Norse vs Irish

Yet ANTOHER game report! I got in a game of DBA with John this evening – who I haven’t had an opportunity to play with for some time – so it was nice to catch up a bit and finally get to try out my new(-ish) Irish DBA army in a genuine game of DBA (They’ve been fielded a couple times in HOTT – but it ends up being a Warband army which is very, VERY different from the mix of Auxillia and Psiloi that the Irish are in DBA!). John was kind enough to invade Ireland with some Vikings so I could try them out.

FORCES

Norse Irish (III/46)
1x Auxilia General
5x Auxilia
4x Psiloi
2x Blade

Norse Viking (III/40b)
1x Blade General
10x Blade
1x Warband

THE GAME

The Irish are “Littoral” so I should have had a coastline along there somewhere… but I haven’t gotten to building any – they are my next project (along with some more marshes!)

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


The armies advance. I sent a contingent up the flank to try and ambush any Norse that strayed into the woods – figuring it would be my only real chance at causing any damage (Blade vs Auxilia in the open was a non-starter)


One PIP roll meant only one file advanced on that next turn.


The Viking berserks (Warband) went hunting the Irish skirmishers (psiloi) in the woods…


…and forced them back!


More Fighting in the woods – the Psioloi expand to overlap the Warband and my Auxilia contact the Viking blade.



The Auxilia had some brief success forcing the Viking blade to fall back a bit, but the berserks just kept pushing those skirmishers back.


Again the Auxilia threw back the Blade that advanced back into contact (as well as another blade that closed the door to flank), but the berserks just kept pushing the skirmishers back – right out of the woods!


The Auxilia press their advantage following the recoiling blade and the skirmishers move in to flank the berserks.


Ther Berserks throw back the flankers and push the skirmishers to their front further out of the woods, While the Irish auxilia were also thrown back by the Vikings.


The Vikings moved back in to flank the Irish Auxilia and beat them down (Irish down one)


Again the Irish skirmishers try to surround the berserks, while others harass the Vikings flank.


An element of Blade is lost on the Vikings flank. (Vikings down one)


And the Berserks ran our of steam and were also destroyed! (Vikings down two)


The Vikings, however, decided to ignore the Irish skirmishers shenanigans on their flank and pressed on towards the Irish main line.


Irish Skirmishers again try to harass the Viking flank.


More Vikings are peeled off the flank to deal with them.


The Irish FLEE from the horrible hairy Vikings!


The other skirmishers tried to maneuver around to the rear – but they too are forced to flee (towards the Viking camp!)


The Vikings make slow forward progress as they are constantly harassed by still MORE skirmishers on their flank!


Throwing them back

There’s little either could do – The Vking blade has a +5 vs foot in the open, the Irish Psiloi have +2… Neither quick kill, in fact the Psioloi can’t be killed at all – unless they flee of the table or the Vikings managed to actually flank one… )


One group of Psiloi made it to within spittin distance of the Viking camp – but I didn’t have enough PIPs on any later turns to try and get them into contacts with it…


CRASH! The main lines finally meet!


All along the line the Irish are thrown back!


On the following bound their move in again – and are again thrown back.


On the Vikings next turn they were able to isolate one of the blade, that had remained in combat, and destroyed them! (Irish down two – things looking like they will be going downhill rapidly!)


Everything all lined up…


The Irish, with noting much better to do, moved back – and lost an element of Auxilia for their troubles (Irish down three…).


On the final Viking bound they tried to flank the Irish general – and were thrown back!! (destroying a stand of Viking blade in the process!!), but elsewhere down the line the Vikings took out another stand of Irish and that brought the game to a conclusion…

The Irish are tougher to play than the Welsh. That lack of quick –kill the warband get on blades and spears makes a big difference. It’s very definitely still all about the terrain – and I didn’t have nearly enough of it spread out in a cagey enough fashion to hamper the Vikings as much as I needed to…

Waterway and marshes are definitely the next things to build!!

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Hopefully get back to some painting soonish! Or perhaps some terrain making!!