Who needs the 10,000 (Or thoughts on the Ascot Challenge)

 

(This has been written for Slingshot, and a fair few weeks ago so

please disregard anything that has been superseded, or commentary

that seems out of place in a report.)I've broken it down into

manageable pieces.

This was the 2nd open competition since the publication of DBMM, and

the 1st held in the UK, though I'm prepared to stand corrected on

that!

 

 As, until recently a regular and `average `in tournament terms DBM

player, I thought I'd take one of my favourite armies, so went for

the lot that fought Agesilaus. This was as the result of having been

on holiday to Lykia last year, and their tourist literature claiming

that they had fought him. No mention of the Persians having done so,

but I didn't have the time or inclination to paint Ax O in quantity….

 

There were 6 entries Myself: LAP, Tony Dennis: Marian Roman, Gordon

Harrow :Sassanid Brick, Niall Taylor: Late Roman, David Mather:

Hittite and the Hunnic Umpires (sorry, didn't get both names).

 

 That meant with the 5 games, we got to play each other in a league.

David introduced a side Scots vs English contest, though I notice

this was after the Scots were doing well on the 1st day!

 

My army list was as follows:

 

CinC Cv O, 6 Kn I, 6 Cv O, 6 Cv I, 4 LH O, 4 Hd O,2 Ps O, Inert CinC,

Unusual troops and Feigned Flight Stratagem – waste of 5AP

incidentally. 35 ME

 Disheartened 9, Broken 12

 

SG (Greek) Sp O, 17 Sp O, 1 Ps O, 6 Cv I,  Disheartened 7, Broken, 9.5

 

SG Cv O, 4 x Exp O, 2 x LH O, Disheartened 2,. Broken 3.

 

Lykian Ally. 2 Cv O, 9 Ax O, 3 Ps O, 4 Bd F, 16 ME Disheartened 4.5

Broken 5.5

 

Game 1 vs Gordon's Brick. (His technical term for the Sassanid Army)

 

Deployment was myself deploying the whole army 1st, the hoplites at

the front on a gentle hill, flanked by the Lykians to their right on

a `craggy' hill, (Are there no trees on hills in Persia?, and I'm

defending Lykia where there definitely are) The Chariots used

a `Strategem' to be deployed last in the front of the army, with

Pharnazabus, my CinC, dozing on the right. Not literally, but how

else to describe inert?

Gordon placed his whole army in front of the right flank then had a

short left hook, forget the technical term, with this flank march

coming on my right flank. (Needing to roll a 5 or 6 to do so due to

the Brilliant CinC.)

Gordon's army advanced toward my CinC's command, through a valley

with another rough hill on my right flank. They disregard TZ's

(Threat Zones, the new zone of control) of troops defending terrain.

Gordon faced the element off anyway. There was a block of about 12 Cv

S, flanking a block with 5 El O and more Cv S, then the flank march

of about 12 Cv S and a Cv S SG in two lines. The brick term comes

from the fact that Irr Cv S do not manoeuvre very well. Straight

ahead is the best option.

 

My hoplites tried to use their regular movement (which doesn't exist

as much in DBMM) to get to the flank of Gordon's 5 or so ranks of Cv

S – troops move so much better in column, so many deployments will be

as such, although it can be difficult to move out of them if you are

inert. (see later)

 

Main points of the game were once the flank march had appeared, it

was a race between my hoplites and Chariots to get onto the flank of

the 1st brick. The Lykians – moving often more than the rest of the

army put together – 1D6 –1 and not having to assign each dice to a

command, did a good job of delaying the brick by moving across the

front of the Cv S and elephants. They did manage to destroy two or

three elephants by the time-honoured tactic of rolling lots of 5's

and 6's. They took some ½ ME casualties in the process. (ME's being

the new element equivalents)

 

When the short left hook arrived, the inert troops did a reasonable

job of responding – the Kn I turned to face and I got some Cv O into

the flank of the new brick, (2 deep line of Cv S.) Quite a challenge

with this command assigned the second highest pip dice and a –1 on

that dice.

 

This made no difference. The S vs I grading means that there is a 1

in 3 chance of the `knights' dying outright in the Cv S bound, which

doubles to a 2 in 3 if doubly overlapped. (Compulsory follow-ups for

Kn often cause this) Being inert meant that it was difficult to get

the pips to move into combat, and the Cv S had average dice

throughout – it's a bit of a shock when a 4-4 or 5-6 combat result

means that your element is removed. An even result in the other's

bound means that you recoil as well, so overlaps come in to play.

 

Lesson's learnt – do not be inert and don't have I troops vs S

troops. My understanding for the Kn I option was to reflect the

performance of the Persian `heavy' cavalry vs the Thessalians. Note

to self -leave them as Cv S in future – they will do that job a lot

better.

