DBA 3.0. THE BATTLE OF FOUR ARMIES.

For our game two Thursdays ago, we went back to the future! Rick put on a couple of games of DBA 3.0, which we had both acquired last year. For the first game Rick's Late Imperial Romans took on my Sub Roman British (Artorious).

Starting deployment. From the British perspective.

Good dice rolling gives the British enough pips to make a huge advance across the field.

The Romans finally roll more than 2 and advance to contact.

With the Roman knights having a back and forth with the British cavalry, the battle lines clash, with inconclusive results

During an intense battle Artorious was killed. A history changing victory to the Romans.

My Late Pict army set up to take on Rick's Early Ostrogoths.

The Picts, being mainly fast spears, race across the battlefield. They are charged by the Ostrogoth knights.

The supported ranks of spears push back the knights, supported by the general's cavalry unit.

The Ostrogoths counter attack hits home. A general melee ensues with some Picts getting behind the Ostrogoth units and spears hitting the Ostrogothic battle line.

The decisive combats take place.

The fragile nature of the Pictish units is exposed as no less than  five are destroyed during combat, ending the game as an Ostrogothic win.

How did the game play? There are a lot of things that are similar to 'old' DBA. Where the game has changed is with the introduction of further subdivisions of the old unit descriptions. This allows units to be used historically. For example, in DBA 2.2, the Pict spears were just that, with no difference from any other spears. In DBA 3.0 they are classed as fast spears which allows them to move fast, but they are brittle, adding a hint of realism and another aspect to generalship.  You could say that the level of command has zoomed in one level.

No doubt there will be more to learn in the next game!

SAGA: SCOTS v ANGLO SAXONS.

Last week, Rick and I continued the SAGA theme for our Thursday game. I got another chance to try out my Scots and Rick tried the Anglo Saxons. We played the 'Escort' scenario. My Scots had three baggage elements and had to escort at least two of them off the other side of the table. The Anglo Saxons win by destroying them all. 

Early in the game, the Scots make progress across the table. 

Scot's eye view of the Anglo Saxons.

A wider view of the battlefield.

The Anglo Saxons counter attack. But one baggage element manages to escape down the right flank.

The Scot's Warlord and his bodyguard face a large unit of warriors.

The Scots come off second best at the farm, but the levies managed to reduce a unit of Hearthguard to half strength, through some good shooting.

My Scots were painted by South Of The Wall Miniatures. www.facebook.com/South-of-the-wall-miniatures-1625931510974164/?fref=ts

The Anglo Saxon's relentless advance surrounds the remaining Scots. The Fyrd have just repulsed a unit of Scots Spearmen.

I managed to get one lot of baggage off the table. The other two were lost. Victory to Rick’s Anglo Saxons.  As the baggage needed the same dice as a hearthguard to activate, this meant having to prioritise which units move. I made a mistake in having two baggage units together, allowing Rick to concentrate on his victory conditions.

The next scenario will be ‘Battle at the Ford’.

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SAGA: DON'T SPARE THE HORSES.

Last month, Neil was back in the country and wanted to try out his newly acquired Early Crusader army in a SAGA game. I wanted to try out my Scots army. 

We tried out a couple of scenarios: Sacred Ground and Homeland. The Early Crusader army used the Norman card, as we don't have access to Crescent and Cross. This was the first time that we had used an army with mounted units, so it was going to be a learning curve.

Early moves in the 'Sacred Ground' scenario. Norman horse race Scots levy to the stone circle.

The Scots Warlord moves forward. His Hearth-guard obey and follow him.

The Scots levy retire in the face of the Norman mounted onslaught.

Scots spearmen hold the sacred hill. The Normans hold the sacred wood.

Close up view of the battle on the hill.

The Norman missile fire takes it toll of Scots spearmen on the hill prior to the cavalry charging. Top left, the Scots attack on the sacred wood goes in.

The Scots push the Normans out of the wood.

