Dwarfs fail to blunt Orc invasion

This week's gaming began with a 24 points HitT game vs Murray's new Dwarf army.  I fielded units from my Orc army, including the new artillery piece and the sneaker (which never appeared!!!)

Dwarf Horde supporting an artillery piece

Dwarf behemoth and hero

Dwarf shooters

Orc artillery and hero

Orc forest troll

Orc knights (chariots) and warband warriors

The orc artillery got into a firefight with three shooters.. that was never going to end well .. and the artillery piece was eliminated in the second turn. The Dwarf shooters then proceeded to lap around the Orc flank. Deploying the artillery on the flank was a mistake.

Dwarf shooters 'having a go' at the orc hero

Hero still battling it out

Knights and warband break through to the Dwarven warriors (blades)

The orc hero continues to hold off the dwarven shooters

One orc knight is dead, the other battles on

Warband driving back the dwarven horade

The forest troll gets into the action and the horde is gone

The orc warband reserve gets up and into the action supporting the hero and the knight

A dwarven blade has died

The orc hero finally succombs

However the casualties amongst the blade and the loss of their behemoth, left the dwarven host reeling after the loss of their general too.

A great game in which the dice leant that Murray struggled to win more than a few combats... a hard day at the office for the dwarfs, but as always an excellent game.

Dismounted cavalry for the ACW armies

This past week I've been working away at the next (and possibly nearing the last) stage in building my 15mm American Civil War armies: the dismounted cavalry stands to match the cavalry stands I completed a month or three ago. In Volley and Bayonet terms, in the ACW period cavalry regiments dismount as linear infantry stands with reduced firepower, representing the smaller units and the number of men detached to act as horse holders when the regiment fights dismounted.

The three CSA regiments with their dismounted versions at the front

The three Union regiments with their dismounted versions at the front

The mounted regiments are Minifigs figures, while the dismounted figures are Essex miniatures.

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.