 

Don't worry about flanking – as long as there is a 0.1mm space to

recoil, the element is fine, and Cv S are difficult to recoil anyway.

The rest of the battle was the hoplites getting eventually to the

rear of the Cv S flanking block, who paid no attention it and rode

forward into the sunset. (well the Cv I and Lykians in front of them)

Unless the hoplites could have contacted the rear of all enemy

elements with a move straight forward, then the marches were stopped.

See later when the Huns showed me how to do it.

 

The scythed chariots, who due to the Inert CinC did not advance

spontaneously, stood facing the flank of the 1st Cv S brick and

refused to attack it. When they did they died anyway, but a bit more

enthusiasm, well movement, would have been appreciated.

The non-impetuous Scythed chariots caused some amusement to DBM

playing observers throughout the weekend. Seeing them standing there

in front of the flank of cavalry bricks and legionaries was quite

amusing. The joys of being inert I suppose?

 

My deployment was bad with hindsight – should have deployed in a box

using the good defensive terrain and waited inertly. Fairly

reasonable, but a bit dull.

 

The big problem was getting the Kn I into combat – not a good idea,

should be used as filler. (Technical term – meaning to stand at the

back making up numbers) The fact that the entire Sassanid army

disregards being disheartened also helps them. It might actually have

meant that all of the El were disposable, so army design helps here.

(Kn, Cv S etc are not effected by being Disheartened, only

the `rabble' are.)

 

I lost the battle because of the temporary –2ME for a nearby command

breaking, breaking the Lykians, who were next door to the CinC.  Very

6th Edition in it's feel – if the right flank goes, everyone else

follows in line.

Game 2 vs Tony Dennis' Romans  I deployed 1st again

 

This game was possibly more interesting for me in terms of the

opponent list – some Bd S, otherwise Bd O and Ax S with a block of

German supported Cv O. I looked at the opponents and realised that my

hoplites would be `quick killed' by nearly every element in the

opposition army. Is that right? Not wanting to get too philosophical,

but why bother to recruit the 10,000?

 

This game was always going to be a draw after the dice roll for the

river put it across the battlefield. I had a difficult hill on my

left flank, which meant that the Lykians could defend it, and waited

for the Romans to get across the river and deploy before marching

forward. This was slowed by my advancing (slowly) round the Roman's

left flank with my Cv O, who I'd realised would be quite good against

Bd, Factors of 4 each  - equally good against Sp incidentally – why

bring a spear at all?

 

The other deciding factor was that I didn't want to fight the Bd S

(Or Bd O or Ax S) with my Sp O.  See above.

 

The Chariot command therefore got assigned higher pips, and performed

a brilliant holding strategy. The Bd S were worried about them –

incidentally I had to deploy them 1st due to my `Unusual troops'

stratagem being cancelled by scouting – which costs ½ of the points.

Scouting seems to be a good buy, cancelling other more expensive

stratagems.

 

The command of hoplites stood around towards the rear, while the

chariots fixed the attention of the Ax and Bd in front of them. They

are, when commanded by an inert general, more like flakey war-wagons

They get charged in the flank, and don't turn – then tend to die. One

did get into contact with Bd S on a corner contact – a good piece of

design to avoid kinked lines – it worked well in practice, although

being on a 4-4 the attack didn't work out well, and they disappeared.

By that stage the hoplites and some Lykians had got into the German

Cv, which created a traffic jam that the Bd S couldn't get past – 2nd

ranks are pinned as well as 1st, so getting a jam out of the way is a

time consuming business.

 

On the Roman's `open' flank, where they had just crossed the river,

the overlapped and unable to recoil Roman Cv (due to recoiling into

the Rv), held out for too long. I eventually pushed a couple of holes

through the Roman line, due to a combination of flanked Ax being

beaten by Kn I,. – a base factor of 4 means that these are foot

killers rather than mounted,  and the Cv O beating Bd to their

front , but this was too late for anything other than a draw.

Mildly frustrating, as having got used to the mechanics – i.e.

Mounted are good, even Mtd I vs foot, this was a game that a result

could have been gained from, though many moves were wasted by both

sides with the chariot sideshow.

 

Game 3 vs Umpire No 2 – Attila's Huns. The Huns are 3 large wodges of

LH S with Cv S Generals and a Briliant CinC.

 

It's best to draw a veil over this one quickly. I deployed 1st as

usual, then got caught by a lack of rules knowledge. The CinC was on

the right, the hoplites on the left, the Lykians I don't remember

being involved much, or the chariots.

We deployed at 3am, (not literally – game time, but as the 3rd game

in a day it felt a bit like it.) so I thought this was a chance to

get on top of the Huns while they only moved 80 paces, the same speed

as my army, due to darkness.

