Another Crushing DBMM Defeat

George was back with his toys again last night but this time we had my friend Marc along for the ride. It was 325 points of Macedonians versus the same of Persians again with me taking the Persians this round and Marc and George splitting the Macedonians.

I set up with  a spear block on the left slightly ahead of centre, cavalry in the middle and light cavalry on my right. All my troops were in blocks of columns to allow for rapid movement and deployment.  George set up with the companions on his far right, pike centre and light horse left. However as he does everytime, he managed to slide his troops to line up his pike against my spear.

I didn't have much luck with the pips and as usual found George's pike stomping across the board to hit my spear before they could deploy. The box formations of columns coupled with the low pip die and poor rolls made it impossible to deploy the spear properly before the pikes hit. and who was supporting the pike? The Companions of course. The middle and right flanks were better with my horse pushing forward. Pip starvation didn't help speed things along and Marc was able to form a ragged line to block.

As expected the main combat was on the left with pikes, elephants, and Companions grinding my spear to a pulp. Some piss poor rolling on my part stopped my cav from crushing the right wing and that decayed into a series of inconsequential fights. With the left flank crushed, my baggage was exposed. It bought a little time by running away from the Companions but that doesn't work for long. With the baggage gone, it only required a few horse casualties to break the army.

I always enjoy playing but I am consistently missing something. Last night I actually got angry - not just ticked at bad die rolls but angry enough to want to chuck the game. I just can't seem to get tempo in any of my games. I will not blame it on bad pips or dice rolls - there is something I'm just not grasping.

Last Wednesday's DBMM game

George was back over with the Successors and Persians. I set up the redneck table again so there was lots of room for a 300 point game. I put my companions in the centre with the pike command on the left and the Cv on the right.  I was able to adjust my line a bit and lined up the companions against the spear group, horse on horse on the right and pikes against Cv. I started well up the map and pushed forward. The result was as expected - I lost. The Companions stuck into the spear and gnawed away at them almost bursting through by the last turn but not without getting chewed up themselves. The horse on my right stared at each other angrily without doing much. The pike ground forward. At turn two I split the double ranks into two lines - I had learned my lesson about useless deep formations of pike.

Lessons learned:

• I need to learn to handle the Companions better but at least I didn't dither about with them
• I need to move away from a three block deployment. With that much horse on the board, I could have spread the pikes out in a long line and covered most of the field.
• I need to pay more attention to ME.

Last night's DBMM game

George brought his Macedonians and Persians over again last night. With the redneck table disassembled for the moment, we were restricted to the kitchen table. At 300 points each, we were able to get 3 commands on the table but there was not much room for maneuver. 

George set up a long line of Persians, mostly horse of various types backed in the centre by a spear command.
I setup a group of  'nellies and Companions on my left rear, a 4 deep pike block in the centre then more horse on the right in line with the pikes. My plan was to advance with the pike and grind through the centre of his line while protecting the right wing with horse and the left with the elephants. As it happened, I screwed it up.

George ran his horse forward winding up right on my troops on right and centre while he threatened the left of the pikes with more horse.  I pushed into the Persian ponies with my own and the pikes. Seeing that the pike were not threatened on their left I left the 'nellies and pretty boys standing. Yup that's right I did nothing with my preeminent strike force. 

My right flank horse held up well for a couple of turns but were rolled up and ultimately broken. The pikes ground away at the horse but since they couldn't use full depth eventually started to crumble breaking the army. The nellies and companions got caught up in pointless Lh chasing to keep them off their rears but eventually got stuck into some horse where the elephants did some good damage.

Lessons learned:

1. Things happen very quickly on shallow battle fields - Start deployed rather than ready to march.
2. Pk factors are indeed very nice when 4 deep but don't work against horse. Setting up second I should have deployed them in line - maybe 2 deep but certainly not 4 deep column.
3. Nellies are very nice. Too bad the Celts don't have any.
4. I was pretty happy with my handling of lights. 
5. I need to play a lot more (Aw too bad)

Last Thursday's DBMM game

I've been a little busy what with Anime and Steampunk panels so I'm going to wimp out and repost my message to the DBMM list about last Thursdays' game.

Once again George was kind enough to bring over his Macedonians and Persians for a 200 point game. As in our first game, we did not use terrain and with only two commands the question was what side do you put the Cv on?

As before, we used the most current 1.1 revisions.

The Macedonians foot command had a pike block with some Ps in support and his mounted command had Companions and Prodomoi with a leavening of elephants and Ps.

The Persian foot command had a spear block with a couple of Ps a Lh(F) and Cv(I) while the mounted command was Irr Cv(O) supported by Lh and a Ax/Ps Takabara group.

As the Persians and with terrible dicing I setup first. I set up the foot command on my left with double ranked spears flanked by horse and the Ps out front. The horse went on my right in a single rank with the Lh in column on their right flank and the Ax/Ps on the left.

George as the Macedonians, put his pike block centre double ranked in the centre with Ps behind and quadruple ranked pike on each flank. His Cavalry went left and rear. The companions on the right of the line with the Ps behindthe flank. The elephants to the left of the Companions and the Prodomoi to the left of the pachyderms.



