Alexandrian Macedonians at Cancon 2014

[Barritus]

Last weekend I took part in the DBMM comp at Cancon: four books, 400AP over four rounds.
 
After a lot of indecision I settled on Alexandrian Macedonian (329BC), the main reason being that I wanted to use the event as a fundraiser for a charity (Sydney Cochlear Implant Centre) which helps my oldest son (whose name is Alexander). *
 
My army was as follows:
 
Command 1 (27ME)
Brilliant C-in-C as Reg Kn (F) Single-based wedge
4 Reg Kn (F) SBW
1 Reg Cv (I)
2 Reg LH (S)
3 Irr LH (O)
4 Reg Ax (S)
4 Irr Ax (O)
2 Reg Ps (O)
(2 Bge)
 
Command 2 (21ME)
Sub as Reg Cv (O)
4 Reg Cv (O)
8 Reg Pk (O)
1 Reg Art (O)
4 Reg Ps (S)
(2 Bge)
 
Command 3 (15ME)
Sub as Reg Pk (O)
7 Reg Pk (O)
1 Reg Art (O)
1 Irr LH (O)
(2 Bge)
 
Command 4 (9ME)
Sub as Reg Pk (O)
4 Irr Ax (O)
4 Reg Ps (O)
(1 Bge)
 
Command 5 (7ME)
7 Irr Bge (I)
 
Army: 79ME
 
Stratagem: Scouts
 
The army was intended as a fairly mobile infantry army with a powerful strike force led by a brilliant C-in-C. An earlier version of the army replaced the artillery with LH and upgraded some of the Ps (O) to (S) and the Irr Ax (O) to Reg. However I was worried about how vulnerable that version of the army was to Kn, Ele and LH, and wanted the bolt shooters as insurance. With a lot of 0.5ME and 1ME troops, I could afford quite a few casualties before commands were in trouble.
 
I preferred to invade in seasons which minimised the chance of weather affecting the artillery (generally spring). When invading I chose two 1FE pieces of terrain plus a road, while as defender I generally added a small BUA. Preferred terrain was one piece of rough and one of difficult (say, a vineyard and a rocky flat). The vineyard was intended as something for C4 to hide in, while the infantry of C1 could deploy in the rocky flat, assuming it was on the opposite flank. The road was intended as a bit of a distraction, making people wonder if I was planning to march some infantry or a flank march down it.
 
Generally I deployed the commands across the table as C1, C3, C2, C4.
 
Command 1 was usually deployed on the more open flank as the main attack force with the Ax and Ps in the flank sector, and the LH next to them screening the Kn. Command 3 was usually next, the LH available to cover the artillery or move out to the Thessalian flank as a reserve. Command 2 sort of represented the other flank of the army. Finally, Command 4 sat out on the extreme flank opposite Command 1. The main job of its Ax was to stop the enemy marching around the open flank of Command 3. However, with 8 elements of light troops it also had the numbers to act aggressively against the enemy, and worry them into spending PIPs they might have otherwise spent elsewhere. PIP allocation was usually in order from highest to lowest C1, C2, C3, C4, although I sometimes gave C4 the 3rd PIP dice and C3 the lowest.
 
I didn’t exactly have the best set of practice games for Cancon. I sort of got the better of a Hun army, although we later determined I’d messed up overlaps by his LH against my Kn. I then lost a game against the Sui Chinese after my opponent’s mounted flank march turned up on the first turn and combined with his other mounted command on that flank to crush Alexander’s command. I was so concerned I’d developed a dud army that I seriously considered ditching it for something completely different.

Anyway, battle reports to follow...

* https://give.everydayhero.com/au/peter-s-cancon-fundraiser

[Barritus]

Game 1 v Seleucid (Paul T)

Paul’s army was early Seleucid – the version with lots of elephants. As invader I got to see just how many, fortunately before I had to deploy.

There was scattered terrain around the table, with a vineyard on my right flank being the only piece which played much part in the game. Weather and time of day also didn’t affect things.

Paul deployed three commands. On his right flank was a mixed mounted force including 4 Kn (F), some LH (O) and (F), some Cv (O) and 4 scythed chariots. In the centre was a phalanx of 12 elements, the Pk (S) in the middle with a sub-general, and some Ps. On his left were no less than 6 Ele (O), along with plenty of Ps elephant escorts, plus about 6 Reg Ax (O). For once I was grateful for my bolt shooters.

