DBA Special: II /32a Later Carthaginian (10mm)

This is a single army version of the troops from the Zama scenario.  They are mostly the excellent 'Armies in Miniature' figures I bought from Chariot Miniatures years ago.

Barker Marker 

I have used a portion of stockade as a camp for Mago's Carthaginians in it there is a Barker Marker (40x40 template for checking threat zones etc) featuring an officer of priest sacrificing a goat ... Omens of one sort or another had a part to play in many narratives of the wars between Rome and Carthage.

This Army 'pairs' with Polybian Roman

13th October, Crystal Palace

SELWG 2013

I was over on the Pike & Shot Society stand - on duty with my Newbury ECW game - while David Edwards ran the stand and Philip Sabin hosted a reconstruction of the battle of Zama ...

(Secretary Edwards posing with the Society membership stand)

(the Lost Battle of Zama)

Scenes from the Society of Ancients battle of Zama

(Those classic 25mm elephants in close up)

Other ancient and medieval content at SELWG:

(click on the pictures for a bigger image)

(Second Battle of St Albans by the Essex Warriors ... using Impetus rules)

(Second battle of St. Albans: close up)

(Second battle of St. Albans: close up)

(Simon Miller's battle of Thapsus)

(the legions at Thapsus)

... and there were also a number of splendid games in other periods

(the award winning 'battle of Trysler's Farm' 1813 - War of 1812)

(Phil's Newbury game for the Pike & Shot Society)

(fantastic terrain as always in the Loughton Strike Force eastern Front game)

For more on the Newbury ECW game see ECWBattles

A great day out as always ... I'm asked to than k everyone who visited the Society stand and who played in the Zama game.

Personally i had a great day on the adjacent P&SS stand, and, for a change, we had a relatively trouble free drive back to Northamptonshire after the show.

Many thanks to SELWG.   DBA Open, next, for me and you can catch the Society of Ancients on the road next at Warfare 16/17 November in Reading.

21st August, Norwich

Apologies to those of you who got the garbled first version of the Britcon update (no idea why Blogger doesn't work properly in Firefox at this time of year - but I had the same problems in 2010, that's for sure). There was quite a lengthy excursus advising Nobby how best to develop Britcon, too ... very useful, but not necessarily 'core' interest :)

So to bring Ancients on the Move fully up-to-date, this entry will show you what Eastern Front was like ... a great little show in East Anglia.

You really ought to mark it in your diaries for next year. Excellent venue, friendly people ... even a sunny day! And nowhere near as far as internet routeplanners would have you believe (they allow for the traffic problems you are unlikely to encounter on a Sunday morning): ignore the timing, look more to the mileage as your guide.

Lenghty intro? OK - I'll load up the pictures ....
(not your average village hall ... 'well lit, with a big window' ...)

(a choice of games on the stand with a DBA theme)

(some punters playing 'Britannia's Eastern Front': DBA Sub Roman British block a English raid in East Anglia)

(Tony and Phil man the stand while I go off on my photo break)

(that boat load of English ... 'Saxons' in DBA speak, but out East here, they would be Angles - 'Aengelfolk')

(the Romano-British foot making up the bulk of Arthur's army)

(this tank game looked great fun and kept loads of youngsters entertained)

(I was really impressed with this huge 10mm Bull Run ACW game: a bit big for my tastes, but a great sense of place)

(Yep: seriously, those are 10mm figures - click on the picture for a proper sized image and enjoy the craftsmanship)

Great, wasn't it?

Thanks to Kim at Monarch Books for hosting the event, and thanks for those of you who stopped by to make us feel welcome.

Thanks to Tony and Phil for helping with the stand (really valued as I would have been on my own for this one otherwise). Canvassing for views at the show, several locals indicated that they would be interested in the DBA mini-event we didn't quite get off the ground this year ...

Watch this space.

Come see us at Partizan and the SoA Doubles over the weekend ...

Sheffield, 21st May

Triples/Northern DBA Cup

Apologies to anyone who tried to find us a Triples on Sunday. We got no 'up front' volunteers for the second part of the two-day show (and as our Saturday is tied in to the DBA Cup I went with that).

Often times, the Sunday is the less productive at these 2-dayers (nevertheless, Graham E offered to run his the Elephant In the Room, so it all would have fallen into place, but I had crossed the Sunday off by that stage) ...

