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please disregard anything that has been superseded, or commentary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
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