My experience of Cancon 2009

[Barritus]

Well, I was one of 13 people who took part in the DBMM competition at Cancon 2009. I ran a Nikephorian Byzantine army of 975AD, the year of Emperor John Tzimiskes's last and greatest campaign in Syria. It was based on the design of a Mongol Conquest army which had been successful in competition.

The competition allowed 400 point armies, with another 10 points available only for stratagems. My command structure was as follows:

Command 1: 24 ME
Brilliant C-in-C as Reg Cv (S)
8 Reg Cv (S)
1 Reg LH (S)
1 Reg LH (F)

Command 2: 21 ME
Sub as Reg Cv (S)
6 Reg Cv (S)
3 Reg Bw (X)/3 Reg Bw (O) DBE

Command 3: 12 ME
Sub as Reg Cv (S)
3 Reg LH (S)
3 Reg Bw (X)/3 Reg Bw (O) DBE

Command 4: 8 ME
Sub as Reg Cv (S)
2 Reg Ps (S)
2 Reg (O)

Command 5: 2 ME
4 Reg Bg (F)

Stratagems:
Scouts
Feigned Flight
Concealed Command (brilliant invader only)

The best description I can come up with for the army is "Cavalry Delivery System". Fourteen Reg Cv (S) and their generals in two commands, getting the two highest of five PIP dice, combined with a brilliant general usually meant I never lacked PIPs for these most useful of troop types.

The C-in-C had a couple of LH to help with scouting, though obviously I could also use the Cv as well if things were desperate. I took the minimum amount of baggage which would give me an extra PIP dice, and the fourth command likewise contained as few troops as possible.

Turning to stratagems, I chose Scouts because, with an aggression 4 army, I was sure I'd face lots of ambushes, and I chose Feigned Flight because I thought it might be useful to rescue a command close to breaking, although I hoped there might be a chance to attempt a Feigned Flight Two-Step (FF with one command to paralyse enemy, allowing a second command to exploit the paralysis). I took Concealed Command only because it was free, not because I expected to use it, though I couldn't rule out the possibility it might be useful.

Because my army was far better suited to open terrain, my terrain plans were to minimise the effects of terrain as much as possible. When numbering table edges for terrain placement, I intended to select my own base edge in the hope that terrain placed might well be stuck near my table edge. If invading, I intended to select two Feature Equivalents of terrain, to deny my opponent the chance to select and place it (either a river or gentle hills and scrubby flat). If defending, I intended to place as little terrain as possible (again probably gentle hills and scrubby flat). The one possible exception to this rule was if I was facing an army I thought was more mobile than mine, in which case I intended to place terrain to cover my flanks.

I expected to use the army very aggressively, leading with Command 1. Command 2 could either operate separately, or with Command 1. If Command 2 was busy elsewhere, I'd support Command 1 with Command 3. I didn't expect Command 4 to do much, although the extra general would be useful in combat. In general I expected to allocate PIP dice in command order (highest PIP dice to Command 1, second highest to Command 2, and so on). The option of doubling the C-in-C's first PIP dice was always on the table.

[Barritus]

Day 1

Game 1 v Cumans (Tim)

This was one army I was particularly worried about meeting - I expected it to be far more mobile than mine, and with lots of LH (F) I was expecting lots of flank hits, of which only a few would need to be successful in order for my army to be in trouble. I was the invader, and chose to invade in spring to give myself the 50% chance of getting the Hungry Horses weather effect. Little terrain went down, and it had no practical effect on the game. I had a gentle hill to my rear left, and some boggy ground to my rear right, while Tim had a gentle hill on his rear left. I dithered over my deployment, eventually deciding to put Command 1 on the left, Command 2 on the right, Command 3 in the middle, and Command 4 in the rear. The weather/deployment dice gave us mud rather than Hungry Horses. Tim deployed four commands, with Alan allies on his right. The three Cuman commands were similar, with lots of LH (F) in two ranks in front and a small number of Cv (O) behind. I was thrown by the fact that each Cuman command had an artillery piece, generally situated between blocks of LH. These had the effect of preventing me from marching up to his LH, and could also be dangerous in their own right.

