Saturday 4 April 2015

Battle Report - Club Day DBA

So the Ottawa Miniatures Gamers had one of our DBA days so I figured I would give a few reports of how I got on. I decided to give my Marian Romans a go, since we were doing the Classical Period. I went with 8 legions (blades), 2 mounted (cavalry) including the general, and 2 skirmishers (Psioli). Looking in the pictures maybe I missed an element and only had 7.

Game 1: Vs Tod Ah not surfe what army he was playing now but had 1 knights a bunch of cav an elephant and some support troops


I was the invader so the enemy put down 3 ploughed fields and a woods, it didn't rain so the fields were just open terrain. I put down a big line of legions with skirmishers and cav on the flanks and waited for all the mounted to come and kill me. In an early battle I was able to push a light horse off the map.


The lines just kept marching closer.


Dice rolls turned very well for me then, the knight element ended up tieing my blade, which in the new version means that they die. This is a bit of an odd result as the knights would usually crush the blades. I think I got a cavalry due to rolling double. I my turn I was able to flank the whole in the line that had been created to secure a win.

Game 2: Vs Nick Again not sure what army this was, but based around 2 elephants, a bunch of pikes, and a scythed chariot


This time I was the defender so I put down the terrain I brought with me, since I find the cut out felt looks really bad and makes for a worse game. 2 fields and 2 woods this time, and no rain. I deployed the same way but had a forest for my scouts to hang out in this time.


The line marches up, I was happy with my set up since my line was longer so I just sat around and let them come.


When things got close I launched my flanking units. The skirmisher was easily killed by a mounted unit so that one was a bad plan.


The block of pikes and elephants started to crush in and try to get some kills. I lost all the fights but they have no quick kills against my legions so I was just forced back.


Eventually I lost a legion and the enemy skirmishers came out to trap my mounted guys.


But I my turn I killed an elephant so doing some damage back.


But then the pikes killed a bunch of legions so a loss for the Romans.

Game 3: Vs Duncan He was playing a successor army I think same kind of idea with pikes an elephant and some other stuff.


Here I was the defender again and the terrain was a forest a gentle hill and a field. No rain again so the field continued to do nothing.


I set up the same way so we had the same thing developing again with the smaller line advancing in and me trying to flank it.


I made an early flank attack close to the edge and almost had my general pushed off the edge, but managed to roll out of it, and killed an element.


Then I charged in the line with everything flanked, this was looking good!


But it went way worse then expected, all my guys got pushed back and I lost one.


Then they came through the whole and flanked my line losing me some legions and then I lost the game. This was a really fun one, went back and forth a few times. Looked like I was going to win then loose and so forth.

Game 4: Vs Brian Ancient British lead by Boudeica


I was the invader again and the British put down a hull for and a woods. I decided to invade from that edge, for some reason.... This really boxed me up into a corner. The British sent in a group of light horse on a big swing around, while the warbands pushed forward. I figured I was most likely screwed at this point.


Things got going really fast this time, the first round of warbands attacked, my legions were fighting well thou so no real effect, meanwhile the light horse was really getting around to attack my camp.


On my turn I attacked the light horse and got one, but I think I lost a legion to the pressing warbands.


This caused the other light horse to rethink, and the scrum by the fort continued to rage. I lost some legions but it started going more to my liking as the line of warbands got broken up, also the low frontage kind of worked out as they were forced to spend most of the time fighting cavalry they can't kill easy. So seems like a blundered into a good plan.


Eventually I broke through and killed a few more warbands to secure a win.

Game 2 didn't count for the record for me so I was at 2 wins and a loss, I did pretty good but didn't win. I still am finding the new version better, but it seems like allot of the terrain that gets placed doesn't do anything and I am not sure if I like that. Also I think it is more fun with real terrain so I would like to see us move away from the felt circles a bit. But not a huge deal I guess.

Thanks;
Mike

3 comments:

  1. Looks like fun. I should finish up my Roman DBA armies

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  2. Nice AARs!

    Elephants and pike - has a min-max army choice been identified? I think that, if the same elements were used in DBMM, several would have quite different point values, which makes the implicit DBA assumption that all types of element are equal somewhat tenuous.

    Ave!


    Almost Anonymous

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  3. Not that I know of, but DBA 3 is still pretty new to us. It was more of a fact that allot of people had that type of army for this period due to liking the while successors thing I guess, and also elephants were quite good in the last version so more people have armies with elephants.

    The elements act different in DBA thou so I don't think there is a huge problem, most of the elements do have something that makes them worthwhile, although granted you don't want to have more then a few of most of them.

    But also I don't think balance is really the main objective of these rules so with there being so many good armies I'm sure you could find some big winners.

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