Woolston DBA Challenge ... 5

Here we were lined up against Joe and the Polybian Roman army he had borrowed. This was one of those games.. tense and exciting all the way through, ebbing and flowing for both of us.




Joe came across the river at me, and the river turned out to be paltry.. damn, there was a vital part of my defence plan gone 'out the window'.. well 'under the Roman blinds', anyway!!




I was able to destroy Joe's Psiloi on his right flank, but then the action ebbed and flowed, and time had to be called with each of us three elements down..... a draw.. whew!!!





The day presented us each with 5 fantastic games. I learned a thing or two abut the Spanish army, and have a better idea about how to use them next time.. I have to remind myself that it's not just the small tactical niceties of the rules that matter (becoming fixated on the fact the Psiloi support Auxilia against mounted opponents, even in rough going, isn't the most important thing).

Focus on those areas where you have an advantage, eliminate your opponent's weakest troops first, use the terrain.. etc etc.. you get the picture. Sometimes it doesn't matter how many years of experience you have playing these games, you can still forget the basics....

Woolston DBA Challenge ... 4

Another inglorious appearance, against Mark's Indians. In this case, again, Mark deployed his main strike on his left to face the main Spanish concentration. The elephant 'Panzerkiel' drove down the flank, supported by Indian Blade and Bow.




I was cagey about deploying on a steep hill, trying to take advantage of the difficult terrain, and up hill bonus, to put Mark on the back foot.




However Mark continued to work the flank, supporting his blade with his Bow. At one stage some Spanish Auxilia came off the hill to attack the bow, when they were initially left relatively exposed and unsupported. However die rolls of 1 for the Spanish and 5 for the Bow put paid to any idea I might have had about taking them out, and so the Auxilia retreated again to the hill.



The Blade and Elephants punched through on the flank, and it was all over... beginning to feel normal about now!!

Woolston DBA Challenge ... 3

In this game the Spanish are fighting Brian's Eastern Late Imperial Roman army. Again, with the ever present river, Brian deployed his toughest troops, Knights and Blade, on his left against the main Spanish force.
They advanced, deploying into battle formation once clear of the river.









The Knights and Blade punched through against the Spanish Auxilia, killing the Spanish Cavalry General in the process...ooopss!!

Woolston DBA Challenge ... 2

In this game the Spanish faced Joel's newly painted Marion Romans. As you read these brief AARs you'll notice a theme: I tried to use terrain to disrupt my opponent and give the Spanish Auxilia and Psiloi as many advantages as possible. The ever present river in this case was as much to my disadvantage as it was to Joel. I tried to work around his right flank while he advanced towards my rather weak battle line.

His Blade got stuck in to my line before I was able to engineer much of any substance on the flank. It didn't take long....

Woolston DBA Challenge ... 1

The Iberian Spanish had their second major outing today in the Woolston DBA Challenge. Their record wasn't too flash, but I knew they would be difficult to use. They managed 3 losses, 1 draw and 1 win (which was probably a flattering set of results considering how I played them).

The only win of the day was against an Alexandrian Macedonian army, beautifully painted by Dave, using FreiKorps figures, Dave was a little unlucky I have to say, as I managed to get my Light Horse stand across to his Camp and beat the camp in contact (not that likely if you know the factors), and then destroy one of his Psiloi,





These last shots show the victorious LH stand in the Macedonian Camp.




It was a great day of 'gaming against 5 fantastic opponents. More action shots/after action reports to come soon...