This is a copy of the posts I did on the DBMM mailing list - so if you saw them there then these only differ in having some spelling and grammer corected
Easter each year see's New Zealand hold it's national wargaming convention - NatCon. This year it was held in Hamilton - and hour's drive south of Auckland...or 7 hours north of Wellington where I was coming from with some Autumn snow falling for part of the drive! Fortunately my 1976 Triumph Stag has a good heater!
DBMM was only a small comp this year - 6 ppl - so we hada 5 game round robin.
I took the Nikephorian Byzantine -
CinC, 5 Cv(S), 6 Bw(X)/(O) DBE's
S-Gen, 5 Cv, 4 Irr Sp(O), 2 Irr Bd(O)
S-Gen, 4 Cv, 2 Irreg Ax(S), 2 Reg Ps(S)
S-Gen, 4 Reg Lh(S)
8 Bg, 8 TF
Game 1 vs Ivan Truong's Portuguese.
Ivan set up along his base edge with the English opposite my left flank,
hten some Kn(O) with associated infantry, hten hte CinC with all the
Kn(S), then another command of Kn (O) & some light infantry in a march
protecting his flank. There wre some Lc scattered among hte commands too.
I thought I'd try to attack both flanks so moved forwards to them,
wheeling my archers from the centre towards my right.
Ivan responded by sending the Irr Kn out to the flanks too - so I
switched and tried to come back to the centre...and it almost worked!
By the end of 4 hours I was among the English MAA (who had marched to
the centre along a road across Ivan's base edge - Ivan mande a lot of
use of roads to increase his manouvreability over the weekend) & had
killed a couple, leaving little between me & the baggage except a
scattering of LH & a general - I was within my move of the Bg.
Most of the Irr Kn were out of the flanks although 1 command had managed
to wheel around and was coming back in, and the Reg(S) ones had not
actually left the middle but were too far from the CinC and short of PIPs to
redeploy & fight.
But time was up.....casualties were light - 1/10 each - so 13-12 to me
by virtue of being the invader.
Game 2 vs Andrew Bennett's Late Carthaginians
Benny had a Spanish ally, 1 command of mainly Sp + Ax, another of Cv,
and a 3rd with Numidians - both the later with 2 El each and also
including a fair number of Ax & Ps.
There was a lot of terrain on the table - a wood on his side of the
tagbe right in the middle (can you say ambushing Ax(S)??!!, another on
his base edge opposite my right, and a massive area of rocky ground
covering much of the left side.
The weather turnd out to be rain & mud, which remained for the whole
game. The mud didn't do anything, but hte rain was obviously a problem
for my archers.
I advanced my Skutatoi up to the wook figuring I'd force him to fight by
shooting, which duly occurred. My Aux & Ps also attacked hte wood &
with stunning dice rolls killed all their opponents over 2 or 3 turns.
The Skutatoi weren't quite so good & had to have a Cav bolster the line
when a gap appeared....but with the Cav there the Carthaginians backed
off deeper into the wood.
On my right Benny had bought his spearmen out from the flank protection
of the wood, and they and ht Varangians got stuck into each other -
however my Cv & the Bd proved a bit of advantage & the Africans and
Spanish soon found themselves broken. But ut hadn't been bloodless, nd
the reinfocements from the centre - 2 elephants - trampled many of the
Russians & some Cv(S) & in turn broke that command.
In hte centre Spanish & Gallic cavalry launched charge after charge onto
the Byzantine archers - but neither side was able ot gain an advantage.
Back on the left the remaining elephants and the Spanish ally had
advanced, and an epic struggle occured between them and hte Byzantine
cavalry and light horse - there were elephants lapped around, pursuing
forwards, Ax throwing themslves into the fray to cut out overlaps, etc.
Thre were casualties on both sides, and by the last move both the
remaining Carthaginian commands were disheartened...then the Spanish
threw 1 more Ax into the fray to remove an overlap....but alas it rolled
a 1 and died!
And that put Benny's army 1/2 ME over 1/2 the army lost...the straw that
broke the back....and a hard fought 16-9 win to me - I'd lost 40% of my
army & 2 commands were nigh on broken or dishearten.
