Early Frankish vs Huns, Battle # 2

Our second game of Early Frankish vs Huns began with the Franks defending this time and placing the terrain. Terrain included 2 plough, a woods, and a gentle hill.

 Above is the Frankish army deployed. 

 Above shows the armies and terrain deployed at the beginning of the game. The Franks put their warbands on their right near the gentle hill, while their Ostrogoth cavalry & psiloi were deployed on the left. The fast bow and the Frankish general are in the center of the line. The Huns countered by placing their light cavalry on their left, the subject infantry in the woods, and the Hun & Gepid nobles on the right.

 Initial moves by both sides show the Franks moving their fast bow to the left, possibly to engage the Hun & Gepid nobles. The Hun light horse moved straight ahead towards the Frankish right flank. 

 The Franks got some good pip rolls and were able to place a few warbands on top of the gentle hill in the face of the Hun advance. The Huns continued moving directly towards the Frankish right, now on top of the hill. The Huns drove back 2 of the warbands, while a column of Hun light horse was forced to recoil.

Further along in the battle, the Hun light horse destroys 3 of the Frankish warbands on or near the gentle hill, while a Frankish fast bow element turns and shoots, destroying a Hun light horse element. The Huns are winning 3-1. On the Frank's far left, the Ostrogoth ally cavalry is advancing towards the Hun right.

 The above picture shows the end of the battle. The Hun light cavalry destroys another Frankish warband element while the Huns lose another light cavalry to distant shooting, which ends the game with a 4-2 win for the Huns.

The fast moving Huns were able to seize the initiative with their light horse and just barely avoided crippling losses from the fast bow. The Frankish left & Hun center & right flank were not really involved in the fighting.

 Bob scratch-built this beautiful Gallic camp, including the hut. It is much nicer than mine on the right.

Another view of Bob's camp. Materials used were a cardboard tube for the walls, card-stock roof with scrunched up paper towel & white glue roof. The outer fence & gate were made from toothpicks, balsa, & string. The base is matte board.

Early Frankish vs the Huns, Battle # 1

Our first battle with the Early Frankish vs the Huns began with the Franks as the attackers and the Huns the defenders (unusual as the Huns have an aggression of 4, the Franks 3). The terrain type for the Huns was Steppe. The Huns chose a gentle hill, an area of scrub, and a gully.

Above is the Hun army. Note the wagon laager camp that Bob made. The nasty looking foot are Musket (Footsore) Miniatures subject warband infantry. The Gepid cavalry is the far right element, next to Attila. 

Above is the Early Frankish Suevi army with Ostrogoth allies. Being unimaginative, I used the Gallic hut & camp for the Franks. 

Above shows both armies deployed before turn 1. The gully is at the bottom of the picture. The Franks deployed second, and placed their bows on the right of the line, anticipating hordes of light horse coming their way.

Above shows the initial movement in the game. The Huns are moving forward while the Frankish general has sent some of his warbands into the scrub, possibly to meet the Hun's subject infantry. An Ostrogoth ally column has also moved forward. 

Above shows the Frankish & Hun infantry are about to close near the scrub, while the main body of Hun light cavalry is shifting slightly towards the Frankish center. Attila and the Gepid nobles have also moved forward along the gully. The Frankish general has shifted to the right, while the Ostrogoth noble near the scrub has stayed behind, anticipating being needed elsewhere. 

The Frankish warbands have contacted the Hun subject infantry near the scrub and destroyed one element, while the Franks have lost the Ostrogoth psiloi. The Hun light cavalry charged full tilt towards the center of the main Frankish battle line, killing one fast bow, but losing a light horse in distant shooting reply. The Franks have countered by involving both Ostrogoth noble units, one approaching the Hun light horse right flank, and the other driving back a column of Hun light horse. Both sides have lost 2 elements at this point.

The picture above shows the end of the game. The Frankish warbands have destroyed the other subject infantry element near the scrub. The Ostrogoth noble has hit the flank of the Hun light horse and destroyed an element that couldn't recoil, while the other Ostrogoth noble was quick killed by light horse with second rank support. The remaining Frankish fast bow destroyed a Hun light horse element via distant shooting. The game ends with a Frankish victory, 5-3. 

The Frankish general was fortunate to have enough pips to move his Ostrogoth allies at the right time. The Franks were able to use the scrub to move warbands through to attack the subject infantry, and were able, with good placement, to shoot down a couple Hun light horse. Meanwhile, Attila and the Gepid nobles were still near the gully, perhaps wary of archery fire, & didn't reach the enemy in time to effect anything.

Prelude to battle: Huns vs Early Frankish

Having finished my Early Frankish DBA army, I just had to have a game with my friend Bob, who has a Hun army. Having never used these armies before, it is good to review just what kind of army each is and what kinds of elements are available in the DBA rules.

II/80 Huns:

In DBA 3.0, the Huns have 4 army lists. List II/80a is Attila's army (433-453 AD), which is the army that Bob has. It contains the following:

> 1 element of the general (Attila) + noble cavalry (Cv) or light horse (LH).
> 5 elements of Light Horse (LH)
> 2 elements of subject solid warbands (4Wb) or light horse (LH).
> 2 elements of subject solid warbands (4Wb).
> 1 Gepid heavy cavalry element (3Kn)
> 1 psiloi element.

This army has a nice mix of troops: a good core of LH plus one or two shock cavalry (Kn or Cv + General), 2-4 solid warbands and a Ps. Bob chose a Cv general, and LH over 4Wb, for a total of 7 LH and 2 x 4Wb.

The other Hun armies lists are:
The Sabir Huns (II/80b), a mix of LH and 4Wb or 4Bw.
The Chionite or Hephthalite Huns (II/80c), mostly LH, but can have a knight (3Kn) or Elephant (El), and a couple fast bows (3Bw).
"Other" Hunnic armies (II/80d) can be all LH or have a Cv General.

