Congratulations to Ian Austin on his win at Schiltron 2008 this
weekend. Great to see a local winner (it took me 5 mins to give
him a lift back on the Sunday don't get much more local than that)
This was a 15mm 400AP comp organised superbly by George Dick of the
Glasgow and District Wargames Club see
http://www.gdws.co.uk/ and
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/george.dick/Schiltron/SCh%20Index.htmfor details respectively.
George stepped in at the lastminute to ensure the DBMM competition went ahead following Niall
Taylor succumbing to a late attack of thumb on foreheaditis that he
caught from his missus.
The armies/players were as follows
Ian Austin GDWS - Ugaritic
Mike Kemp Elgin - Bosporan
Neil MacCormack SEWSC (Edinburgh) - Parthian (Elymaian variant)
George Dick GDWS Seljuk Turk (Rum variant)
Gordon Harrow October (Birmingham) Middle Frankish
David Mather Pinner (North London) Hittite Empire
I believe Niall is hoping to publish the lists used by all I was
using my Hittites for the first time in over a year pretty much
the same make up as had been used at Challenge and Campaign last
year but with some more Ps (O) with the foot command as we are now
more conscious of the need to use Ps to help dictate the first clash
of foot see previous comments from Lorenzo.
First Round results
David Mather 5 Ian Austin 20
George Dick 21 Mike Kemp 4
Neil MacCormack 0 Gordon Harrow 25
My game revolved around a head on clash in the centre between the
chariot nobility with some knight on knight action and occasional
worried Cv(S) trapped in the mix which I had to initiate as my
right flank was in danger of being enveloped so I had to take the
risk of the head on clash with the big boys in the centre - Ian's
Ugaritics triumphed and that as that - the Hittites first
competitive defeat. Muwatallis was in disgrace he managed to flump
+2 BS inspired 6-0 against an Ugaritic chariot in the first major
combat - set the scene for what was to follow :-(.
Second Round
Ian Austin 11 Mike Kemp 14
David Mather 23 Neil MacCormack 2
Gordon Harrow 25 George Dick 0
Against Neils Parthians it was a case of getting my foot into his
archers - especially as they now had a new Psiloi screen - and play
hunt the cataphract with my Knights whilst delaying on the flanks
where he had a huge superiority with his light horse.
Neil "engineered" a piece of scrubby ground in the centre - Where
the bowmen will be?
The game played out pretty much as hoped with the bowmen being in
the area of the scrubby ground - the Hittite infantry advanced -
Neil correctly stepped his archers forward to ensure he got in the
shot in his bound - this was absorbed by the Psiloi - he did kill
a fair few troops in the end but once the lines closed it was
1 way traffic -2 deep Bw v Wb (F) and Pk (F) has only one winner if
they get there.
The chariot Kns made swift work of the cataphracts but Neil managed
to kill enough infantry and chariotry to get over 10% and picked up
2 points.
Third Round
Ian Austin 25 Gordon Harrow 0
David Mather 25 George Dick 0
Mike Kemp 3 Neil MacCormack 22
I must admit to being slightly worried about this game - lots of
nasty LH(S) never good for the knights or the infantry. Poor PIPs
from George allowed me to dictate things in the centre (along with
an unreliable Turcoman ally) The Seljuks lost badly in the knight
on knight action bizarrely it was the Georgian Kn(O) who lost out
the Kn(F) performed a bit better. The game ending with a Hittite
sub general Kn (O) killing a Cv (O) Seljuk general this with the
loss of the c-inc in the centre tipped the Seljuks over the edge.
Fourth Round
The situation going into the final game saw Ian in the lead with 56
me on 53 and Gordon on 50 so it was perm 1 from 3 to win.
Gordon and I were due to play with Ian playing Neils Parthians.
Given the state of play Gordon and I agreed to basically go for it -
fast play go for broke - one of us had to win big to pass Ian.
We then played out an absolute cracker
I deployed with horde lining a scrubby hill on the right with the
Gasgan and Syrian chariots behind with a centre of Hittite Kn
chariots and a couple of Cv(S) with my infantry on the left centre.
Gordons two blocks of foot were opposite my chariots/Horde with his
mass of Cv (O) opposite my foot there was a weak spot in his line
on the right as I looked at it where 4 Ps(S) stood with some Cv
behind turn that and we will get behind the foot and/or on to the
baggage. We doubled the Gasgan/Syrian dice via BS to get them as
far forward as possible to threaten his Ps flank whilst along the
front everyone moved forward. Poor pips from Gordon saw him do
nothing but move forward as well - swiftly the Gasgan chariots swept
through the Ps(S) - took them all out in one bound and piled through
onto the Cavalry who next bound they also burst through (a series of
1s from Gordon really did not help)
1 chariot broke clean through and headed for the baggage, whilst the
remainder set up mopping up the remaining Cv and making way for the
Syrian chariots to move round the flank and into the rear of the
foot block heading towards the thin horde lines defending the hill.
