Final DBA Campaign Battles for the Sumerians

Played my last two DBA campaign games against Django and his Minoans (I/18). His superior number of chariots, littoral landing and generalship were no match for me, losing twice (4-1 and 5-1).

And that's another fun campaign, getting me to paint my Sumerians. Will probably be my last game for a while as I move house in the next month.

WWI Skirmish with Foch and more DBA Sumerians

The League of Ancients meeting was a week later than usual due to the Easter long weekend, and Jack G was keen to give Foch a try as we plan our post-WWI revolution games set in Eastern Europe.

Foch is a free adaptation by Pierre Aymeric for using Osprey’s The Men Who Would be Kings to game World War One (and is available here: https://lesperegrinationsdunainblanc.blogspot.com/2018/05/adaptation-tmwwbk-premiere-guerre.html).

Jack supplied both armies, where I commanded Austrians and Jack fielded a British force. As it was a training game, the units were smaller than the normal 12 (to accommodate Jack's collection) of around 9-10 men and we played around 24 points a side (the normal TMWWBK size) as opposed to the 36-48 points Foch recommends. I had three units of 9 men and an HMG, while Jack had troops with better morale, but an LMG instead of an HMG. I only remember what my leaders' traits were, two were Inspirational (may reroll failed rally rolls) and the third was a Terrible planner (limited ammunition supply). These definitely added a great flavour to the game without adding too much complexity.

Finally, the mission. To avoid a straight pitched battle, we decided to play the first scenario (Just Passing By). This forced us both to move and get me to learn the mechanics.

The game became a one-sided affair as I deployed my HMG in a commanding position on a hill and swarmed my infantry units forwards, concentrating fire when possible. Jack suffered for this (he also had a lot of unlucky morale rolls). I eventually wiped out his army.

I loved the game - was quick to pick up and I think will work for us as long as we have an HMG each and play with the minimum recommended army size of 36 points. The flavour of small-scale skirmish is definitely something that appealed to me. I also realised when I got home that a small 1914 Belgian collection I had in the lead pile was enough to field as 36 points, which was a nice bonus.

The afternoon saw more DBA games (round 4 of the GTA:Biblical campaign) with my Sumerians taking on Peter S's Philistines (I/29) in a practice game, Stephen C's Hittite Empire (I/24) and Damian P's Mitanni (I/19). I won against Stephen and lost to Damian, which meant my provinces didn't change hands.

I really need to finish off the rest of the army so I can photograph them up close. In particular I will also need to give the exposed flesh parts a brown wash - they are way too pale!

Little Wars Melbourne 2019 - Waterloo and Siege of Rhodes

Another year, and good to see another Little Wars Melbourne.

I was not really paying too much attention on what was being offered in the way of games (as they were being announced on the Facebook page):
https://www.facebook.com/events/kingston-arts-hall-985-nepean-highway-moorabbin/little-wars-melbourne-2019-9am-to-4pm/394294514710354/

So when I turned up in the morning I wandered the tables (lots of great looking terrain and miniatures) and the other sellers (including the second hand tables). I didn't take any photos and didn't buy anything, so this is just a report of the two games I played.

For the morning game I took part in Richard G's large Waterloo game using his recently published second edition of Field of Glory Napoleonic. There were a huge amount of miniatures on the table (a few thousand at least!) and I commanded a small Dutch Belgian contingent on the far left flank as a player who signed up before the day was running late. Not much action in the hour I played as units were shuffling into position (while trying to stay out of view and range of artillery). However I did get a few hits on the French infantry units facing me.

It was a game that went all day, and unsurprisingly the French had a really hard time from what I heard (could they ever win that rematch?).

The afternoon game saw me commanding the land forces of Demetrius on Ian H's lovely Siege of Rhodes (305–304 BC) table. He had designed and made all the card terrain, its visual appeal (and knowing nothing of the battle) immediately drew me to play.

We used Age of Hannibal, a rule set I hadn't used before. Was pretty easy to pick up and they flowed really nicely. Chee commanded the invading Macedonian fleet, while Ian and Dylan H were defending the city. The photos below are mainly from my side of the battle. I knew that I had to get to the walls as quickly as possible, as Dylan had artillery and archers that were from the beginning causing me issues. However, by concentrating fire, I was able to punch holes in the wall (I lost all my siege engines though!).

At this stage we called the game, as I had troops in the city and it was getting close to the end of the day.

Two great games, thanks Richard and Ian and all my opponents - what Little Wars is all about. Also a big shout out to the organisers (Nic and Mike) - appreciate all the effort that goes into getting this up and running each year.

Second Game of Baroque and Sumerians for DBA

After last month's game of Baroque I was keen for another game with Michael B. I looked at the beta lists online (available here: http://www.dadiepiombo.it/english-baroque.html) and decided I should just field what matched the flags of my generals - German Catholic (1618-32). Seeing the full range of lists has me interested in playing more games.

Combat was bloody (there was a visual "push of pike" of times) and I'm getting better at understanding how the different troop types interact. [Writing this a few months later I can't remember what the game's outcome was!]

