"ValleyCon 25mm DBMM, New Zealand" Topic

WE had a little local convention here over het last weekend, with a 25mm DBMM comp. Orginially we got 8 entries, but 1 person pulled out at het last minute, so 2 others decided it would suit them a bit better to play 1/2 a slot each.

so we ended up with 7 people playing 6 slots.

the armies were:

Nikephorians (me), Classical Indians, Spartans, Later Carthaginians, Medieval Irish, and Hittite/Horn of Africa sharing the last spot.

competition conditions were 450 pts, single list, 8' x 6' tables (2400x1800), DBMM Books 2 & 3, draft of Bk 1 if you wanted or else DBM Bks 1 & 4

Round 1 was a simple draw based on who had played who lately – most of use are locals – and the Indian player had said he wanted to play someone different – so he got the Spartan – who was from out of town.

My Rd 1 game was vs the Irish – right from the start I as in trouble – defending in Byzantium at 5pm on a lovely summer's day with the sun about to start setting right above my opponent's head in 3 turns (dazzle!) – I should have worn the sunnies I had with me!

I set up first & figured I needed to attack – I had 3 turns before dazzle set in for 3 turns, and after that would come a couple of dusk turns then night – with 5 turns of moonless night – so my expensive regular commands and mobile cavalry were going to be worth a lot less than I paid for them if it got that far!

So the cavalry, skutatoi & knights of 2 comands when hairing across the table straight at a massive wodge of Bd, Pk(I) and Ax, while the 3rd command tried to turn the enemy left flank – their right being anchored firmly on a large area of rocky ground filled with thousands of stick throwing peasants.

Turn 2 saw contact and much shooting – things went well for a while – the Skutatoi shot the Pk(I) to pieces but lost to the Bd, Cv(S) and Kn(X) double wedges scythed through Bd & Ax and the flank turning command cut through the light foot and horse opposite them.

But alas my own casualties mounted up – a Cv(S) here, another there in the infantry turns (usually 4:3 or 4:2 when I was overlapped), 4 of the 6 skutatoi DBE's.

The crunch came when Edward Bruce's Kn(O) kept refusing to be killed when flanked by Cv(S) 2 or 3 times – then killed them in return – the command with the skutatoi broke, carrying away the adjacent CinC's command which was already disheartened (but mostly ignoring it).

7-18 as I'd disheartened 2 commands, killed another Irish general from a non-disheartened command, and destroyed about 25% of the Irish ME's.

On reflection I probably didn't need to attack so quickly – the dazzle was worse than the loss of daylight would have been at night, and my flank attack did well so I should have worked harder on it.

Other morning results:
India beat Sparta 19-6
Africa beat Carthage 22-3

Game 2 was vs the Classical Indians – 12 El(S), 5 or 6 Cv(S) chariots, 3 Kn(I), a couple of handfulls of Bw(O) & associated Bd(I), some Cv(I) and a large contingent of Hd guarding the baggage.

Yet again I defended Byzantium (6-1'ed for the 2nd time in agression dicing for the day) and I put down some rocky ground and gentle hills.

I decided to short hook my infantry this time – thinking they'd do better coming in from a flank as his army would be pretty unmanouvreable.

the Indians weer kind to em tho – making a serious error at the start – advancing the Elephants of 2 commands a bit too far and allowing Lh to hit the ends of their lines
(he had 4 El in each command) – turning them – and then rolling 1's for both combats – 4 dead El's including 1 general was a good way to start!

But the rest of his troops were not too far behind, and there was no chance to repeat the attacks for a while.

But he'd advanced through a couple of gaps between RGo & other terrain, so was having a difficult time doing more than marking time – the Kn(I) proved ineffective at covering one flank against Lh operating in the RGo
- the Cv(S) were much better on the other on a gentle hill.

All in all it was a very awkward situation for the Indians – there were a few successes – but in the end the difficulty in defending the flanks of the advanced elephants proved too much – a few low PIPs here, a general stuck in combat there…I was able to flank them a few more times – even strike a general in the rear twice (he turned then killed
the 1st element!), and the Kn(I) were no match for Cv(S) when overlapped.

The infantry command never arrived & the game ended T7 – 22:3 as I had 1 disheartened command & had lost 10%.

Other afternoon results:
Hatti beat Ireland 22-3
Carthage and Sparta drew 13:12

Day 2 dawned bright and clear – the venue is located next to the local race course and Saturday had seen massive streams of punters passing, the sound of race calls, etc. Of course it was "Cup day" so 1/2 the massive stream of punters passing were persons of the female persuasion
dressed in their "Cup Day" best…..so it wasn't all bad by any means :D

But Sunday was not a race meeting, so a quieter neighbourhood beckoned….although the venue is over the road from Joint Forces HQ of the NZ military so we should perhaps see if we can get a tour of some war toys next time we use it.

So – on to game 3 vs the Hittites.

I'd been planning all night how to handle the Pk(F). His Kn would be a bit of a problem, but the rest of his army presented no great horrors – some Cv(S) chariots, some Wb, a handful each of Bw(I) & Bd(F), Cv(O), etc.

Terrain went down – a large wood protected the right/rear of the Hittite position, and a couple of large gentle hills were also just in front of their setup – good defensive terrain for the bad guys.