Tim's left wing got good PIPs, and his Alans were reliable. He sent a group of about 5 LH (F) from his left wing forward and almost around the flank of Command 2, with the obvious intention of making a run for my baggage. The rest of the army advanced more steadily.

I was pleased to get 6 PIPs for Command 1 in my first bound. I decided to try out my tactics straight away, and used a brilliant stroke to double those PIPs to 12. This allowed the command's Cv to form column and march down the left hand side of the table, then turn inwards to face the flank of the Alan command. I sent Command 3's LH to face the front of the Alan command, while their Bw advanced towards the LH of the adjacent Cuman command. I sent most of Command 2's Cv forward to face the Cuman left wing, but sent the general, the Bw and 1 Cv to face the far-advanced Cuman LH, along with Command 4.

Tim then endured a period of extremely poor PIPs for both his wing commands. This meant that the Alan Kn (F) swarmed impetuously towards Command 1's Cv, and the LH towards the LH of Commands 1 and 3. It only took about three bounds of combat to break the Alan command (during which time I used my second brilliant stroke in combat), while Tim desperately tried to redeploy troops from his centre in support. Meanwhile, Tim's left wing command got 1 PIP about three bounds in a row, limiting what the 5 LH could achieve, and over the next few bounds I was able to catch the column and whittle it down. In the centre, Tim charged massed LH into Command 3's Bw, but they were able to beat them off. Eventually, weight of numbers told, and Tim was able to get some LH around the flank of the Bw and hit them in the rear, killing two DBEs.

But in general, the LH (F) performed miserably against my Cv. Tim rarely got enough PIPs to deploy his LH properly, and I was able to fight them on good terms for me. His casualties racked up, and eventually one of his centre commands broke, breaking the army. My losses were surprisingly light, and the result was a 25-0 win to me.

Game 2 v Central Asian City States (Dugald)

This was another army I was worried about facing, especially the possibility of regular generals with massed Cv (S). I was the invader, and again chose terrain to deny the selection to Dugald, although in the end terrain played no major part in the game. I again placed Command 1 on the left, Command 3 in the centre, Command 2 on the right and Command 4 in the rear. Dugald deployed first, putting a small Central Asian Turkish ally on his right, next to a command of Cv (O) and LH (F). The next command had Cv (S) and Bw (I), while the left-most command had more Cv (S) and some LH (F). Fortunately for me, however, his generals were all irregular, so I harboured some hope of being able to outmaneuver him.

This plan went down the drain when Dugald rolled excellent PIPs in the first bound, and sent his two Cv (S) commands racing forwards to pin Command 2. I moved Command 4 to my right to support Command 2, and advanced Command 1 steadily, with Command 3 in support. I didn't double Command 1's PIPs because I was worried about it becoming isolated from Command 3, and thus be hit from the front by Cv and in the flanks by LH. I was also worried about Dugald using the Feigned Flight stratagem against me. So I sent the LH and a couple of Cv from Command 1 to face the Turkish LH, then filled the gap between them and the rest of Command 1 with the LH from Command 3.

Dugald charged his left wing Cv (S) into Command 2, while I tried to shoot down the nearest of them with that command's Bw. Things started badly when my first casualty was Command 2's general. We traded Cv (S) kills for a couple of bounds, but sheer weight of numbers began to tell, and eventually Command 2 collapsed, though Dugald's inboard Cv (S) command was getting close to its break point too.

On my left, I knocked over a couple of the Turkish LH, and then finally in the centre got Command 1's Cv (S) into Dugald's Cv (O), while Command 3's Bw started shooting at that command's LH. I was able to inflict some losses on that command, importantly including an element next to the sub-general.

In my next bound I was able to hit the general in the flank and kill him. This was enough to break that command, and the 2 ME penalty to adjacent commands was enough to break both the Turkish command and the weakened Cv (S) command, thus breaking his army. Apart from the break of Command 2, my losses were fairly light, meaning the score was 18-7 to me.

End of day 1: I was on 43 points, and, a little remarkably, in the lead. I'd been surprised by the size of my win against Tim, and quite surprised to win at all against Dugald. Interestingly, though, Dugald was dismissive of my fears of Feigned Flight. He said that it doesn't work with Cv. I'm not entirely sure he's correct, but I wasn't going to complain that he didn't try it against me.