I deployed C1 on my left, facing Paul’s mounted command, then C3 and C2. C4 was on the far right in vineyard. Deploying second allowed me to position my army such that C3’s bolt shooter was facing the scythed chariots while C2’s bolt shooter was facing the elephants. C2’s Ps (S) faced more elephants, while the Thessalian Cv sat in reserve waiting to face either the elephants or Ax. In the centre the two phalanxes faced each other.

My plan was to take on Paul’s left wing command. In particular I was convinced that destroying his scythed chariots would open up a gap between his phalanx and his right wing which I could exploit. I would then engage his phalanx with mine. Meanwhile I’d play defensively on my right. As usual, plans and reality bore only a passing resemblance to each other.

Paul started badly, rolling 2, 1, 1 for PIPs. He held his centre and elephant wing, and advanced only on his right. My first shot with the bolt shooter against his scythed chariots missed. In my bound I advanced across the line, except for the bolt shooter facing the scythed chariots. I even moved up the infantry of C4, moving the Ax out of the vineyard to face the Seleucid Ax. In my bound the bolt shooter succeeded with its second shot, knocking over a scythed chariot.

Paul’s PIPs "improved" to 6, 1, 1 for his second bound. His right wing began to advance in support of the chariots, the Kn (F) swinging out wide. However he was surprised to find that C2’s bolt shooter ignored the Ps to shoot at the elephants behind them. One dead elephant.

I attacked Paul’s scythed chariots with Ax, knocking over one more and losing an Ax in the process. Out on the wing I deployed my Companions to face those of Seleucus. C2’s bolt shooter accounted for another elephant. I sent the general and a Cv from C2 across behind the phalanx to support the troops facing the scythed chariots.

In his next bound, Paul deployed his mounted command out wide enough that it overlapped mine. His victorious scythed chariot turned to attack the flank of my phalanx, but a drawn combat result produced my first experience of a mutual destruction. The remaining scythed chariot destroyed the Ax in front of it. Meanwhile his centre and left commands began to advance. But C2’s bolt shooter really had the range of the elephants and shot down a third. This was enough to dishearten Paul’s left wing.

Although my position wasn’t ideal I decided to attack Paul’s mounted command with the troops of C1. Alexander declared a combat brilliant stroke and charged into Seleucus himself, achieving only a draw. Other results weren’t much better, although one Ax (O) spent a LH, opening up a gap on the flank of Paul’s Kn (F). I tried to swamp the last scythed chariot with Cv and Ps, but it rolled brilliantly to push everyone away.

Paul now attacked with his remaining elephants and their escorts on his left, and with the phalanx in the centre. One more elephant died to a Ps (S), and this was enough to break his left wing. The phalanx and mounted fights were indecisive, although Alexander was now stuck in combat. The last scythed chariot continued to push its way across the table.

With Paul’s left flank disintegrating I moved the Thessalian Cv up to support the right flank of my phalanx against Paul’s phalanx, while the remaining troops in C2 and C4 pursued. On my left, however, Alexander’s lack of PIPs made it hard for me to exploit opportunities. A Seleucid Kn (F) hit front and flank survived, while Alexander remained trapped in combat, unable to use a combat brilliant stroke.

Paul was finally able to overrun some LH and Kn on my left, opening up Alexander’s flank. Alexander however lacked the PIPs to move troops around to protect himself, and Paul was able to hit Alexander in the flank, killing him. C1 was disheartened, but with a dead general the command was rolling its own PIP dice and there was little I could do to restore the situation. Paul was then able to maneuver freely onto a couple more flanks, getting the kills he needed to break C1. The last scythed chariot also destroyed the Thessalian Cv facing it. This forced me to risk charging the general of C2 into the chariot’s rear, and this finally was enough to destroy the chariot. The general was then free to move to the support of the phalanx fight.

