Battle of Flodden, Sept 9, 1513

A few weeks ago, six of us played using a variant of the Big Battle DBA rules for a re-fight of the Battle of Flodden. My friend Bob has the figures for this battle, and we also used his modifications of the DBA rules. Modifications included:

• Allowing the English artillery to fire in the enemy bound because many of the English artillerymen were sailors experienced at naval gunnery.
• Penalizing archery due to the rain.
• Scottish Highlanders were treated as 3Wb, with a 3Bw ability to shoot.
• Adjusted the break point for commands and winning the battle to 50%.

The historic battle was fought on Sept. 9, 1513 between the English & the Scots. You can read more about the historical battle here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Flodden 

Above: A map of the battle.

Below are a series of photos of our game:

The initial deployment for the battle. The English are on a low ridge at the right in the photo, the Scots on the left.

Another view of the initial deployment. The ground cloth we are using is called "Teddy Bear Fur," which really makes the miniature battlefield look like grassland.

A photo from behind the English right flank & the Howard's command, as the Scots begin their advance.

A close-up of King James's command group.

A close-up of the Earl of Surrey's command.

A close-up of the Lord Admiral's command, with Baron Dacre's horse in reserve.

Lord Home's Scots advancing on the Howard's.

  Errol's Scots (right) advancing on the Admiral's forces.

Lord Stanley's force appears on the far left English flank. Baron Dacre's cavalry has moved across the stream ahead of them to threaten the Scot's right flank.

A view of the developing battle. The fenced area is a dice box.

Errol's & the Admiral's troops outflanking each other.

Errol's & the Admiral's troops turning/facing in a new direction as the rest of the Scots try to close. The square walled area is another dice box.

An overview of the previous picture.

The remains of Howard's command.

The Admiral's command has broken while the Scots close on the Earl of Surrey.

Baron Dacre & the Stanley's have not closed fast enough with the Scottish right to effect the battle.

A win for the Scots this time around.

Caesar Invades Britain (Again), a DBA 3.0 AAR

My friend Bob & I got together & played DBA 3.0 with double sized armies of Ancient British vs Marian Romans. Bob recently obtained more British chariots and was eager to see them used. We used the Big Battle DBA (BBDBA) rules, modified by using only 2 commands per side instead of 3, on a 6' x 4' board.

The battle was set up to somewhat mimic Caesar's first invasion, with the British hanging back from the coast at a distance, following &  watching the Romans land before approaching for battle. The Roman force was assumed to be following along the coast in ships, landing on a random location where the White Cliffs of Dover were no longer an obstacle to getting ashore. As happened historically, the Roman cavalry would not be able to land with the main force, but landed in a random location in a random number of turns later. In 2 previous games, the British won both using standard 12 element DBA, so the Romans were trying to get revenge.

One special rule we used was that British light chariots could dismount during the game as warbands (3Wb). However, the British never used this option during the game. Another special rule was that the Roman player could decide which pip dice to assign to each command after rolling each bound, to reflect Caesar's command ability. The British had to roll a separate die for each command and use whatever the score was for that command each turn.

The order of battle for both sides is shown below:

Ancient British (List # II/53)

2 x Commands each composed of the following:

1 x General in chariot (LCh)
3 x LCh (British chariots)
2 x LH (Light Horse)
6 x 3Wb (Fast Warbands)

The British army is fast moving, and has troops that can go toe to toe with the Romans, and has an advantage in the number of mounted troops.

Marian Roman (List # II/49)

2 x Commands each composed of the following:

1 x General on foot (4Bd)

2 x Cavalry (3Cv)

1 x Psiloi (Ps)

1 x fast Thracian Mercenary Auxilia (3Ax)

2 x solid Greek Theurophori Auxilia (4Ax)

5 x Legionaries (4Bd)

For the Romans in this game, we avoided using Roman troop types that would not have been used in Britain, such as elephants, Asiatic Horse archers, etc.

Below is the British deployment. The battlefield had a ridge on the Britain's entry edge, while the battlefield side edges had rough terrain.

The Roman entry side was divided into 6 x 1' numbered "entry zones." The Romans rolled a '4' and entered zone 4 as shown.

A close up of the Roman foot. The Roman cavalry would land randomly and enter at a zone to be determined on a later turn.

The Romans hang back to deploy their force.

On turn 5, the Roman cavalry arrives at entry zone 2, separated from the main body, while the Britain's advance.

The Romans have mostly deployed while the Britain's close.

The Britain's charge on the Roman far right flank....

British chariots & the CinC (red bordered shield) charge the Mercenary theurophori.

British warbands charge in the center.

Panorama of the battle.

More chariots & Romans in close combat.

The warband breaks through the Roman line.

The Romans kill one chariot, but the Britains are attacking Caesar's blade element with a double corner overlap. Caesar has to fight them off using his CinC +1.

Another panorama of the battle. The Roman right flank command is demoralized, while the British right flank command is also demoralized.

Caesar's last moments as his command is demoralized and he runs out of the CinC bonus.

It was a close contest with both sides having a demoralized command. The Britain's claim another victory and are now 3-0 vs the Romans. You can read about the previous British victories here and here.

