Philing in with some DBA

Everyone else was away, so Phil and I played some DBA on his kitchen table. Phil has been tidying up and found a box of his matched armies. This pair was Nobades (II/55b) and Christian Nubian (III/12). The links take you to Phil's old blog which listed all of his DBA armies and how he'd assembled them. There were some bits of these two that were worse for wear, but they're still magnificent. These armies, I think, were chosen as they give the opportunity to field lots of camels in terrain suitable for them.

I took the Nubians and was defender. Chris K seems to have donated a set of cork boards to play on, which I heartily approve of, compared to the polystyrene tiles Phil normally favours. I wasn't sure how to play this, as I couldn't see where the win was going to come from. I knew Phil would have a plan for the use of his camels on the difficult terrain, so I pushed it as far to the edges as I could. The main thing I had which Phil didn't was light horse & light camels. I accordingly sent the light horse out on a wide flanking manoeuvre. I've tried this sort of thing before, normally to no avail.

I'd gone heavy on the frontline "horse" (some are camels) on my right, which Phil matched, as he had a slight advantage in numbers. I hoped to cover that by squeezing him on the table edge. The centre infantry were fairly matched. I had blades, he had spears, and we both had bows, although he had more. 

I made the mistake of putting my light camels in the centre behind the infantry, along with my general. The picture is at the end of my first move when I'm desperately shifting them to my right to shore things up.

My first plan on the left was to threaten his bow line to stop my chaps being shot up, but that is probably not wise. On the right I'd lucked out and killed one of Phil's camel elements (where the pink die is) in his turn, but I've lost my light camels in a tussle against his light horse. My general is hopefully stopping Phil turning my flank with his. He's another element up against me as well, having shot one of my archer bases.

Seeing the error of my ways on my left, I pull my light horse back and send them right round the back, top left. I'm using a lot of double moves with them, something I rarely get round to doing. I tried to do for Phil's light horse on my right with my general, but I'm bounced. I did kill another camel unit by flanking it, however, so it is 2:2 at the moment.

Shock! For the first time ever I SACKED A CAMP!!! 3:2 to me. I have taken the obelisk as a trophy.

Phil brings up his reserve line of cavalry to fill in for the ex-camels. His general and mine are now facing off. I have a +1 advantage as I'm knights v cavalry. 

Lots of elements bounce: no one dies. I have Phil's general on the table edge. My light horse wander around aimlessly, looking for something to do where they won't get killed.

Phil re-engages where he can, but is restricted by his PIP roll. His light horse have swung round to give his general an overlap.

I drove back Phil's general in the combat, and in my turn engaged all along the line, throwing my light horse into his rear.

There's lots of inconclusive fighting, but the key thing is I push back the general and he goes off the table edge. 5:2 win to me. Phew - it was a bit tense towards the end.

Next we swapped to some of my chaps. Phil took my Alans/Lezgins (II/58) and I took the Ilkhanids (IV/46). The Ilkhanids are perpetual losers, being mostly light horse with no real heavy hitters

I forgot to take a set up/first move picture. Phil was the defender this time.

This picture is several turns in. I'm trying to turn Phil's left, where we have a light horse v light horse match up - except I have more. And I've misjudged the gap, so I'm too wide to get through. And I got the line wrong, so I couldn't wheel without going off the table edge. Eventually there were enough PIPs around for me to break the impasse, and a messy melee broke out. I couldn't get what Phil was playing at. He's got 3 knight elements back there, and he's letting the light horse do the fighting.

In the centre/my left Phil has blades and light horse backed by his Knight general facing off against my two units of cavalry (one a general) and some knights, plus an isolated light horse element. Phil had set up a defile and blocked it, then came out in a curious way, with light horse in column behind his blades (?)

The right hand light horse melee never amounted to much, and no one got hurt. By dint of a bit of luck and some nifty manoeuvring I succeeded in killing the blades and light horse in the centre, and ran out a 4:0 winner. This gave the Ilkhanids their first ever victory, I think. Much celebration all round. Well, on my side of the table at least.

Finally we did Cilician Armenians (IV/2) against Georgians (III/71c). Phil chose the Cilicians, which I think was a wise move. The Georgians are a bit of a mixed bag. Phil was defending, and set up another defile, with a road running through it this time.

With Phil tight packed in the centre with difficult terrain everywhere I wasn't sure how I would unpack the position. As is evident from my deployment, I was thinking of a type of double envelopment.

Phil reacted to my deployment on the left by bringing his spears into line. I wasn't sure what he was aiming to do in the centre. I had my bowmen set up to disrupt his line before I charged it on the left. A lack of PIPs stalled my light horse flanking operation.

I got my light horse out of the range of Phil's bows, by sending the front rank off to the right, whilst I closed on them with my spears. Little did I know that Phil had a trick up his sleeve.

His knights double moved down the road, and hit my spears, killing one of them. This is legal if you are in column and on a road. What wasn't correct was that he pulled his rear unit off to overlap, which isn't allowed. He doubled me easily anyway, so it made no difference.

Oh no! PIP famine. I use one to try to kill one of Phil's archers with my remaining spears, but everything else is at a standstill.

The spears got bounced, then Phil's knights started to rough up my archers.

I have no photo of the end state, for some reason. I can't recall the details, but I lost quite soon after. [Edit: I checked with Phil the following week and he thinks it was a 4:2 to him]

Still, a very pleasant evening's gaming.