Well, last night Alexander and his Macedonians took on the might of Dave?s Tamils.
My army was based on the current proposed Alex Mac army list, as follows (all regular unless otherwise marked):
Command 1:
Brilliant general
4 Kn (F)
2 LH (S)
4 Ax (S)
4 Irr Ax (S)
4 Irr Ps (S)
Command 2:
Sub as Kn (F)
16 Pk (O)
4 Ps (O)
1 Cv (I)
Command 3:
Sub as Cv
4 Cv (O)
3 Irr LH (O)
8 Irr Ax (S)
4 Ps (S)
Command 4:
6 Irr Bg (O)
Dave?s army also contained three commands, all roughly similar, with a mix of Ele (O), Bd (F) and Bw (O) in each, and some Cv (O) chariots and Cv (I) on the flanks.
Terrain played little part in the game. There was a river down my right flank, and a wood inside that on my side of the board. There were two hills which played no part. Weather allowed for possible rain, though that never eventuated.
Although I was the invader, I had to deploy first, which concerned me a little. I placed Command 1 on the left, Command 2 in the centre, and Command 3 on the right. The Tamil command with the most mounted was on Dave?s right, facing the Companions, and the Tamil ally general was on the opposite flank. I assigned the highest PIP dice to Command 1, the second highest to Command 3, and the lowest to the Pike command.
On the left, I swung the LH out wide, deployed the Kn to take on the Tamil mounted, and advanced Ps to face the elephants on the Tamil right. In the centre, the infantry advanced slowly. On the right, the infantry also advanced slowly, as most of the PIPs went to the mounted, who also swung out wide to get around the open flank of the Tamil ally.
The battle dissolved into a series of separate actions, and quite a few troops in each army were never in combat.
On the far right, the Thessalian Cv took on a variety of targets of opportunity, killing some Ps, some Bd and some Bw. The Tamil ally was unable to do much about it, as he often got low PIPs. Further across, Bd from the Tamil left and centre took on the Ax from my right wing, gradually driving them back, but not causing many casualties. In the centre, the Pk killed an elephant and some Bd, while the Tamil C-in-C plunged through several lines of troops, eventually getting stuck in combat with a Ps (O) for several bounds. Further over on the left, the Ps (S) took on the Tamil elephants of their right wing, killing the sub-general with a lucky dice roll, and generally harassing the other two elephants until one more died. And on the far left, the Companions tore through the Tamil Cv (I), helped by Alexander?s two combat Brilliant Strokes, while the Tamil Cv (O) chariots killed one of my LH (S) elements.
These combats, which took place over about four bounds, were enough to break the Tamil right wing. The 2ME penalty applied to the Tamil centre was enough to dishearten it, at which point Dave conceded. He?d inflicted only about 5ME of casualties on me, and it was only a matter of time before the Ax and Kn from my left wing hit the exposed flank of his centre. He might have had the opportunity to push up to 10% casualties on me, and get a couple of points, but otherwise it was looking like a 25-0 win to me. Incidentally, the combat which amused me was when Alexander charged into a double-overlapped Cv (I), declaring a combat Brilliant Stroke as he did. The combat factors were 6-1 in my favour, and followed up by a 6-1 dice roll in my favour. That Tamil Cv (I) was *very* dead!
Thanks to Dave for a fun game in which we both tried armies we hadn?t really used much for a while. This Macedonian army is quite a satisfactory affair ? lots of troops along with a brilliant general, providing a decent strike force if you can apply it properly, as well as a lot of infantry who?ll hang around against most opponents, in the form of the Ax (S) and Pk (O). And all packaged into three commands about the same size. The lack of regular baggage is a bit of a restriction compared to Roman armies, but the ability to do one march for 0 PIPs allows the Pk to move forward steadily with the lowest PIP dice. I know that against skilful opponents it?s very hard to make good use of combat Brilliant Strokes, so I suspect that a slightly larger army with an ordinary general might be an even better combination ? say, an Asiatic Early Successor or Seleucid army.
In my experience, one of the best army designs you can use when learning DBMM and using a standard regular army is one with a solid infantry centre, and two wings with good quality mounted, and maybe some infantry. As comparisons, have a look at my Late Imperial Roman army and my Nikephorian Byzantine army ? both quite similar in broad structure to this army. The main differences, interestingly, lie in how the PIP dice distribution is done. The Nikephorians give the highest PIP dice to the centre, with its powerful Kataphraktoi wedges and Brilliant general, and average the 2nd and 3rd dice with the wings. The Late Imperial Romans start with the Kn wing getting the highest PIP dice, the Cv wing getting the 2nd highest, and the infantry centre getting the 3rd highest, with the intention of using this to gain victory on the wings, then using a Brilliant Stroke to switch the PIP assignment to that of the Nikephorians, when the infantry are likely to start fighting. The Macedonians use the same assignment as the Late Imperial Romans, but probably won?t change the assignment ? if the Companions win, high PIPs will allow them to intervene to assist in the centre.
Cheers
Peter B
