DBA Special: Book IV/35 - Mongol Conquest AD 1206 - 1266

 

This is the cavalry army from the Mongolian Steppe that turned the 13th Century upside down, both in the West and the East.  It is incredibly manoeuvrable, but it can be a hard army to win with in DBA as its frontal abilities are nothing special.

(DBA Mongol Conquest: here it is stripped of its aura of conflagration)

The army is a mix of Museum Miniatures, Essex, Camelot, Alain Touller, Gladiator, Irregular, MY and Chariot.  A good mix of the usual reliable sources.  Here's the great man himself:

 

(DBA Mongol Conquest: the commander - more of a Yul Brynner than an Omar Sharif)

The army is basically a mix of cavalry and light horse - indeed, save the general, it can all be horse archers.

Or horse archers.

 

Horse archers.

 

(15mm DBA Mongols ... stone throwing artillery)

Or horse archers.  It is defined as 'rope-pull' but I had this counterweight trebuchet which has the merit of fitting on a 40x40 base (just) ... it is very old and came in a bundle of figures donated by a friend - so I have no idea who made it but am pleased to get it onto the table.

The crew, severed heads ready to load, came from Mick Yarrow's Siberia range.  Graham F found them (I had no idea) but they really look the part.

But back to the line up:

 

(DBA IV/35: Mongol Conquest)

More free select Cv ot LH ... I usually go for 2 more cav and a Cuman.  It gives a symmetrical 6 LH and 6 heavier elements ... 

The Camp ...

The beauty of is it fit both Eastern and Western themes (having terrorised indiscriminately) - here I go with an Eastern theme ... an incident with a tiger near a Buddhist shrine.  The tiger is a reworking of Chariot Miniatures prehistoric one.  It came out nicely  ...

 

In my head, the narrative was that the scout has been surprised and felled by the tiger, who rounds for a a second attack.  The soldier springs to his feet and looses an arrow.  The outcome is uncertain.

 

(DBA Mongol Conquest: Camp Follower) 

 

Details:

 

(DBA Mongol Conquest: the Eye of the Tiger)

This army is a little different in that it can field the stone thrower - which gives it an unusual long-range shooting ability which always ofers the chance of disrupting the enemy and putting them on the back foot.

In my collection, it pairs with Seljuq Turk, and the two armies are quite well balanced.

11th November, Tarrington

The Society of Ancients UK DBA League 2018 Round 1: the Tarrington Scramble

 

Back at Tarrington after missing a year ... for the start of the new DBA League season.

Tarrington is a scramble and I took Mongol Conquest.

The reasoning behind that decision - and everyone's - is to be the subject of a forthcoming article for Slingshot ... but generally, here's how it works: 

... the army you take will be put into the scramble.  You will play against in the first round and with it in the last.  Otherwise it will be randomly allocated to other players and you will have something else from the mix.

So taking an army that you know well but which doesn't give your opponent too much of an advantage would be good.   Many players look at it as an opportunity to take something interesting but normally uncompetitive.  Some see it as an opportunity to set the others a challenge ... or two ..

So in addition to my Mongols, I got to play with ...

Pictish (Barbarian Conspiracy) ... Carolingian Frankish ... Skythian ... South Welsh ... Alexandrian Imperial ... 

That's a great mix for one day's wargaming I think.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was nice to finish with the Mongols - who had done rather well during the day - up against the Macedonians, whom I had already surrounded and beaten with Skythians.   We had worked out a plan by now.

The Macedonians are, you would have thought, quite a good army ... but came bottom in this particular test.  My fault, to some extent ... they played 6 games and I lost with them and beat them twice.  It is the luck of the draw sometimes.

A great day was had by all.  Mark won, the Mongols came runner up in the army stats and I finished about half way (played 6: won 3; lost 3) - a universal thumbs up to the Scramble format.

25th February, Alton

... and quickly it was DBA again - this time the Alton matched pairs tournament.

Each player takes a matched pair of armies (armies and enemies on the lists) and every other game is played with your own pair or your opponent's pair ... 

The day is six games - so you get to use your own pair 3 times ... when using your own pair, the opponent chooses which army to use (otherwise the standard options apply) ....

I opted to take Mongols and Seljuqs as I reasoned with time tight on the clock, all those potential 2/2 and 1/1 combats would give a good prospect of a completed game each round (as indeed they did)

My armies

IV/35 MONGOL CONQUEST (Cv gen; 4 x Cv; 6 x LH; 1 x Art):

1 x General (Cv), 2 x Mongol armoured cavalry (Cv), 5 x Mongol horse archers (LH), 1 x stone thrower (Art), 2 x Khwarizmian cavalry (Cv) and 1x Kipchak horse archers (LH) …  Steppe.  Agg: 4

III/74a SELJUQ TURK - Army of RUM (Cv gen; 3 x Cv; 5 x LH, 2 x 3Bw; 1 x 4Kn):

1 x General with mamluks (Cv), 2 x askaris (Cv), 5 x Turkoman horse archers (LH), 1 x Kurds (Cv), 2 x Armenian foot (3Bw), 1 x Agulani (4Kn) … Steppe.  Agg: 3

Each army had its quirks ... the Mongol stone-thrower is an interesting asset to take to a 'horse archer' fight.  The Seljuq Agulani add some punch but are at risk with all that light horse around.

The other players chose:

Teutonic Order v Early Polish; Ptolemy Keraunos v Galatians; Zenobia's Palmyrans v LPIA; L. carthaginian v Polybian Roman; Hellenistic Greeks, Sparta v Boiotia; Guti v Akkad; Italian Condotta v French Ordonnance; Early Welsh v Middle Anglo-Saxon; NKE v Ugaritic; WotR, Tudors v Rebels; French Ordonnance v Medieval German; Early Sumerian b list x 2; Middle Assyrian v Hittite Empire; Attila v Patrician Roman W.; Gallic v Celtiberian; Teutonic v Post Mongol Russian; Mitanni v Syro-Canaanite ...

My away games were ... Egyptian vs Ugaritic, Welsh vs Anglo-Saxon and Zenobia vs the Arabs

Unusually, I did quite well with my own pair ... my opponents gave me the Mongols each time - but I won 2 of the 3 games.  Sadly the other games didn't go so well.

So I wasn't threatening the podium this time.   Mark, Pete and Colin were ... so congrats to them - with Mark finishing in the top spot ...

It was a splendid day's wargaming and the battles were all entertaining in their own way - excellent!

Results of the 2017 Alton DBA Matched Pairs:-

1) Mark Skelton, 119 pts; 2) Pete Duckworth, 116 pts; 3) Colin O'Shea, 103 pts; 4) Scott Russell, followed by Peter Ellis, Bill MacGillivray, Kev Casey, David Constable, Richard Pulley, Lindon Paxton, Terry Ellis, Phil Steele, Neil Mason, John Saunders, Paul Clair, Denis Grey, Mike Thompson and Tim Moore.

Well done to everyone ... here they all are (with Martin, who took the picture, snipped in for completeness) ...

Well done also to Martin for organising this and sticking with an entertaining formula ...

More on the Society of Ancients here

More on the SoA UK DBA League here

(Early Welsh occupy a hamlet: figures by Martin Smith, resin huts - from The Square - by Phil Steele) ... 

Hammerhead next ... and the Society sponsored DBA Northern Cup.  See you there.

Next on Shows North will be a day out with the Society shows team at Cavalier in Tonbridge.

(snapping the winners: looking over the organiser's shoulder ... )