsh. It should have been explained to them that the fact that the egyptians were arranged in collumn formation at the start meant they were extra vulnerable, I'm sure they didn't realize that otherwise they wouldn't have tried the futile lure strategy. Vicki was actually pretty pathetic. Wasn't ALL her teacher's fault
@timonsolus this happens in real life too tho. some lieutenants have no idea what to do and be confused asking repeatedly for orders from their generals bc they can also only follow orders
Its disappointing that their communication and organization broke down, I think they still could have pulled it out if the flanking maneuver had come sooner.
The team didn't know the Egyptian reinforcements were going to arrive in their rear (that's not the way it happened historically.) Also the Hittite pikemen had long spears, but no shields and poor armour, making them very vulnerable to the Egyptian archers. A lot of the pikemen got shot down by archers in this battle while they were advancing. So using them to hold the river crossing might only result in the Egyptians massing archers on the opposite bank and shooting them across the river.
I think a defensive strategy would have worked better, after they lost initiative, since they had phalanx units who would have been able to defend the narrow crossing…and when the small second army arrived, they should have attacked it and killed it first,while holding the main army at the crossing with some phalanx units
The problem frankly was their infantry was garbage. Those axemen walked through the front of a wall of spears and cut an infantry force twice their size apart. The lack of intervention from the chariots prove decisive, but the problem seemed to be that the infantry were about as effective as a bunch of men with pitchforks.
I think she's too used to taking orders from the teacher, and the teacher's taught her to do everything he says. She's got no initiative, and I think that her teacher is responsible for it. I'm glad the other general has his own initiative and is actually competent, since this teacher is simply inept and ties the whole command down.
Its the fualt of them both...the girl could not think for herself becuse of what you say,but she also refused to act even when she was told what to do,because she let her self be panic striken
their infantry is superior to the egyptians since they can get in phalanx. plus the eqyptians have very light armoured infantry an only 1 elite guard unit
![Kate Silverton in Time Commanders:Battle of Raphia [1/6]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/XwRTFE7YaGk/mqdefault.jpg)
The surprised look on Eddie Mair's face when that kid was about to drop an 'F' bomb pre-watershed on BBC 2. Priceless.
Their only hope was to disrupt the unprepared Egyptian with their chariots closely supported by all their infantry. Crush one army, then turn and deal with the other.
They should have kept reserves behind, Their reserve only on had James light infantry, Hittite army was larger
It's not the girl's fault. Her teacher has only taught her to do what he says, not to think for herself. It's the teacher's fault - he assumed control of the whole battle, thinking that he knew best - when in fact his companion general had the better ideas.
The worst guy you had to choose was the arrogant boy as a general
A pity, I really think they were asked to pull off a hard one. I really think once they didn't make an all-out attack right from the word "go" they were doomed, which is far too harsh. It should have been explained to them that the fact that the egyptians were arranged in collumn formation at the start meant they were extra vulnerable, I'm sure they didn't realize that otherwise they wouldn't have tried the futile lure strategy.
Vicki was actually pretty pathetic. Wasn't ALL her teacher's fault
Anyone who has faith in the current UK educational system (and its American counterpart) should see this episode.
@timonsolus
this happens in real life too tho. some lieutenants have no idea what to do and be confused asking repeatedly for orders from their generals bc they can also only follow orders
Its disappointing that their communication and organization broke down, I think they still could have pulled it out if the flanking maneuver had come sooner.
The team didn't know the Egyptian reinforcements were going to arrive in their rear (that's not the way it happened historically.) Also the Hittite pikemen had long spears, but no shields and poor armour, making them very vulnerable to the Egyptian archers. A lot of the pikemen got shot down by archers in this battle while they were advancing. So using them to hold the river crossing might only result in the Egyptians massing archers on the opposite bank and shooting them across the river.
I think a defensive strategy would have worked better, after they lost initiative, since they had phalanx units who would have been able to defend the narrow crossing…and when the small second army arrived, they should have attacked it and killed it first,while holding the main army at the crossing with some phalanx units
@ArcaneAzmadi They should have mentioned probably reinforcements, too.
The problem frankly was their infantry was garbage. Those axemen walked through the front of a wall of spears and cut an infantry force twice their size apart.
The lack of intervention from the chariots prove decisive, but the problem seemed to be that the infantry were about as effective as a bunch of men with pitchforks.
I think she's too used to taking orders from the teacher, and the teacher's taught her to do everything he says. She's got no initiative, and I think that her teacher is responsible for it. I'm glad the other general has his own initiative and is actually competent, since this teacher is simply inept and ties the whole command down.
and also @timonsolus, well isn't that a philosophical but sad truth how the way the world works sometimes :\
Its the fualt of them both...the girl could not think for herself becuse of what you say,but she also refused to act even when she was told what to do,because she let her self be panic striken
their infantry is superior to the egyptians since they can get in phalanx. plus the eqyptians have very light armoured infantry an only 1 elite guard unit
@0xXkojiroXx0 Creepy, dude. Creepy.