DBA to BI

I was fortunate to be gifted a Welsh DBA Army as a bonus to some recent purchases I had made from the estate of a recently deceased gamer (amongst many other interests and achievements that I know he had in life).  While I had met him once or twice, I didn't really know him, but through some of his friends who I do know, I am very happy to have some of his figures in my collection.

While I like DBA, I haven't played for years and don't see myself playing again when I can play Basic Impetus to much the same effect.  The figures were based on thin cardboard that had badly warped and so they needed rebasing and that was what I did.  Very happy how they have come up and looking forward to using them in Tony's memory.  They will be joining other Dark Age troops that I have, but haven't quiet got around to organising yet.

All I've done is rebase them

and pose them around this lovely bit of terrain.

Thebans attack the Athenians - Six by Six conclusion.

Daughter against father.

In order to complete my Six by Six challenge I had to cash in my Father's Day present, that being that my daughter would play a game with me.  Maybe I should have picked something engrossing like War Between the States or at least Ligny, but no, it had to be DBA. 

I took my old Tin Soldier Hellenistic figures to make two armies, keeping things simple.  Daughter got off to a good start when she asked me if I painted them.  I said yes.  She said she was very impressed.  Hurray, maybe the army will live on after I'm gone.

 The opponent with her helper, Ulysses.

Yes he's a dog, but Gods do those disguise things.

Rather boring linear set up, but DBA 3.0 gives a lot more control over terrain - or not.   

If I recall correctly DBA 2 terrain set up was a bit less restrictive.

 We are closing in, 

employing the modesty blurring for the naked fanatics (Auxilia - Galatians hired by Athens).

 Contact.

The Theban God(dess) giving her troops the victory sign.

 The Gods are meant to look on, not lick on.  Whatever...

I won.

Daughter is claiming the new dice cup is actually a teleport device to transport her camp to safety.

And so finishes 2017 and the Six by Six challenge.  Phew, that was close.  

Nice finish as I started the challenge with a Supplementary Six by Six game of X-Files with my daughter (post).  

I had stretch goals (unrelated to Mark Woods):

• Hordes of the Things (will count this as a win if I create an army)
• Faustus Furius
• Anything John Carter Warlord of Mars related
• Napoleonic Naval (including Galleys and Galleons)

HotT was almost a win.  Could of done the chariots...  Sigh, John Carter.  But I think I did get in some Napoleonic Naval.

I even set myself some Honourable Mentions:

• Fire and Fury
• Blitzkrieg Commander
• Crossfire

I achieved all three.

But the highlight of the year was none of these, it was playing War Between The States.  Thanks Simon!

Big thanks to Kaptain Kobold for running the Six by Six.  Wouldn't have happened without him.

Other Hoplites vs Other Hoplites

Last night Stephen indulged my desire to complete my Six by Six quest by soundly beating one of my Hoplite armies with another of my Hoplite armies.  At least one of my armies won, to quote Mark Woods from our Tuesday game.

 Stephen has the red Hoplites in the distance.

I have some Gauls heroically acting as peltasts.

 Can't focus on everything.

 Thracians.

The twisted wrist of the Tin Soldier peltast clearly visible in this shot.

 Twice I almost had the enemy general.

 But things were not going well.

I ended up four down to nil.

We used DBA 3.0 which I'm still coming to terms with.  Not that excuses the woeful performance of one of my armies.

Byzantines take on Sassanids in DBA 3

Desperately trying to complete my Six by Six challenge, Mark B helped me out by fielding his Sassanids. I used my Dark Ages troops and some of my Burgundians to mock up a Byzantine army to take them on. 

 I was the defender (on the left).

 I got a six on the first turn and so decided to shuffle everything around.

At least this meant all the ploughed fields weren't bad going.

 The Sassanids didn't wait will I redeployed and got stuck straight in.

Their attacked wiped out two of my cavalry units.

 But with the next turn I got his elephants, 

although I did lose the unit of blades that had got stuck into the elephants' flank.

Last turn, my knights had success, 

but I lost a unit of Psilo and Light Horse so it was all over (5:2).

My main body of infantry never got to close with the rag tag Sassanid foot (we didn't have the right elements and had to use hordes as Ax and Ps as Bw.)

I'm still transitioning to DBA 3, but we had a quick game which was what was important.

Adeunt Romani tecto

Well I cheated and rather than convert some Airfix figures, I bought the HAT Roman artillery set which also had the light infantry I needed.  I know realise I have Airfix Early Imperial Romans mixed with HAT late Republicans.  My excuse is I was too focussed on constructing an opponent for my Ancient Britons.

 Light infantry, psiloi or skirmishers.

