Pirates and Dwarves.... emerging from the darkness

We hadn't played ant DBF in a while, so last  night we played a small 80 point game, my Pirates vs Murray's Dwarfs, out from the darkness of their boxes after many months.  As is my habit these days, this is not so much an AAR as it is simply a selection of photos from start to finish.

Dwarven 'light mounted' in the midst of three Pirate Great Beasts.

Pirate Great Flyer (an air galleon of course, what were you expecting?)

Dwarven artillery

Pirate artillery

Dwarven hero on the left, supported by blades

A part of the Pirate deployment, 'bow' (probably should have been 'handguns'), warband and hero

The Pirate Great Beasts tackling the Dwarven behemoth

The game was interesting, but the victim of some of the most one sided die rolling I have seen .. almost all of my combat dice were 5s and 6s, unlike my PIP dice which were a uchg. more mixed bag, explaining why the Great Flyer barely got into action. The Dwarven army was devastated while the Pirates took no casualties at all....  

Our rules knowledge was rusty, meaning we took far longer than we ought to for a game of this size, so we only managed the one game.

Some fabulous fantasy modelling

While visiting last night, Murray shared with me two new model pieces he has finished for HotT, or DBF.

A Great Flyer for the Ratmen

This one a knight, specifically a chariot, for the Ratmen. The figures are old GW figures.

Spider Beast Packs.. another DBF game

Having last week played a game of DBF using the spiders as hordes, this week I played a smaller 80 poiont game against Andy, but this time trying them as Beast packs. Under Hordes of the Things, spider hordes seemed right, but un der DBF it didn't. Under DBF hordes are unwieldy, do count towards army losses for victory, and don't come back. The idea of beast type packs assailing the enemy seemed more appropriate. 

Andy fielded his British napoleonic fantasy army.

The initial deployment: both sides were constrained to the central deployment zones, meaning additional forces had to be deployed behind

Scots Greys. Andy had based them 2 to a base many moons ago, which ought to make them Light Horse, but hey.. Scots Greys.. Knights of course

The 'heavy hitters in the spider army... two behemoths and a hero

The spider Beast Packs

Righto.. let's be 'at it'.. straight in..

Spider Behemoth General vs Brit Knight General.. the Brit general was destroyed... so it didn't look good for the Brits from there on in

The second spider behemoth destroyed the British shooters, an the breakthrough of the British line was made

Howeve Andy had posiiotned his two artillery pieces to the rear...

The spiders attacked the first artillery piece and destroyed it

Meanwhile the British were keeping the beasts at bay

Action between the spider best packs and a mix of British shooters, and warband (Scots infantry)

The behemoths attack the second artillery piece

The artillery wins and the attacking behemoth flees

In Andy's next turn he fires artillery at the second spider behemoth (general) and it too flees

However British losses had mounted and finally the game was won by the spiders... a very different game from that in which the spiders had been hordes. Mind you, in contrast to the previous game, my die rolling with the spiders was .. well ... extraordinary. I think it was 7 combats in a row with a die roll of 5 or 6.... as they say, some days you are the pigeon, some days you are the statue. That said, the DBF rules continue to challenge and satisfy.

Hordes in De Bellis Fantasiae

A little 'fantasy' this week, with a large DBF game. First however, this 'Great Flyer' for DBF (Airboat for HotT) that Murray has just completed for his 'Ratmen' army. The figures are old GW figures, the airboat itself is scratch built... good old fashioned modelling skills

Here a few random photos form a British VSF/Spiders game of DBF.

The spiders were largely horde. That is how I'd field them in HotT. However a horde army if very problematic in DBF. They don't com e back, they are 'unwieldy' and so take an extra movement 'PIP to move, and do count towards losses (in DBA Hordes don't count towards losses). If I conbtinue to use them as Hopardes I will need to rethink how to use them. Maybe:

• four commands so four pip dice; and/or
• concentrate the powerful elements (behemoths etc) all in one command with a minimum of hordes, and/or
• hold back with the rest of the hordes

I may also change the hordes to  'beast packs'.. might better reflect their capabilities. It's a fascinating challenge.

Assyrians on the attack.. action with orcs and pirates

This week we played another two trial/learning games of DBF. We opted for 80 point games, which seems to equate roughly speaking to the older 24 army point HotT games. Each army we used was composed of just one command.

The first game saw orcs against Andy's mythical Assyrians. This was the first time the Assyrians had been on the table, having originally been painted simply as 'test sprues' for HaT.

First turns, Andy throws light horse against the Orc general and support chariots, which I'd classed as knights. 

The stand on the right Andy was using as a Level 2 mage. Remember that the figures weren't originally based for HotT or DBF, so the mage is on the wrong sized base.. but we knew what it was. The figures to the left are spear

Orc blade and warbow .. the warbow getting the 'retinue' side support factor from the blade

The Assyrian general in chariot.. a hero

The orc chariots destroy one light horse and recoil the other

The battle lines clash

The orcs make a breakthrough in the centre and begin to lap around, the orc general on the right of the line destroys its opponent and pursues forward

It's very 'argy bargy' along the line, but eventually the orcs destroy over half of the Assyrian elements..

The orcs managed to destroy many of the Assyrian elements, due in no small part to Andy rolling nothing higher than a 2 in five combats.. oh dears.

On to the second game.. a slightly modified Assyrian army against pirates, which include 3 great beasts.

The pirate 'great flyer' (the air galleon) pushes forward to threat the Assyrian flank

On ly to be attacked by the Assyrian mage ... bugger

It all gets very confusing, but the airboat is attacked by the Assyrian hero

One of the great beasts flees from th Assyrian spear

The Pirate camp ...

The Assyrian hero general is attacked by pirate warband supported by the great flyer hitting it in the flank, and the hero wins

Much of the pirate right is destroyed, the ships guns that had been landed in support are looking decidedly vulnerable

The battle continues against the Assyrian hero

One of the artillery guns is attacked and destroyed...

And so the battle went to the Assyrians ... quite a 'pasting' for the pirates...  maybe next time the large pirate figures might be behemoths.

However all n all a successful pair of games.. we are getting the hang of DBF.