[Barritus]

Day 2

Game 3 v Tupi (Jason)

This was another army I was unhappy about facing, the big worries being the amount of terrain he'd place if he was defending, and what his Bw (S) could do to my Cv (S). Fortunately for me, however, the dice determined that I'd be the defender. Jason placed a sea on my left, while I placed as little terrain as I could. A couple of gentle hills went down in my deployment zone, left and centre-right, and the compulsory difficult hill went down on my right flank, again in my deployment zone. Nothing at all for Jason's lads to hide in!

I wasn't worried about deploying first as defender, but I was mightily concerned that the deployment/weather dice determined that the battle would start before dawn, and thus I'd have to be in camp. So I used three elements as scouts (2 LH and 1 Cv), and got the necessary result which allowed me to start rolling PIPs immediately (and without losing any scouts, either). This time I placed Command 2 on the left, Command 3 in the centre and Command 1 on the right, with Command 4 in the rear. Jason deployed only two commands, each a mix of Bw (S) and Wb (F). The C-in-C was near the sea, with several elements on the water, and the sub-general's command angled back towards his base edge. I assumed his third command was flank marching on my right - I doubted Jason would try to use Impressed Shipping. So my plan was to be as aggressive as possible against the left wing, and then hopefully get into the flank or rear of the C-in-C's command before he could react.

I again doubled Command 1's PIPs on the first turn, and again had the Cv deployed in line ready to advance against the end of the sub?s line of Bw. I moved Command 3 obliquely forward to the right in support, followed by Command 2. My plan was to get my Bw in front of Jason?s left flank Bw, while getting Command 2's Cv to attack that command's Wb. I left a lone Cv to delay the other command.

It all looked pretty good, but then Jason's flank march arrived immediately. I decided to continue my attack as planned, and charged the nearest end of the left wing's Bw line, while sneaking Command 1's LH past the line to get into the rear areas of Jason's army.

Jason flank marched on the land, bringing his command on in two groups. One group was the Bw, on the far side of the difficult hill. The Wb and Bg arrived on my table edge, advancing back towards his own table edge. In response, I sent Command 4's Ps scurrying over to the difficult hill, while their general sat on the gentle hill a little further in-board, watching the flank of the Wb group. I also deployed the LH of Command 3 to face the flank of the Bw group, in case an opportunity presented itself.

Meanwhile, across the table, Jason's Bw started to counter-attack the Cv of Command 1. He hit one element in the flank and killed it in my bound, giving him a shot at my C-in-C, which I only narrowly saved. Command 2's Cv also made a slow start on the Wb, while both sides' Bw had little initial effect on each other. But eventually, weight of factors began to tell - the Cv ground down the Wb, the LH (F) got into the baggage, and my Bw and Cv got into combat with his Bw.

At the same time, Jason's right flank command was advancing as fast as it could across the table, with the Bw getting the occasional shot off against the lone Cv holding them up. More importantly, the Bw were also starting to close in on my baggage, which was also being threatened from the opposite direction by the flank march command.

I got Command 4's Ps onto the top of the difficult hill, just as Jason rolled poor PIPs for the flank march command. This meant that their Wb charged up the hill into my Ps, at whose hands they suffered a couple of losses.

Finally I broke the left wing, and as their remains fled off table (Jason rolled 1, 1, 1 for PIPs that turn) I tried to collect my forces to chase his right wing command. Command 2's Cv started work on the flank of the nearest Bw group, but time ran out before I could do much damage.

I'd taken relatively light losses, while Jason's were about 40%. The difference in penalty points meant the score was 15-10 in my favour.

Game 4 v Aztec (Doug)

Yes, another army I wasn't sure about. I knew Doug's army also had five commands, including a regular baggage command. But it was obviously a lot larger than mine (on a straight element count, his army was more than three times larger than mine), and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to kill it in a straight fight. Doug is a good player, and I knew he'd try to limit my chances to exploit my superior maneuverability.

