A Beach of a Walk - Big Battle DBA Battle Report

This past weekend, Sam put on a game of BBDBA for the South Jersey Gamers Association. 

The battle was an invasion from the sea by an alliance of Spartans, Thebans and Asiatics. The defenders were Athenians, Thessalians, and Phokians. The invading force needed to capture the acropolis.

The Spartan force took up the center of the invader's battle line, with the Thebans to their left and the Asiatics on the right.

The defenders had the Phokians place their artillery and hoplites in the acropolis. The other Phokian units (mostly psiloi) and the Athenians deployed to the right  of the city, while the Thessalians defended the area to the left, over the river.

For the first few bounds of the game, the two sides marched across the verdent fields, vineyards, and groves to try and get into position.

Both sides were mostly made up of heavy infantry, so progress was slow. But eventually the various armies managed to move into line. The Phokians and Asiatics lined up their psiloi on one flank, while the Thessalians and Thebans moved their heavy infantry into the good going on the the other.

As the commander of the Athenians, I managed to get my hoplites into the open ground in front of the acropolis, forcing the Spartans to fight partially in rough ground.

The Athenians and Phokians managed to get their Light Horse through a gap in the enemies' line, which forced them to divert units away from the main fight to try and keep the horsemen hemmed in.

The Spartans and Athenians were the first to get to grips with each other. I noticed that, with units like Spears, you really need to make sure you've got a solid line. Combat factors bonuses from Flank Support, and being outflanked, can potentially spell disaster. For example, a lone unit of Spears facing off against three units of Spears will have a combat factor of 2, against the attacking units combat factor of 6!

Near the beach, my unit of light horse managed to defeat a Spartan psiloi unit, leaving a small group of Spartan hoplites dangerously exposed.

The Spartans finally began to move out of column and into a wider line of battle, but the Athenians managed to hold them back.

The Theban general, preferring to lead from the front, suddenly found himself alone and in close combat with the Thessalian hoplites, but he managed to survive. The Thessalian horsemen, however, realized that the river was easily forded and moved across, easily passing through the gap in the invaders' line.

The Phokian and Athenian light horse managed to rout the Spartan hoplites as their Asiatic allies looked on with relative nonchalance. While the Asiatic and Spartan rears were safe, the Thebans were wide open, unable to stop the combined cavalry of the defenders.

Both the Spartans and Athenians lost more units in the ongoing scrum, but the Spartans were the first to break and flee the field of battle.

As the Thebans desperately held across the river, the Asiatics and Phokian psiloi began to engage, with little effect.

The Thebans were the next army to break, unable to push through the Thessalian heavy infantry at their front or stop the defenders' cavalry in their rear.

With two of their allies gone, the Asiatics retreated as well, relatively intact for their troubles.

The Athenians, Thessalians and Phokians celebrated their victory with much wine and rejoicing!

Sam put on a fantastic game, providing the terrain and armies. We actually were the first people to play on this terrain since it had been commissioned by Sam almost half a decade ago.

DBA continues to be a fun set of rules for relatively simple Ancients combat (as long as you've gotten past the somewhat difficult language. I'm also wondering if we could replay this game using the Triumph! ruleset. Playing a big Dark Ages game would also be fantastic.

Cold Wars Theme Event, Game 3 - DBA AAR

The final game of the Themed Event was against Mike D and his loaned Middle Frankish. 

Mike won the roll for attacker, and so I placed two gentle hills, a brush, and a river.

Of course, Mike chose to invade on the opposite side parallel to the river, so I decided to slowly send a psiloi around my force to see what the river was.

With a bit of scouting, the psiloi discovered that the river was paltry and wouldn't offer any protection, so the Avars finally got themselves moving.

Of course, my delaying allowed Mike enough time to prepare his lines. In hindsight, I should have gotten across the river and charged Mike's slower infantry force when his army was still condensed.

