Slowing Down for the Holidays

Things are slowing down hobby wise for the holidays. However, my friend Bob & I were able to squeeze in a couple DBA games recently. Above shows our 15mm clash between Sulla's Marian Romans and Mithridates' Pontic army. Pontus won 2 games to 0.

The 2' x 2' mat we are using is one I received as a complimentary gift for playing in the 2016 Adepticon DBA Tournament. It is made by Gorgon Studios, and is made from material similar to computer mouse pads. It rolls up and has a carrying case. Of course, we could have just used the Christmas table cloth as our mat.

Bosworth: A Giant DBA 3.0 After Action Report

A few weeks ago we tried re-fighting Bosworth, a battle from the English War of the Roses. Bosworth was a critical battle in history as Richard III, of the Yorkist Plantagenete dynasty, was killed and his forces defeated by Henry Tudor. We used Giant DBA 3.0 rules, slightly modified.

Below shows the forces deployed. The forces of Richard are on the right, while Henry's are on the left. The involvement of Northumberland's command (lower right in the photo) and the Lord Stanleys command (Thomas & William, upper left in the photo) were via die roll. Richard rolled a "6" on turn one and Northumberland became involved immediately.

Below is a close-up of Richard's men. Note that the billmen (blades in DBA) are providing side support to the longbowmen.

Below is a close-up of Henry's forces, which include French Mercenary Pikemen. Our referee, scenario designer, and owner of these miniatures for the game, Mr. Bob, is in the background.

The Yorkist artillery park is below. The artillery exchange during the battle would become particularly deadly for the Yorkists.

Below, the Stanley's (Thomas & William) waiting to come into action. Or rather, waiting to see what the best course of action would be.

The battle begins below. Both sides advancing toward each other. Northumberland (lower right) is working his way around the marsh.

A close-up.

The approaches further developing. The Yorkists have already lost an artillery element in the mutual artillery duel.

A close-up of the Tudor right flank (left in photo).

Just as things looked promising for the Yorkists with Northumberland coming up on the flank, the Stanley's decide to intervene and arrive behind the Tudor right flank (center-left in photo).

The battle starts developing into a slugging match below, especially on the Yorkist left. Northumberland still hasn't made his presence felt. Only one Yorkist artillery element is left while the Tudors have lost all of theirs (with the exception of Stanley's). The French mercenary pikemen are taking loses in the center.

Below, the Yorkist left hits Stanley, while Northumberland is still lagging back (though moving at full BW's). 

Below shows the end of the game when our time limit was reached. The center was a confused melee. Northumberland finally hits Stanley on the Yorkist left, while on the right, the Yorkists were pressing forward to engage the Tudor left. The element losses for both sides were even at 14 per side at this point, so we called it a draw. A couple more turns would have brought a conclusion. For the game, we decided to use a total army break-point of 33%, instead of individual command break-points. Total elements per side were about 48.

Richard Plantagenete survived the battle. The scale of the figures are 28mm, many by Front Rank.

BBDBA: Early Germans vs Marian Romans

Recently, my friend Bob has been painting Early Germans for DBA and has over 36 elements, so we decided to have a game with them vs my Marian Romans (list II/49). For the game, I decided to have a Roman army that maximized auxilia (6 x 4Ax, 3 x 3Ax) and cavalry (6 x Cv), with a twist of having a battery of ballistae (3 x Art) for firing at massed warbands.

Above is a command of 10 German Warband elements, looking ready to rumble. They look like 1st century BC bikers. They are Wargames Foundry figures and are really cool looking.

Above, both armies deployed. I figured that the Romans would be the attackers and the Germans would get to place a lot of bad going terrain, but the Romans were the defenders, so the region was arable. Sulla decided that open terrain was better against warbands, choosing plough and gentle hills. The Romans deployed the maximum distance forward with a large central command of 18 elements: Blades plus the ballista "battery." On the right was a 9 element command of mostly cavalry with a few psiloi. On the left was a command of auxilia, fast (Thracians) & solid (Greek Theurophoros) mercenaries. The Germans deployed with a large 17 element command of warbands & psiloi on their right (with psiloi on top of the gentle hill), a 10 element warband command in the center, and a 9 element cavalry & psiloi command on their left.

The ballistae "battery" deployed for battle.

Above are the initial moves - the Germans moving forward all along the line. The Romans advanced the Thracian mercenaries on the left.

Above- In the upper background the cavalry of both sides comes into contact. On the Roman left, the Thracians have contacted the German psiloi and taken out one element, and the large 12 element group of German warband is turning towards the Roman auxilia. The ballistae have opened fire and taken out an  element of warband above the central plough.

