DBA 3.0 Early Achaemenid Persians vs Early Hoplite Greeks Part 4

In the final contest between the Persians and Athenians, the Persians would see if they can repeat their victory after the hard lessons of the first two encounters. The Athenians would see if they can improve on their last performance. The elements used in game 3 remained the same for this battle.

Above shows the pre-battle deployment. The Athenians are the defenders again and place a waterway at the top of the picture. They also placed a dune and a difficult hill next to the waterway. (Upon further review, this placement was incorrect, as there should have been at least a one base width gap between the dune and hill.) Without helpful terrain, the Persians (left) deploy their main infantry battle line close to the camp, set back farther from the center of the battle field so that the Athenians have farther to come to engage them. The Persians also mass their cavalry on their right, along with a psiloi. The Persians also placed a psiloi and auxilia in position behind the dune on their left. The Athenians deployed their hoplites in line, anchored on the hill on the right, and placed their lone cavalry and both psiloi on the left.

Above shows the end of turn 2. The Persians pushed their psiloi and auxilia through the dune to the difficult hill on the left, threatening the right flank of the Athenian line, which had moved forward. On their right, the Persian cavalry aggressively moved forward towards the Athenian left flank; both sides shifting towards the flank edge. Note that the hoplite line has separated into 5 parts.

Above shows the end of turn 3. In a straight up combat, the Persians have destroyed the Athenian cavalry element and a psiloi. On their right, the Athenians have formed up to assault the auxilia on the difficult hill. The Athenian main line has reformed, but is now in 3 parts. The Persians are winning 2-0.

At the end of turn 4 above, the hoplites on the difficult hill have recoiled the Persian psiloi and auxilia. While there were no losses, the Athenian left flank psiloi is in a bad position for next turn.

At the end of turn 6, the Athenians have lost their psiloi on the left flank and a hoplite element. A single hoplite element nearby is unsupported and in a very bad position. The fighting on the difficult hill is inconclusive. The Persians have won 4-0.

Discussion: Again, the Persian cavalry won the day. The Athenian psiloi probably would have been better used to hold off or fight the Persians lights on the difficult hill while using the rest of the pips to counter the Persian cavalry and move their battle line forward together. The main Athenian battle line never made it past the center line of the battlefield and the Persian infantry remained un-engaged (which for them, was a good thing).

My fellow gamer & friend Bob Pavlik & I are enjoying these rules and playing these games. We are still learning the 3.0 version of DBA, and how to the armies play. There are probably some things we did wrong that we didn't catch; hopefully will be rectified in future games. 3.0 seems to be superior to previous versions of the DBA rules. It is also fun to resurrect/restore some old figures and armies and have them re-born as it were, under DBA 3.0.