So although in the end it was an administrative glitch, the underlying message remains - no volunteers - no SoA stand.

Then again, boy did we pack it in on the Saturday! Me? I actually got no shopping done, there was so much to do. So there are no pictures here from the show itself this year (though on my brisk trip around looking for people I needed to liaise with I did go past quite a few interesting exhibits).

(click on the pictures to see a bigger image)

(for Team SoA, Chris takes on 2009 Champion - and SoA Postal sales despatcher - Graham Fordham)
From the Society of Ancients, Graham F was playing in the DBA Cup, Will, Chris and I were doing the stand (and potentially making up numbers if a scratch tag team was needed to balance the draw).

As sometimes happens, there was indeed a last minute adjustment, and Chris and I combined to uphold the honour of the sponsor. We played 5 games (I lost all three of mine, Chris - who has not played for ages - won both of his ... is there a message in that ... or am I just rubbish at this game :O) ...) ..
(Cilician Armenians take the field against the Seljuks)
The Northern DBA Cup poses players with a random draw of historical set-ups: the scenario fixes the terrain, start edges, invader/defender and the army compositions ... the draw allocates who gets which army and the game starts with the defender positioning his camp.

The set up obviously allows games that pose unusual challenges (my final game was Nubian vs Libyan .. almost identical armies and mostly Ps vs Ps - quite a novel game) and takes away some of the more gamey features of open tournaments. Of course there are always questions of balance, and you are not master of your own fate in all respects. However, as someone who has never really taken to the WRG set up procedures, I am glad the UK DBA season has events like this that enable plausible battlefields to feature.
(Slingshot reporter Martin Smith in action - Martin went on to win the event)
On the question of balance it was amusing that the most 'unbalanced' scenario was, apparently, the 'Andalusian *Civil War*' where both armies were, in fact, identical. The defender lost every game! This either shows you that matters of balance are a lot of hot air (because even where you have exactly the same armies chance can make one side a consistent winner) - or that when all else is equal, being the invader is a decisive edge (or, of course, if all else is exactly equal, with armies like those, and a battlefield like that, the edge will go on the invade/defend decision ...) ...

(Libyans - nearer - vs Nubians ... the jewel marks out the general's element)

Meanwhile, on the stand, we had a little go at a DBA Medieval skirmish game I had devised (which didn't really work very well - something new, but early days I'm afraid) ... and fitted in a super game of my 10mm Zama 'Double DBA' game.

In this running, Hannibal got a decisive edge breaking through the centre with the elephants. Although the opening engagement was only won 3 to 4, in that phase the Romans had had to feed in some supports from the Principes in order to hold the line, and had lost 2 elements in the process.
(Hannibal - nearer - and Scipio face off at Zama)

So when the first lines made way for the final encounter, the Romans were already 2 down. Surprisingly, having made this headway with the elephants, Hannibal chose to retain not one of them into the end game, but some cavalry on the wings. The coup de grace was then delivered by outflanking attacks rather than attempting the hard work of defeating the Roman infantry frontally: very clever, and a tactical combination (instinctive or thought out) I had not seen tried before*.

A fascinating battle. My thanks to the players.

In the Northern DBA Cup, the top ten places were

Winner: Martin Smith; 2nd Alan Gilbert; 3rd Scott Russell; then Phil Johnson, Tom Whitehead, Graham Fordham, Team SoA, Richard Pulley, Mark Johnson and David Constable ...

The Sheffield event was the furthest north for the UK DBA League this year. Whilst at the show I was able to squeeze in a chat with Kim Daniels of Monarch Books - and organiser of Eastern Front, which will hosting our new east of England round. I will be sending out details shortly, but make the date in your diaries sat 21st August ... East of England DBA at Eastern Front in Norwich.

It would be especially good to encourage DBA players from East Anglia to join in this one ... there must be plenty of you, so please get in touch. There will be prizes and freebies associated with the event as well as credits towards the SoA UK DBA League.

See you there.

Next outing for the Shows Team is Partizan: come along and play The Elephant in the Room.

*generally, if the elephants do win the encounter, it is an obvious choice to retain some of them to try to finish the job. In fact this 'Norfolk' approach 'they have done their job now - we'll let them be removed and instead retain an edge on the flanks where now Massinissa has had to withdraw' has a claim to be better thinking (depending on the circumstances of the game, of course)...

