Giant DBA, Marian Romans vs Gauls

Last Saturday we played Giant DBA 3.0 at Ralph Nuti's house in St. Charles IL. Present for the game were Mike Beers, Ron Jaffe, & Bob Pavlik (Gauls) vs Ken Kaergard, Ralph Nuti, and yours truly as the Romans. The Gauls had 7 commands of 12 or more elements, while the Romans had 6 commands. Several commands on both sides had 15 or more elements. We raised the command demoralization point in Big Battle DBA to 50% for this game. A paltry river ran down the middle of the board and was the only terrain feature. The table was 12' x 5.'

The Romans are deployed for battle. Many of the figures are from Ralph's collection of 28mm Warlord plastic figures.

The Gauls prepare to cross the stream to engage the Romans.

Both armies closing the gap.

Ken & Mike's forces engage first on the Roman right flank.

The "quick kill" of the warbands against the Roman blades and mutual pursuit is having it's effect of breaking up the battle line.

A view from the Roman left flank. The forces are engaging all along the line. Spanish ally cavalry is in the foreground for the Romans, countering the Gaul cavalry.

The Gauls commanded by Mike are breaking through Ken's Romans on the right flank.

Fighting all along the line. The Gauls & Spanish cavalry mix it up indecisively.

One of Ken's Roman commands has broken and is delaying the Gauls with the remaining survivors.

Ron's Gauls and Ralph's Romans having a desperate fight in the middle.

The cavalry fight was a draw, but the Roman left flank commands have broken, ending the game. Roman die rolls in this game generally left a-lot to be desired.

The game was played to a decisive conclusion in less than 3 hours. The guys not familiar with the changes in 3.0 had to get used to blades pursuing, fast troops recoiling from solid troops on ties, the rear support warband element not automatically dying with the front rank element, and the vulnerability of the Romans in general in 3.0. In 2.2, the Romans could have rear support, fighting as a nearly impenetrable wall at +6 with no pursuit requirement. The Gauls would bash against them at +4, and generally die at a much faster rate. Now, the Romans in 3.0 will need to have better tactics than just lining up, involving and making better use of their cavalry & auxiliaries to beat the Gauls.

It is interesting to compare this game with a BBDBA Roman vs Gaul game we did last year:
http://splendidlittlewars.blogspot.com/2015/03/big-battle-dba-30-romans-vs-gauls.html