Had an excellent game of Normans vs Anglo-Danish yesterday using DBA III. This was in 15mm on a two foot board. We did not do this game with standard terrain placement, but played on a beautiful historical representation made by my opponent, Charlie Z. See the battlefield below. Charlie has his troops based on terrain matching the battlefield, but these are mine so the effect is lost.
We tried to do the game as historically as possible, with the Anglo-Danes on the hill and the Normans arriving at an angle approaching the hill.
The Anglo-Danes were lined up from right to left along the top of the hill:
Solid Horde, Solid Horde, Solid Blade, Spear, Spear, Solid Blade(gen), Spear, Solid Blade, Spear, and two Solid Hordes. A Ps was behind to line to fill in where needed.
The Normans arrived, from right to left, 2 Breton Cav, Kn, Kn(gen), Fast Cb, 2 Fast Bw. 2 Kn. Behind the Bw and Cb were 3 dismounted Kn as Solid Blade.
Harold kept his troops on the hill as the Normans approached the base of the hill. Once there, the Bows, being outside the Zone of Control, concentrated shots on one Spear and with a 6 to 1 volley eliminated it.
In DBA III, Bows have a firing priority of shooting at an enemy in their Zone of Control, shooting at element shooting at them, shooting at any other target. The Fast Bows move 3 Base Widths and shoot 3 BW so it would seem they can shoot from a long way off, but no Bows can shoot if they have moved more than 1 BW.
The only way for the Anglo Danish to prevent continued shooting was to come down off the hill and attack the Bows and the rest of the Norman line. Which they did. They lost their up-hill advantage but kept the Side Support Factor.
Spears add +1 vs foot, if in side contact with Solid Blades or other Spears (all Spears are solid).
Read the outcome of this battle here, towards the bottom:
TMP link
begins his series on how to paint a 15mm DBA army well, in a reasonable time frame.
