DBMM Forum
General Category => Battle Reports => Topic started by: Barritus on June 05, 2014, 03:34:14 PM
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Well, in my first game for a couple of months I tried out an old favourite - Aitolian Hellenistic Greeks. The list isn't quite as wild as it was in DBM (where three compulsory terrain features gave opponents kittens), but it has still turned out to be a lot of fun.
My army was as follows:
Command 1 (29.5 ME)
General as Irr LH (O)
4 Irr LH (O)
10 Reg Ax (S) (Mercenary Thureophoroi)
4 Reg Ax (S) (Epilektoi)
7 Irr Ps (S)
4 Reg Ps (O)
1 Reg Art (X) (Oink)
Command 2 (27 ME)
Sub as Irr LH (O)
3 Reg LH (O)
8 Reg Ax (S)
16 Irr Ps (S)
4 Reg Ps (O)
Command 3 (27 ME)
Sub as Irr LH (O)
3 Reg LH (O)
12 Irr Ax (S) Citizen Thureophoroi
10 Irr Ps (S)
2 Reg Ps (O)
Command 4
6 Irr Bge (I)
Stratagems:
Scouts
Ambush
Unusual Weapons
This was an army put together by scraping the barrel - basically every Hellenistic element I had which could go in the army was used (the epilektoi were my Macedonian hypaspists). Even so I was a little short of elements, hence my willingness to use 25 AP on stratagems.
I was the defender in summer, with the battle starting at 4pm, and no weather.
On the left of my deployment zone was a mid-sized vineyard, with a smaller vineyard facing it on the right of Jon's deployment zone. A bit to the left of the centre of Jon's deployment zone was a mid-sized difficult hill. On my right table edge, near the centreline, was a small BUA. There were a couple of other pieces of terrain but they played no part in the game.
I deployed C2 on the left, with two ambushes in the vineyard. The front one was the command's 8 Ax (S). Behind them was the second ambush - a line of 8 Ps (S). Behind them was the remaining Ps in the command. The LH were next to the vineyard. In the centre was C1, with the Ax (S) in two ranks, Ps at each end, and the LH in reserve. On the right was C3, with a single line of Ax (S) with occasional reserves, then continuing that a line of Ps (S) with reserves. C3's LH was right out on the flank.
Jon deployed three commands. On his right was a block of Ax (O) and Ps (S) plus a few Reg Kn (F). In the centre was another line of Kn (F) backed up by a couple of LH and some Irr Sp (I) in the rear. On his left were some more Kn (F), plus some Ax (O) and Ps (S) and (O) on the difficult hill. Jon's commands were a little smaller than mine, but he had regular generals.
I then used my Unusual Weapons stratagem to place the incendiary pig element in front of a Kn element in Jon's left wing command.
Jon's two flank commands were a little smaller than the centre command, and I figured the Ax (O) and Ps (S) would be good targets for my Ax (S) and Ps (S). So my plan was to concentrate (as much as the dice allowed) on attacking the flank commands and avoiding the Kn.
In reality that's largely what happened.
I pushed forward across the line, aiming the Ax and Ps of the left against Jon's Ax and Ps, while on the right the Ax and Ps there aimed at the infantry on the hill. C1 advanced in the centre to support the flank commands, but I certainly didn't want to take on his massed Kn in the centre. Fortunately for me, Jon chose to give the lowest of his PIP dice to the centre command, so they were the last of his troops into action.
Jon neatly spoiled the flaming pigs by placing a LH in the way. The LH was spent, but obviously so were the porkers.
First combat was on my left, where the Ax and Ps hoed into each other. Casualties were slow to accumulate, but I had roughly twice as many elements as Jon, so could keep feeding elements in, where Jon had few reserves.
The following bound the Ax and Ps on my right attacked the Ax and Ps on the difficult hill. I had overlaps at each end of the line, and (S) was again a useful advantage. However here the combat was even less decisive than on the left. Jon had also moved a column of Ps (S) off the hill to the side, and I attacked it for about four bounds from two or three sides before I achieved any casualties.
Jon then attacked some Ax on my right wing with his Kn (F), and twice the Kn bounced off. One of my Ax was even able to work its way past the line and destroyed a Kn (F) from the rear before itself being destroyed by another Kn.
Finally, in the centre came the big attack of something like half a dozen Kn (F) against my double-ranked Reg Ax (S). The first attack was a complete failure, with the Kn either recoiling or being stuck in combat. On something like three occasions being (S) made the difference between survival and death.
My own counterattacks against double-overlapped Kn got nowhere, and Jon charged in a second time. This time he destroyed one Ax. Again my counterattacks achieved nothing...
Meanwhile, over on my left, Jon's line of Ax and Ps began to fragment. The only thing stopping me from exploiting this mercilessly was a lack of PIPs. But then Jon sent his right wing command's LH to attack the Reg LH of my left, and they quickly destroyed all three. The only thing I could do was fill the gap with Ps and hope for the best.
Over on my right Jon's Ax and Ps were also taking a battering, and again only a lack of PIPs on my part slowed down the attack.
But then Jon attacked again in the centre, this time supported by more Kn attacking the Ax of my right wing. Finally several combats went Jon's way as several Ax were destroyed in both commands. But Jon also took some unlucky losses on both his flanks...
At this point we called time due to lateness. Jon confirmed that both his flank commands were disheartened, while his centre command had lost nothing. My centre and right wing commands were both 0.5ME from becoming disheartened, while the left wing still had a couple of ME before being disheartened.
I'm not sure what the score would have been, perhaps 14-11 to me, but regardless it was a thoroughly entertaining game. I suspect I had a slight edge in the game, as it would have been my bound next with three intact commands looking to inflict casualties on Jon's two disheartened commands. The big question mark was what PIPs I'd have to work with.
Anyway, thanks to Jon for a pleasant evening of DBMM.