25th April, Northamptonshire

BATTLEDAY 'PLUS' ... Double DBA

Building upon the experiences of the BattleDay itself, I respun the set up used at Hammerhead with some variations as a 'Double DBA' scenario.

(the Telamon table: the apparent 'ravine' on this side of the table is not there for game purposes)

The Gauls are in the centre, of course, with a reserve army in the middle and engagement lines facing both ways.   Unusually, the Romans are effectively in a race to gain the laurels: whichever of them does the most damage to the Gallic front lines with be the army that fights out the decisive endgame.  The less effective Roman will see his army withdraw when the engagement battle is concluded.

It worked very well, although it may have been a little too generous to the Gauls.

Armies 

Gauls: the army baggage was placed on a hill (left, in the picture above)

Engagement lines ... 2 x Cav, 4 x WWg, 6 x 4Wb (one of the WWg was a command post - General for the force) ... deployed as a line facing each direction with 3 Wb flanked on each end by a WWg.

The cavalry were deployed on the hill (opposite to the hill secured by the defended baggage)

Note: the chariots have been replaced by WWgs following how Polybius describes their use at this battle ... Their wagons and chariots they stationed at the extremity of either wing and collected their booty on one of the neighbouring hills with a protecting force round it. (see the text cap 28)  ... this worked very well and is 'food for thought' re how we depict Celtic chariots.

Reserve lines: 4Wb Gen; 9 x 4Wb; 2 x Cv (deployed back-to-back)

Romans:

Papus: 4Bd Gen; 2 x Sp; 4 x 4Bd; 2 x Ps; 1 x 3 Ax; 1 x Cv; 1 x Art

Regulus:  Cv Gen; 2 x Sp; 4 x 4Bd; 2 x Ps; 1 x 3Ax; 2 x Cv

(so a consular army each, based around a core of 2 Triarii, 4 Principes/Hastati and 2 Velites ... Papus with a foot general and a bolt-shooter, Regulus with a mounted general and a 2nd cavalry element).

The Roman baggage was off table in both cases.

The table was pretty much as depicted - the 'cavalry' hill was gentle, the 'baggage' hill was bad going to anyone trying to attack the camp (to simulate it being protected).

(Double DBA Telamon: the Gauls screen Regulus's force while attacking Papus)

Unlike his historical character, in this battle Regulus was slow to get engaged.  The Gauls took this opportunity and threw a screen against Regulus whilst attacking Papus more aggressively.  As a consequence, there was no real cavalry battle on the hill opposite the camp.

The Romans won the fierce fight, but not without damage.

Papus was the more successful so fought the decisive reserve battle against the remaining Gauls.  The Romans had won by 1 element (engagement armies result was 4:3 to Rome) but Papus had lost 2 elements in the process so fought with 10 remaining + 1 from Regulus (as the margin of victory in the opening phase).   The Gauls had lost only 1 from their reserve lines at this point ... so the showdown would be 11 vs 11.

(endgame: 10 Romans under Papus close with 11 Gauls - and in the background, 1 Cavalry from Regulus comes up in support)

So a remarkably 'fair' fight, although the cavalry element from Regulus was floating around the Gallic rear so looked quite dangerous.

The Gauls therefore got stuck into the Romans as quickly as their Pips allowed  ... and rolled high enough on the dice to get a series of 'quick kill' wins in hand-to-hand combat, breaking the Romans virtually with their first charge.

(endgame: the Roman line disintegrates under a fierce warband charge) ..

A rare win to the Gauls.  As you would expect, the game was completed within a couple of hours.

Tactically, in this game, the Gauls achieved their breakout, fighting Regulus to a standstill, then breaking Papus with the charge.

Historically, of course, there is still another Roman army mobilised, so there would still be a lot left for the Gauls to do to escape the Telamon pocket.

Very much a simplified version of Telamon, of course, but the players seemed broadly satisfied with how we had represented the events of 225 BC.

I hope to get one more variant out of this rich narrative.

DBA Gauls

Double DBA Pharsalus at the BattleDay

My contribution at the BattleDay was to stage Pharsalus using some DBA options including the Double DBA format I proposed for Zama back in 2011.

The scenario needs to compel the players to fight in depth ... giving them 2 DBA armies, one behind the other.  The first two should fight themselves to a standstill before being withdrawn.  The clash of the main/reserve armies that follows should be the one that counts.