In the centre Paul’s column of general-led Pk (S) had pushed its way well ahead of the other pike-on-pike fights, destroying one element of my Pk (O) facing it. He supported both flanks of the phalanx with Ps, and even using Cv and LH it was an effort for me to clear them away. However, the arrival of the general of C2 was decisive. Paul’s Pk (S) column had pushed so far forward that C2’s general could hit it in the flank, and another Cv element was able to hit the flank of an adjacent Pk column. I was victorious in both combats, and this caused enough casualties to break Paul’s centre command, and thus his army.

19-6 to me in a fun game which turned out little like I expected. I was defeated on the flank I expected to win, and I won on the flank I was planning to defend on. However, it was victory in the pike battle which won me the game.

[Barritus]

Game 2 v Italian Condotta - Milan (John G)

Once again I was the invader.

I chose a 1FE piece of rocky flat, a 1FE vineyard and a road. The rocky flat was on my right flank, near the centre line. The vineyard didn't place. John chose a couple of 1FE gentle hills and a couple of 0.5FE woods. One gentle hill ended up on my table edge and played no part in the game. The other was on John’s left flank, near the centre line, not far from my rocky flat. The two woods were either side of the centre line on my left flank. The road wandered down the left flank too.

The weather provided strong wind from my left to right, which caused a -1 for shooting by my artillery.

I then got to deploy first, my commands organised from left to right as C4, C2, C3, C1. C1 was aimed at the gentle hill on John’s left, the infantry to the right and the mounted to the left. C4 was entirely in the woods on my side of the table, with the other wood in front to aim at for cover. The Ps (S) of C2 were also over there, with quite a gap to the Thessalian Cv covering the flank of the phalanx.

John deployed three commands. On his left, facing C1 was the Milanese C-in-C with some Kn (O) and (S), along with some LH, Bw and Ps. In the centre, facing the phalanx, was the Milanese sub-general with some Kn (O) and LH. Finally, out on his right, facing the gap between the Cv and Ps of C2, was the Swiss allied command of massed Pk (S) supported by Ps (S) facing the woods. John dismounted several Kn as Bd (S), including 2 elements in the C-in-C’s command and 6 in the centre command facing my phalanx.

My plan was again to attack aggressively with C1. The infantry would lead with an attack on the Bw and Ps on John’s extreme left. In particular, by moving quickly I’d be able to reach the top of the hill first, even though the hill was on John's side of the table. The mounted would then attack John’s Kn. Here, however, it was likely I’d have to attack uphill which wasn’t ideal. To compensate I planned to lead with the LH, meaning I’d have a big numerical advantage, and hopefully an overlap from the infantry. The phalanx would then follow into the attack; I was confident that four-deep Pk could manage even Bd (S). As I was expecting C3 to do little other than advance, I decided to give it the lowest PIP dice, and allocated the 3rd PIP dice to C4, in the hope of distracting the Swiss.

My first bound produced dismal PIP dice of 2, 1, 1, 1, although it turned out to provide most of the PIPs I wanted. C1’s infantry swarmed onto the hill, nearly reaching the ridge line. The mounted of C1 advanced a bit less, the phalanx a bit less again. Over on the left C4’s infantry slowly advanced through the wood.

John advanced across the board, his left wing Kn reaching the top of the hill. The Swiss Pk swung left to aim at the Thessalian Cv, the LH from John’s centre command moved across to fill the gap between the Swiss Pk and Swiss Ps, and the LH from John’s left flank moved around behind the Ps. A shot from C3’s bolt shooter recoiled a Bd from John’s left wing.

In my second bound I sent five LH up the hill into John’s three Kn. With an overlap at each end of the line I was confident of at least one good result, and was rewarded with a dead Kn (S) in the middle of the three. Meanwhile the infantry in C1 attacked the Bw and Ps of John’s left command, but they achieved little, pushing back a couple of elements and destroying 1 Ps. Over on the left the Ax of C4 deployed into line facing the Swiss Ps (S).

John then advanced the Bd (S) in his centre towards my phalanx, along with the Swiss Pk. On his left he moved the C-in-C to the gap between the surviving Kn, but well back from combat. Some Bw shot a LH away from an overlap, and John’s Kn were able to kill a couple of LH. The infantry fight nearby also got a little broken up.