Zama DBA update

A while back, I promised a fuller report on my 'double' DBA Zama game, and more pictures of the 10mm armies I built for it.

Well, I have finished the Slingshot article, now, (so if you want more of the 'how and why' discussion about the battle and how to depict it, then at some point you need to follow one of the links and join the Society of Ancients ... This isn't a hard sell: I think most people stop by here on a whim, and to look at pictures - so this is the place for the eye candy, Slingshot it is the place for publishing articles on Zama; second, if you are interested in how battles work in the age of Hannibal and Scipio, then you will enjoy being part of the Society ... and encouraging you to join is my gift ...)...

Zama BattleDay links

Here is the eye candy ...

DOUBLE DBA ZAMA ... armies and pictures:

This is a top down view of the battlefield. As can be seen, each player has two 12 element DBA armies, one deployed in fron of the other (rather than side-by-side, as is more common in 'big battle' variants). The red and blue lines, at left, indicate the notional four deployed lines of battle described at Zama (in this case amalgamated to three - though 10mm does allow a line of figures to be shown).

Double DBA ... Double DBA is a straightforward idea (though not one I have seen before) ... each side has two standard (12 element) DBA armies, but instead of deploying them side-by-side (in the usual allies or 'doubles' format), one deploys in front of the other.

Each side's forward army is 'expendable' and fights on until either of those two 'engagement' armies reaches its normal (4 element) DBA break point. At that point both forces are withdrawn - except the 'winner' is allowed to retain the margin between the engagement forces (so the loser of that opening phases withdraws the remainder of his force, the winner removes 8 elements) ...

(a Carthaginian elephant pushing into the Roman lines 'old' Chariot 10mm figures)

Conduct of battle: until the engagement armies are withdrawn, both sides play both forces simultaneously. Pips are rolled for each independently, and any damage done to the reserve army is, of course, permanent. (Scipio stationed amongst the Roman Triarii in the last line)

When the engagement armies are withdrawn, the two reserve armies may reorganise a little by swapping 2 elements (as the defender may, at the start of a normal DBA battle), and the engagement army's Pip die is no longer rolled (the player with any extra elements from the engagement phase must control those elements as well as the reserve force with the reserve army's Pips) ...

(Roman Velites)

The game is won when either reserve army breaks by losing 4 elements or its commander. Remnants of the engagement army are not part of the reserve force so do not count in this analysis.

(Carthaginian Mercenaries and Levies)

Forces

Carthaginian Engagement Army

(as deployed, L to R)

2 LH, 3El, 1 Ps, 3 El, 1 Cv, 1 Cv Gen, 1 Cv

Carthaginian Reserve Army

(main line, L to R)

1 Ps, 5 Hd, 1 Ps;

(rear line, L to R)

2 Sp, 1 Sp Gen (Hannibal), 2 Sp.

Roman Engagement Army

(as deployed, L to R)

1 Ps, 1 Bd, 1 Ps, 1Bd, 1 Ps, 1Bd, 1Ps, 1 Cv gen (Masinissa), 2 LH with 2 Ps deployed in a supporting rank behind the LH.

Roman Reserve Army

(main Line, L to R)

1 LH, 2 Cv, 6 Bd,

(rear line, L to R)

1 Sp, 1 Sp gen (Scipio), 1 Sp

For DBA completeness, both armies were given a camp behind the lines, but they cannot be 'taken' in the game. The battlefield is a flat open plain with no terrain features in play.

BATTLE
(fearful of the Numidian host on the Roman right, Hannibal has deliberately drifted half his line a Masinissa, allowing a gap to develop)


(Masinissa, with closer order troops around him, leads the skirmish line to spoil the Carthaginian elephant attack)

(The Romans push into the gap, meanwhile, Hannibal tries to reorganise his rear lines in order to bring his veterans into the battle earlier ...)

FINAL PHASES
(with most of the engagement armies removed, Rome's Numidians remain in battle and attempt to turn the Carthaginian position)

(The end: Hannibal and Scipio close ... however, the Numidians in the foreground are Rome's allies, and are poised to block the Carthaginian spear-line's recoils. This will win the game for Scipio)

This year's Battle Day is in Bletchley, on 2nd April, and features the great showdown between the Egyptians and Hittites at Kadesh.

More here: Society of Ancients BattleDay information