Giant DBA Sabis Redux

I haven't updated this blog in awhile. This past February, we redid our previous Battle of Sabis (or Sambre) using Giant DBA 3.0. Our previous attempt was documented here. The latest battle was a complete success. Some of the changes were:

1. The board was changed and the battle was fought across the narrow side of the board. This put the Gauls closer to the Romans, and also meant the Roman reinforcements would arrive closer to the battlefield.

2. The Roman cavalry and light infantry was divided among it's parent commands instead of being a separate command. It was also given the first move, so it could attempt to escape from the Gallic horde.

3. The Roman reinforcement command arrived by turn 4.

The situation at the start of the battle. The Roman cavalry & lights see the Gauls charging towards them out of the woods.

The Nervi (Gaul) commander and his young trainee surveying the action, mid game.

                                                The view looking towards the opposite flank.

The Roman reinforcements arrive and start to counter the strong Nervi left wing (see top-center).

The Nervi approaching the Roman line.

The lines clash.

The Nervi right never really closed, while the center and left did most of the fighting.

The game ended a Roman victory when the two center Nervi commands broke. We ran this game at 2017 Little Wars in April, with the Nervi getting revenge on the Romans.

Chalons 451 AD: A BBDBA AAR:

In January, we tried a 28mm Big Battle DBA scenario of Chalons 451 AD. Chalons is a difficult battle to reproduce because of the varying accounts & orders of battle available. For our purposes, we leaned towards Simon MacDowell's account in the Osprey book: "Catalaunian Fields AD 451" as it is based on more recent scholarship. However, we respect those who have differing opinions about the battle.

For our order of battle, we used six 12 element DBA 3.0 armies from the DBA rulebook as modified below:

Patrician Romans (Aetius): List II/82a

Alans (Singiban): List II/58. Note: we replaced Alan 3Kn with Cv to represent their hesitancy at the battle.

Later Visigoths (Theodoric, Thorismund): List II/83a

Huns (Attila): List II/80a

Gepids & Thuringians (Ardaric): List II/71. Note: we replaced 2 x Ps with Thuringian 4Wb, which were present at the battle.

Ostrogoths, Heruls, & Rugians (Widimir): List II/67b. Note: We replaced 4 x Ps with Rugian & Frankish 4Wb, which were present at the battle.

Demoralization:

For our game, the BBDBA demoralization rules were modified as follows: A command that loses 6 elements is demoralized. All surviving elements suffer a permanent -1 to their combat die. Only individual element or "hold" group moves may be made. Elements/groups not assigned pips will rout (flee towards their base table edge). 

Victory Conditions:

The first side to have 2 commands become demoralized and have lost more elements than the enemy has lost the battle. 

Personal Victory Conditions:

To add a little spice to the game, we used personal or player victory conditions (which were adapted from Simon MacDowall's Legio Wargames website ): 

Attila wins if he is still alive, the Huns win, and no more than ¼ actual Huns are casualties.

Adaric wins if he is still alive, the Huns win or draw, and more Huns than Gepids are casualties.

Walamir wins if the Huns win or draw and the Ostrogoths inflict more casualties on their opponents than the Gepids did on theirs.

Aetius wins if he is still alive, the Romans win, and the Visigoths have more casualties than the Romans

Theodoric wins if the Romans win or draw and no more than ¼ of the Visigoths are casualties.

Sangiban wins if he is still alive, the Romans win or draw, and none of his heavy cavalry are casualties.

It is quite possible for more than one player to win. Note that Theodoric, and Walamir do not have to survive to win. In fact, a heroic death could even be considered to contribute to victory. Attila, Aetius, and Adaric, however, have future plans that requires their continued existence and Sangiban was not that heroic.

See photos of our battle below.

Deployment:

Note: Terrain pieces were for aesthetic purposes only, having no effect for movement or combat. Exceptions were the Marne River (top of photo) which was un-crossable, and a large hill (just seen lower right).

The Visigoths:

The Alans:

The Romans:

Note: We used Marian Roman & Gaul cavalry for the Romans, as our Late Roman cavalry is still under construction.

The Ostrogoths:

The Huns:

The Gepids:

The battle opens, the Alans (upper-center) move forwards! (very unhistorical)

The Alans engage the Huns (center) while Roman & Gepid horse engage (lower right).

After drawing the Alans towards them, the Huns begin enveloping them (left-center). The Romans and Gepids have each taken casualties, but the Romans are pressing the Gepids from the position. 

 Third turn, the Alans are getting the worst of the dice and the Huns slowly begin to envelop them (center). Ostrogoths and Visigoths continue to close (below).

The Romans & Gepids have each taken casualties in the fight.

Fourth turn, the Huns are completing the envelopment of the Alans.

Fifth turn, the Gepids have held their ground and blunted the Roman attack. The Alans have been destroyed by the Huns, and the Goth armies have engaged.

Sixth turn, the Gepids press the advantage and begin to mop up the Romans, the Huns send half their troops to assist against each enemy flank army, while the Ostrogoths and Visigoths slug it out.

Final turn, while the Ostrogoth horse struggles, their infantry performs well. The arrival of Huns on the remaining flank armies of the Roman side ensures their ultimate defeat.

The Hun side won the battle. Attila won his personal victory conditions while the rest of the players did not. The game moved smoothly and quickly, we played to a conclusion in slightly under two hours. One item of interest is that the Huns lost no elements at all. I think this will be a good convention game, even for players unfamiliar with DBA.