DBA Punic Wars.

[has.been]

Vodkafan came round for the rematch(es).
The games took a similar set up.
Games 1 & 2 had same terrain, but just a change of ends for the players at half time.
Games 3 & 4 was similar.

Game 1. James was Carthage, commander = Hannibal Barcode
             While I was Roman, commander = Scipio Bushkangeroo.
James' plan he told me later was to stay on the hill & tempt me to come to him.

5493 = Carthaginians on the hill.
5494 = Triari & Velites prepare to cross the river.
5495 = The Roman army crosses what turns out to be a paltry river (Ankle deep  )
5496 & 7 = To tempt me closer James sent out his elephant
5498 = The Balearic slingers start, what turns out to be an epic
            struggle with twice their number of Roman Velites. They
            constantly gave ground, but NEVER did the Romans defeat them.
5499 = Roman Legion advances
5500 = But Hannibal is unmoved on the hill.

[has.been]

5501 = Unsupported the Elephant is in danger of being swamped by Romans.
5502 & 3 = Hannibal acts. Off the hill come the Punic heavy cavalry, the Gallic
                  Horde, Mounted & on foot. Now supported the Elephant breaks through.
5504 = Fighting hard the Legionaries bring Dumbo down. 'Elephant burgers tonight lads!'
5505 = Hannibal is pushed back & the Gallic Cavalry are cut down.
5506 = But Scipio is not without his own problems. He fights his way clear.
5507 = It breaks down to several separate fights, but Rome is triumphant!

Game 1 is a victory for Rome. On to game 2.

[has.been]

Game 1 had been a narrow win for me, but could I do better as
the Carthaginians in game 2 

5508,9,10 = Romans (James this time) prepare to cross the River.
                    Again it turns out to be 'paltry' (no obstacle)
5511,12,13 = I copy James' plan from game 1 & sit on the hill.
                     I decide to NOT send my precious elephant out
                     as a decoy.

So far we are both following a similar pattern to game 1.

[has.been]

5514,15,16 = Mighty Roman force crosses the river.
                     I send my Numidians out wide on my left flank. James
                     thinks I intend to worry his Cavalry (General included).
                     He has, however, forgotten that I can do extra moves with the light Cav.
                     Before he knows it I am well behind his right wing Cav. His next mistake
                     is thinking I'm after his base camp.
5517 = My aim is to isolate his cavalry & take on one on its own. It works
5518 = Scipio runs for the protection of the Legion.
5519 = Having given the Roman commander a fright I decide to press home my advantage.
            I advance with everything.  Helped by some horrendous Roman movement dice,
            I am able to smash into their isolated formations, while the slingers slip through
            to his base camp. A lucky set of dice scores ends with Carthaginian troops looting
            the Roman base camp. Victory!

Game 2 = another win for me, though to be fair I as lucky with several key melees.

On to game 3

[has.been]

Battle No. 3
James chooses something resembling Teutoburger Wald!
No doubt a Roman attempt to stop Hannibal BEFORE he
crosses the Alps. In the forests of southern Gaul.
Carthage (James in game 3) is on the left.
Romans (me in game 3) deploy on the right.
5520 = Overview of the terrain
5522 = Hannibal leads the Heavy Inf. down the road towards the Romans.
5523 = The rest of his army advance through the woods.
5524 & 25 = Romans also advance. Woods, woods & yet more woods!!!!!
5527 & 28 = Romans break out into some open terrain.

[has.been]

5528 = Scipio sees Hannibal & gives chase.
5529 = More Romans joint the hunt.
5530 = The gathering storm. The crucial fight will be between
            and midst the woods.
5531 = Terrifyingly the Elephant crashes through the trees.
            Shouting their barbaric war cries the Gauls carve into the Triarii.
            I forgot that they are at a greater disadvantage in woods than Warband.
            Several bases are swallowed up in this fight. It is looking bad for me.
5532 = But where is James' general? I hear you ask.  Not for the first time he
            is too close to my army.  I am close to charging in & pushing him back
            against his own disorganized Celtic line. He throws a ONE for manoeuvre,
            the gods be praised!
5533 = Then he brings forward his Spanish Auxillia to the
            edge of the wood & Hannibal is safe. Curses!
5534 = Overconfident he now moves his Spanish against MY general (Scipio). BUT...
            to do so they have left the safety of the woods. It proves to be the turning
            point. I snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