We'd deployed, then the Huns announced that as Invader, they had the

option to move the start time forward to sunrise, so full movement is

reinstated. The armies had presumably been standing around for 2.5

hours waiting for dawn. Why prepare for a night attack then? This

really doesn't make sense to me – why would 2 armies deploy in line

of battle in the dark, then stand around for 2.5 hours waiting for

sunrise, especially if one army knew that sunrise would mean that

they were dead in the water (or the steppe more to the point).

 Suddenly there was another short left hook round my CinC's flank. A

word of warning – do not let this happen to you. Deploy in a terrain

fort vs the Huns in the middle of the table, as Dave did with his

Hittites later. The Game was basically over from then on. One major

problem with the `Spontaneity' rules is that elements subject to

spontaneity do not have to move forward towards the nearest enemy

element first then divert. They can go by whichever route takes them

to their target. When they are Lh and the target is presenting a rear

of an element, they are like homing missiles. This is a major problem

with the `impetuous' movement rule that needs rewriting, unless all

of us at Challenge got it wrong.

 

I did manage to get Attila surrounded at one stage, by Sp, but then

he used a brilliant stroke to double his dice, and nearly killed my

element, later he did this on a 5-1 anyway. (I've now realised that

was not correct – as he hadn't moved in to contact, he couldn't use a

brilliant stroke) The Persian Cv did do quite a bit of damage to the

Huns, so I did get close to disheartening one command, but couldn't

quite get there.

 

A frustrating game, lost due to not having knowledge of the rules on

deployment. If I'd deployed in a terrain box surrounded by hoplites,

it would have been more interesting for me. This says, I feel,

something about the rules (This will be the only effective tactic for

an army that uses foot against a superior mounted army in DBMM) It

will avoid an almost certain loss in the open. There will, I feel,

with the current rules, be a lot of Mtd S armies, countered by Bw S

armies.

Incidentally – at least this was an English/English game so no Scots

were getting points off of me!

 

Game 4 vs Niall Taylor

 

This was the most successful game of the weekend for the Persians,

mainly because I got to be invader. (Success in relative terms,

please note) If you are inert, and you don't invade, this is a major

handicap, as you can't even start with the right troops in front of

opposition they can combat.

I'd also thought about the pip allocation, and decided to try

averaging the pips for each command. You do lose as you round down,

but at least 6+ on 3 dice gives you a pip for each command, so the

chariots will be able to advance rather than think they are baggage.

This worked in this battle, though didn't in game 5 later – if you

roll good movement pips, or you are more mobile than the enemy, then

it'll work, otherwise it's not a good choice.

Why do regular generals cost more points in DBMM? – it really does

not seem to be an advantage, inert or not, so points cost should be

the same. You effectively have to take a pip dump command to

counterbalance the dice allocation system, which makes them even more

expensive, or average and round down, so get less movement.

 

The Romans placed quite a lot of terrain on the table. There was a

rough hill on their front right flank, an orchard? I think almost

next to that, and my gentle hill which the Romans placed some scrub

on and built a road over after I had placed it. That gave me

something to flank my army on.

 

I left the CinC's 4 light horse and a Cv element out to keep two

columns of Bd and Ps and Ax and Ps,  5 of each I think, occupied. The

central command of Bd O + Ps – 6+6 I think plus 2 x F Kn + some Ax +

Ps, then the flank command of Ax S + Ps and Lh x 5? + 2 x Cv went

through or around the orchard towards my hoplites flank.

 

I saw the most impressive looking use of a `brilliant stroke' when

the Roman Bd who were deployed in the centre moved into column,

marched along the front of my hoplites and then turned back again to

present a line of Bd sitting in front of my Sp O. The hoplites were

unimpressed. I'd already worked out that there were only 19 elements

in the opposition army that didn't QK the hoplites, they were all

Psiloi or Cv Generals,  and suddenly 6 who did were sitting right in

front of them. (Picture is in Photos section)

Fortunately they had had to avoid getting close to the Chariot

command, and I then threw extremely high on movement dice, 12+ and

the Lykian flank march came on.

 

Suddenly the Roman Ax column that was going to flank my hoplites was

faced with a flank march. The brilliantly moved Bd found some

ponderous Exp heading toward the left end of their line, and Cv I

moving round the hoplites to threaten the Ax column and the Bd right

flank. The Bd could bear down on the hoplites, but would leave their

flanks open.

 

On my right flank – the rest of the game was about my Lh and Cv

eventually dying, but causing their two columns of opponents to get

broken up and take no further part in the battle. The Hd on the scrub

covered hill held of the Bd attackers for ages – as Hd have to be

doubled, they are almost as good as Sp vs Bd.  In the middle the

chariots died, but held up the Bd advance for a long time. The small

chariot command eventually was broken – succumbing to a QK from Kn F

on their general.