This meant that when my Avars went in, it wasn't going to go well for me in terms of match-ups - as it turns out, Cavalry and Auxilia don't do so well against Knights and Spears. In the first round of combat I lost two units.

While I was able to sack Mike's camp (as he was too focused on the battle in the center of the table), my line continued to break up, as I lost another auxilia.

I took out another unit, but Mike had a crushing round of combat, routing multiple units from the battlefield. Victory went to the Franks, 6-2.

And that conclude all the AARs from Cold Wars (about a month and a half after it ended). I really appreciated all these games, which were quite enjoyable, thanks in no small part to my opponents! I'm looking forward to getting more games of DBA on the table, especially since I have a couple of paired sets of armies that should work well against each other.

Cold Wars Theme Event, Game 2 - DBA AAR

The second game of the Themed Event was against Mike G and his Later Sassanid Persians.

Finally, someone else managed to win the initiative roll, and so I became the defender. I chose two gentle hills, two brush, and a BUA.

Unfortunately, due to the BUA's location, I was unable to deploy my full line, which caused a couple traffic jams as Mike's army approached.

With a lucky roll for pips, however, I was able to get most of my own units up and ready for combat. Mike's movement stopped just short of combat.

Then, with a resounding crash of metal, men, and mounts, the two battlelines smashed into each other. With so many combats, Mike and I decided it was likely that this turn would be the last.

And as it turned out, it was! While Mike was able to knock out two of my units, I took out four of his, and so won 4-2.

Cold Wars Theme Event, Game 1 - DBA AAR

On the morning of my second day at Cold Wars 2018, I took part in a Themed Event for DBA, based around the Early Byzantines and their enemies. As I had the previous day, I used the III/13b Avars list, with its mix of Cavalry, Light Horse, Auxilia, and Psiloi. 

My first opponent was Nick and his Italian Ostrogoths. 

Nick placed two plough, an enclosure (the green field), and a wood on the table.

While my line shuffled forward, Nick used his pips to maneuver his knights from column to line. I decided to try and reach Nick's camp with my two light horse for an early victory point.

That, however, turned out to be a terrible idea, as Nick was able to simply force both units of the table with his psiloi.

The shooting from the Ostrogoths was then able to break my line into unmanageable chunks, and a poor combat saw one of my cavalry units fall to an opposing unit of knights.

The game ended when Nick was able to overlap my cavalry, removing a unit from the table and winning 4-0. Apparently I hadn't learned much from the previous day!

Cold Wars Open Event, Game 4 - DBA AAR

In the last game of the Open Event, I faced Mike D and his Warring States Chinese again. 

As the attacker, I watched as Mike placed down two plough, two difficult hills, and a river. I decided to set up so that the river would split our armies in two.

Both sides advances cautiously, now aware of the other's capabilities after the result of the first game.

I decided to push on the right, hoping I had the advantage against Mike's troops. However, I only managed to recoil his line.

On the next turn, I swung my main line into battle, and removed one of Mike's crossbowmen.

While our lines pushed and shoved each other, Mike removed an auxilia from my right.

In one desperate push, the game ended. I lost a light horse and a cavalry from my right flank. On my left, however, I not only managed to sack Mike's camp, but I also killed his general, a unit of blades, and a unit of light horse. The Avars secured their first victory, 6-3.

Cold Wars Open Event, Game 3 - DBA AAR

My third game in the Open Even was against Mike G, the event organizer, and his Qaramita. This brought back memories from last year, when Chris and I played in a double tournament for ADLG using the Ancient Bedouins, with our goal being to get as many camels on the table as possible.

Once again, I won the roll for attacker and Mike set up the table. He placed down three dunes and a difficult hill.

I could only watch as the massive line of camels came towards me, completely unhindered by the dunes.

I was basically stuck trying to fight three battles - one in the center, and two in each of the dunes. Thanks to the distances between the dunes, I was overlapped in multiple places and lost a stand of auxilia.

I then lost a unit of cavalry, which left my general exposed.