The score now is 3:0 to me, but James is getting closer to winning.
Now onto game 4

[has.been]

Game 4
5535 = My Carthaginians make use of the plentiful cover.
5536 = Hannibal leading the centre forward towards the Latins
5537 = On my left I send forwards the Numidian light cavalry. I hope
            that the memory of what they did in game 2 will prey on James' nerves.
5538 = Legionaries on the road
5539 = Legionaries in the woods. Roman movement as greatly hampered by Scipio
            choosing to deploy himself, with all the Roman Cavalry, on the extreme right flank.
            Messengers obviously kept getting lost in the woods. His Velites & most of the
            Legionaries took little or no part in the fighting.
5540 = Carthaginian right wing advanced.
5541 = As does the centre. Hannibal being close enough to maintain control.
5542 = Scipio advances his cavalry in an effort to remove the threat from my Numidians.
            It does however open him up to being attacked by Hannibal & my cavalry which I
            move over to that wing. Outnumbered 2:1 Romans fall back, then just ...fall!
             In the centre the Gauls repeat their Pac-man impression that they had done
             so well for James. This is enough to give me a win.
4:0 to me, but it could SO easily been 3:1 to James. He is getting too good with this
pair of armies. It is time to raise a few more DBA armies. So, if any of you out there
have some tatty old odd (25mm ill do) Ancient figures that you want to chuck out,
well feel free to chuck them to us. Any figures we can't use will be donated to the
School club I help out with. They'll have fun painting them up, probably as Orcs or
other D&D stuff.

[has.been]

Just to say we both had a fun time.
James will hopefully add his pictures & comments soon.

[has.been]

I am thinking of going back to my roots & first army,
Early Imperial Roman. This time though not Airfix,
but some of my file-box full of Citadel. I fell in love
with them as they had shields to their front. Enough
to please any Centurion  .
As to opposition, a LOT to choose from, but I have never
had an Early Germanic army. I think James' choice of
Teutoberger Wald terrain has got me thinking.

[vodkafan]

Quick note to say that this time I made sure to take lots of photos and most of them turned out. I will be putting them up in a few hours time.

[vodkafan]

Bit late but here are my pics and account of the battles:
Game 1:
Carthage under the command of Hannibal Barcode are strung out in a line on a hill overlooking a wide flat plain. You can see it much better in Peter's first photo but here I am:


The Romans approach :

The river is shallow and no obstacle to his foot troops:


 I get loads of high die rolls at this point in the game but most of the command pips go wasted. I have no intention of coming off the hill. I send my elephant forward unsupported to tease my opponent :

 The elephant marches up and down the road. I feint with my Numidian Light Horse on my right flank and dangle my slingers in front of him on my left flank :


Finally he takes the bait and goes after my slingers:

He runs them down but even with a 2:1 advantage he never wins the combats over several turns, the Carthagian slingers just keep falling back.
Eventually my elephant lends a hand

and then my Gallic Warband rush down off the hill:

I have been less successful on my right flank. Although I split off the Roman cavalry he refused to commit them so I pulled back my Light Horse.

Still, the time has come to commit myself in the centre. Hannibal Barcode orders a cavalry charge down the hill at the thin Roman line and  I throw everything in. The shock and noise of battle is terrible to behold.

The bloody melee lasts for two turns. The elephant squashes a stand of Romans and then turns to assist the warband, who put to the sword another stand of legionaries. First blood to Carthage!

BUT the Roman line holds against the cavalry, who are thrown back. The Romans feed in replacements.
The elephant is isolated and killed.
I send the cavalry in again:

But the Roman line will not break 
 At the beginning of the game I had command points to spare, now I don't have enough; I bring the Carthage heavy infantry off the hill, a little too late.

Cagey Scipio Africanus chooses this moment to attack with his own cavalry, and I have to split off some auxiliaries to deal with him:

You can see that one stand of my Light Horse is already gone, but I throw everything in a last ditch attempt to kill the Roman commander.
Unfortunately I fail.
Meanwhile in the centre, bloody hell! Half my cavalry has gone! It's times up for Hannibal Barcode I'm afraid...