Above - The cavalry combat on the Roman right. It didn't go well for the Romans.

Above - The Roman mercenary auxilia kept moving to face the Germans on the Roman left. A group of legionaries on the left of the ballistae have moved forward to support them. The large German warband group is maneuvering to charge. On the Roman right, potential disaster as the Roman cavalry command has broken and is now demoralized. This, however, wasn't as disasterous for the Romans as it seems. The Roman cavalry command was the "high die" command, allowing them to have almost enough pips every turn to hold in place. The German cavalry command was the "low die" command and rarely had enough pips to do much of anything for the remainder of the game.

Above - a close-up of the Greek auxilia mercenaries approaching. The Greeks do not receive a "bonus" for having 2 ranks...the second rank is simply a reserve in this case, along with their  attached blade general.

Above - a view from behind the central German command as they approach the main Roman line.

Above shows the end of the following turn, which was a disasterous one for the Germans. The combination of auxilia and blades slaughtered the large German warband command, which caused it to break. The Thracians killed most of the psiloi while the blades took out all the warband they faced. It helped that the die rolls were good. 

Above - The ballistae killed another warband in the central German command, so that command which started at 10 is now down to 8, or 2 elements away from breaking.

Above - The slaughter continues on the Roman left while the central German command engages the Roman legionaries to the right of the ballistae. Not much is happening on the Roman right, though Bob did get a pip to move a cavalry element up to support his warbands in the center. Dead Germans at the rear of the table. Also notice at the top of the photo that we used the Society of Ancients DBA 3 playsheet, which is very nice. You can get it as a free download in pdf format here: http://www.soa.org.uk/joomla/

Above - This shows the game as it ended. The Central German command broke with a loss of another 2 elements when the Romans closed the door on them. 

Above - a close-up of the fighting in the center showing where 2 elements of warband had been. Sulla claimed victory.

Above - a close-up of the auxilia fighting the demoralized German warband. "High die" kept the warbands around to tie up the auxilia.

Above - The remaining survivors of the Roman right flank command and the German cavalry, which never had enough pips to do much of anything.

When choosing the elements for the game, I wasn't sure how effective the ballistae would be. In this game, they got 2 kills out of 4 needed to demoralize one German command. I figured that they would get at least 2 shots in while the Germans approached with their 4Wb, but they got twice that many in this game.

1st Corps Hellenistic Thureophoros & Thorakitai

I just finished some 1st Corps 28mm Thureophoros & Thorakitai to fight alongside my Thracians in ADLG & DBA. I purchased the miniatures from Mark Severin at Scale Creep Miniatures, who gives good service. The figures were very nice, with little flash.

The Thureophoros are on the left, while the Thorakitai are on the right. The difference between them is that the Thorakitai are wearing mail shirts, while the Thureophoros are unarmored. I based the figures as 4Ax for DBA. They can also be used as Medium or Heavy Spearmen for ADLG. For ADLG, note that the rear rank have the long thrusting spears, while the front rank are throwing javelins, which I think pretty well shows how they fought historically.

All the figures with spears are cast with butt-spikes. The Thureophoros are slightly more animated than the Thorakitai, but I am pleased with both types. These troops were typically mercenaries found in late Hellenistic & Successor armies, but were also found in Late Republic Roman & Pontic armies.

Old Glory Thracians

I just finished painting a bag of 30 Old Glory 28mm Thracians. Now I have Thracian units for ADLG and enough elements for a Thracian DBA or BBDBA army where the Thracians were auxiliaries.

 I based them 3 to a base. In DBA, Thracians can be 3Ax or 4Ax. I decided to base them all on 3 figure bases and designate certain elements (the white theuros shields) as 4Ax when needed. The figures are nicely animated, some of Old Glory's better figures.

As you can see from behind, the Thracians have crescent shields of various designs, as well as ochre & white theuros shields.

Jutland Re-fight - The 100 Year Anniversary Game

12 guys got together over Friday & Saturday May 27-28 to re-live history and re-fight the greatest naval battle of World War 1, the Battle of Jutland in miniature. The game was held at a machine shop in Gilberts IL, and fought on three large tables set up in the loading dock area. 

The model scale was 1/2400, the rules used were General Quarters.

Above-The players

Below is a synopsis of the battle. Further down are many more photos.

Beatty and Battle-cruiser force chased German Battle-cruiser's south as per script. Less than expected damage was exchanged back and forth until near the furthest south, the Battle-cruiser New Zealand exploded. About that time the accumulated damage on the British Battle-cruiser's had impaired speed and function to the point Beatty had some real concerns about getting out as he turned north.