Seeing that George's pikes were lined up on the gap between my to commands and thinking that the Cav can move well en bloc wth low pips, I gave the high dice to the grunts. George went the other way, giving his Cv the high dice.

I still have enough trouble keeping the factors and moves straight let alone the dice rolls so I apologize in advance for the lack of precise detail.

On turn one, I rolled good pips for the infantry and a 1 for the Cav. I pushed my spears forward, and wheeled them toward centre to threaten the Pikes should they advance. My Cav just trotted forward en mass. George with good pips responded by pushing forward both his infantry and cavalry commands to contact my horse Using multiple march moves. And this is where the title comes in. A single pikes and horse poked at each other ineffectually while the second rank of pike watched from a couple of base widths back. When the Companion Kn(F)General attacked, the dice gods were in my favour and he died by 1 pip - the extra -1 for marching into contact. (Lets call him instead Sid, Alexander's unlucky illegitimate bother, because Alex was never that unlucky.) With the CinC dead on the first turn George was in trouble - or would have been had my dice not been poor.




Turn two saw my Lh on the right flank repulsed, while the pushing match continued between the Kn, Pk and my Cv. With low pips, my spear group slowy wheeled like a rusty barn door toward the Pk flank.



Turn 3 saw the Persian Cv kill another Kn while one of my repulsed Lh moved up to protect the Cv flank from elephants. The rest of the Cv kept up the shoving match with the Pk. The Macedonians wheeled the rear rank of Pk into column and headed off toward my Sp who were finally in a somewhat threatening position.



Turn 4 saw the beginning of the end as the Macedonian Cv command broke. George was able to skillfully plug the worst holes with Ps. His pike were in good shape but were now defending two sides of the square as my Sp had finally gotten into contact. I was able to move much of my Cv up as impetuous despite poor pips, as a router was in 400 of most of my mounted. This was interesting as it gave some of my Cv free moves into the Pk since they were the closest straight ahead enemy.




Turn 5 saw the end of it. I lost some horse but was able to kill enough Macedonians to end the game. The Macedonian pikes while dispersed were still in good shape.




Observations:

• Losing your general on turn one is a bad thing.
• Wheeling slow foot takes a long time but works in the end.
• Impetuous due to a broken enemy command can be used against un-broken enemy. May warrant Ps blocks between commands.
• The second row of pike wheeling into column was unexpected to a newbie but something I need to remember for the future.
• Two commands, while in no way boring, leads to a limited game.

I was happier with my performance though the indecision I experienced in the first game was more off set by George's aggression than any effort of mine. I am getting a better feel for the troop types - Lights in particular are more survivable than I expected, bouncing against the heavies until the lights explode from over exertion. I lost 3 spent and one dead as I recall.

Another great evening spent on another great game. Ok - I'm chuffed I won even if it was by a fluke.

Next game Thursday

George is bringing back the same armies for a repeat.
Can I commit my Cv?
Will I still be an Inert General?
How many elephants can dance on the head of a javelin?

Stay tuned for results.

First DBMM Game

George came over the other night with some Antipatros Macedonians and Persians. We each had 210 points split into two commands. Since this was my first DBMM game, we decided not to use terrain (actually I don't think we had any) but George walked me through the selection process. With the high Macedonian aggression, they were the invaders, and I deployed first.

My main command with the higher dice was composed of Cv with some support from PS and Ax and Lh. The second command was of Sp again with some lights in support. With two commands the big question is where to put the cavalry. I went conventional and put them on my right wing double depth with the PS/AX on their left and the Lh on the right. The Greek Mercenary Sp block went two deep on my left with lights on the flanks.

George setup the Macedonians in a mirror image, facing my Cv with Companions supported by a pair of Elephants. On his right, he put his pike block facing my Sp with some lights in support.

On the starters gun, I pushed the Lh on my right flank well up the field. Seeing the Elephants, I congratulated myself on having the Ps/Ax attached to the CV near the centre line and moved them out in front of the Cv block for some pachyderm hunting. On my left, I pushed forward the Spears keeping its support dressed up. On his turn, the Maecdonian cut the traces on the Pikes and let them rumble forward.

I was having too much fun having fun and being confused to recall precise details. The pikes and spear got into a shoving match which ultimately the spear lost. At one point the respective generals were in hand to hand combat. I dithered about with my Cv and ultimately wasted them. As I have written elsewhere, I managed to get the Ps/Ax block into a position where they couldn't quite contact the El without getting charged by the Companions, my Cv couldn't support them and if I tried to move my Cv up, their line would be disrupted by the Px/Ax block.

In the end, my spear command was crushed and along with a few Cv casualties I lost the game. However it was great fun and I look forward to doing alot more.

First DBMM game tonight.

A local(ish) gentleman from the DBMM list asked me if I would be interested in a game. George is bringing over 210 points each of Persians and Macedonians. What with Brad Pitt's riveting portrayal of Alexander the Great, I had to take the Persians.

To be honest - the Macedonians have both Companions and a couple of elephants - I'm a bit concerned about mishandling either.