DBMM Forum
General Category => Battle Reports => Topic started by: Barritus on December 19, 2011, 02:38:04 AM
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First try-out for me with an Early Byzantine army. Not a good result, but a fun game.
I was the invader, having chosen spring, and selected a sea as my terrain option. Tim M chose a road, a rough hill, a wood and a couple of patches of scrubby flat. The sea was on my left, Tim had the rough hill on his right, near the sea, and there was a patch of rough on my right, at the front of my deployment zone. The road didn't make it onto the table and the other terrain didn't figure in the game.
My army had four commands: The C-in-C had a heap of Cv (S) and LH (S); Command 2 had a small amount of Cv and LH, plus some Bd (I) and Ps (S); Command 3 had only Bd (I); and Command 4 had some LH and some Galleys (F). I deployed my commands in order from left to right: 4, 3, 2, 1. Tim also had four commands, with each generally containing a mix of Bw (O), Bd (F) and Ele (O). The command on his left wing (furthest from the sea) also had some Cv (O) chariots, while the next inboard had some Wb (S).
The weather result produced mud for two hours after sunrise, a risk of rain and light winds, and the game started at sunrise. The highest PIP dice went to Command 1, and the PIP dice allocation followed command numbers, so Command 4 got the lowest PIP dice.
I settled for simple tactics - advance across the line. I was fairly confident that all of my troops were a match for all of Tim's infantry, and the mud result gave his chariots a -1 in combat. As I deployed second I was also able to place Ps in front of his elephants and warband.
Unfortunately the combat dice didn't help me. My Bd (I) died in droves against Tim's Bd (F), despite locally outnumbering them more than 2 to 1. Meanwhile, the LH (S), and the reinforcing Cv (S), proved incapable of fully exploiting the -1 provided by (I) and (F) infantry in Tim's army. My main mistake was probably not being more aggressive in trying to get around Tim's open flank by setting my LH onto his chariots while the mud was a factor.
Nevertheless, the casualties mounted on both sides, particularly helped in my case by a couple of good shots by my Ps in knocking over a couple of elephants from one command. Tim's inboard right command became disheartened, followed soon after by my Command 2. Then Tim's command broke, in turn disheartening the adjacent commands. Then my Command 2 broke, disheartening Commands 1 and 3.
It was getting tense and close. But with lots of 1 ME troops, we were both having trouble getting troops back into contact, so the tempo of the game stalled. On his left, Tim's Bd (I) Maiden Guard held out against my Cv (S), while on my left the remaining Bd of Command 3 were now being supported by the intact LH of Command 4.
Finally, though, it was the Bd that cost me. Having lost the two Bd elements in front, the sub-general of Command 3 had been in combat with a seemingly immortal Bd (F). Double-overlapped, the (I) counted against the general and he died too. This broke the command and the army. I'd managed to push Tim's casualties up over 40%, so with two disheartened commands in the Tamil army, the score was 15-10 to Tim. Thanks to Tim for a great fun game which moved at a good pace, and my apologies over the late start.
Despite the bad result, I was quite happy with the army's performance. The galleys did little, except for one which had about half a dozen unsuccessful shots at a Ps, but they did lock up one flank. In the middle the Bd performed dismally, but the commands can take the massive losses their (I) classification generates. On the opposite flank I know I can use the LH more aggressively to apply pressure. And if I can't place a sea, the army is well enough organised to be able to cover both flanks with mounted. It'll be interesting to see how they perform this Thursday against the Ayyubids.
And hopefully I'll have them all finished for Cancon in about 5 weeks...