Romans repulse Early German advances

Another DBA 3.0 game played with the 20/25mm armies. This time Nick and I swapped sides. I commanded the Early Germans, Nick the Early Imperial Romans. Despite the relative aggression factors, yet again Nick ended up defending (this has happened in EVERY game we have played during his visit so far). He chose a hamlet amongst the terrain features.

I decided to deploy in a way that might disrupt his attack on me. Knowing the damage that the knight base causes against warband, I deployed my Cav general in the expectation that I would match that up against his knight base which he had deployed in his centre. I had done the same to great effect the previous evening.

My attempt at disrupting Nick's attack is clear from this view

Nick pushed his general and mounted troops around his right, but was constrained by the terrain features.

The Roman knights in the centre

The German general in amongst the warband

German cavalry on their right wing

I misjudged the angles of Nick's wheel to meet me, and so my general would end up matched against his blade while his knight was set to cause mayhem amongst the warband

Roman cavalry pinned in the threat zone of the right flank warband

German psiloi stand off, pinning the Roman right of auxilia

Nick simply 'went for it'. His knight killed a warband, and a blade killed my general (a 1:6 die roll)

The space in front of the blade where the German general once fought

The Roman cavalry also killed a warband base

The Roman reserve line never batted an eyelid, remaining uncommitted throughout the short game.

The Roman general remained uncommitted

A quick victory to the Romans, having killed the German general and more elements than they had lost (in fact they'd lost nothing).. a convincing beating delivered to the Early German army, but a really interesting game.

In the forests of Germany with DBA

Our week and a half of DBA saw another game tonight, this time a Roman vs Early german game, using my 20/25mm armies. These haven't seen any genuine ancients action for a long time. These days they typically double as HotT armies. 

Nick was 'defending' using the Early Germans, and chose a river as one of his terrain pieces. This deployment resulted

The Roman left

The German 'solid warband' were deployed double ranked in their centre/left

The Roman general deployed with two unit of blade as the reserve

German light troops/psiloi advanced through the forest

The Roman front line pushed forward possibly a little too enthusiastically trying to gain the advantage of the high ground. With a single PIP roll, I advanced the front line when perhaps I shouldn't

The German warband and cavalry charge in

The Roman Bow are recoiled, the German centre holds against the knights and kills a unit of blade, while a unit of German psiloi is killed centre left in the photo

Another unit of Roman blade on their extreme right is killed

On the Roman left their mounted troops clash, the German cavalry general recoiling the Numidian Light Horse

The Roman knights kill a unit of warband

The warband attack the Roman Bow, lapping around their flank the bow survive with a drawn combat

The knights break through

The reserve takes the flank pressure off the Bow

The knights break out and destroy a unit of warband in the rear

The game went the way of the Romans, although there was as always quiet an element of luck. Nick's warband didn't win the number of combats against the blade that he ought to have despite some clever manoeuvring.  A number of 6:1 and 6:2 die rolls in my favour gave me several 'get out of jail' moments. Nick's choice of a river was clever. It allowed him to reduce his frontage and double rank the warband, adding an extra combat factor when fighting against foot.

This won't be the last game before Nick heads back home.

A few DBA games ...

A delightful surprise this past week when Nick arrived unannounced for our birthdays.. all the way from Melbourne. It was inevitable that there would be some 'gaming ensuing. A series of DBA games have been the fare so far, using my relatively new Saxon, and Viking, armies, both in 15mm. 

The photos are mostly taken form behind the Viking army, and show the tendency for the fast Blade to break up as they either pursue, or recoil even when they draw a combat. I am enjoying the challenges of commanding them.

The Saxon camp