I needed some more 10mm Romans for this, of course ...

(Pompey's cavalry ... some of the older Chariot Spanish, some Newline Hellenistics)

Many thanks to Newline Designs for excellent service (and some very nice 10mm figures)

(Newline Designs 10mm Marian/Caesarian Roman legionaries )

The figures, built on the Zama collection, are mounted on standard 40mm basewidths (just extra figures): I like the look - each base being a more convincing 'unit' in the smaller scale.

(the personalities ... drop in pieces to go on the command stands)

to cover the Big Battle options, I made up 8 commanders, each an individual to fill a magnetised gap on a general's element ...

(Mark Antony leading a cavalry envelopment ... a new command piece)

(Metellus Scipio commanded Pompey's centre at Pharsalus ... he was a great descendent of Scipio Africanus so I was able to recycle an existing figure for him)

Pompey in overall command of his army with Afranius, Ahenobarbus, Scipio and Labienus as generals ... Caesar commanding his army and taking charge of the Reserve and Right Wing ... with Calvinus and Mark Antony controlling the centre and left respectively ...

(following the traditional interpretation, I put a large camp behind Pompey's army,  but left Caesar's off table)

Although I had intended to play both the BB and Double DBA options, we focused attention solely on the latter - so while it was nice to see all the personalities and note their positions in the order of battle, we only needed 4: Calvinus commanding Caesar's opening phases, Labienus the Pompeians ... and Caesar and Pompey to command the decisive phase.

I used 72 elements, but due to the numerical disparities, split them 34 to Caesar, 38 to Pompey.  It would give Pompey a break point 2 higher.  One of the challenges of the day would be to see if this asymmetry would unduly distort DBA's underlying balance.

(Battle on the plains beside the river Enipeus at Pharsalus)

Actually we played the Double game twice with a win each to Pompey and Caesar ... not enough games to be remotely scientific but certainly a veneer of balance.

The basic idea with Double DBA is that the two armies deploy 2 commands each, one in front of the other, and rolling a pip die for each.  The front commands wear each other down hoping to break through and do some damage to the enemy's main force.  Both opening phase commands are withdrawn when exhausted (i.e. when their DBA battle ends in the usual way).   The scoring between them is irrelevant but the winner gets to retain his winning elements (so if the winner was 2 elements off breaking, he can retain 2 elements from the opening phases force) ...

The decisive phase battle plays normally, one die per player, normal breakpoints and victory conditions.

Players are so used to simultaneous battle with command one beside the other that fighting in the Roman style, commands in depth, seems almost heretical.  But it does work surprisingly smoothly.

(Pharsalus: opening phases .. Labienus attempts to turn in on and outflank Caesar's right)

Both armies rested one flank on the river.  Caesar was woefully short of cavalry and his ploy of thinning his centre in order to deploy legionaries to shore the open flank was essential in the game.  

Caesar just does not have enough muscle or guile to hold off Labienus without the heavy infantry.

Caesar intervenes personally.

Caesar's intervention stabilises the flank and neutralises Labienus's numerical advantage.  

That said, Labienus has successfully drawn Caesar's reserves into the early phase of battle and these losses will be permanent.

Of course, the effect of the Double format is that the decision will always be elsewhere, and with Pharsalus, it will rest with the infantry (although without flanks, the centre might well be doomed) ...

And the final infantry slog went one-apiece ...

(a decisive Caesar win: the blade/legion on the right has just pursued a base depth after destroying the enemy legion to front - which broke Pompey's centre) 

Pharsalus today ...

I usually like to visit the battlefields of history before trying to recreate them ... in this case there was no time in preparing for BattleDay 2016.  I did, however do some virtual tourism courtesy of Google Maps ...

(the river Enipeus near the town of Farsala today)

(the flat plain at Farsala looking towards the town)

(the prominent high ground which narrows the plain near to where the battle may have been fought)

Obviously while without archaeology these images don't help identify the exact location or orientation of the battle, they perhaps do help give us a clue to look and character of the battlefield.

Like many an ancient battle, it is essentially a flat open field with an 'edge of the world' on one side (at least) ... some scope for cavalry on the other ....

To add interest I made a boat for the river.

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