DBMM Forum
General Category => Battle Reports => Topic started by: Barritus on March 22, 2008, 01:18:46 PM
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I took on Tim's Medieval Swedish with my Alexandrian Macedonian army.
In simple terms, my army has a Pk centre command, Ax (S) plus Kn (F) under Alexander (Brilliant General), and Ax (S) plus Cv (O) on the opposite wing. There are small numbers of Ps and LH present as well. Tim's army contained three commands with large numbers of Bd (O) and Bw (O) with a few Ps (S). The left wing, led by the C-in-C, also had some Kn and Cv (I). The centre command also had Kn and an Art (I). The right wing also had some Cv (O).
Terrain played a major part in the game. I elected to place no terrain - perhaps a mistake as it meant Tim could place a lot. Both he and I nominated my base edge as the edges we numbered for terrain placement. My thinking was that terrain placed nearest that edge would be unavailable for Tim to exploit. As it was, there was a steep hill on my left flank, a patch of rough flat nearer the centre, and a waterway down my right flank. The other terrain had no real effect on the game.
I chose to invade in winter, and duly managed to summon strong wind and possible snow. Unfortunately for me, the wind was blowing from over Tim's right shoulder, rather than into his face, so it also didn't threaten his ships.
I was also unlucky in that I had to deploy first. Alexander went on the left, with the Kn in column facing the gap between the steep hill and the rough. Craterus was in the centre with the Pk, and Parmenio was on the right with the Thessalians. Tim then deployed some TF facing the Companions, which disconcerted me somewhat.
I gave the highest PIP dice to Alexander, the second highest to Parmenio, and the lowest to Craterus.
Anyway, I at least had the first move, and used some high PIPs early on to march Alexander and the Companions into the rough, with the expectation that I'd clear it before Tim's centre moved up. The Ax which had deployed in it moved out to the space where the Companions had been. Had I deployed second, I think it's reasonable to assume I would've deployed the Companions in the rough, and thus saved myself a lot of PIPs. I wanted to get the Pk into combat, and so also advanced the right wing to cover the Pk's flank.
I think the first major contact was on the right wing, where the Thracian Ax (S) charged into the Swedish Bd/Bw combination. The extra factor provided by the Bw was a major factor in my bound, and the right wing soon began to accumulate losses. Fortunately I had plenty of reserves, so was able to plug a few gaps.
Then the Pk charged into the Swedish centre, supported by the Companions, and a combat Brilliant Stroke from Alexander. Despite having an overlap, the Companions managed one draw and three recoils. The Pk at least managed a couple of pushbacks, but in two combats missed out on killing the Swedish infantry by 1 factor.
Tim countered by moving Bw through his Bd to shoot at the Companions, and was able to kill one. On my right flank, the Bd/Bw were killing my Ax in large numbers, and I was having trouble getting the PIPs to fill gaps.
In my next turn, I rolled 2, 2, 1 for PIPs, meaning I had to use Alexander's second Brilliant Stroke to double his PIPs (it also guaranteed no snow and dropped the wind from strong to light - everything was going against me, even the weather!). Having inflicted virtually no casualties on Tim's army, I took advantage of my one major success - Parmenio killing his opponents - to send him through the gap and onto the flank of the Swedish C-in-C, who didn't have recoil space. But I blew the combat roll, and Alexander's second charge also had little effect. When Tim was able to kill Parmenio and break my right wing, I started to wonder whether I was going to inflict any serious casualties at all.
But then everything began to change. Alexander's third charge was supported by Craterus, and this time every surviving Kn (F) won its combat. The Pk also won virtually every combat, and suddenly Tim's centre command was broken. On top of this, Tim had placed his baggage in the centre command, and its loss, on top of the extra 2 ME loss for being near a broken command, rendered his left wing disheartened. This was a major success for me, as it meant his infantry had to pay extra PIPs to close in on my centre, and were at -1 in combat.
The result was that I had a surprisingly good shot at breaking his left wing, with a Greek Cv (I) element missing out by 1 on killing a Bw element which would have won me the game. Unfortunately, I'd already lost several elements from my left wing, including three companion elements, a Prodromoi LH (S) and some Ax (S). Thus in his next bound, Tim was able to kill a couple more Ax (S) to break my left wing and the army. We didn't do a formal count, but it probably would have been a 15-10 win to Tim.
I couldn't believe how close I'd come to winning after my earlier bad luck. The Companions took something like nine combats before they won anything, and the Pk missed out by 1 on killing Tim's Bd at least three or four times as well. In retrospect I shouldn't have sent Parmenio on his death or glory mission. Instead, had I waited, the command would almost certainly have become disheartened, but its demoralisation would've been delayed for probably two or three bounds - enough time for my centre to be better able to exploit its eventual success.
Still, thanks to Tim for a very enjoyable game, and proof again that Pk and Ax can have a lot of fun at the expense of Bd.
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The dice gods can be frequently fickle and occassionally very cruel. Enjoyed the report.
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Or in my case just plain vindictive bunch of sods ;D
Nice report.
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I think that is the Kn(F) quandry in a nutshell. They are either great or rubbish and rarely anything in between. I'm impressed yours were still there to make a difference after 3 bounds - mine normally evaporate, especially my Kn(F) Minoan chariots. There just aren't enough of them to sustain the losses.
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Remember that Alexander's command has 27ME. It allows me to be aggressive in using the command (and in fact the whole army). The Companions are also the only 2ME troops in the army, so if they don't die too quickly, I can afford to lose a lot of other troops in their command before morale becomes much of an issue. Plus, being Single-Based Wedges means they can't be overlapped; keeping reserves is usually enough to prevent them from being flanked - and because the commands are large, I can usually match an opponent's deployment and still have plenty of reserves.