Before I get into the report I wanted to let you know that The Gallery link has been revamped with all new photos of my Marians and a Thracian gallery.
Sunday DBA Gaming at The Gamer’s Haven
Fresh from finishing up my new Thracian army I arrived Sunday to a good crowd at the Haven. It appears that we get about 6-10 guys showing up for games. After taking a look at the new armies people brought I found an opponent and settled in for a battle. First up was Carl Scheu’s Middle Imperial Romans. Not a historical enemy, but close enough. I was defender in all three of my games on Sunday.
Oh the ugliness! Why, oh why, did I put down a river? Just look at the troop placement–HORRIBLE! A classic case of how NOT to deploy your army. Philistine Jim came by later after hearing my cries of misery to ask the same question, my reply was: “Just for the heck of it.” Well that was a big mistake. As you can see in the picture above, the Romans gained the steep hill in the center, while my army spent much of the game trying to cross a difficult river. The next picture shows a little progression.
As you can tell, I simply could not get enough troops on the objective to do anything, plus it was uphill each time. At this point I was down 2 elements already. I lost the game 4-1. Aaarrgh!
Thracians vs. Polybian Roman
My next battle was against Carl Scheu Jr. A young lad of great DBA skills, a chip off the old block. Apparently, and sadly, I forgot to take any pictures of my hardest fought game of DBA ever. Carl Jr. also remarked that it was the best game of DBA he had ever played. Some noteable events: This game was over an hour; I took a camp with light horse for the first time ever; most of the battle took place in his backfield; Romans are very hard to kill! Carl really had me scared with some daring attacks on my General, and he pulled off some dice rolls that only a pre-teen can pull off. Kudos to Carl Jr. for a very challenging battle. I pulled out a win, 5-4.
The Grudge Match
The main event: Thracians vs. Alexandrian Macedonians. I built the Thracians as a enemy for Philistine Jim’s beautiful Mike’s Models Big Al build, so it was time to throw down! The picture below shows the action after the second bound. As you can see I lost the center hill again. Another uphill battle ensued.
As you can also see, even though I was slow, I decided to pour a lot of manpower on the hill. The first thing I decided was that I had to kill his Aux. and Psiloi elements on that hill. However, on the first couple of bounds, Jim easily repelled my attempts and managed to kill an element of Psiloi. Here’s a pic of the mid-game:
At this point, things were looking bad on the hill. After killing my Psiloi, his Psiloi closed the door on my Aux., who were fighting uphill. I got some lucky rolls though, and repulsed the attack, eventually killing them and taking the hill. On the right you see an element of Psiloi holding off supported Pike, and my right wing facing Cav. and Lh. On the left, my light horse attempts to delay the phalanx.
Above is a different angle. After sweeping his Ps. from the hill I forced his phalanx to break ranks and turn to face. After a few scraps, he recoiled into his back rank and both elements were destroyed. I can take no credit for that though, since I had to rely on Jim to help me with my tactical options. So ended the grudge match 4-1, Thracian win. But like I said, if Jim hadn’t been willing to offer advice, I’m sure it would have gone the other way. As always, I learn a lot when I play against Jim; he’s a good sport and has some really nice armies! Here are some various shots of the other action going on:
Philistine Jim measuring movement for his Etruscans.
Close up of the same match (Etruscans vs. Gauls).
Jim’s Alexandrian Imperial army facing Seleucids.
Patsy Romans vs. African Vandals
Last is a picture of my finished Elephant for my Early Successor Army.
