DBMM Forum
General Category => Battle Reports => Topic started by: Barritus on February 29, 2012, 12:27:44 PM
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I took Early Byzantines to Cancon this year, experimenting with the Inert option. After several bad results in practice games (described in threads below) I restructured the army the night lists were due, and got one practice match with the amended list before Cancon. In other words, not the best preparation.
My army was as follows:
Command 1: 30ME
General as Reg Cv (S)
8 Reg Cv (S)
6 Reg LH (S)
Command 2: 22.5ME
Sub as Reg Cv (S)
8 Reg LH (S)
5 Reg Ps (O)
4 Irr LH (O)
Command 3: 15ME
Sub as Reg Cv (S)
3 Reg LH (S)
8 Irr Ps (S)
Command 4: 24ME
Sub as Reg Bd (I)
1 Reg LH (S)
12 Reg Bd (I)
6 Reg Ps (O)
Command 5: 16ME
8 Reg Bge (O)
8 TF
Army: 107.5ME
So it was a big army with a good mix of heavy and light mounted and foot. I tried to separate functions into different commands as much as possible, so that troops of a similar nature would be maneuvering together. It didn't always work, so for example the lone LH (S) in Command 4 often got left behind, as did the Irr LH (O) in Command 2. I also developed some plans for terrain, which I felt were necessary for a fairly lumbering army (despite the LH).
Round 1: I had the bye.
Round 2 v New Kingdom Egyptian: Zac also had an inert C-in-C, so we had a lot of troops on table. I don't remember the details of this game, except that he massed his Bw to the right and his Bd and chariots in the centre. Although there were a lot of Egyptian troops on the table, there were only three commands present, so I was sweating on Zac's fourth command flank marching. Fortunately an early 6 confirmed there wasn't a fourth command, though it meant the commands on table were huge. The chariots charged my Bd, then pulled back with a Feigned Flight. However, I now can't remember how I deployed or which commands took the losses which led to me breaking. All I remember is that I did pretty poorly, as the score was 0-25.
Round 3 v Han Chinese: I deployed Command 1 to the left, Command 2 to the right and the infantry in the centre. Paul had a large force of Cv and LH on his right, Bw (X/O) in the centre, and a command of Kn chariots and LH on his left. I placed the Ps in front of the Bd in the centre, hoping to sacrifice them to archery to protect the Bd enough to get them into combat (avid readers may remember an earlier debacle when my Bd were decimated by Persian archery in a practice game). I started the battle on the left, advancing the Cv behind a LH screen. I peeled some of the LH off to face Paul's LH (F), and ripped them apart, before achieving the same result with my Cv (S) against his Cv (O), taking advantage of some impressive dice luck. On my right the LH did as little as they could, but still managed to bag the enemy command's general, which slowed him down. In the centre the Bd made it into combat with the Bw (X/O) and ground their way through. Combined losses were enough to break the Chinese. I remember taking some casualties in Command 1, although I think the score was 22-3 to me.
Round 4 v Normans: This time the terrain fell almost perfectly for me. Michael placed a Sea on my right flank which narrowed the table, while I managed an Enclosed Field and a Vineyard in the centre, the gap between them being about 6 base widths wide. The gap between the Vineyard and the Sea was about 4 base widths wide, and on the other flank the Enclosed Field was far enough across to leave little deployment room for the Normans. I deployed the infantry in the centre facing the gap. Command 1 was on the right, where I expected to see the Norman Kn, and the LH were massed on my left. Michael deployed as I expected (I knew what his army contained), with the Kn by the Sea, the Bd (O) in the centre and the Breton Cv and Bw on his right. My Ps infiltrated into the Enclosed Field and Vineyard, giving my Bd flank protection against the Norman Bd which outnumbered them and were of higher quality. Michael sent his Breton Cv up the flank, then decided to bring them back, around the Enclosed Field and up into the centre. In the centre the Bd advanced to mine, although I was able to peel off the outer columns with Ps attacks. The Bd-Bd fight was long and indecisive, particularly annoying as my Ps failed numerous flank attack opportunities. On my right the Cv and LH took a heavy toll of Norman Kn, but took losses themselves. Then, in a moment of insanity I sent in the C-in-C to attack an overlapped Kn (I had a few LH I could have sent in instead). The attack failed and the C-in-C died the next bound, breaking the C-in-C's command. Eventually, however, overlaps and flank attacks did the job against the Norman Bd and the mounted elements of Command 3 did the job against the Norman Kn. A lucky escape for 19-6.
