Helping out on a training run

The other four of our regular group are going to play in the Punic Wars themed DBA doubles event later in the year. I have a prior commitment, so can't attend, but I'm happy to help where I can when they want to practice. We were at Phil's, so I put together some matching armies from my 20mm collection in case he couldn't find his stuff. As it was he was sorting the figures out when I got there, so we only had to clear some tablespace.

Phil had paired by Polybian Romans* (II/33)  and Numidians (II/40) to take on Gauls (II/11) and Germans (II/47b). For game one Chris paired up with Tim (Numidians & Romans respectively) and me with Steve (Germans and Gauls respectively). We were attacking. Steve is on the right in the above picture, facing Tim. I'm on the left facing Chris.

As we were attacking I was able to put some psiloi over near Chris' elephant. I was concerned with my left flank. I had double ranked the warbands, which was probably unnecessary given there were only a couple of Numidian elements that they got the bonus against. Steve double ranked too, wise when facing spears/blades. I was less sure about what he intended with his mounted wing. I hoped to keep my flank from being encircled by the Numidian LH by putting my cavalry on that flank. Of course if I hadn't double ranked that would have been less of a problem.

Chris had some PIP issues, rolling the odd 2 and 1, making it tough to move with the elephant. As he wanted to hang around on the hill with his light horse he didn't move much. In my view was he should have spent the PIPs on moving the LH out wide. As it was I was able to pick my fights, and in short order had killed a Cavalry element, plus two Solid Auxilia and a Psiloi, thanks to getting the right match ups and then rolling good dice.. As we were playing modified BBDBA victory conditions, we carried on. I should note here that Steve and Tim were struggling to get to grips with each other, due to the enclosure ion the left of Tim's line, and some poor PIP rolls for both of them.

On the other flank Steve and Tim seemed stuck in treacle. Steve was losing out in the battle of the flank guards on the right. 

 Although I'd won my flank against Chris we were playing on. My army was now getting squeezed at both ends, as the Numidian cavalry started to work the flanks, and Tim's right hand elements fell on my now open flank as Steve hadn't been able to bring up his infantry line together with mine.

Steve finally charged home with the warbands on his end, and pulled his chariots back to form a flank guard on his right.

Aided by Tim's poor dice rolling Steve's warbands punched a big hole in Tim's line. I'd finished off the spearmen that had attacked me, so Tim was five elements down to Steve's two. 

At my end of the line Chris' fight back had killed three of my elements, but I had him eight down by then, so that was game over by anybody's standards.

Anyhow, you play to the end of the turn. I managed to kill the elephant, that had been more hindrance than help to Chris, and Steve was on his way to ransacking the camp. When I killed another of Chris' LH, that was 10 down. Not a great day for the Numidians.

Chris had to duck out home at that point, so Phil took his place for the second game and we swapped armies. I got the Numidians, Steve the Romans. Phil had the Germans and Tim the Gauls.

We were defending this time, which was twice in a row for the army combo. I put my LH out wide and then hoped to get lucky with the elephant. Steve formed a battleline of Roman legionaries, and consolidated his cavalry on the flank. He then went straight at the warbands. Because that worked so well in the last game.

His cavalry was soon getting roughed up.

Soon it was all gone. Whoops.

I've got ahead of Steve's legionaries in the centre, but I have the elephant in a good place. I've lost a LH element on the left, but my General is rushing across to help out.

I've lost three elements by now, so not good. I can't get the elephant into contact. I need Steve to come up and take the pressure off.

I've got the German cavalry in a bind, but we rolled a couple of draws, which was annoying.

Still can't get any traction in the centre of my line. Steve and Tim still haven't got to grips properly.

Things have moved on. I've lost four elements (b*mm*r) but I've killed two or three along the way. Steve and Tim are at blows, and Steve is on the wrong end of the damage.

It was all over next turn.

Two decisive wins for the Warband combos, but we did better in the second game with the Roman/Numidian army than Chris and Tim did in the first. We didn't have the same level of luck as we did in the first game, but I think that I made a better fist of the Numidians than Chris did regardless, as I'd seen what they could and couldn't do. Still didn't get it right, however. The warbands are an issue for the blade/spear heavy army. With so many combats in a doubles game the warbands are going to get lucky at some point, and the lack of width didn't seem to be as big a problem as it should have been. Mind you, I think we gave them some quick kills on Psiloi and Auxilia, which was wrong too.

I don't know what I'd do with the Romans and Numidians to fix the issues they had in this pair of games. Not being able to get even close to win at an army that just comes straight at you isn't good enough. Phil kept saying "The triarii are your reserve", but I think that was because that suited what he wanted to do as an opponent perhaps. Slow moving infantry reserves aren't a winner in DBA in my book. It isn't my problem for the tournament, but if the four of them are taking these combos then they need to sit down and have a proper conversation about how to use them. Phil once (or maybe twice) wisely said something like in a game where you're building out of an army list for competition purposes you need to know exactly why you are choosing each element or unit, and what you intend to use it for. It's clear in this set of games that most of us don't, except for Phil, most likely (seeing as they're his toys). I don't know that I'd change the selection too much. For the Numidians the alternatives are to swap the Elephant for Psiloi (not going to happen in an army that already has four of them) and the 4Ax for 4Bd, Ps or LH. Based on that game having something NOT quick killed by Warband looked like a good choice, although I'd normally be tempted by the 4Bd (in the revised version DBA (F) you may recall I mentioned in an earlier post that 4Ax are now quick killed by Warbands. As a group we don't approve of that idea, so I'd be 4Bd under DBA (F)). For the Romans I'd take the 2 x 3Ax/4Ax for 4Bd option if I knew I was facing warband, plus generally they give more mobility to protect the flanks. Phil said that if the tournament rules allowed he'd take Numidian allies for the Romans to pick up light horse and cavalry.

But it's not a decision I have to make, and like I implied above, Phil needs to decide whether or not to tell his regular opponents why his armies are configured the way they are.

* I hate this description. They're Republican Romans.