I was the invader once again, and due to the lack of gentle hills in the Aztec terrain list instead chose to place a river. This went from the left table edge near the front of my deployment zone to Doug's table edge, about a third of the way along. Doug placed a couple of marshes and a couple of rough hills, and the terrain suited him quite well. One marsh was on my left in the front of my deployment zone, just where I wanted to place Command 1. And one rough hill went on my right, just forward of my deployment zone, with the other marsh beyond it in Doug's deployment zone. As Doug had masses of Ps (O) and some boats, it meant he had control of both flanks, meaning I'd have to take his army on frontally, and hope to hold him off on the flanks.

Doug placed a command of Reg Bd (F) and Ps (O) on his left, facing the difficult hill. Next to that was a command of Wb (F). In the middle was a huge mass of 45 Hd (F) in three separated ranks. Finally, between the Hd and the river was another big block of Reg Bd (F) under the C-in-C. This command also included the boats and their occupants.

I deployed Command 1 on the left, facing Doug?s C-in-C's command and part of the Hd command. Command 2 was next, followed by Command 3. Command 4 faced the rough hill, the heights of which I hoped to claim before Doug's Ps could reach it. The worrying thing was that this tiny command would have to face about twice their number of Ps and three times their number of Bd, just so that the Bw and LH of Command 3 could face Doug's Wb command by themselves. Once again I was worried about the prospects of my right wing, and I got even more worried when I found out that Doug had given the two highest PIP dice to these commands in order to put the pressure on me. I had taken the minor precaution of giving Command 4 the 3rd highest PIP dice and Command 3 the 4th highest, in the expectation that Command 4 might be a bit busy.

I decided to take on the Wb with Command 3's LH, figuring that being (S) would be useful. Meanwhile I advanced Commands 1 and 2 as quickly as I could, taking some time to get Command 1's Cv sorted out beyond the marsh. The Wb took a couple of casualties in shooting and combat, but also knocked over a LH in return, forcing me to fill the gap with a Bw DBE. The Aztec Bd (F) swarmed over the rough hill, while the same command's Ps convinced Command 4's Ps to pull back without a fight. One of my Bw DBEs managed to shoot down a couple of Bd (F) elements in successive bounds, although another was overrun by Wb. This forced me to commit the generals of Commands 2 and 3 to combat, my last reserves in that part of the line.

Meanwhile, the Cv and Bw of Commands 1 and 2 finally made contact with the Hd in the centre, and started the long job of knocking that command over. The first round of combat saw about five elements destroyed, with the occasional lucky element hanging around to block things up. The following bound the Cv of Command 1 charged the Bd of Doug's right wing, although I forgot to declare a combat brilliant stroke. Here the fighting was much tougher, with the Bd taking only a couple of casualties, despite the danger of (S)/(F) -2 grading modifier in my bound. Doug also disembarked Hd elements from some of the boats on the river, attacking the LH from Command 1 which had been covering the Cv's flank. The Hd killed the LH (F), but the LH (S) survived.

On my right, Doug's luck deserted him as several promising attacks by his Wb failed, and their casualties slowly started to mount. And in the centre, the separate lines of Hd began to bunch up, meaning that I was starting to kill two Hd elements at a time. Finally, the Hd command broke. This was enough to dishearten the Wb command, and I began to believe I could win the game. In desperation, Doug committed the sub-general of the Wb command, but his attack also failed, and I was able to hit it in the flank with some Bw while it was fighting one of my sub-generals. As I knew I only needed a couple of ME to break his army, I also sent Command 4 to attack the Ps facing them, and swung a Cv element into the uncovered flank of Doug's C-in-C's command, as insurance. These last two attacks failed, but I was able to kill the Wb command's sub-general, breaking that command, which was enough to break Doug's army. In that last bound of combat, Doug's Bd were also able to kill a Bw DBE, and this was enough to dishearten Command 3. My losses were just over 10%, meaning the score was 22-3 in my favour.

End of day 2: Two games in which luck had helped me prevail. I was lucky to be the defender against the Tupi, and that my scouts prevented the night attack. And I was quite lucky in combat against Doug's Wb.

