John
was over again to play some more DBA. There was 100% less cheating than
last
time.
This time I wanted to try out Vikings vs Anglo-Saxons – to
see how the flank support for spears works against the Vikings – which normally
walk over them. I also wanted to try out the Normans again either against the
Anglo-Saxons (with a little less cheating this time) or against Vikings to see
if the ties = dead knights comes up often…
GAME ONE
FORCES
Middle Anglo-Saxon
1x Spear General
10x Spear
1x Psiloi
Vikings
1x Blade General
11x Blade
THE GAME
John took the Vikings, I took
the Angl-Saxons.
(Remember: click on the pictures
for a bigger version)
A pretty stretch of the English
countryside with my Anglo-Saxons all lined up and ready to defend their home
from the evil Viking invaders… with their new-found flank support rule they are
so confident in their ability to do so they haven’t even set up on the hill…
The lines meet with a thunderous
clamour of metal on metal and wood and flesh and the cries of dying men…
The first bounds outcome. Much
shoving back and forth – no elements broken. John’s Vikings have started
pushing back the left of my line towards the hill, determined to give me the
uphill advantage.
One my follow-up bound I shove a
few Vikings back to make a bit more of a mess.
But at the far right end of the
English line we see the first significant losses – An element English Spear is
lost!
The next bound more or less
straightens out the line – John “closed the door” at the right of my line, but
a desperate defense threw back the Viking attackers. AT the other end of the
line the Vikings continued to push the spear up the hill to the point where
next turn I’ll have a +1 up hill advantage… that’s when I figured it would all
come apart for the Vikings…
Um… Okay… NEXT turn it’ll all come
apart for the Vikings – we just wanted to retire a little further up that hill
to ensure we were all well and truly on the hill and deserving of that uphill
advantage factor…
Well it did not all come apart
for the Vikings… despite my uphill advantage and flank support…. Not only did
John not get pushed back down the hill – he doubled and DESTROYED me element of
spear!? I can’t think of how… Oh I know, the other spear element went FIRST and
was recoiled back up the hill losing me the flank support and gaining me a
negative overlap factor +5 to my +3…
At the other end of the line
things were not looking so good either – the Vikings had turned the flank of
the English line and, despite a desperate defence the sturdy Saxons were
eventually overcome.
I think John was determined to
shove my spear OVER the hill to get an uphill advantage of his own… just to
show off, or something… As it turned out he didn’t get the opportunity.
At the other end of the line an
isolated element of spear was over run by the Vikings and that was the end of
the game.
I like the flank support rule.
When the Spear are in a nice solid line it lets them fight at even odds against
blade… Once that line gets broken up a bit they become a bit more brittle – and
if the Vikings can get elements of blade surrounded – by pushing into their
line on either side of an element, losing them the flank support and giving
them an overlap factor or two it’s suddenly +5 to +3 or +2 and that is how I
lost most, in not all, of the elements I lost in the game.
GAME TWO
FORCES
Vikings
1x Blade General
10x Blade
1x Bow
Normans
1x Knight General
7x Knights
2x Spear
2x Bow
THE GAME
John decided to stick with the
Vikings, though I convinced him to swap out one Blade for the Bow option… I
took the dreaded NORMANS… The Normans didn’t take kindly to this visit from
their back-water, hillbilly, fjord-swelling cousins…
Not a piece of terrain on the
Normans side… well… not a piece of bad-going…
It occurred to me that it could
be possible for there to be a table with no bad-going at all… you are only
required to select ONE piece of bad-going (I took the woods) and if it were
diced for last and ended up in a quarter where there was already two pieces of
terrain and couldn’t fit I would have to be discarded. Perhaps there needs to
be a rule whereby bad-going must be diced for first! (maybe there is and I
missed it!?)
All lined up and ready to
rumble.
The bow did successfully break
up my line on the approach and on this bound I rolled a one for PIPs… so I didn’t
even get to send in my whole line…
Not that it mattered… One bound.
Four dead. Including the General!?
Now I have to mention that all
through the previous game with the English and the Vikings John and I were
rolling a staggering number of ties – which I thought spelt certain DOOM for
the Normans if that kept up – the whole point of this engagement was to check
out the blade quick-kill of knights on ties… (should happen one in six times…?)
I guess we got all the ties out of our dice in the previous game, because we didn’t
roll a single tie anywhere along here…
Anyway. Fun games. I’d like to
get in some more. I’d REALLY like to finish up some hoplites and try some spear
on spear; +5 on +5 is going to be a huge shoving match… It’ll be all about the
terrain and where that odd element of psiloi gets to…
Unfortunately production seems
to be slowing around here as I’m trying to get to bed a bit earlier these days
so I can get up and start going for early morning bike rides now that the suns
coming up earlier and the weather’s getting nicer… well… maybe not THIS WEEK –
it’s been pissing rain the last couple days… but soon enough..