 

This left time for some overlapped Bd to eventually charge into the

hoplites. The hoplites moment of glory was rolling 3 6's followed by

a 5 and removing half of the Roman attackers. There was me saying all

weekend that Sp are a liability. And the first chance they get to

fight foot and they beat them off quite easily.

 

After that I had some really poor movement dice, and couldn't get to

take advantage of the initial success, the drawback of being inert.

 

The Lykian flank march was the reason for not getting more than a

draw out of this game. The next three moves after their initial 6,

was 1,1 and 0 for movement after inert adjustments (-1 per bound for

all commands). This meant that it took two moves to get the flank

march on and then 1 move to stand around looking at the battlefield.

Admittedly their opponents as the lowest fighting pip dice command

had similar problems. This meant the initial success of arrival

couldn't be followed up, and I didn't threaten the Ax and Bd as

quickly as would have been useful.

 

This is a joy of being inert, and the reason that inert generals

won't be appearing often in competition games – even 3.5 hours is

not , in my opinion, long enough to win a game with inert generals.

I'm left very puzzled as to how this was managed in Southern

Australia with Claudius.

 

Game No 5 vs Dave Mather's Hittites

Another game against another brilliant general – Mursilis that is,

rather than Dave, although as I lost 25-0 and Dave won the

competition, both may apply.

I tried the averaging and it backfired. I got to invade, but by

doubling the deployment dice, got to deploy 2nd. That really meant I

was in trouble from the start. I could have deployed in line and been

ridden down – Cv I or O vs Kn O doesn't bear thinking about – Sp vs

Wb and Pk F the same, Sp vs Kn, Sp vs Cv S, Ax vs Mtd or foot in the

open.

Dave's right flank was a horde literally of horde, with 2 Cv S and

4Cv O, with 2 Kn O chariots, which ended up opposite my Lykians, who

did have a rough hill to defend and the small Chariot

command `others' to help.

The centre command of massed 3 deep Pk F+ 1 Ps and 4 deep Wb F

deployed in alternate ranks looked horrible, especially as I deployed

in columns in front of it that I couldn't get out of in time due to

poor pips, caused by averaging. The flank command of about 6 Kn O, 2

Cv 0 and 4 LH I  was bearing down towards the overlapped flank ,

after they had passed or killed the stationary chariots. The small

orchard on my flank got in my way, though did give me something to

rest my flank on.

Really, for entertainment value I should have just lined up and

charged. Trying to be clever and expand out from column took forever,

and I ended up with the Kn I again getting into combat, overlapped,

and therefore losing me the game. (They are dreadful vs other mtd) A

base factor of 3 and inferior is not a good mixture.  If they are

supposed to be Kn I to make them effective vs mounted, the I gradings

need to be changed or just forget it and use the Cv S option.

Overall thoughts etc.

I'm not, although I say so myself, a bad (or very good) DBx player,

but my first trial with DBMM resulted in 2 draws and 3 massive

losses.  Army choice and lack of rules knowledge was I'd like to

think a contributory factor……….

.

 The Late Achaemenids will be a reasonable force if an entirely

cavalry army, and no inert general in competition play. Two of the

top three players in the competition used entirely mounted armies,

and 4 out of 6 players had brilliant generals in the army. The short

left or right hook – (sorry flank march) Stratagem is worth it alone.

As it can arrive anywhere up to 220 cm in, and anyone nearby flees,

it has a devastating range.

Spear are quite simply a waste of Army points – mine was the only

army of the 6 that had any in, and I'm sure spear based armies will

not appear in open competitions. 3 games out of 5 were spent

protecting the hoplites from certain death, at the hands of Bd, Wb,Ax

or Kn. (Alright in one game they did beat the Bd who eventually got

in, but Bd with overlap

vs on the Sp would be a foregone conclusion) I don't believe Spear I

armies will ever be seen, as at 3AP there are more effective fillers,

the proverbial Pk F.

 In themed competitions like my own club's (Warfare) they will

appear, but only as filler.

 Despite all of the above, DBMM is a good set of rules. It has rough

edges that will need to be ironed out – i.e. spontaneous movement. It

is going to make for much more `active' play and less use of geometry

as claimed by the author. The corner contacts work especially well.

 The mounted factors vs foot will mean that game winners will not be

the foot – it depends on how you see ancient warfare – where I see

mounted as not being willing to charge formed foot, they will do so

with alacrity in this set. One concern is the effect of bound only

effects – Cv S will for example always want to charge in their bound,

rather than receive a Kn F charge themselves, so there could be quite

a lot of standing there looking at each other.

Thanks to all the BHGS crowd for the organisation at a good venue and

the above mentioned people in the competition itself, which was

competitive but friendly throughout. I managed 5th out of the 6

players, a long margin behind 4th place. I'm looking forward to the

next DBMM competition now I have a vague idea what I am doing…………….

Steve Rathgay 26/04/07