The Huns have NO options for any allies (nobody liked them, I guess).

II/72 Early Frankish:

The Early Frankish also have four army lists in DBA 3.0. The army I used was II/72c, the Suevi (250-584 AD), which has the following:

> 1 element of 3Kn + the general.
> 8 warriors (4Wb).
> 2 fast bow (3Bw) or Psiloi (Ps).
> 1 javelinmen (Ps)

This army lacks mounted troops, but has a powerful core of solid warbands, and some fast bow support.

The list allows you to choose an ally, so I chose an Early Ostrogoth ally (list II/67b). The rules say that you must replace 3 of your army's elements with 3 of the ally. You must pick the ally general's element (in this case, a 3Kn) and a choice of the element with the highest number available (both a total of 6 x 3Kn and 6 x Ps were available, I chose another 3Kn), and a third element of a type yet unused (I chose a Ps). I replaced Frankish 2 x 4Wb and 1 x Ps with the Ostrogoth elements. (Hopefully, I did all of this correctly).

The Suevi Army with Ostrogoth ally now consisted of the following:

> 1 element of 3Kn + the general.
> 6 elements of warriors (4Wb).
> 2 elements of fast bow (3Bw).
> 1 element Ostrogoth ally psiloi (Ps).
> 2 elements Ostrogoth ally noble cavalry (3Kn).

This mix gives the army more mounted troops (knights) while maintaining the bows and psiloi, but sacrificing 2 warbands. The only restriction is that allied elements cannot be moved as a group with other elements, thus potentially costing more pips for movement.

The other Early Franish army lists are:
The Quadi (II/72a), all warbands with a single Psiloi and knight (3Kn) general.
The Alamanni (II/72b), has 7 warriors, 3 x fast bow (3Bw) or horde (7Hd), a Psiloi, and a Cavalry General that can dismount as a 4Wb.
"Other" Early Frankish (II/72d), is similar to the Quadi, except with a Cv general.

The scouting report for this battle: 

The Frankish warbands are not effective against light horse, both fighting at + 2 in close combat. The light horse can get a +1 with rear support, while the warbands cannot against horse. The Frankish allies will require extra pips to move, but the Frankish fast bows are very effective at shooting light horse, with a +4 compared to +2 for the light horse. The Frankish & Ostrogoth knights have to be careful against light horse, who can get a +1 with rear support and can quick kill knights. The Hun light horse has a tremendous movement advantage, can make subsequent moves, and has a command range of 20 base widths from the general.

New DBA Armies

The last few months I've been painting up some troops for new DBA armies that I can use. About 15 years ago, I planned to paint a Patrician Roman army for DBM. I purchased some Old Glory 25mm Frankish warriors & Gothic & Lombard Cavalry for the Foederati and only got around to painting one bag of Frank warriors. That was the last time I painted a 25mm figure. After DBA 3.0 came out, I re-evaluated what I owned, and found I could paint a very nice double sized Frankish army for DBA with the figures I owned, and I had a good start on a Osto/Visigoth Army as well. So, after slowly figuring out how to paint again, here is what I now have so far...

This is my Frankish army, enough to do the Quadi, Alamanni, Suevi, or other early Frankish types. I was able to get a few German figures to use as a Knight command element and javelin armed psiloi.

I also painted up a bag of Gothic archers, so I can not only use them as Goths, but also as Frankish Fast Bow and more Psiloi.

Above are Sarmatian Clibanari. They can be an ally of the Quadi, so they fit in with the Franks. Phil Barker says that fully armored cavalry and metal armor for Sarmatians were rare, so I painted the half armored cavalry with mostly lacquered horn armor.

Above are Gothic heavy cavalry.

Above are Lombard heavy cavalry, equipped very similarly to the Goths. The main difference is the Lombards have longer mail coats, leg armor, and longer hair & beards.

I still have to add flock/static grass to the bases on all of these. I will also add a bag of Gothic warband/spearmen to the mix. My friend Bob has a triple sized Hun army for DBA that he recently re-based from WAB. We hope to have some Franks/Goths vs Hun games in the near future. We can also do a BBDBA Hun vs Early Franks with an Ostrogoth ally.

HMGS Little Wars 2015

Your humble correspondent attended HMGS Midwest Little Wars 2015 in St. Charles IL. The convention seemed to have higher attendance and better quality games this year. I assisted Bill Hupp with his 54mm "The Original Game of Thrones: An Introduction to DBA" learning event.

 Above is the 54mm DBA event: English & French HYW armies.

Above are the 54mm Scots Common vs Feudal English armies. Some very cool miniatures.

 54mm Alamo game

Heavy fighting in the Scots vs English game. The English have lost 3 elements. Our gamers quickly learned the DBA rules and were playing with minimal reference to the charts by the third game.

More DBA action. 

A Wild West town, part of "Uncle" Duke Seifried's Wild West game.  

Another view. 

A homestead. 

The Mexican village from "Magnificent Seven"

Overview of Duke's game.  The game portrayed a Cowtown (Deadwood or whichever one is your favorite) and other scenics you'd expect to find in the West. Outlaws, Lawmen, Posses, Butch Cassidy and Friends with not very friendly Federales, Villistas, Banditos with the Villagers being helped by some tough gunfighters. The daily Stagecoach with its annoying robbers, Boot Hill, Gunfights, etc.

A new popular game: "All Quiet on the Martian Front" in 15mm. Complete with Tripods & Steam Tanks.

 Mike Beers' "Battle of Mockern 1813" game using the classic "Column, Line, & Square" rules in a 30mm Napoleonic game.

Above is a "Sight & Sounds from Little Wars 2015" video that I found on Youtube.