This poor command kept rolling ones and had to keep moving straight
forward which lead to a gap opening up between it and the central
foot block. The Frankish C-in-C moved into this gap to cover the
flank with dire consequences later on.
Meanwhile things had gone badly on the Hittite left. I had advanced
forward with the foot and retired the Ps to prepare for the charge
of the Cv (O). In my haste (we were playing at breakneck speed) I
forgot to move Muwatallis back - he had been lined up with the front
which was the Ps - DOH !!!
Gordon charged in with a double overlap, so its 3-2 to the Cv - yep
I rolled 2 Gordon rolled 6 and he made up for his 1s on the other
flank. Muwatallis was dead - first Hittite casualty of the game.
(This actually gave Gordon a prize for the fastest C-in-C kill of
the weekend) around 45 minutes into the game (inc deployment etc).
The Hittite chariots in the centre charged the block in front and
stripped away the front rank. They then began to Pacman their way
through the warband for minimal loss.
On the right the warband had reached the hill and swiftly brushed
aside the first few hordes but the Syrian chariots were now on
their flank with some moving to the rear. The Gasgan breakthrough
chariot reached the Frankish baggage behind TFs and promptly 6-1d
the baggage and broke in there. This won me the prize for
fastest baggage sack around 55 mins from start of game. So in under
an hour I am down a C-in-C and Gordons baggage is being sacked.
The next couple of bounds saw casualties climb on the Hittite foot
and them dishearten and break to the Frankish Cv. The Gasgan worked
his way through the baggage breaking it. Casualties piled up on the
Frankish warband faster than they were killing horde as the Syrians
took their toll - the early loss of the Cv and Ps hastening their
end. In the centre the warband lost heavily to the Kns the final
coup de grace coming when the Hittite Sub general killed the
Frankish C-in-C and broke the army.
In the aftermath the Hittites had lost just over 40% and had a
broken command so 16-9 to me. We played for 1hr 45 minutes. This
left us plenty of time to watch the other two games which saw a
classic bloodbath between Mike and George with Mike in the end
shading it after both armies bludgeoned each other to almost mutual
destruction 15-10 to Mike. Ian recovered from the loss of a command
to squeak home by the skin of his teeth 16-9 over Neil and take the
overall win which was only just as he had beaten both myself and
Gordon previously.
Interesting to note all the games were played to a conclusion e.g.
they were all wins even the 14-11 the winner lost over 40% and had
3 disheartened commands.
Once again an immensely enjoyable weekend of "competitive" wargaming
and a great opportunity to meet old friends (I had been a member of
GDWS) prior to my migration South back in 1985 and to meet some new
people in the form of Mike, Neil and George. Looks like there is a
thriving DBMM community in Elgin with around 5 players - Mr Taylor
take note !!! The games were all played in a great spirit and in a
very relaxed manner and the whole event ran smoothly.
So thanks again to the players and especially George for organising
hope to make it back again next year. The final results are over
on the BHGS web site see
http://www.bhgs.co.uk/Next up its Rampage at Dagenham on the 28th June where I shall be
joined by my 9 year old in his first competition game (if Toby ever
posts the details HINT).
Finally again I will encourage all those lurkers out there to come
along to a DBMM competition -
Coming up are Rampage which promises to be fast and furious, Rays
club day out at Guildford on 19th July and the one I would counsel
people to target Britcon in mid August which although a heavy 6 game
schedule will give you a great entry to the enjoyable experience
that is competition wargaming in DBMM. Both 15mm and 25mm are on
offer as ever details are over on the BHGS web site
http://www.bhgs.co.uk/ If you haven't played before don't worry
Niall Taylor had played a couple of games last year before entering
Challenge and went on to win Britcon later that year Mick Woods had
played a handful of games before Challenge this year and had a great
time. So come along and join in its fun honest.
Kind Regards
David Mather
Show Posts
) after which we basically let Cameron make the decisions for the moves etc - explaining what choices he has and letting him decide what to do - I must admit that worked very well. Cameron was picking the factors Ok from the QRS and was confident in working out the base combats plus overlaps and had quickly grasped the importance of the overlap. He really, really likes the Companions.
- yes one that slipped the list checkers net - reports of brown envelopes changing hands on the Saturday morning have been strenuously denied.
