Ancients Stuck at Home #n: Lockdown Lonesome DBA ... Maurikians vs Arabs ..

 

 

Just prepping the text for part 2 of the posts on Khalid, and it seemed appropriate to look at some tabletop action. So here's a little intervention.  I've had a few face-to-face games outdoors, under canvas, as it were, and many more (though mostly not ancients) via online links.  Unlike many friends, though, over Lockdown, I've not done many solo games.

 

For most of my illustrations on this topic, I have used the splendid and nostalgic 30mm flats ... so this time, I opted to use more conventional 15mm figures.

There's not a lot of choice regards the Arabs list.  The Byzantines chose to go with normal Cv options (not the 6Cv) and to take a mostly mounted army - just 2 4Bw on foot.

Rather than run either (or both) using an 'autopilot' style mechanism, I decided to roleplay each commander/player according to a tactical briefing I gave myself:

Byzantine: the Byzantine game intends to overwhelm the flanks with mounted manoeuvreability.  To fight with a potentially hollow centre, prepared to hold off the Arab foot with LH (it's 3-2 in favour of the foot, but the LH only flee when doubled).  The archers are to shoot down enemy mounted troops.  If defending, the army chooses Rough optional terrain so that the archers have unobstructed arcs of fire but the enemy are slowed. 

 

Arab: the Arab army will fight on a wide front, happy that the Blades fight 3 vs mounted just like the Cv do (so nothing to fear) ... the archers will hunt down LH if poss and avoid exchanging shots with enemy Bw (who will outnumber them) ... if possible, the Bds will hunt down the enemy foot archers and chop them up.  The wide infantry centre should allow the cavalry to mass on the flanks.

Aggression - attack/defend ... Arabs 4 + 5 on the D6 .. Byzantines 1 + 1 on the D6 (a very clear 9-2 making the Arab the attacker).

The Byzantines took 2 Plough and, as optional, 2 Scrub ... the plan being that the Plough are effectively not there ... the Scrub will slow the enemy whilst the archers get extra shots at them.

After the placements were diced up, the Arabs flipped the board round for their attacker edge.

 

 

Both players placed at least one element in the Rough, the Arabs planning to move out of it in the first turn, the Byzantines because they planned a 'slow centre' ...  inded, both players deployed as if the Plough wasn't there.

 

The Byzantine game plan went astray from the very start: their first (Defender) Pip score being 1, the Plough is counted a Rough Going and impedes movement.  This is the classic DBA 'Double Whammy' as, in addition to the Plough unexpectedly getting in the way, there is also just the 1 Pip for movement.

 

They opt to make a single element move out onto the left flank.

This will be followed by another element on the next turn, as part of a very slow start ... the Arabs got 14 Pips over the first 3 turns, the Byzantines, a very disappointing 5 Pips.  As a consequence, the battle will be fought on the Byzantine half of the board and with the flanks not engulfing the enemy as the plan had envisaged.

 

 

(all 5 Byzantine Pip moves in the first 3 turns are shown)

Without many Pips, and concerned by the marauding Camel Scouts on the flank, the Byzantine player wheels his Right towards the flank ... this will bring the LH quite close to the enemy's Bowmen (but, hey, there's only one of them - what could possibly go wrong)

Meanwhile, the Arab player has fully evolved the army and has brough the General across to match cavalry numbers on the Arab Right.

 

It doesn't get any better for the Byzantines ... the first shot of the game is a 6:2 in favour of the Arabs (4 vs mounted + 6 = 10, against the LH 2 + 2 = 4 ... very easily doubled and destroyed). 

 

The same happens in the following turn with the second shot (ironically only a 2:1 on the dice to the Arabs ... but that translates to 6:3 on the totals and another Byzantine element goes down without a fight)

 

 

So it was quickly 2:0 in element losses against the Byzantines - and 4 down will end their game, of course.  Here, we see the next evolution ... the Arab commander has wheeled towards the flank (the slow development of the Byzantine line has forced this - as, otherwise there would be an easy overlap).  It brings the Arab general under fire but he shrugs it off.  On the other flank, the Byzantine player has opted to abort the LH centre as they are being shot down too quickly.  He makes multiple moves around the flank.  This could be deadly - but the Arab player doesn't really have the Pips to respond ... and now only needs to get a couple of elements more.

 

After a surprising miss, another shot from the deadly Arab archers destroys the Byzantine 3Kn (so, 3:0 to the Arabs) but by now there are enough Pips for the Byzantines to execute the outflanking attack on their Right.

 

 

First the Camel Scouts are easily defeated, then, the following turn, a cavalry element.  The alignment of the combats meant that, having completed it's work as a flank contact, in its next turn, the Byzantine LH found itself outside a basewidth of the enemy and thus eligible to make multiple moves, crossing the battlefield to threaten the enemy general.

 

The Byzantine general took over duty as the flank guard, and the remaining cavalry element survived a shot and contacted the Arab archers (who now had a 3:0 personal tally against the Byzantines).  The tide had indeed turned.  It was quickly only 3:2 to the Arabs.  Worringly, the Arab general recoiled towards the LH and, luck of the draw, a lone Arab cavalry element drew when the elements around it recoiled (so would fight 'double-overlapped in the next round of combat) ... 

In fact, the Arab general managed to hold his own, even when engaged front and rear - but the archers went down 'beaten by mounted' and the double-overlapped cavalry got doubled.  So from being 3:0 up, mid game, the Arabs lost the battle 3:4.

 

The Arab foot did not manage to get to the Byzantine archers ... the over-achievement of bowmen continued (although the best outcome was a recoil, there were several of them, and combined with the slowing effect of the Scrub, it meant that the foot did not get into combat).  The Byzantine commander might well have claimed that the hollow centre had worked.

 

Summing up, it worked very well, and was reassuringly interesting from the start. It was also useful to see Plough working when it turns into Rough (which never seems to happen) ...

Very evenly matched armies but, by mid-game, a Byzantine win did not look on the cards.

15mm figures.  V3 version of DBA.

 

For what it's worth, I rolled the dice using my mobile phone ...