In my next bound I found myself with a lot to do in C1, but not nearly enough PIPs. I therefore decided to use a brilliant stroke to double Alexander’s PIPs from 5 to 10, and used every one of them. The infantry fight absorbed half the PIPs, allowing me to set up a couple of powerful attacks. Meanwhile my Kn started taking the place of the LH against John’s Kn. I also charged the Cv (I) into some Bw, along with a LH overlap. In the centre I charged the phalanx and a couple of Thessalian Cv into the line of 6 Bd (S). I was also able to swing C3’s LH into the flank of the Bd line (the Bd (S) in his left flank command didn't advance). C4's Ps moved to a flanking position on the Swiss Ps (S).

The results of combat this bound were quite good. The flanked Bd (S) was destroyed, as was another Bd directly in front of John’s sub-general. That Pk column cheerfully pursued into contact with the general. Over on the hill the infantry knocked over a couple of infantry elements, opening up a couple of holes in John’s line. The Kn combats were indecisive, while the Cv died against the Bw.

Then, at this crucial point John rolled 2,1 for PIPs for the Milanese commands. His centre command was frozen in place, while his C-in-C could do little more. The sub-general could achieve only a draw against its Pk opponent, while the adjacent Bd destroyed a Pk element. On the hill one of the Milanese Kn destroyed a Macedonian Kn.

In my next bound I again rolled dismally for PIPs (well, not as bad as John!). Again I felt the best use of Alexander’s brilliance was to double his command’s PIPs. In the centre a Pk element flanked the Milanese sub-general, while the LH did the same to another Bd element. On the hill the Macedonian Kn charged in again, with both Milanese Kn double-overlapped. I also charged the Bw with a LH element, overlapped by a Ps. Over on my left C4’s Ps kept gradually moving around the flank of the Swiss Ps, while the Ax faced the Ps and LH frontally. That was now a waiting game while major events were happening elsewhere.

Virtually everything worked. On the hill both the Milanese Kn elements died. Meanwhile, in the centre both flanked elements were destroyed. That was sufficient to break the centre command, and the 2ME morale penalty was enough to break the Milanese left flank command, which broke the army.

Remarkably, despite me losing quite a few elements from C1, the result was 25-0 to me.

[Barritus]

Game 3 v New Kingdom Egyptian (Dave Q)

This time I was the defender. For terrain, Dave selected a couple of 1FE steep hills, which ended up at each end of his deployment zone. I chose a 1FE vineyard, 1FE rocky flat, 0.5FE BUA and a road. The rocky flat was at the right hand end of my deployment zone. The rest of the terrain went down on the left of the table, again providing cover for C4.

Weather and time of day played no part in the game.

I again chose to deploy my commands from left to right C4, C2, C3, C1. Once again C1’s infantry sat out in the rocky flat, while the Kn lurked behind the LH screen. The troops in C4 sat in the vineyard, facing the BUA across the centre line. Nearby again were the Ps (S) of C3, separated somewhat from the rest of the command.

Dave deployed three commands. On his left, facing C1, were some Bw (O), Ps (O) and Cv (S) chariots under a sub-general. In the centre was the C-in-C with some Bd (F) and more Cv (S) chariots. Finally, on Dave’s right was a slightly smaller command with some Bw (I), a mix of Cv (O) and (S) chariots, and 8 Ps (O) in the BUA facing C4.

My plan was much the same as before – attack aggressively with C1, the infantry leading and the mounted following, and follow up with the phalanx. C4 would look for opportunities against the Ps in the BUA, in the hope of distracting their general from spending PIPs elsewhere. The Ps (S) of C3 were to move forward and try to get around the flank of the Bw (I) with the same plan in mind.

So it was. The infantry in C1 advanced quickly with the LH screen not far behind. The phalanx and bolt shooters also advanced, while the Thessalians slowly shook themselves out into a line. Out on the left the Ps of C4 slowly advanced towards the Egyptian Ps in the BUA, while the Ax columned up and prepared to move around the open flank. The Ps (S) of C3 also columned up and advanced in parallel with the Ax.

Dave reacted on his left by pulling the Ps back onto the steep hill. In the centre the chariots moved through the Bd to confront the phalanx. On his right the chariots moved towards the Thessalians, while the Bw turned to their flank to take on the Ps. C3’s bolt shooter drew a bead on a chariot and destroyed it with its first shot.