While I managed to get another unit of cavalry up to support my general, Mike began to turn my left flank, removing another stand of auxilia.

And, finally, Mike caused another of my cavalry units to rout, ending the game with a solid 4-0 victory to the Qarmatians.

Cold Wars Open Event, Game 2 - DBA AAR

My second game in the open event was against Terry, who had brought his Medieval Germans.

I won the roll for attacker, and Terry put down two plough, a difficult hill, and a road.

My advancing line was fractured thanks to all the firepower Terry's Germans had. Meanwhile, my Light horse had managed to pull two Knight Hordes and a Light Horse away.

However, that didn't help much, as I lost both units of Light Horse and an additional two units of Cavalry, in exchange for a single Knight Horde. This ended the game with Terry's win, 4-2.

Painting Update - Konflikt 47, DBA

Let's take a look at what I've gotten on the painting table since last time. 

As you've probably noticed, there's been a lot of Konflikt 47 on the blog this year, thanks to a push from Bill at Half Day Studio. As such it's pushed a few things back down the queue. 

These are the vehicles from the German starter set - a Spinne light panzermech, and a Panzer IV-X (the X designating that it's armed with a Schwerefeld Projektor, or a gravity pulse cannon). I'd like to point out that the Panzer kit also included the regular turret in the kit, which lets players field either option. It's a nice bonus. 

Also finished are these two Rift-tech units; armored Fallschirmjager Falcon jump infantry, and the fanatical Waffen-SS Shocktroopers.

While all that Rift-tech is fun, you can't forget about the average infantryman. These are two squads and an officer which act as a backbone to most lists that I build.

I've also completed one of the two options for another DBA force: III/13b, the Avars from 558-631AD. The other option (III/13a) should be pretty easy to finish at some point in the future, since it just replaces all of the infantry with more cavalry units.

Cold Wars Open Event, Game 1 - DBA AAR

Last week I traveled back to Lancaster to attend Cold Wars 2018. While I always enjoy seeing and participating in the wide variety of games available, this time my main goal was to take part in not one, but two DBA events - an Open Event on Friday morning, and an Early Byzantine Themed Event on Saturday morning.

This was a trial by fire, since my previous experience with DBA had been a single solo game I had played to try and get a rudimentary understanding of the rules before the convention. 

Since I was taking part in two events, I decided to bring along the army I had painted for the Themed Event - III/13b, the Avars. 

My first opponent in the Open Event was Mike D, who had brought along his Warring States Chinese. As I won the roll for Attacker, Mike set up the battlefield with two plough, a road, and a gentle hill.

Both our lines advanced towards each other.

Unfortunately, rather ignorant of DBA's combat factors, and coming from ADLG, I didn't realize just how much the fighting favored Mike's crossbows compared to my cavalry. While I managed to kill one unit, I lost a unit in return, and my own line was disrupted.

The game quickly ended as another round of shooting from Mike's crossbow was enough to kill two more units (one of which was my General) ending the game with a 4-1 victory to the Chinese.

Painting Update - Blood Bowl, Test of Honour, DBA

Recent changes in location have made painting a little more difficult, but I'm still trying!

I finished another Blood Bowl team - the Zharr-Angkor Immortals! These miniatures are from an Impact Miniature kickstarter that produced resin versions of Rolljordan Volmarian Dwarves and Necromantic teams.

I also finished the rest of my Test of Honour warband. Since I have a group to play with now, I shifted a group of archers from the other planned (and now unnecessary) warband into the one I'm using now. I also completed all the support commoners - the two sergeant types, a bannerman and a musician - and four samurai with a variety of weapons.

Another project that I finally wrapped up was an Ancient British army for DBA. This is the old Corvus Belli set that I picked up a couple years ago at Fire in the East (NJ Con). Since DBA is one of my 6x6 games for this year, I'm making an effort to get all of the armies I have for it painted. Their opponents are an Early Imperial Roman army from Rebel Minis.