In the absence of SWMBO

One of our group (Steve) was left the run of the house for a day or two, so we all went round to play DBA for the day. We had no particular theme, except Steve has been recycling his late 1970s 25mm Minifigs and odds and ends into DBA armies, and Chris K has been doing something similar. So I grabbed some bases from my heavy weight armies and put together Later French Ordononnce (IV/82b)and Late Medieval Germans (IV 13d) to add to the fun. And also some of my 20mm plastics too. Which are probably close to 25mm in some cases.

My first game pitted me against Chris K. I took the Late Medieval Germans, and Chris the French. If you've ever wondered how terrifying it is, facing me across a wargames table, then this picture should make it clear. I've played earlier period IV/13's before in 15mm, but this is the first time I've used the landsknecht heavy army.

I was defending, and tried to get as wide as I could. Initially I covered the artillery with my General, should it get overrun.

Chris' artillery was more effective than mine, and held up my advance by disrupting my line. My gun couldn't hit the proverbial agricultural building entrance, and was destroyed by French Pikemen (7Hd, which is a bit of a cruel classification sometimes). I'd been forced to send my General out wide to stop the French Stradiots flanking the cavalry on the end of my line. Fighting Light Horse can be frustrating. However, I did flank Chris' Cv unit that was on the inside of the Stradiots and kill them. The score is 1:1 at this point. Chris is playing silly devils with his 3Kn General to protect the flank of his pikes without being forced to engage.

Chris decidedly has the upper hand now, and has killed one of my 3Kn units (NB the knights on the left are 6Kn, not double banked). However, I've forced his General to contact my Pikes. 

The PIPs aren't kind to Chris and his units are a bit stranded. I'm therefore able in this turn to kill the Stradiots, on account of having an overlap, and also succeed in taking down his General, ending up a 5:2 victor.

Tim then turned up and took on Phil, and Steve tagged me out. Chris swapped the armies to play the Germans, and got a win with the French.

After some lunch Steve took us down to see the new Memorial that commemorates the location of Simpson Barracks:

Post lunch we cleared off the big metal figures, and Tim had to head off. I pulled out my 20mm plastics. Phil wanted to use his 15mm Vikings and Saxons as preparation for the Battle of Maldon SOA games day next year, so Chris took him on. Steve and I partook of my Hat plasitcs.

The pairing I put out were Feudal Spanish (III/35b), which Steve has in the distance, and Andalusians (III/34b). I reckon this is a tough match up for the Andalusians, as they have a lot of light stuff, and their heavy horse is weaker too. I was greatly helped by Steve cocking up his deployment, hiding his spears at the rear.

Even with that I still had a tough task, and put my hopes in overwhelming his Psiloi/Bows to get me three kills before the rest fell apart. The Andalusians could do with some actual missile troops, rather than just psiloi, and the crossbows facing my right were a real nuisance. A PIP famine on both sides slowed this game down quite a lot, but we eventually stumbled into contact.

Sure enough I was able to get my three kills, but where was the fourth to come from?

The answer was in the centre. The guys in the middle fighting the white triangular flag carriers are El Cid and his entourage. As I had a double overlap he was 3:4 against my cavalry, and I killed him on a 6:1 dice roll, doubling his total. That gave me a 5:0 win.

Meanwhile, next door, Maldon meandered on with much discussion and head scratching.

Steve and I swapped out the Feudal Spanish for Islamic Berber (III/75), which is the list that covers the Almoravids. Steve took the later, and despite being offered camels eschewed them for mercenary Christian knights.

Again we had a lot of low PIP rolls at the start of the game, which let me get the drop on Steve's light horse on his left.

I was even able to survive my Ghulam flanking force being contacted by Steve's General, recoiling back into line.

It all took a lot longer than the photo record implies, but I got a Psiloi kill on my left, before overlapping the Christian knights and killing them with my General. I was then able to flank Steve's General and kill him, which I think gave me a 5:1 win.

I packed up then and headed for home as I live on the other side of town, and the council are doing the best to cut off the village I live in by digging up as many roads as possible and I wanted to avoid the interminable wait at the several sets of temporary traffic lights. The remaining chaps were just setting up another encounter as I packed up the car.

All in all a very pleasant way to spend a damp, miserable autumn day, and great fun to get out some of the larger figures.