I was now on 80 points, and still in the lead. I began to wonder whether I might actually have a chance of winning the competition. Interestingly, the people in the positions immediately behind me were people I'd already played, meaning my next game would be against someone more in the middle of the field.

[Barritus]

Day 3

Game 5 v Medieval Vietnamese (Nick)

I knew Nick's army reasonably well from watching earlier games. I knew it had four combat commands under regular generals, plus an artillery command, giving him five allocated PIP dice, like my army and Doug's. It also had a decent number of Shot (I) and Fixed Hidden Obstacles. It was therefore optimised for defending a terrain-heavy table. So while I was confident of facing it in the open, I wasn't about to chase it into bad terrain.

I was the invader, and chose to invade in spring to maximise the chance of rain (though, given we were both rolling 5 PIP dice, not very likely). Wanting the table to be as open as possible, I selected two gentle hills and a patch of scrubby flat; I was concerned that a river might help Nick more than me, as it had helped Doug in the previous game. Nick selected a couple of wooded hills, a wood, and a couple of rice paddies (enclosed fields). And all the terrain went down. The wood was the dominant feature, a little to the left of the centre of the table. There was a wooded hill on each side of the wood, one at the front of my deployment zone, the other at the front of Nick's deployment zone. One gentle hill was out on my left flank, while the other was on Nick's base edge, at the right hand (his right hand, that is) end of his deployment zone. One rice paddy was on the left of Nick's deployment zone, while the other was in the front of my deployment zone, a little to the right of centre. Finally, the patch of scrubby flat went down on the right hand end of my deployment zone. All up, this meant that most of the right hand side of the table was clear of terrain, while the left hand side was very cluttered.

I deployed Command 1 on the right, Command 2 next to it, and Command 3 on the left, with Command 4 in the rear, however, I concentrated this deployment on the right hand side of the table, with my left-most element facing only the right-most part of the large wood in the middle.

The weather/deployment dice promised the possibility of rain, but also specified that I should deploy first. Before that, however, I needed to scout. So I committed four elements to scouting - both LH and 2 Cv as well. The dice favoured me, and I was able to get all the information I needed, without losing an element. Before I deployed, Nick had to deploy both his ambushes and his Hidden Obstacles. A small command, including a couple of Ele (S), some Ps and a Sh (I), was located in the wood, facing towards the open ground I intended to advance through, while some Ps were hidden on the further wooded hill. The Hidden Obstacles were on the slope of the gentle hill at the right hand end of Nick's deployment zone, guarding against the possibility of a flank march. This was all vital information, and I hoped I?d be able to take advantage of it.

After I deployed my army, Nick deployed the rest of his. He placed his artillery command facing to his left (that is, towards the open ground), behind TF, with the line of the TF roughly halfway along his base edge. He then deployed two commands facing the same way as the artillery. The first, next to the TF, contained some Bd (I) and Ps (O). The second, under the C-in-C, was in a single long column, and included Bd (O), Bw (O), Sh (I) and Ps (O). Nick, however, had been caught out by his requirement to deploy second. If he'd deployed first, he would have been able to deploy troops to within 12 cm of the centre line, and thus close to his ambush command. But because the army deploying second can't deploy closer than 20 cm from the centre line, the ambush command was dangerously isolated from the rest of the army, and I'd be moving first. The other command was off table, and I assumed it was going to arrive on my right flank.

I therefore decided to advance quickly, to crush the ambush command first, then try to overrun the other two combat commands on table before the flank march arrived. To this end I changed my PIP dice assignment, giving the highest PIP dice to Command 2, the second highest to Command 1, averaging the 3rd and 4th highest between Commands 3 and 4, and giving the baggage the lowest PIP dice. I hoped to get the Ps of Command 4 and the LH of Command 3 into his Ele and face his Sh with my Bw, but it didn't quite work out that way. Instead the Ps dived into the wood to face his ambush command's Ps, while I had to deploy Bw and the generals of Commands 3 and 4 to face the Ele. Meanwhile the Bw of Command 2 swung around to face the end of the wood, and the Cv deployed around and beyond them. Command 1 marched forwards, and then wheeled around the Cv of Command 2, taking up a position facing the other two on-table commands of Nick?s army. (Nick afterwards lamented that he'd neglected to place some Ax in the rice paddy on his left flank, where they could have slowed the advance of Command 1.)

