"DBA 3.0 X 4 AAR" Topic

My wife and I spent the weekend at our friends' country place. I brought along enough figures to make 3 DBA armies, Patrician Roman, Attila's Huns and Radagaesus' Gothic confederation. The last required enough stuff from Attila's army that both couldn't be on the table at the same time. It might also offend purists so I didn't take any photos. Also, I left my camera home. We played four games over the weekend. Bill commanded the Romans in all games. We played using the 3.0 rules as we understand them and the 2.2 lists. I really can't wait for 3.0 to be published.

The first game saw the Romans defend against Attila. Horse archers feinted at the Roman right and then lunged around the Roman left, killing a unit. All this high-speed fuss and feathers unnerved Bill. With a high pip roll, he moved his right flank auxilia off their steep hill and attacked the Gothic wing of my army. Auxilia vs. warband was pretty much a non-event, but one of his auxilia got trampled by my Gothic knights, who broke through and flanked another unit that died. In short order the game over 4-1 Huns. That would teach those effete city dwellers.

The next game saw a rematch between Huns and Romans. I made a major effort around Bill's left which stalled after killing one unit. It became a frontal shoving match that would go the first one with hot dice. My right flank light horse unit was killed and their enemy flanked the double ranked pair of light horse that was now my right. If Bill's dice broke right he would kill three units and win the game. My light horse drove his anemic attack back. More shoving back and forth and each side lost some more. Bill had another chance for a 4-3 win but his dice went cold again, finally I nailed a fourth unit of his and then game was Huns 4-3, just like I planned it.

The next day Bill continued wearing the purple and I decided to become a heretical Christian Goth, Radagaesus. I had some sort of plan which I now forget. In short order both armies were banging away at each other and the losses piled up. Then Bill threw his knight general into the fray, shoving my Gothic knights back. In the fashion of DBA knights, his general pushed deep into my army while his supports stalled. I had a spare light horse unit in reserve, more by accident than design. I flanked his general who went down swinging. I'd lost 3 units by this time. Bill was down 2, one being the general. It was a sudden death game. On the next turn he rolled a 3 for pips. With his general dead he could only make one move. A knight charged one of my knights. He rolled a mighty 6 and I managed only an anemic 1. The game went to the Romans 4-2(G), a squeaker.

The last game saw the Romans on the attack against Radagaesus. I put a small hamlet in the center of the board to break up the Roman attack and woods on my left flank. Bill formed an enormous column 2 units wide, auxilia in front, knights behind. A high pip roll on my first turn saw my Gothic knight cavalry shifting left to face the Roman foot. Bill now saw his error and began forming a line with his left in the town. Some low pip rolls slowed my re-deployment. Perhaps I should have charged with just three squadrons of horse. But my inner McClellan won out and my formation only went forward when it was nigh-perfect. By that time Bill had a neat line and had fallen back some. But he still had a line of auxilia facing a line of knights. But I now made a major mistake. On my right were 4 Gothic warbands, double-ranked. I sent them off their hill and headed towards the town in the center. Their flank was covered by a lone squadron of light horse. Bill's knights began to move behind the town to hit them in the flank. The light horse fell back.

My knights finally advanced on my left and promptly rode down one auxiliary unit. Bill responded by falling on the flank of two warbands and slew both. The light horse intervened and was slain. My knights continued destroying the auxiliaries. Bill's knights took out the other pair of warbands. An auxiliary unit came out of the hamlet and flanked a squadron of Gothic knights who were slain. The game was over Romans 6-3. It has been some 20 years since I lost that many units in DBA, that is, 50% losses. This has not stopped me from wanting to acquire and paint enough Gothic figures to put Radagaesus' army on the table without borrowing Attila's. Now all I have to do is finish the shields on my early Franks…

Lesson: do not use double ranked units unless their flanks are well-protected. When they get flanked, the support unit dies along with the lead one. You can get 4 units dead (or more) in no time.

Good reports.

Did you make use of light horse support with your Huns?

Cheers,

Great reports. I could almost picture the actions. A general is worth 2 elements lost, so "Bill was down 2, one being the general" If two elements including the general is down 3. Lucky for him his one move got you.

Nice to see people using a hamlet. This is a good alternative to a city as a BUA.

Good point about the flanking kills. A general leading a column of three, say blades, losing if flanked equals 4 kills in one combat!

Huns used light horse support sometimes.

My blades are mounted on 40 X 20mm stands so only 2 would die. I know that isn't standard but I find 20mm deep stands don't fall on my hills. If I ever take them to a tournament I'll act like they are 15mm deep.

The one thing that still irks me is the light horse quick kill vs. spears. I don't get it, and I like light horse armies.

The one thing that still irks me is the light horse quick kill vs. spears. I don't get it, and I like light horse armies.

Truthfully, LH should be able to QK any infantry. They are the pursuit arm after all!

The other thing that irks me is the way spear perform. Blades, Pike and Warbands all are impetuous now. Not so much with spears. The current spear model may work for dark age warfare but not for classical warfare, especially hoplites.

Thanks for the battle reports. Sounds like some fun games!

Yes, I have considered rating some Hoplites (some Spartans) as Bd. While I believe that many Hoplite battles would be represented well by Sp, there are certainly some factions that were impetuous (vs one another at least!)

I'm reading VDH's "A War Like No Other" now.

Joe Collins

What is it you do not like about the LH quick kill vs Spears? The fact that there is none?

Spears, Pikes or Blades Destroyed by Knights or Scythed Chariots if in good going or by Warband. If not, recoil.

Dang, it is gone! I thought it was still there! Well, since it's gone I like DBA 3.0 even better.

One problem I have had playing this is importing old versions of rules into my games. I have to keep playing until all the old notions are gone.

Very interesting!!! Sounds like a very enjoyable weekend.

Will be getting the nieces and nephew into some DBA 3 in the next day or so (finishing up some Parthians for another BBDBA force at the moment). So far have only played 2.2 with them. May have to shoot some pics and write them up.

Currently looking at having LIR, Han, Norman, Parthian (two Parthian with Scyth ally), and an allied Ostro/Gepid/Saxon forces available. 2.2 lists. Could be amusing.

P.S. Had hoped to make it to Tacticon in Denver last weekend and get the various 3 lists, but fate intervened. Ah well, hope they are out reasonably soon. If not, Genghiscon in Feb…