The game ended as a win to the Scots. They accumulated more points for holding objectives during the game.

The Normans head towards the Scots 'Homeland'

A unit of Scots spearmen await the Normans.

Norman bow and crossbow fire causes heavy casualties. The survivors seek cover.

The Normans ride in the front gate to finalise their victory.

Not having played the game for a while, it soon became apparent that there were things we had forgotten. Careful re-reading of the rules allowed me to find a few things that we hadn't realised before, An enjoyable days's gaming. More SAGA soon, methinks.

PELELIU: A RE-RUN.

We re-played the Peleliu scenario from Combat Commander Pacific the Thursday after our games day (see previous post). I played the Japanese defenders and Rick took the US Marines.

Initial set up. I set up to take advantage of the enfilade special rule.

The US Marines surge forward under the cover of smoke from mortars and WP grenades.

Despite taking casualties, the marines manage to get round the back of the Japanese positions. While the forward bunkers are assaulted. The Japanese respond with  mortar fire on the supporting 50 Cal.

In the end, the US manage to take all the objectives and win the game.

This game moved quicker as the rules were still in our head and we were familiar with the scenario. Despite early success in causing casualties on the Marines, a lack of fire cards and Rick keeping my forward bunkers busy, my defences were overwhelmed. It shows we can finish a scenario in a night. It may need us to play a block of games to keep us familiar with the game. Maybe next year!

A DAY OF GAMES.

A few Saturdays ago, we had one of our infrequent games days. This is an opportunity to play games that take too long for a evening.

I put on a game of Combat Commander Pacific. We have played a few scenarios on Thursdays and found that we were not finishing them or not playing fully committed so as to finish. We had no time pressure for this scenario. The scenario was Peleliu and saw my US Marines having to take a Japanese held cave system by main force.

Starting positions. Marines in the jungle, Japanese in the safety of the hills, with their sighting marker in the jungle.

Early in the game. The first objective taken by the US. On the right the US try to move forward under cover of smoke from the mortars. In the centre, the US 50 cal thought it had broken a moving Japanese unit, only for Rick to play a 'pillbox' action card, adding 5 to the cover.

Poor manoeuvring on my part and use of  one of the scenario special rules, enfilade, which allowed all Japanese troops able to fire as one activation by giving up the initiative, cost me my flank attackers. A big blow to my hopes of attacking.

It did allow me to use naval support, also by giving up the initiative. This had little effect and the game petered out as a firefight between my 50 cal and the pillbox. Even this ended in failure when I used sustained fire, rolled  a double to break the 50 cal. Rick then managed to trigger an event that broke any weapon of his choice. Guess what he picked? The final ignominy was Rick getting reinforcements through another event, which he used to retake the last objective. Big win to the Japanese.

After lunch, we moved to Rick's and had a couple of games in our continuing Warfighter.

The first game saw us having to take out a VIP sitdown. Success in the previous game had allowed us to get more equipment and squad members.

The four members of our squad make a river approach, which cuts down the number of bad guys.

Rick's squad member.

Rick's character.

The trail is more exposed and we encounter baddies. This is the final opponent from three original units.

We double back on ourselves and cross the same river as earlier. A quick recon before we decide how we attack.

A combination of long range rocket launchers and close range explosives expertise ensures that we get the job done in the final available move!

The success brought me more skills and equipment.

Our second mission of the day saw us having to take down a cartel boss. 

Landing in rugged terrain, we quickly attracted attention.

Despite causing casualties, more of the boss' guards attacked.

The more we put down, the more were attracted to the sound of the guns.

The Boss surrounds himself with expendables.

The combat is getting hot.

More enemy keep arriving. We lose a squad member (he is medivaced). We push on to the target. The mission is all!

A combination of weapons takes down the boss and we complete the scenario.

All in all this was a good day. A break from routine and other distractions. We decided to test whether we could do the Combat Commander Pacific scenario on a week night. We set up the scenario till just before deployment and left it for the next Thursday game. See a future post for the result.