The afternoon saw turn 3 games of Damian P's biblical DBA campaign. First game saw me win against Timur P's New Kingdom Egyptians (I/22b), but lost to Peter S's Philistines (I/29) .

I can't state enough how nice Eureka Miniature's Sumerian range is. I have plans to expand them out (with camel riding nomads) to an ADLG-size army.

Last Game I Played - Tupi Battle the Texcala and Cruel Seas

ADLG
Club day at the League and the morning game was 200 points of ADLG with my Tupi (#277) against Andrew's Texcalas (#273). I used the same army list as last month, using the tactic of trying to turn the flanks before charging in the middle. I made a few errors in match ups, but I was able to give Andrew a close enough game, breaking when he was only three units away from breaking himself. It was also amusing to see how poorly his Spanish ally contingent performed. I think the first three turns he rolled '1' for the activation die.

Cruel Seas
After lunch it was an introduction to Warlord Games' Cruel Seas with Mark and the collection he painted over the Christmas break. Lovely little models, full of detail.

The first game was Mark running an S-100 class Schnellboot against my two Vosper Type I MTBs. Setting up on opposite corners, my objective was to escape off the corner the Schnellboot started from.

It plays fast.

Mark took out one of my Vospers with the special "park 5cm next to me special and unload with all your weapons" (that I used to devastating effect in game two). It’s a powerful tactic as the target ship can’t easily strike back (having already activated, or if it hasn’t, it has to move before it can shoot). I wasn't able to take out the Schnellboot in the scenario's five turns, so lost.

The second game had me fielding Vospers Type IIs, upgraded with more weapons and damage capacity. This time I also had the use of torpedoes. They didn't fail me.

The scenario has the Germans escorting a tanker, which has 80 damage capacity so needs two torpedoes to take down. This really means three to four should hit if you take crew skill and duds in consideration (I haven’t done maths on this) to be sure it sinks (in addition to your ship's guns).

I was lucky that my guns and only one torpedo were enough, as the moment you pass the tanker your turning circles are a bitch. So you need (like X-Wing) to be careful in that first pass.

Finally, as the League's new home is an RSL club, the Queen's image is almost in every room. This is over the tea station the games room.

She seems like a happy warmonger. (She's German after all.)

Last Game I Played - ADLG Tournament Practice

Next month will be the League of Ancients' annual ADLG tournament again, this time limited to lists from the Ancient and Classical periods.

I tweaked my Scythian (#77) army from earlier in the year - basically the Saka option to represent Yuezhi cataphracts with a Mountain Indian ally. I swapped a lot of the light horse I had used for infantry bowmen to give myself a little more flexibility if there was terrain in the game (and also to push myself to paint the unused Nepalese bow elements I had for this army - original build as a Tibetan one, but easily morphable to other Central Asian options).

First game in the morning was against Michael and his Achaemenid Persian (#64). On my left flank I placed my Mountain Indian command opposite his infantry command (that included two units of Immortals), in the middle my infantry bowmen with cavalry and light horse support faced off mainly against heavy cavalry bow Persians, and on my right my cataphracts were opposite a bowmen and a mix of heavy cavalry and light horse command.

I was lucky with the shooting I received early in the game being ineffective, but in turn three I took a bit of a hammering - and it delayed my charge of the Mountain Indians.

But charge they eventually did (photo above is from just beforehand), hammering in and cutting open the lines (first time seeing the benefit of an elephant in ADLG). Meanwhile on the other flank I managed to use my most expensive units to chase light horse around the board. I wasn't thinking (again!).

Unsurprisingly I lost the game, but a few simple corrections in deployment and tactics could've seen a vast improvement in results.

In the afternoon I played against Tyler with his Cyrenian Greek (#58). His army seemed to be pretty much unchanged from the game earlier in the year. I deployed my Mountain Indian command opposite the terrain (off to the left in the photo below), with my cataphracts opposite two foot commands.

On my right flank I placed my archers and supporting mounted elements, slightly refused (but not enough as it turned out). There's also three unpainted elements in the back (the horror, the horror!).

Because these guys would come thundering in. Again.

I was able to shoot, retreat and shoot again a few times and take down two of the chariots, but my infantry bowmen suffered rightly for being in the open. They got crushed under hoof and steel, with the remaining Greek chariots and elite horsemen mopping up the leftovers.

Meanwhile, back in the middle of the battle, there was a bit of chaos with my poor rules knowledge showed as I was flank charged a few times for particular set ups (slides and semi-exposed flanks).

However, my elephant did have success again and punched through the lines to cause cohesion drops on the Greek hoplites behind the main line.

But yet again, this was all not enough - I failed to keep my troops together; "look at all these little things! So busy now! Notice how each one is [not] useful. A lovely ballet ensues, so full of form and colour." The game was a lot closer as I had a plan (charge with the cataphracts and elephant), although the cataphracts all got destroyed (as Tyler divided them up to deal with each one in turn).

A few tweaks to the list is needed, but nothing major. The elephant and supporting medium spearmen were good performers, the infantry bowmen were just poorly utilised. Let's see what next month brings.