I quickly killed a Ps and the Sh in the ambush command, but Nick then charged the two Ele out of the wood, killing one of my Bw DBEs in the process. I counter-charged the Ele general, hitting him in the front with one of my generals, and double-overlapping him with a flank hit. I won that combat, killing the general and thus breaking the ambush command, getting things off to a promising start. However, the other Ele in the broken command hung around for a couple more bounds, giving Nick enough time to deploy some Sh from his C-in-C?s command into the wood to cover his front, and deploy the rest of the troops from that command to cover the gap between the wood and the artillery TF. He also sent masses of Ps from the two on-table commands into the far end of the wood, and they slowly worked their way through it towards me.

As I deployed the Cv from Commands 1 and 2 into a good attacking position against Nick's two on-table commands, he decided he'd advanced too far with them. Leaving some Ps and Ax out to delay me, he retreated his Bd and Bw so their line was level with the TF. I attacked and overran the speed humps, though my Bw had their hands full trying to deal with his Sh. I also had to pull the Ps out of the wood, lest they be caught either by his advancing Ps or by the Sh in there.

Finally I got my Cv into Nick's main line, and the Cv began to slowly carve their way through the Bw and Bd, aided by a couple of combat brilliant strokes, although I also took some losses from his Art.

Then Nick's final command showed up - not a flank march as I expected, but as a delayed command, emerging onto the flank of Command 1. It was similar in content to his C-in-C's command, and was immediately able to attack Command 1's LH, killing one.

I was able to dishearten the smallest remaining command in Nick's army, and was closing in on the same for the C-in-C's command. When time was called and the last combats resolved, I needed to kill three elements from that command to break it and the army. I failed all three attacks. Even so, Nick's army had taken heavy losses. In my army, Command 1 was close to being disheartened, but the other commands had taken few losses. With a big advantage to me in penalty points, the score again ended up 15-10 in my favour.

Game 6 v New Kingdom Egyptian (Dave)

This was the first army I felt reasonably confident facing. I knew pretty well what it contained, and I knew I'd get pretty much the terrain I wanted - not much. The only question was how aggressive I should be. I had a reasonable lead in points on second place, but was unsure how many points I could afford to give away in a draw.

I was the invader. Dave selected a waterway which went down on my left, while I chose three pieces of scrubby flat. Two went on my base edge, and the third went on the right table edge, in my deployment zone. I knew Dave would have something on the waterway, and assumed he'd rest the flank of his army on the waterway. I therefore decided to place Command 2 on the left, Command 3 in the centre, Command 1 on the right and Command 4 in the rear. This way I'd be able to envelop Dave's left wing, which I assumed would have his chariot command. Dave duly deployed his chariot command on his left, with two fairly similar commands in the centre and on the right. They each contained a mixture of Bw (O) and Bd (F), with some Ps (O) and (I) behind, and a reserve of Cv (S) chariots. The C-in-C was on Dave's right, by the waterway.

It was obvious from my deployment that I was going to try to monster his chariot command, and Dave reacted accordingly. He pulled his chariots back, and turned the infantry of his centre and right wing commands to the left, marching them across the table so that the centre command infantry partially covered the chariots. He also advanced the chariots of his right wing command towards Command 2.

But Dave had made two crucial mistakes. Firstly, he'd pulled his left wing chariots back a long way, and secondly he'd also left his infantry in column. This exposed the infantry to a flank attack, if I could march up there. I doubled the PIPs of the C-in-C's command from 6 to 12, and was able to move into column, swing left in front of Command 3, turn 90 degrees into line, then advance onto the flank of the Egyptian centre command's infantry. This attack alone killed five elements, and put that command nearly half way to breaking. I incidentally discovered that a couple of the chariots in Dave's chariot command were fakes created using the Exaggerating Numbers stratagem - amusingly enough, it hadn't been enough to deter me. I also sent Command 3 around behind Command 1, and out to the right to cover Command 1?s flank. I sent the Cv of Command 2 forward to the left towards Dave's right wing chariots, and started to move Command 2's Bw and Command 4 over in support.

