I had an entertaining game last week against Chris. Chris had played a fair bit of DBMM v1, and was making a first go at v2.
I was the invader with my Galatians, against Chris's Italo-Gauls.
The terrain featured a difficult hill on my left near the centre line, facing a couple of small woods on Chris's right in his deployment zone. On the right side of the centre line were a couple of scrubby hills. There were a couple of other terrain features but they played no part in the game. Fortunately, though, for two armies relying on a fair few close formation infantry, there was plenty of room in the middle.
Chris deployed some Ligurian allied Ax (S) on his right flank, at the front of the wood facing the difficult hill. In the centre were three commands of Wb (O), with a few chariots in reserve behind his right command, and a larger cavalry and chariot force outside the left flank of his Wb line. He also had a few Ps in reserve.
I deployed Pisidian allied Ps (S) on the difficult hill, with the LH behind. Next to them were Seleucid allies, with the Ax (S) next to the hill and Pk next to them. The Kn (F) were in reserve. The Seleucid ally general was in the 4th rank of the phalanx - no point having a potentially impetuous general or having him in the front rank against Wb! Next was a large command of Wb (O) and a few cavalry (plus one chariot) under the sub-general, and a small command of Cv and Ps (I) under the C-in-C in column on the right hand edge of the Wb.
Time of day wasn't an issue, but the weather result was mud plus potential rain! A quick check confirmed the rain wouldn't affect either army, but the mud would: combat disadvantage for knights, chariots and anyone moving uphill into contact!
Anyway, Chris went first, and his PIPs were so low that rain was definitely ruled out, although his Ligurian ally was reliable. He advanced his Wb across the line, and advanced some of the Liguarians towards the difficult hill, while sending some more around the side of the hill. The Cv on his left didn't have any PIPs to move.
I rolled generally much better PIPs in my first bound, except for the Seleucids being unreliable. At least my C-in-C had enough PIPs that he could save some for cajoling the Seleucids. Otherwise I advanced my Wb as well, moved most of the Pisidians to the top of the hill, directed some towards the flanking Ligurians, and moved my C-in-C from the Cv column towards the rear of the Wb - just in case the opportunity arose to use him to command some of the Wb.
Chris's PIPs improved slightly, and good PIPs for his left wing command allowed him to move his Cv column forward to a position where it might threaten the flank of my Wb. Otherwise the Wb advanced again and the Ligurians continued the flanking move, while the main Ligurian group waited events at the base of the hill.
In my next bound the Seleucids rolled well enough to become reliable (although Lawrence pointed out something I'd never noticed before - unreliability is resolved at the end of the bound, so newly reliable troops don't suddenly get to use 5 or 6 PIPs. Anyway, I decided to hold the Wb so that the phalanx would have a chance to catch up.
Chris continued to advance his Wb, not quite able to make contact with mine. However his left wing command again got low PIPs so the cavalry stalled again. The Ligurians continued to creep around the difficult hill.
In my next bound the Wb command got 1 for PIPs, so there was no holding them and I advanced them into combat. The Seleucids also got 1 PIP; I used the general's PIP to advance the phalanx and Ax, and used the PIP to turn the Kn into column facing left. I figured that even with a combat disadvantage they should be able to keep the flanking Ligurian Ax honest.
Massed Wb combat is scary or fun, depending on your view of troops who destroy or lose two elements at a time. I knocked over some Wb from Chris's left wing command, but otherwise it was recoils each way across the line. Chris would get the first chance to take advantage of lots of overlaps.
This duly happened, although my losses were less than I feared. Chris also charged his Wb into the phalanx, but lost all those combats. He also attempted a flank hit against the Ax, where there was a small gap to the Pisidian command, but the Ax fought them off too.
Over the next couple of bounds the Wb losses accumulated on both sides although no command became disheartened. Chris decided in the end to send his Ligurians up the hill. He took a couple of losses, but had plenty of reserves to fill gaps. My Pisidians also took a couple of losses, but also had a reserve line. With the Seleucids consistently getting only 1 PIP, the move of the Kn to the flank was slow, so I charged the Pisidian general and his companion LH into the flanking Ligurians, achieving little either way. Chris also directed some of the flanking Ligurians up the hill, where I had more Pisidians, and a crucial bad roll by me saw a gap open. Fortunately Chris missed the opportunity to exploit it.
On the other flank I was able to move a Cv+Ps combo into the gap between the rough hills, to face the Gallic mounted column. I also got a Ps onto the hill as an overlap. Other cavalry joined the fight against the Wb, and broke through the Wb on Chris's left.
As the losses increased Chris's Wb finally achieved a breakthrough. The only reserve I had available was the sub-general, who, as a chariot, was mud-affected. Well, I had to throw him into the gap. Meanwhile, I had a brain explosion and sent the C-in-C into a flanking position where he couldn't recoil. You guessed it - I lost the combat and the C-in-C died, disheartening his command.
Meanwhile, the Seleucid phalanx had been destroying all before it: factor 7 is just great in your own bound, particularly when one of the three columns was (S). However their luck eventually turned sour, when a single ranked Wb scored high enough in its own bound to QK two Pk (O).
It was around this time that we had to bring proceedings to a close. Chris's left and right Wb commands were both close to disheartened. My C-in-C's command was already disheartened, but the sub-general's command was still some way from disheartened, although the sub was in combat. The Ligurians, Pisidians and Seleucids had all taken losses, but weren't in much danger yet.
How the game might have turned out I'm not sure. But in my experience while Wb can be surprisingly tough, things can also fall apart really quickly. If I'd broken one of Chris's two vulnerable commands it might have been enough to break the other and with it the army. On the other hand, if my C-in-C's command had broken, the transmitted penalty would probably have disheartened my Wb command, which in turn would have led in short order to seeing it break too, and with it the army.
Thanks to Chris for a good fun game.
