My games at Wintercon - Galatians

[Barritus]

As the organiser of the DBMM comp at Wintercon, I played games only to ensure there were no byes. On the first day of competition we had 10 players, so I didn't play. On the second day, an extra player was present, so I played as well.

If you've read the notes about Wintercon, you'll see our aim was to encourage players to use armies which had seen little previous use: 385AP for armies used the most, 400 points for occasionally used armies, and 415 points for rarely used armies. I decided to use Galatians (415AP), and chose the 279BC option.

My army was as follows:
Command 1: C-in-C, 3 Cv (O), 3 Cv (I), 2 Ch (O): 12ME;
Command 2: Sub, 41 Wb (S), 6 Ps (I): 48ME;
Command 3: Sub, 3 Cv (O), 3 Cv (I), 2 Ch (O): 12ME;
Command 4: Thessalian ally, 3 Cv (O), 4 Ps (S): 9ME.

Army: 81ME, no baggage.

The Galatian generals were all on chariots, while the Thessalian ally was a Cv (O).

My stratagems were Scouts and Ambush.

My tactics were simple: shove the Wb forward as quickly as possible, with the other three commands essentially expendable to cover the flanks of the Wb command, and provide a reserve against breakthrough. I didn't bother with baggage as I had no way to protect it against anyone who cared to run around me. The Thessalians could either be placed in ambush, delayed, flank marched, or deployed on table - it was small enough that if I didn't deploy it on table, opponents might think the fourth PIP dice was a dummy.

[Barritus]

Game 1 vs Siamese

An opponent I'd have preferred to avoid, as this was the only army with elephants in the competition. I invaded, and chose to place a river, while Paul selected scrubby flat and scrubby hills. The river covered the right side of the table (my view), covering Paul's left flank, then swinging out to leave the table on the right edge. Two pieces of terrain landed beyond the river, and the srubby hill on my table edge was also unimportant. The patch of scrubby flat near the centreline on my left played a small part, covering the flank of Paul's army against my mounted.

There was no weather, but my first mistake was to have to deploy first. I put Command 2 in front, and the other commands in a row behind it, Command 3 on the left, Command 4 in the centre and Command 1 on the right. The Wb were in three ranks, with the Ps facing the scrubby patch. Paul deployed three fairly similar commands, with Ele (S), Bd (F), Ax (O) and Ps (O). The elephants and Bd were in front, the Ax behind and the Ps deployed on both flanks. This wasn't going to be a subtle battle.

And so it proved.

My second mistake was to roll 1 for PIPs with the Wb command, forcing me to advance. The Thessalians were reliable, but not quite where I wanted them, so I wheeled the group to shift them a bit to the left. My third mistake was to then roll nothing but 1s and a lone 2 for that command for the rest of the game. This prevented me from getting the Thessalian Ps into action against his elephants.

The PIP dice again favoured Paul as our armies approached. He was able to advance two of his three commands to a distance inside his own charge range but outside mine. I held my Wb, hoping to do stuff with the mounted commands, but this never amounted to much.

From here it took five bounds to finish the game.

Paul charged, but did few casualties.

In my next bound, I also caused few casualties.

In Paul's next bound, his elephants and Bd scraped off nearly half of the front rank, leaving the Wb command nearly disheartened.

In my next bound, the Wb destroyed a couple more elements, as did the mounted troops on the flanks. But it was nowhere near enough.

Paul's next bound won him the game, as the elephants and Bd inflicted a heap more casualties, pushing the command all the way to broken, and with it the army.

I just reached 10% casualties on Paul's army, enough for a 2-23 result.

[Barritus]

Game 2 v Amazonians

A game which threatened to go for Dave the way the last one had gone for me.

I invaded and selected no terrain, leaving all the choices to Dave. There was a wood in the centre of my deployment zone, another wood on Dave's right flank, near the centre line, and a couple of other patches of scrubby flat scattered around, including one in the centre of Dave's deployment zone, along with a marsh way out on Dave's left.

Once again I had the privilege of deploying first as invader, although this time the dice score also provided strong wind blowing into the faces of the Amazons. Yep, Dave was copping it rough.

I deployed similarly to the last game, with the Wb command in three ranks in front, and Commands 1, 4 and 3 behind. This time, the Ps stayed behind the Wb, and I placed the Thessalians in ambush in the wood. My scouts discovered an ambush in the wood on Dave's right flank (costing me 1 Cv (I)), while Dave's lone scout also found my ambush.

Dave then deployed three large blocks of Bw (I), with a healthy front rank of Ps (O), and some Ax (I) and Ps (X). Another command was invisible, presumed flank marching.

My tactics were simple - advance the Wb as quickly as possible and win the game before the flank march arrived. I wanted to concentrate on Dave's two largest on-table commands, figuring that by breaking them I'd break the army. Deploying first made that tricky, as only small parts of the two flanking Amazon commands were in reach of the Wb. One solution was to use the C-in-C's ability to move a group from a sub-general's command to steer some Wb towards the command on Dave's right. Another was to support those troops with the Thessalians: the Ps (S) should be able to clear the forest ambush.

The Thessalians were loyal, and the centre command quickly marched across the table. The mounted commands advanced behind, gradually spreading outwards beyond the flanks of the Wb. Dave met the Wb with the Ps/Ax front line, and things slowed right down. With a one factor advantage, and (S) to (O) or (I), Amazon casualties gradually increased, although most were spent. But the losses weren't all one way, and a couple of Wb elements also died, particularly when a Ps (X) element slipped through a gap in the line to hit the rear of the Wb.

Around this time the flank march arrived on my left flank, but it was a long way from the action. I briefly considered sending the Thessalian Cv to attack it, figuring they had at least a chance of breaking through (the flank marchers would also have been shooting into the strong wind). But in the end I decided to ignore them.

On the right flank the mounted command came into action. The sub-general swung wide to hit the flank of the Amazon line, but then got hit front and flank himself and died. That loss alone was enough to dishearten my right wing, which made me cautious - all aggressive moves by the command would cost 3 PIPs, but fortunately for the next couple of bounds the command rolled 6 for PIPs.

On the left, things were messier. The Wb got broken up after a lone Ps hit the flank of the Wb line, and it split up more as I used a bound of good PIPs to wheel some more Wb around to face the Ps screen of Dave's right wing. Cv from the C-in-C's command slipped into the gaps, and again the screen was whittled away.

In the centre, however, things were a complete mess. Whenever a Wb column broke through the screen I pushed it forwards as far as I could, in the expectation that even double-overlapped Wb (S) should be too good for Bw (I). Generally it worked. Dave pushed forward single ranks of Bw when the chance arose, to minimise the effect of the Wb killing two ranks. The problem was that his shooting dice betrayed him, and the Wb got a lot of opportunities to press forward, often into contact. What it did do was split up the Wb command into numerous separate blocks and columns, some much further advanced than others.

Over several bounds of combat, the Bw died in droves and the Wb pushed forward. Eventually the Amazon centre and left commands became disheartened. Dave then managed to roll 1 for PIPs for each of these commands, preventing anything from making an aggressive move. Finally, one last bound from me was enough, and Dave's left and centre broke, breaking the army. One column of Wb had actually made it across the table to Dave's table edge, routing a Ps element off table, and several other columns were within one move of the edge. But Dave took one command with him - the archers on his left flank destroyed a chariot from the disheartened command, pushing it over the edge.

Dave claimed just over 20% of my army, making the score 21-4 in my favour.