British cruisers further north contained the outnumbered German cruisers who where obliged to withdraw following the German Battle-cruisers. This limited German scouting range (which would have pushed the Grand Fleet's eventual entry further north).

At this juncture the High Seas Fleet put in its appearance to the south and Beatty went into flee mode--with some ships only making 9 knots.! The intact British fast Battleships supporting Beatty moved forward to cover his retreat. German torpedo boats made a run to hit Beatty but got fairly shellacked by secondary fire in full daylight, forcing them to withdraw.

As Beatty withdrew under the cover of his fast BB's, the German main body turned its vanguard west to line up shots against the British. I think this was the mistake that cost the Germans any chance of decisive victory (small though that may have been). With the British limping away the German main battle line could have overhauled them by steaming a parallel due north and over matched them with their massive firepower advantage. Instead the Germans only managed to engage Beatty with a small potion of their line and threw a kink into their battle line that delayed them getting north in a hurry.

The Germans eventually turned the line back north and then went defensive, maneuvering to the NE awaiting the approach of the Grand Fleet. The German scouting cruisers turned back north and tried to force their way past the British screen. In the tussle two British cruisers were sunk with one German left with a jammed rudder. The eventual appearance of British Battle-cruiser's and Battleships from the north forced the crippled German cruiser to scuttle. But the German scouting dash did succeed in pushing the British entry point back.

While the British Fast Battleships exchanged shots with the Germans at range, the Grand Fleet closed up in 6 columns. The Grand Fleet closed up to within 18,000 yards and formed a battle line facing SW. This matched the Germans who turned their entire fleet into a line facing SW as well. Both sides began slugging it out. A German pre-dreadnought in the rear of the their line suffered two magazine explosions from a single British ranging shot and exploded without a trace.

After a few turns of gunnery exchange we were left with 10-15 turns left till darkness (we had played about 40 turns). The Germans were pulling back to the south firing concentrated volleys, while the British were maybe three turns away from having all their capital ships in line and shooting at effective ranges. Here the game ended.

At the end of the game Germans may have been slightly up on points. But I have to believe that in the next ten turns before darkness the score would at least be evened out by British numbers. The German pre Dreadnoughts were particularly vulnerable at this stage. At nightfall the British would have been forced to pull back for fear of torpedo boat attacks.

Admiral Hipper's German Battle-cruiser squadron was particularly resilient throughout the battle. The Germans were able to repair most of the damage the British inflicted and was still going strong at the end without any losses. They fought off the British Battle-cruisers and then led the British Fast Battleships on a merry chase.

If we had played it out I think we would have seen a small British victory on points. If the Germans could have sunk more Battle-cruisers earlier on they might have easily had a win on points.

Above-The German High Seas Fleet making unusual maneuvers....who was responsible for that? Hmmm.  The ships are making coal smoke at high speed.

Above-Another view of the German fleet heading north.

Above-Part of Admiral Beatty's British Battle-cruiser Fleet.

Above-Beatty's Battle-cruiser Fleet, under heavy German fire, entering a squall. 

Above-The British ships speeding up, making smoke. Note shell splashes from German firing.

Above-The main body of the British Grand Fleet enters the fray.

Above-Seeing the approaching main body of the Grand Fleet, the German Fleet has executed a "Gefechtskehrtwendung" or "Battle Turn-Away." The fast battleships of Beatty's fleet are in the foreground, but destroyer smoke is preventing them from shooting.

Above-The height of the battle.

The British players celebrated the game with one of the traditions of the Royal Navy, rum. The Germans drank beer.

Thanks go especially to Mark Huml & Ed Harding for all their hard work in making this event possible.

DBA 3 Sumerians

Bob & I played a couple DBA 3 games this week with his cool 28mm Sumerian armies. These are the oldest armies in the DBA rules. Bob painted these figures years ago & this was their very first game. Both armies were identical. The armies consisted of pikes, auxilia, psiloi, and heavy chariots - actually, equine battle cars. Bob has enough unpainted figures to do other, mostly infantry Sumerian armies, and may be motivated after these games to finish them all. King Sargon (center photo below) looks perplexed.

Giant DBA: Battle of the Sabis (Sambre) 57 BC

We tried another Giant DBA scenario last Wednesday, the Battle of the Sabis (or Sambre), 57 BC. In this battle, Julius Caesar defeated the Gallic Belgae tribes. We recreated the battle for Giant DBA 3.0.

