...taking your figures out of the box. This game was one of them.
Paul wanted to try a revamped version of his Siamese army against a light horse army. I was happy to oblige, pulling the Trapezuntine Byzantines out of the cupboard for the first time in many years. In fact I've never used the army in DBMM before.
My army was as follows:
Command 1: (24 ME)
General as Reg Cv (O)
4 Reg Cv (O)
6 Irr LH (S)
6 Irr Ax (O)
10 Reg Ps (O)
(2 Bg)
Command 2: (18 ME)
Sub as Reg LH (S)
6 Reg LH (S)
6 Irr Ax (O)
6 Reg Ps (O)
(2 Bg)
Command 3: (10 ME)
Sub as Reg LH (S)
4 Reg LH (S)
(2 Bg)
Command 4: (18 ME)
Ally as Irr Cv (O) (Anatolian Turkoman)
2 Irr Cv (O)
10 Irr LH (S)
2 Irr Bg (F)
Command 5: (6 ME)
6 Irr Bg (I)
Army: 76 ME
Stratagems: Scouting, Ambush
I was the invader, selecting spring to maximise the chance of rain, just in case Paul had any missile troops. I selected a river, while Paul selected two patches of Scrubby Flat, a Scrubby Hill and a Wood. The river ran in a gentle curve from the right end of my base edge to the right table edge near Paul's base edge. Next to it, just on Paul's side of the table, was the Wd. In the centre, just on Paul's side of the table, was one patch of SF. The SH was on the left edge of the table, just on Paul's side. The other patch of SF was on the left edge of the table, on my side (so near the hill). So perfect terrain for Paul's army.
Paul deployed three similar commands, with his left command furthest forward and his right command furthest back. Each command contained a core of three Ele (S) including the general, supported by a mass of Ax (O), and a rear rank of Ps (S) and (O). The two flank commands also each had two Cv (I). Those in his left command were in reserve. Those on his right were well forward of the rest of the troops to slow me down.
I placed Command 1 on my left, with 8 Ps in ambush in the SF. In the centre was Command 4, facing the SF. Behind them was Command 3, in a position to move wherever needed. Command 2 was on the right, with the Ps facing his elephants, and the Ax in column to threaten his flank if he advanced.
My first action of the game was to commit two LH (S) to Scouting. A pair of 1s on the scouting dice suggested that these guys had instead investigated the fleshpots of Bangkok and caught a nasty disease. Well, I still had plenty of Ax and Ps to seize the SH, as I suspected Paul had an ambush there to support his Cv.
There was no weather, and the battle started at midday.
Paul advanced steadily, pushing his left wing forward the most, but being content to advance slowly with his right wing. He did, however, also push his right wing Cv forward to slow me down even further. I was happy with this, as this placed them close enough for me to attack them straight away with the Irr LH.
My first PIPs were excellent - 6, 5, 5 for the Byzantines and 6 for the Turkomans. I'd originally planned for the Turkoman LH to charge straight through the SF and catch his right wing in the clear terrain on Paul's side of the table. But I miscalculated the distances, and found that such a move wasn't possible. So instead I took advantage of the high PIPs to wheel the command around to threaten Paul's centre command. I moved the small command forward to sit on my side of the SF in the centre, to fix the attention of Paul's right wing. Meanwhile, I deployed the LH of the right wing into 2 ranks to take on the Ax in Paul's left wing, leaving the Ps to face the elephants and the Ax to threaten the outer edge of the command from outside its flank. On my left, I revealed the ambush, and sent the mass of Ps and Ax towards the SH. The Irr LH attacked the Siamese Cv, hitting the second element in the flank and double-overlapping the element in front.
And here I got the second hint this wasn't going to be my night: despite being double-overlapped and unable to recoil, a 6-1 on the dice allowed the Siamese Cv to destroy my LH, while the Cv behind also recoiled its opponent.
Paul kept pushing forwards with his left command, ending his move just short of my line, but with elements dropped back to cover his flanks. He wheeled his centre command to the right to face the Turkomans, and waited on his right.
So in my next bound I attacked with the Turkomans and the right wing of the Byzantines. And for the loss of four LH and two Ps, I managed to destroy one Ax. The Siamese Cv survived a second attack.
Paul closed in and started to wrap open flanks, breaking through to the sub-general of the Byzantine right wing, and knocking over a couple more elements.
In my next bound, I achieved the high point of the game, with the sub-general killing an elephant. But despite hitting the sub-general of the Siamese left wing in the front and rear with LH, and in the flank with Ps, I wasn't able to despatch him. In the centre, the Turkomans became disheartened. But on the left wing I was at least able to destroy one of the Siamese Cv.
Paul now went for the kill. Another elephant attacked the Byzantine sub-general on the right. The Siamese centre command swamped the Turkomans, and the Siamese right command charged through the SF to attack the small Byzantine command. And unlike my attacks, pretty much everything worked: the Byzantine sub-general died, as did a heap of Turkomans and three LH from the small command. The Byzantine right wing and the Turkomans broke, and their combined break penalties were easily enough to break the small Byzantine command, and that was enough for the army.
I didn't bother to score it, but I'm sure it would have been 25-0 to Paul, even better than his result against my Galatians at Wintercon.
Thanks to Paul for an enjoyable game, although it wasn't much fun for me! (Paul's dice were probably his best subjects!)
Oh, and there never was anything on the Scrubby Hill...