On my right, I kept advancing, the LH giving the Kn room to deploy into line. The LH took a couple of casualties. Meanwhile the infantry pressed on towards the Ps who were now sitting on the hill. Undaunted, I sent the infantry in, but this time things didn't work out so well. I took a couple of casualties and inflicted nothing in return.

Having set things up as well as possible I charged the Kn into the Bw, with Alexander declaring a combat brilliant stroke. Alexander drew his combat, one Kn broke through, one Kn died and one other drew. Dave had plenty of chariots available to stem the attack. But worst of all was that in Dave's bound Alexander again drew his combat. The attack of the Kn was stalling badly, I was starting to take casualties, and with Alexander in combat I didn't have many PIPs to do things with.

A couple more elements died, then Alexander too, and the right wing collapsed. Once again my main attack had completely failed.

Meanwhile, in the centre, I was getting a bit more luck. Thanks to the chariot destroyed by my bolt shooter, C3's LH was able to swing around into the flank of a chariot, and combined with a frontal attack by the Pk, the result was another dead chariot. A couple of combats over, the Pk recoiled another chariot, pushing back Dave's C-in-C which was right behind. This was fortunate for Dave, as it meant the C-in-C was no longer in a threat zone. He moved the C-in-C around to attack C3's LH destroying it, and unmasking C3's bolt shooter.

On the left of the phalanx I expanded one Pk element out to face a chariot (I think C2's bolt shooter had been overrun), and again got lucky with a Cv (S) destroyed in my bound.

Finally, the chariots of Dave's right wing moved up to face C2's Thessalian Cv. Not liking the idea of being hit by his Cv (S) in his bound, I took the risk of charging in my bound, my sub-general contacting his. Fortunately, the lone Pk on the left of the phalanx was close enough to swing around and hit the rear of one chariot. The results were spectacular. Two dead Cv (S), including the sub-general dying to the dreaded 6-1.

Suddenly Dave's right wing was paralysed and on the verge of being disheartened. A Cv (O) chariot died the next bound to achieve that, and in my next bound I swamped the remaining two chariots to break the command. At the same time I took the opportunity of rare plentiful PIPs for C4 to deploy Ax into the rear of the Ps in the BUA, while attacking them frontally, in the hope of causing enough casualties to shatter his right wing.

In the centre things were still a bit uncertain. Dave charged the C-in-C into the bolt shooter, destroying it. C3 had the lowest PIP dice and all of a sudden I was getting PIP stress.

Fortunately for me the losses were starting to accumulate in Dave's centre command, and he had to send in the Bd (F). This suited me, even if it meant risking some quick kills. These combats went my way and over the course of a couple of bounds a couple of Bd died, pushing his centre command to disheartened. It was only now that I started to feel confident, with overlapped and disheartened Bd no match for even 3-ranked Pk. A couple more Bd died, and that was enough to break the centre command and with it the army.

My losses were quite heavy - over 40% - and with one command disheartened as well (C3 I think), the result was 16-9 my way.

Another thoroughly entertaining game in which the Pk had performed sterling work, but the Kn had underperformed.

I was now on 60 points and in second place...

[Barritus]

Game 4 v Mongol Conquest (Anton V)

I was definitely not looking forward to facing Anton and his Mongols. As mentioned earlier, I’d sort of defeated his Hun army in a practice game a couple of weeks earlier, but it turned out that we’d messed up the effect of LH overlaps on Kn (F) wedges. In any case, Anton’s Mongol army was just different enough to worry me (plus he’d dropped very few points in his first three games).

Anyway, the dice determined I’d be the invader; I would’ve much preferred to defend. For terrain I chose a 1FE difficult hill and a 1FE patch of scrubby flat. The scrubby flat was on my right flank, while the difficult hill was facing it on the left of Anton’s deployment area. Anton chose a 2FE gentle hill which ended up on my left flank. Weather and time of day played no part in the game.

Anton’s army was very simple: two wings each containing only 16 Reg LH (S) plus a Reg LH (S) sub-general, and a centre command containing 5 Reg Cv (S), 2 Art (O), 2 Art (S) and the C-in-C, plus a small baggage command.