We used Caesar's commentaries and the Society of Ancients 2005 Sambre Battle Pack document as references for this game (available on the DBMM Yahoo Group website). The battlefield map was taken from Peter Sides' book "Ancient Historical Battles, Vol 2." Caesar had 8 legions in total. Six legions were deployed on a low hill near the Sabis River constructing a camp. The other 2 legions (raw troops) were far back, marching up towards the camp. The Romans sent a force of cavalry and light infantry across the river to scout. There was a large wooded hill on the other side of the river, where the Belgae were massing to attack. This was the setting for our game.

I converted the order of battle into Giant DBA format, and was as follows:

Roman Order of Battle

Command A: 7^th & 12^th Legions = 10 x 4Bd, 2 x Ps

Command B: 8^th & 11^th Legions = 10 x 4Bd

Command C: 9^th & 10^th Legions = 10 x 4Bd, 2 x Ps

Command D: 13^th & 14^th Legions = 10 x 4Bd, 2 x Cv, 1 x 3Ax, 2 x Ps

Command E: Scouting Force - 6 x Cv, 3 x 3Ax, 2 x Ps.

Belgae Order of Battle

Nervii Left Flank Command: 12 x Wb, 2 x Ps, 1 x Cv

Nervii Center Command: 12 x Wb, 2 x Ps, 1 x Cv

Nervii Right Command: 12 x Wb, 2 x Ps, 1 x Cv

Atrebates & Viromandui Right Flank Command: 12 x Wb, 2 x Ps, 1 x Cv

                                    

Above shows the battlefield. The Roman recon force is across the river. 3 Roman commands containing 6 legions are deployed below the central hill, each command deployed between a row of hedges. The camp on top of the hill is unfinished, and 4 out of 10 blade stands from each command are in and around the camp engaged in camp building and foraging. The 13th & 14th Legions were arriving on the far right table edge. This was the scene before the Belgae attacked.

                                   

Above left is another view of the table. Above right is the Scouting force.

                                   

Above left is the blue shielded 8th & 11th legions deployed between the hedges. The hedges only effected movement, reducing movement to 1 BW. Above right is the elite 9th & 10th legion. In our game, elite blades have the option of pursuing defeated foes instead of it being mandatory. We also determined that "quick kill" results only applied in the enemy bound, & elite blade recoiled instead when beaten, but not doubled by warband in it's own bound. 

                                   

Above left, the Belgae come screaming out of the woods towards the Roman scouts. Above right, the Belgae cross the Sabis and towards the Romans on the hill. We used a 50% command demoralization point in this game. However, the 13th & 14th legions and the Atrebates & Viromandui commands were raw or unenthusiastic troops whose break point was 33%.

                                  

Above left, the Roman scouts fall back across the Sabis and defend the bank (the Sabis didn't effect movement, but both sides could defend the bank at +1). Above right the far left Belgae command is approaching the red shielded legionaries. 

                                 

Above left, the Atrebates & Viromandui command set to cross the river. Above right, the Belgae approaching the blue shielded 8th & 11th Legions.

                                 

Above right, the red shieded Romans are in a desperate fight with the Belae. Above right, the blade stands in and near the camp were allowed to make tactical moves towards their commands without pip expenditures until they came within command distance of 8 BW. Apparently in real life, these troops had instructions to join up in the event of an attack. Also note the 13th & 14th Legions approaching in the rear.

                                

Above left, the Roman scouting force is being reduced by attrition. Above right, the 7th & 12th Legions were at the breaking point.

                                

Above left, the 9th & 10th Legions have moved up to support the scouts. Above right, the 8th & 11th Legions are now engaged in a desperate struggle.

                                

Above right, the 7th/12th Legion command has broken. Cavalry from the 13th/14th Legions has arrived to support. Above right, the scouts are still holding on, supported by the 9th/10th Legion.

                                

Above left, the battle line of the 8th/11th Legions is really broken up. Above right, the Romans are trying to hold the remnants of the 7th/12th legions.

                                

The 13th/14th Legions are deploying, but still too far away. Above right, the scouts suffer 50% casualties and the command breaks.

                                

Above left, the 8th/11th Legions command breaks. This ends the game. Above right, the remnants of the 7th/12th Legions, with the 13th/14th Legions just coming into view.

Above is the 13th/14th Legion, too little too late.

Historically, the Belgae left flank made it up to the Roman camp before it was thrown back. The Roman scouts escaped the Belgae onslaught, and the 9th/10th Legions drove the Belgae back across the Sabis and apparently reached the Belgae camp. The Belgae were destroyed.

The players were:

Belgae: Ron Jaffe, Bill Hupp, Andrew Kirby

Romans: Dave Benjamin, Bob Pavlik, Sylvain Durand.

We will tweek some things when we run this game again, but overall it seemed to work Ok.

Overall, the players enjoyed the game. Time elapsed was 3 hours.