 

[vodkafan]

Game 2: As is our usual practice, we switch sides and play the same scenario. So now I am the Romans. I admit here that I felt overconfident in Roman invincibility and didn't have a proper plan.
Here are the pesky upstart Carthaginians sitting on the hill just as I did:

Just look at them! So naughty.


These two shots show my lazy deployment.
My campsite by the ford with the bulk of my legionaries about to cross:

Some more legionaries, my skirmishers who are not in a position to do anything much, and my general with his cavalry right out on his own on the flank...

Half my legionaries cross the ford and march in a column up the road. It is a fine sunny day in Northern Italy. Very pleasant for a walk.

a die roll declares the river turns out to be knee deep again like in the first game. I push across with half my legionaries and the cavalry scouting ahead. We will take the battle to Hannibal!

My general feels everything is going extraordinarily well. Wait what?  Danger Will Robinson!! Before I realise what is happening the Numidian Light Horse have sped past me and are at the river bank!

What is he going to do? Is he after my base camp? There is NOTHING to stop him!
Oh no wait. That's what he is going to do. He wheels around and attacks my cavalry from behind!

Half the Roman cavalry are chopped down. My general flees to the safety of the foot troops.

The Carthaginian army is coming down off the hill in a great wave

And the Carthaginian slingers have sneaked right up on the Roman base camp as soon as the troops have gone. They take it easily.

The Roman army starts to deploy but all is confusion. I don't like the look of that elephant. I don't like the look of any of it. And where is the general going again?

Turn to your front! Get ready! Mamma Mia!



Carthage smashes as one entity into the single Roman line. But the Roman line is too thin!

The hapless Roman general attempts to form a second line

But he is attacked again by the Numidians and all is lost. A disaster!

[has.been]

Thanks James, always interesting to see things from the opposition viewpoint,
but what happened to the pictures of battles 3 & 4 ? Lost in the woods?

[vodkafan]

GAME 3: My turn to lay out the terrain for a new scenario. I decided I wanted a flat medium dense forest with a single road running through it. No rivers or hills. I guess we are just over the alps into Northern Italy and I am Carthage again.

I tell Peter that although I will try my best to win, I also want a fun game so there will be an elephant rampaging through the woods.
Here is a poor picture of my initial set up. The woods did dictate where we could deploy certain troop types right from the off. It will be easier to see what is what in following pics.

here is a crow's eye view of the Roman end.

The bulk of his infantry stays on the road, but sensibly he pushes out a small vanguard ahead of the main body and his Auxilia find a path through the wood.
My  Numidian light horse, the  Gallic warband and elephant at the start line with my cavalry and heavy infantry on the road in the distance: You can actually spot a single Roman at the extreme left hand side!

Off they go, the Gauls and elephant into the woods and the Numidians off to see what mischief they can do on the outskirts.

I am not too worried about what my opponent's skirmishers might do, they are far away on the other side of the woods

But, where are the Roman cavalry?
Ah there they are. They have gone around the flank and they spot Hannibal at the head of his troops on the road

They advance but don't attack though, as I have moved my auxiliaries to the edge of the woods.
By now the main Roman forces have made a fast march up the road and through the woods (quicker than I expected) and I line up across the road with my heavy infantry. Hannibal is not in a good place, he has nowhere to retreat to where he is. It was a mistake putting him in front of the infantry. 

The bulk of the Legion is steaming up the road and eager to fight!

But they don't realise the ambush is set. The Gauls are in position.

The wild tribesmen jump out and chew through a base of Romans like they were soft toffee. They are heavily engaged. But behind them in a separate battle Romans attack Hannibal's cavalry.

 Another view from the woods. The appalled Romans recoil in horror from the ferocious Gauls.

And now look what's coming from behind the Romans

The pachyderm bursts out of the woods in dramatic fashion and wreaks havoc

The Light Horse are close behind but fail to do anything...

...because the game is lost in the other battle.
With one half of my cavalry dragged from their horses and killed by Roman Auxilia, I throw in my own foot auxiliaries to try to protect Hannibal. I lose another base and the game is over. 

[vodkafan]

Game 4 coming soon!