Half a dozen intrepid players braved the early morning frost in

Palmerston Nth for NZ's "NICon" (North Island Convention) 25mm DBMM

competition this morning.

Armies were 450pts, +10 for stratagems only (you could spend any of hte

450pts on stratagems too if you wanted)

They were, in no particular order

Me, using Nikephorian Byzantine

Andrew Bennets, Later Carthaginian,

Al Duncan, Maori (Bd(F), Bd(F) and more Bd(F).......)

Campbell Millar, Kushan ((S) LH version, with a fe El too)

Brent Senior-Partridge, Moslem Indian (noteably featuring a 4 Art(I)

command so he can allocate high dice to his CinC)

Ivan Truong, some variety of Early German (Lots of Wb and a Gallic ally

with chariots....sorry Ivan - I forget which variety of German even tho

I'm playing you 1st up tomorrow!)

There being 3 folk from Auckland, and 3 from Wellington, the draw for

the 1st 3 rounds is nth vs south!

My army is as follows:

CinC as Cv(S), 2 DBE Kn(X)/(I), 5 Cv(S), 3 DBE Bw(X)/(O)

S-gen as Cv(S), 5 Cv(S), 3 DBE Bw(X)/(O)

S-gen as Cv(S), 5 Cv(S), 2 Irr Ax(S), 1 REg Ps(S), 1 REg Ps(O)

S-gen as Cv(S), 4 LH(S)

Camp 8 Bg(O) with TF

Stratagems: Ambush, Exagerated army size

Round 1

I got Andrew as my 1st opponent, and I defended Byzantium from the evil

Hannibal, waiting for him with my army in posiiton (set up first & 1st

move).

Terrain was realtively open in the middle, with a couple of woods and a

marh on my left, so I  set up first with only light forces in that area,

 the Skutatoi to the fore in the centre and right, and the Kataphractoi

in the 2nd line - the small LH command hid behind one of the woods as an

ambush.

Andrew looked to atack down the rough terrain - Hannibal leading a large

contingent of Spanish and Celtiberian infantry on my far left.  A

Spanish ally held against my right, and in the centre were Elephants

Gallic and Numidian cavalry, and African infantry.

Andrew's mobile army baggage command came on as a delayed command.

And so it began - I moved my troops away from the left, creating 2 lines

of Kataphractoi behind my infantry, while the LH came out of ambush and

positioned themselves to delay and annoy Hannibal on the left.

Fortunately the fighting qualities of the Byzantine Cavalry were to the

fore although I managed to get my CinC killed (incautiously hitting the

rear of an elephant then getting attacked in the rear himself by a

Numidian :(), and agood deal of hte Skutatoi turned into elephant toe-jam!

The Elephants then kileld a couple of Cav to demoralise one command, but

then stalled with 1 killed and the other continually tying with a

demoralised Cav because the Cav was superior - much to Andrew's

annoyance.  The demoralised General also saw of several attacks against

his flanks and rear.

As this was happening the Knights ran down the African spearmen, and

cavalry and Light horse hammered the Celtiberrians when they came out of

the wood and a few Numidian and Cavalry elements to break the

Carthaginian will to fight.

Hannibal achieved little, having doubled his PIPs twice but being too

far removed from the action to be useful.

In the end I lost a command, a 2nd general and 20% for a 19-6 win.

The Carthaginians were a bit too light to take me on head on, and the

terrain constrained his numbers more than it constrained my cavalry.

In the other 2 games the Maori were ridden down by Kushans, and the

Germans and Indians fought a 15-10 draw dominated by a 2 FE marsh and a

2 FE wood placed by the Germans.

******************************

Day 2

My first game yesterday was against Ivan Truong's Cimbri & Teutons.

Ivan is well known for having 1 massive command of German Wb (69

elements), a Gallic ally and a couple of smaller commands with Cav and Ps.

Terrain was a large wood in Ivan's setup area on my left, and a couple

of low hills also on my left but in my half of hte table - therewas

other stuff, but it didn't matter.

Ivan only put a fortified camp and the 2 small commands on the left side

of hte table as I viewed it.  I flank marched my light horse on the

left, and had fairly standard deployment otherwise.

With no Germans on the right side of the table (there was no terrain

suitable for ambush or concealment) I figured he was almost certainly

flank marching on my left, and had either a delayed command or a

concealed one in the large wood.

And so it proved - my light horse flank march ran into his 69 elements

and came back ina bit of a hurry, and the Gallic ally was concealed in

the wood..

I rashly advanced 3 Skutatoi towards the German camp, but didn't support

htem well adn htey got surrounded and monstered by German cavalry.

Apart from that almost all the action was on my left, with the Cv(S)

uphill on the gentle hill slowly grinding away at the Wb - I needed to

inflict 14.5ME's to break the command - 29 Wb......

By the end of 4 hours I needed another 3 Wb....having killed a couple of

cavalry from the command and about 2 dozen of the little buggers.  I had

a chance in the last turn but they suddenly started rolling 5's and 6's

even tho disheartened and I think I only killed 1 out of 5 or 6 at 5:2 :(

I'd lost 4 Lh and a couple of Cv in addition to the Skutatoi, and with

my Lh command disheartened also there was only a 1 penalty point

difference, so a 14:11 to me.

In the other 2 games Andrew Bennett's Carthies and Al Duncans Maori

fought a bloody draw with about 40% casualties each side, and Campbell

Millar's Kushans overcame Brent Senior PArtridges Moslem Indians 20-5.

In the afternoon we had a problem - with only 6 people in the

competition someone would have to play an opponent they'd already played.

Brent and Al were at the bottom of the table & decided to make an early

exit rather than driving back to Wellington in the dark later in the

day, and the last 2 games ended up being me refighting Campbell's

Kushans, and the Carthaginians and Cimbri meeting up.

To make a long story short, Campbell this time did no wrong, and I was

crushed 23-2 by a headlong charge of cataphracts and elephants :(

The fight occured between 2 woods that pretty much delineated the

central set-up area.  My main mistake (after not rolling high enough!)

was setting up too far forward and not putting infantry into one of the

woods to threaten the Kushan flank on that side. I had my Ax & Ps

covering the other one vs 6 Kushan Ax(O) - they even killed one of the

Kushans - but I had advanced my main line far enough so that was too

late to let me pressure the flank - it was only the next turn I was in

trouble......

Had I held back I would have been able to attack the Kushan flanks, but

as it was the fight was essentially just line up and charge...and as we

all know by now Cataphracts count as (S) vs almost everything in my

army, and quick kill almost all of it too!! :(

So Campbell rocketed up to the top of the table with 66 pts from 3 wins

and a loss, and I was at 60 from 2 wins a loss and a draw.

In the other fight the Cimbri flank marched as usual, and in a long

drawn out fight they ended with a draw with even penalty points, so

13-12 to the invading Carthaginians - putting Ivan 2nd on 63 pts.

So the final standings were

Campbell Millar (Kushans) 66 pts (3 wins, 1 loss)

Ivan Truong (Cimbri & Teutons) 63 Pts (1 win, 3 draws)

Mike Campbell (Nike Byz) 60 (2 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss)

Andrew Bennetts (Late Carthage) 56 (1 win, 2 draws, 1 loss)

Brent Senior-Partridge (Moslem Indian) 17 (1 draw, 2 losses)

Al Duncan (Maori) 13 (1 draw 2 losses)