Sunday 31 July 2016

Initiation passed!

So I passed the initiation on Friday night, so I am now part of the elite Friday night gaming club of Nick, Andrew, Paul, Ian and sometimes Lee ;-)

All I had to do was ring the doorbell at least twice before realising it wasn't working!

On entering, the guys had set-up a 28mm game of DBA for me to join in on. Also joining the group was another chap called Brent.

I would be on the side of the pagans.... namely a combined force of Celts and Brit's (also lead by Ian & Nick). Facing us would be a horde of Roman's (lead by Andrew, Paul & Brent).

As I have never played DBA before, this post will be brief and, sorry, I have no idea of the force make-up /points etc.

They looked nice though :-)





With battle lines ready, the advance began. Six pips were a good start for my warband, but I didn't see too many 6's after this!



The Roman left flank / Celt right flank advanced quite quickly. The opposite, much slower whilst the centre (Brent & I) slowly advanced due to poor dice rolls and having no idea what was going on!

Still, I'd been advised that this was a good trick.... (and I wanted the hill)


The Psiloi unit position meant the Roman siege weapon could only fire at the Psiloi, which meant my warband was safe for now. Apparently the Psiloi also has a good chance of destroying war machines, but unfortunately numerous attempts failed (failed to beat Brent's rolls!).

Further clashes on Celt/Brit right was resulting in a number of their forces being destroyed. Our left was slowly getting closer (thanks to the Celts/Brits advancing)...



As was I...


More carnage on the right....


The left finally clash....


My second stand of Psiloi draw first blood in the centre after destroying charging Roman Cavalry....


Then it's down to this....the Romans are refusing to charge uphill to have a crack at my warband, so my chaps let out a blood curdling scream (not really) and charge downhill to have a go at the Romans.....


So all I have to do is roll well.... I start with my King for the best chance of this...


And I don't roll well. The Romans roll better. The end result is my Warband is pretty much destroyed, and with the number of casualties from the other Warbands, it is a loss to the Celt / Brit force.

Still, all good fun. I was surprised at how quickly the game played out. I thought it may have taken longer, but perhaps the large forces meant there was less maneuver than there may normally be?

Although the Romans are tougher than the Warband, I can see how it is important to strike carefully using your most powerful units (or those with best advantage) first to try and break up your opponents line / create overlaps to get the advantage on your rolls.

Losing the warband stand in support when front stand was destroyed was a tough pill to swallow though.

I could see a lot of similarities to Field of Glory, so I imagine it wouldn't take too long to pick up the rules / tactics for DBA, but no, I'm starting a 28mm Ancients force! I have enough unpainted toys :-)

To round the evening out, we played a game of Snow Tails. Quite good fun, until I got pipped at the post by Ian tracking just in front of me blocking my winning run! :-)

Thanks for reading, until next time,


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