However I had bought "Guides" and "Flank attack" precisely for the situation where someone relied upon such terrain to protect a flank so sent my 3rd command on such a march, with the path through the wood being entirely along the Hittite base edge.

And it all went downhill from there!! :/

The Hittite player & I have known each other 30+ years….so of course he had an Auxilia ambush in the wood and my Lh was promptly mugged when it arrived on T2 – but it survived, and a dearth of PIPs on that flank for the
Syrian ally meant there was a standoff there until my command broke later in the game….

So my flank attack arrived (on a 5) on T2 – I had thought that all the Hittite cavalry-chariots were (O) – but alas the Syrian ally on this flank was all (S) – so not the easy target I had anticipated. My flank marching command was Cv(S) & Lh(S), and the flank was constrained by the wood and a vineyard on a gentle hill 4-5 element widths towards the
centre.

However my flank march attacked through the gap as the Skutatoi advanced on the hill so it wasn't too bad.

Elsewhere the Hittite Kn mainly found themselves facing thin air – a handful of Cv(S) to their front kept retiring (single element moves so they kept facing the enemy), and my Cv & Kn got stuck into 1 command of Pk(F).

The 2nd mistake I made was to attack with the Skutatoi uphill into the 2nd command of Pk(F) – an entirely unnecessary brain explosion. He was just in range from the bottom of the hill, but a recoil would have taken him out – so to save a PIP I advanced a full 160p rather than staying
out of his move. So unfortunately I got into a shoving match between the Pk(F) and Skutatoi, with him counting as uphill in my bound – ouch! :(

Things weren't going too badly tho – the Syrian ally threw poor PIPs a few times and was being attacked in front and flank so was under pressure, 1 command of Pk(F) was being slowly wiped out by Cv, and the 2nd was not actually killing me.

Then alas the flank march general got 6:2'ed by the Syrian general (with an overlap) – his command soon broke, and the Cv delaying the Hittite Kn got caught by the Cv(O) chariots – a chariot or 2 was killed, but 2 elements to 5 made it a bit of a struggle, and combined with other
casualties my 2nd command broke and the game with it.

10:15 loss (I'd killed 40% of the Hittites, broken 1 command of Pk(F) and disheartened the other)

Other morning results saw the Irish lose a tight fight to Sparta, and India beat Carthage (I've forgotten the scores :()

So round 4 – with only 6 people playing the last round was determined mainly by who hadn't played yet. I was in the middle of the pack and got the Spartans.

A fairly straightforward game – the Spartan hoplites were on a difficult hill on one flank and his base edge – a sensible setup against a mounted army of course! With his Perioiki (Irr Sp(O)) were out front of 2 commands (each with 8 Sp(O)), Spartiate columns behind, and a 3rd command of Spartiates supported by better trained Perioiki (Reg Sp(O)) in a long 2-deep line extending the front, and a
scattering of Ps & Cv between the 3 commands. A column of Thracian Peltasts were placed to advance onto the hill protecting his flank..

However he rolled rotten PIPs for the 2 commands with Irr Sp at the start & had to advance them, which put them well ahead of the Sp(S) (mainly because Ps got in the way of the later), and both groups were mobbed by the Byzantines – those facing the Skutatoi were wiped out before those facing the Cv/Kn next to them.

With 8 ME's donated fairly quickly from each of 2 commands it only took the loss of a couple of Sp(S) to break them – which took a bit longer but was never really in doubt.

25-0, and suddenly I was on 64 points.

The Hittite/horn of Africa combo had been leading at the start of the round, with 59, but Africa got cleaned up 0-25 by India to let me take the lead, while Carthage beat Ireland 22-3.

So the final results were:

1/ Nikephorian, 64 pts
2/ Hittite/Horn of Africa, 59 pts
3/ Classical Indian, 55 pts
4/ Later Carthaginian, 52 pts
5/ Spartan, 37 pts
6/ Medieval Irish, 33 pts

25mm DBMM is a bit of a minority sport around here these days, so it was good to get together for a bit of concentrated gaming for a change – pretty much everyone was playing better by the end than they were at the beginning, and our games mostly finished before those in the adjacent competitions too (apart from Bloodbowl & FoW who were playing 4 and 3 games/day respectively), which wasn't bad for a bunch of mainly inexperienced players.

there were a few strange rule queries…but mostly answered by "RTFM" – oddly enough the answers were actually in the book if it was consulted! :)

Get a blog Mike.

got one…gave it up :)

Does this mean I have to emigate to NZ to use my 25mm???

What a dilemna……..

Good reports – enjoyed the cut and thrust.

Ah yes – decisions, decisions :) Natcon is coming up at Easter – link

I do hear that there's a few DBMM players around Aus with 25mm armies…..perhaps you should see about organising an annual get-together to dust them off?

It only takes 1/2 a dozen to get something like that started & IMO it's why we still have a lot of 25mm ancients in NZ – some guys decided they wanted to keep using their 25mm armies during the great 15mm takeover in the 1980's, and organised a weekend of 25mm gaming (mainly ancients, but with other periods occasinally too) that's run every year since.

[Does this mean I have to emigate to NZ to use my 25mm???

What a dilemna……..]

Dilemma? Sounds like win-win to me. :-)
Thanks for good reports Aloysius.