I deployed C1 on the left, with C3, C2 and C4 across the table. C4 was in the scrub, while the 4 Ps (S) of C2 sat in the open, vainly trying to cover the gap between C2 and C4. My plan was to lead the attack with C1 against Anton’s right flank, and aim the phalanx at the artillery, while trying to hold out against his left wing which seemed poised to sweep around my right. Oh well, this was somewhat the situation faced by the real Alexander at Gaugamela. Only, Anton wasn’t Darius.

Anton started as I expected, sweeping forward on his left flank, and marching into contact with the Ps (S) of C2. The Cv (S) from the centre command moved around behind. The Ps (S) fought well and I lost only the one element. On his right flank Anton swung a column of LH out wide and deployed into line, threatening the flank of my infantry in C1 if I advanced too quickly.

My own PIPs were moderate, allowing me to advance on the left and push the phalanx forward. But what struck me was the power of his massed artillery, particularly when Anton grouped three of them to gang up on a Pk element. One dead Pk.

Positionally, things soon slid out of control. Anton’s left flank LH swarmed over the Ps (S), which survived far longer than I expected. In desperation I had to deploy the Thessalian Cv to stem the tide, but they were badly outnumbered and often fighting double-overlapped. Meanwhile in the centre the artillery knocked over a couple of Pk and also regularly recoiled them. On my left I advanced as quickly as I dared, and eventually managed to get my LH line into contact with Anton's right wing LH. But the combat dice didn’t help me and I quickly started to take losses.

As C1’s LH died I filled the gaps in the line with Kn (F), but again the overlaps counted against me. Before long I was starting to wonder if I was even going to inflict any casualties at all.

Then came disaster with the destruction of C2’s general. This and other losses were enough to shatter that command, so half my phalanx turned and ran having never made contact with the artillery.

In desperation I moved C1’s troops into contact wherever I could, including wheeling Ax (O) around to face the outflanking group of LH. Finally I managed to destroy or spend a couple of LH, opening up gaps in Anton’s line. But again I lacked either troops in the right place or PIPs to fully exploit these gaps, and again wasn’t helped by poor combat dice. Several Ax (O) and (S) of C1 died, followed by some Kn (F), and this was enough to break C1 and with it the army.

I made some silly mistakes, the worst of them being to deploy my pike four ranks deep. They would have been much better use in two ranks, but this didn’t occur to me until the afternoon of the following day! I probably should also have deployed C1 on my right flank, anchored on the terrain, and with the rest of the army echeloned back to my table edge. This would have made the game a turning battle and would have reduced the opportunities for Anton’s LH to break through my line. My problem was that I’d got into such a deployment rut in the previous three games that I wasn’t able to think of other ways to deploy.

Anton’s losses were negligible, leading to him winning 25-0. This in turn led to him winning the competition, a worthy winner. The game was played in good spirit, with much cheerful sledging on both sides, but there was only one clear winner.

[Barritus]

Conclusions

Overall I was pleasantly surprised by my results. I think three wins and a loss in four games is a pretty good return, especially after such unpromising practice games.

In particular, I was pleased by the performance of the bolt shooters. Including them was definitely not an easy decision. If I’d taken the alternative version of the army C3 would’ve had a lot more LH to harass the enemy around the phalanx, and C4 would have had some regular Ax. Not having artillery would have allowed the phalanx to advance much more quickly, and regular auxilia in C4 would have been able to move with the general, making that command more mobile too.

Would the benefits of this mobility have outweighed the loss of artillery fire? It’s difficult to say. But it’s worth remembering that in my first game the bolt shooter in C2 alone was responsible for disheartening the enemy command it faced; I don’t remember any previous case where one element has achieved this, either by me, against me or in a game I’ve watched.

The other thing which pleased me was the phalanx. In all games it got into contact, and in the first three games its entry into combat contributed in an important way to winning the game.

By contrast I didn’t quite seem to get C1 to work properly. Perhaps I was being a little too conservative deploying the Kn behind the LH, but the Kn never seemed to be in quite the right place when the LH charged in. Alexander delivered combat brilliant strokes in at least two games (and also possibly in the last game, I don’t remember for sure), but in none of the games did Alexander’s combat brilliant stroke deliver destruction. In both games he got stuck in combat until an enemy element hit him in the flank and destroyed him.