Game 5 v Lydian: Rod and I have played many thoroughly enjoyable games over the years, and this was no exception. The terrain didn't fall quite as I hoped, but I at least had I nice big patch of Scrubby Flat in the centre for my Bd to aim at, a Rough Hill on my right flank and an Orchard facing the hill on Rod's side. Once again I got the deployment pretty right, with Command 1 on the left, the infantry in the centre, Command 2 on the right, and little Command 3 on the far right, with the Ps (S) aimed at the Orchard. Rod deployed a command of Greek allies on his far right, with Lydian Kn (F) next to them. In the centre was a mixed command of LH, chariots and Ps, and on his left was a bunch of Lydian Irr Sp (O) hoplites. To add to the excitement Rod attacked me at night, and got several bounds of movement while my lads were stuck in place. The sun rose just as Rod's troops got close. There was a little skirmishing between the LH of our mounted commands, leading to a situation where I could attack all of Rod's Kn with my Cv (S), or just an isolated element. Forgetting the advantage in these combats is with the attacker, I went only for the isolated Kn. I killed it, but left the rest of the Cv line waiting for the Lydian Kn to attack. I lost 3 Cv (S) in return, and had to plug the gap with the C-in-C, who again died in combat against a Kn (F). This broke Command 1, although a broken Cv (S) got the kill necessary to break the Lydian Kn command. In the centre the Bd were having a tough time against Ps (S), losing a few elements and only slowly pushing the Ps back. On my right the Ps (S) swept down the hill and towards the Orchard, where they encountered an ambush of Ax (S). I was able to support the Ps with some LH to good effect, while the LH of Command 2 managed a few kills on the Sp (O) of the same command, but missed a flank shot on that command's general. In what turned out to be my last bound I had something like five combats involving Rod's left wing, any one of which would have won me the game if the Lydian element had died, but every element survived (this included a Cv (S) general against an overlapped and disheartened Ax (S) and a Ps (S) uphill in rough terrain against a disheartened Sp (O)). Then, in Rod's bound there were four more such combats, which again saw no loss of elements by Rod. Time was called and the result was 13-12 to me. In the words of Maxwell Smart, "Missed it by that much."
Game 6 v Mu-Jung Hsien-Pi: Dugald was a late entry into the competition, and fielded an interesting army. Once again the terrain fell almost perfectly for me, except for one issue. As with game 4 I had the Vineyard and Enclosed Field in the centre of the table, but this time with a 14 element wide gap. This was enough for me to put Commands 1 and 4 in the gap. The issue was which way to arrange Commands 2 and 3. The bigger gap between terrain and table edge was on my right, so that's where I placed Command 2, but it meant that I only had the 5 Ps (O) from that command to contest the adjacent Enclosed Field. Command 3 was on the left, where the Ps (S) could control the Vineyard, but that was far enough out on the edge of the table that I felt their strength would be wasted. Dugald deployed two commands of Irr Kn (F) and Irr LH (F) facing the gap, Kn in front and LH behind. The C-in-C was on his left, with an identical command, facing my Command 2. In the gap between the enemy C-in-C and his two subordinate commands, facing the Enclosed Field, was a Chiang ally command with a miscellaneous mix of infantry and a couple of LH. Dugald thus was far better positioned to control the Field. Despite this I was happy to advance Commands 1 and 4 up the centre, while the Ps (S) seized the Vineyard. Dugald's ally was unreliable, and he held his troops in place until he'd diced them reliable. But even after that he was content to wait for me. I was able to advance all the way across the table, to the point that my troops were in charge range. Even then Dugald waited. And then I fluffed the attack. Instead of charging the Cv (S) through the LH and making first contact on his Kn (F), I had another brain fart and charged the LH in instead. The LH took casualties, with many fleeing past the Cv. Dugald then charged his Kn into my Cv and took a heavy toll. Meanwhile, my lack of troops in the Enclosed Fields counted against me, and the Chiang infantry began to mass against the flank of Command 4. In desperation I sent the LH of Command 2 forward against the enemy C-in-C's command, but again I diced poorly. That Command also took heavy losses. I was able to cause enough casualties to dishearten one of Dugald's sub-general commands, but three commands of mine broke in one bound, taking the army with it, for a score of something like 3-22.
So two messy wins, a very messy draw and a couple of heavy losses saw me about two-thirds of the way down the field. A fun comp, and thanks to my opponents for five enjoyable (if occasionally frustrating) games.
Despite the very late organisation of my army, it seemed to work pretty well. I felt I had a pretty good chance in all my games except perhaps the first, suggesting that with a little more concentration (and practice) I might have performed much better.
And although I felt PIP-stressed in almost every bound, fielding an Inert C-in-C is a great way to get a lot of troops on the table, while also saving the hassle of having to think about stratagems!