 Not sure of the wisdom of the headdress.

The poses are decent.

 A bit smaller than I imagined, but true to scale.

The base dwarfs the model.

 Ready, aim, fire!

or, as the Romans might say:

"Parantibus tenditque ignis"

Thanks Google Translate

I had these guys sitting around and decided to paint them.

 I rather like them.  Unusually for me I had based them first.

 I also cheated when it camp to the camp.

This is a paper model from: 

http://papermau.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/tents-from-roman-campaign-by-papermau.html

I have plans to make a palisade for it, one day.

My whole 1/72nd scale Roman army.  

It is just meant for DBA, but if I was to get some more figures purchased/painted I could do a Basic Impetus army... NO!  I mustn't go there!

One nice thing about this latest addition is that my daughter picked up the HAT figures from Tactics for me when she was in the city recently.  She didn't have to do it, just texted if I needed anything.

Romans

I am now nearing the end of my quest to field a Roman Army to fight my Ancient Britons.  These 12 figures complete all the legionnaires I need for a Marian Roman Army, only issue is they have the wrong shield shape.  I'm not so concerned about that as they also double up for the Early Imperial Roman Army.  More importantly I wanted to use the Airfix Roman figures as is (even though I've repositioned the shields).

To finish the Marian army I need two stands of light infantry.  Figures have been selected and conversion is about to commence.

For the Early Imperial army, the same psiloi are required, and to do the full list some auxilia (but I'm thinking of just using the archers I have painted and based, although I do have a more auxilia type figures identified for conversion); a warband, but have to be careful if I just use the Ancient Briton figures; a light horse stand, which I have, but may not be perfect; and an artillery base, which might be fun to scratchbuild, but might be more sensible to buy (or at least look to see if the option exists).

Plus I need two camps. 

Then I will be ready for DBA in 20mm or 1/72nd scale.

Athenians versus Thessalians

Just time for a DBA 3.0 game last night.  Stephen took some of my Greeks to make an Athenian army and I took some to make a Thessalian army.

I was the defender and went for some nice ploughed fields.  

My first PIP roll of a one meant those fields were rough terrain.

Action quickly developed on my right.

And on my left.

It was a bit back and forth

As the main battle line of the Athenians started to close,

my forces on the flanks started to make progress.

And when the clash of spears commenced,

although pushed back, the Thessalian line held.

The Athenian wings had however crumpled.

This was only my third DBA 3.0 game and I'm still coming to grips with them.  Some of my rule adjudications possibly reverted to DBA 2.2 due to the excitement of this simple, little but very elegant game.

My First Game of DBA 3.0

I'd been hesitant to move to the new DBA rules, but with a bit of encouragement from Kaptain Kobold and a handy acquisition of the rules, I thought it was time to give them a go.

Mark B took the Thebans and attacked my Athenians.  I'd gone for two classic armies in order to keep things simple (and historic in case James F is watching).

My camera decided to switch to manual rather than automatic.

Luckily I realised with the first shot of the deployment.

I like the coast line, road, wood and marsh. 

Sheep may safely graze...

Perhaps disturbed by the stomp of feet and the blowing of trumpets.

Having pushed my light horse out on my right, 

I find it overwhelmed by the Theban cavalry.

My cavalry in the red cloaks are ready to protect the flank,

preventing any Theban encroachment round the marsh.

The battle lines approach.

The Thebans have thrown their Thracian auxiliaries forward.

This should be an easy victory for the Athenians,

but it was not to be.

However it had caused a shift as DBA still requires elements to line up.

The Thebans now attack.

On the threatened right flank the Athenians lose another unit.

I am now two down...

The view from the Theban side.

The Thebans have the advantage.

The tide turns.  

The Athenian refused flank holds off the enemy (while I check the rules about flank attacks).

More importantly my cavalry have beaten their opponent.

The Thebans decide to attack the refused flank.

And get themselves in trouble.

The fighting is intense in the centre.

It was around this time that the Theban commander complained about the dice 

(he'd rolled four ones in a row).  

I did admit he was using my cursed Burgundian dice and agreed to swap.

The dice come good for me and I kill some of the Theban psiloi on my left.

And after some toing and froing my general kills a fourth Theban unit,

securing victory.

Thebans repelled!

I am glad to see that not much had changed from DBA 2.2 which I thought was adequate (especially if using 2.2+).  The "closing the door" tactic has been replaced with stricter conditions on flank attacks.  The spear flank support is new as is the psiloi not suffering from overlap.  These worked well giving both troop types more resilience.

I like the BW movement.  Terrain set up and deployment is simpler and satisfactory.

All in all a positive experience.  It helps to win.