Finally, I was a little disappointed by the use, or rather the lack thereof, of stratagems. I used only the Scouts stratagem, and largely took it for defensive reasons – to find enemy ambushes and prevent enemies from attacking me at night. I found no ambushes, was never attacked at night, and lost only one element from bad scouting dice throughout the comp. The design of my army was such that I had little use for stratagems, even those available only to brilliant generals.

To my knowledge only a couple of my opponents also had scouts, but I know of no other stratagems being used by anyone in the competition. This is a bit of a shame, driven partly I suspect by the fact that a reused stratagem loses its effectiveness; on the other hand it’s expensive to take multiple stratagems to keep opponents on their toes. Even so, I’m a little surprised that no one had any use for ambushes – well thought out ambushes can completely unhinge an opponent’s plan.

Last of all, Doug Melville deserves a lot of credit for organising a thoroughly enjoyable event. Despite I think everyone learning some new rule they hadn’t seen before, there were very few problems requiring umpiring intervention. Whether this is a function of player familiarity or an inherent simplicity in the rules I don’t know, although most players had a fair bit of DBMM experience (code = not many new players). Still, DBMM does a remarkably good job of making players do things generals did in real life, while still providing an enjoyable game, and I think this is the best praise available for a set of wargaming rules.

Roll on Wintercon...

[mickhession]

Thanks Peter, a very entertaining and informative set of posts.

As list checker, I thought the armies used, and the designs, were very interesting and, to my eye, there were some observable differences between Australian players and those in UK/Ireland. A lot of lists had 2 ally-generals by choice, which is rare here. Your own list puzzled me in one respect: splitting the artillery struck me as creating a bit of a Pip drain, but from your account that doesn't appear to have been the case in practise?

Cheers
Mick

[Barritus]

Thanks Peter, a very entertaining and informative set of posts.

No worries. I'm glad you've enjoyed them.

As list checker, I thought the armies used, and the designs, were very interesting and, to my eye, there were some observable differences between Australian players and those in UK/Ireland. A lot of lists had 2 ally-generals by choice, which is rare here.

I think because there are so few DBMM players here in Australia, and so few competitions, a lot of us don't take competitions that seriously; we're happy to take armies which interest us rather than trying to optimise armies.

But even in DBM days I quite often took armies with three ally generals (including Hellenistic Greek (Aitolian), Sub-Roman British and Early Crusader). Rolling PIPs in the first bound was always a scary affair, but the games themselves could be fun. Plus there's nothing quite like the feeling of winning a game after starting with three unreliable allies. I've never managed that, but I've certainly won games starting with two unreliable allies.

Your own list puzzled me in one respect: splitting the artillery struck me as creating a bit of a Pip drain, but from your account that doesn't appear to have been the case in practise?

Well, it was a drain in comparison with a no-artillery option, as I mentioned above. But the point of taking the artillery was to provide covering fire from two points for the phalanx, rather than massing some sort of Napoleonic Grand Battery.

I think the key was that with the armies usually starting 640 paces from each other, the artillery only needed to advance once to have the enemy in range. After that they generally stayed put, even if the phalanx advanced further. Given that they couldn't shoot if they moved, I had a strong incentive to keep them still as much as possible. What that meant in practice was that they usually did a reasonable job of shooting away threats to the flanks of the phalanx, which strengthened the attack of the phalanx.

That one move for the artillery needed only two PIPs, of which C3 could get one from having a general in the phalanx. This was why I eventually realised C3 could manage with the lowest of the four PIP dice - all it usually did was advance straight ahead into combat. It was only when opportunities for flank hits presented themselves that C3 ran into problems with PIPs. I should probably mention that the general for C3 always deployed in the rear rank: as far as I was concerned, the +1 he provided in combat counted for very little against the effect of losing him. In the case of the bolt shooter in C2, that command got the second highest of four PIP dice, so rarely lacked the PIPs to advance the artillery with the phalanx.

Anyway, the artillery having advanced once, they usually didn't move again until the enemy facing the phalanx had been defeated. That freed up the phalanx to move with only 1 PIP each move, and opened up a space for C3's LH element to provide overlap/flanking support against whoever the phalanx was fighting.