Dave counter-attacked Command 1 with the remaining infantry of the centre command, and the chariots of the left wing. We exchanged losses, and over the next couple of bounds both commands steadily approached their break points. It was Dave's centre which broke first, giving my Command 3 and now-battered Command 1 a chance to turn their attention to Dave's left wing chariot command, where they killed a couple of chariots. Meanwhile, Dave's right wing chariots approached my more numerous Cv, and he sent some infantry forward in support, while I tried to bring up Command 2's Bw to counter them.

I had the first chance to break Dave's army, with a couple of wrapping attacks on the chariots of his left wing, and some frontal attacks on his right wing chariots. But Dave won all the combats. He then took his chance, killing one last Cv to break Command 1. However, in my next bound, my C-in-C hit the rear of one of his chariots, destroying it, while the LH of Command 3 wrapped and killed another. This was enough to break his left wing command. And just to complete the package, Command 2's troops also killed a couple of infantry elements from Dave's right wing command. Dave's army broke, and I'd won the game 18-7.

End of day 3: I finished on 113 points, 19 points ahead of the next highest score. Yes, I'd actually won the competition. This time I think luck played a lesser part than on the second day. Against Nick, I got three good pieces of luck - deploying first (and thus narrowing his deployment zone), not losing anything to scouting, and the time it took his delayed command to arrive. But Nick got exactly the terrain he wanted, his Sh and Art shot very well, and I think his Bd (I) survived longer than they might have expected against Cv (S). In the last game, I benefited from Dave's mistaken moves in his first bound, but if he hadn't made those moves, I would have been in a position to attack aggressively with Command 2 against his right flank instead, while still pushing against his left wing with Commands 1 and 3. In other words, in each game I had a plan, and was able to follow it, although also with alternative available as well.

[Barritus]

Conclusions: First, this army is by no means unbeatable. I think I was quite fortunate not to meet the Ugaritic army with the massed Irr Kn (O) chariots, as he had many more chariots than I had Cv (S). I was also happy not to meet the French Ordonnance army of the player who only played days 2 and 3; he came second on 94 points, despite playing only four games. Other armies which might have troubled it would have been massed LH under regular generals, or massed Irr LH (S). Such armies have consistently beaten my Nikephorians, simply overwhelming the Cv (S) with superior numbers and only marginally lower factors.

Second, the Scouting stratagem is vital. I remember Phil Barker saying (I think on the DBMM list) something along the lines that the only reason for including the Scouting stratagem was to give him an opportunity to punish those who didn?t take it. It almost certainly saved my bacon in the games against the Tupi and the Vietnamese.

Third, for this army, PIPs were trumps. And the only time I could rely on good PIPs was when I had five good commands. Breaking commands in regular armies doesn?t only remove troops from battle, it also degrades the PIP allocation process. As my army was so heavily reliant on good PIPs, the loss of any command had the potential to affect the maneuverability of Commands 1 and 2.

Fourth, this game is a lot of fun, especially when the army you like using is so darn good. I?ve come third twice in all the previous competitions I?ve played, and never looked like winning a competition. It was a wonderful feeling to have a plan come together so comprehensively and consistently. As well, I?d only finished painting the army the day before the competition started (the army was entirely Old Glory 15s, and I was really pleased with how they looked).

If you?re interested in trying an army like this, there are a few other options. The first which comes to mind is Mongol Conquest under Genghis Khan, the army on which I based this list. Then there?s Early Byzantine, with Belisarius, although you can only get 8 Reg Cv (S), and the fourth general has to be Reg Bd (I). The third is Maurikian Byzantine, with Heraclius, in which you can have fun with Cv (S)/(O) DBEs, which are even more deadly. The other possibility which comes to mind is Later Sargonid Assyrian, in which the C-in-C?s strike force is now Reg Kn (S), though this depends on whether the Assyrians will get regular baggage or a Brilliant General.

Anyway, I hope my experiences have given you a few insights into the DBMM rules, and suggested some more tactical options for you.

Cheers

Peter