Posted by: "cam_millar" cam_millar
Date: Mon Jun 2, 2008 11:08 pm ((PDT))
I took the 400AD Kushans to Nicon, a 25mm 450AP (+10AP for
strategems) comp in NZ. My army list was:
CinC KnX, 4 ElO, 8 Irr LhS, 6 AxO
Sub KnX, 6 KnX, 9 Irr LhS
Sub KnX, 6 KnX, 9 Irr LhS
Army Baggage, 6 BgF
Feigned Flight, Ambush
I think Irr LhS troops are interesting (although as I will note in a
forthcoming rant post, IMO they don't seem to act like steppe light
horse). They have a number of interesting features that work well in
combination:
Impetuous, but only 1 pip to hold
Mounted (incl El) can move through them
Don't count most foot as overlaps in their bound
(S) grading is powerful on attack
Can choose to repulse on equal and often when losing
Spent against most foot
The plan of attack was to put the LhS up front, and if they ran into
anything too tough, push the El and/or KnX thru. The LhS
impetuousness would be used to pressure regular opponents all across
the table, and outflank if possible.
Game 1: v Maori
Very straight forward game. Steep hill and waterway on my left (but
strong wind meant the Maori waka fleet could not be used) and a wood
on right. He lined up his BdF and I went into him with the LhS. Not
as successful as I thought it would be (the LhS had run over WbS in a
prior game) killing some but with a few LhS getting killed as he
turned onto their flanks. So time for the heavy troops, with the El
and KnX moving thru the LhS. The El stomped all over the BdF
(reversing a few times to make sure the remains were spread thinly on
the ground), and the Maori broke. 23-2 to me.
I do think in this game we got the grading factors wrong quite a bit -
forgetting the double -1 for F troops beaten by LhS in the LhS
bound, and also giving the LhS +1 when losing in bounds they should
not have got it. I detest the (S) grading factors!
Game 2: v Nik Byzantines.
Mike C has already covered this game. In an open table, I put the
LhS in front with the KnX and ElO some way behind. The LhS went
forward (partly due to me not realising just what a bad matchup LhS v
CvS is, partly due to poor pips). The LhS were slaughtered. By the
time I got the KnX and El up my army was near breaking - Mike just
needed to kill the odd KnX. The CvS simply danced around me
(regulars with 5 pip dice and a couple of pip dumps). I had no
answer and conceded for a 25-0 loss.
Game 3: v Mughul Indian
This was my most interesting game - with difficult match ups for both
sides to deal with. Table was fairly open. While his 6 ElS was a
nightmare for just about all my troops and the LhS had to stay away
from his CvS, his army was very small with some soft quishy bits
(BwI, Art, BdF) and the CvS were a target for the KnX and my El. I
spent the first few bounds getting my AxO out of ambush to face his
biggest group of 4 ElS, and redeployed some KnX to face some CvS on a
wing.
While this was happening we both made an error. He thought me
fluffing around was because I did not want to attack, so moved his
BwI and ArtI forward to tempt me to attack. I meanwhile used pips to
send LhS columns off on both flanks. I will come back to these
troops in a forthcoming rant email - but suffice to say here they
were never seen again.
With the BwI and ArtI now an easy target and the AxO finally in
position in front of his ElS, I went forward with the LhS and KnX. I
cut thru the rubbish and the Aux dealt to a couple of elephants.
Meanwhile his ElS cut thru my LhS and then hit the KnX, elsewhere my
LhS consistently died when facing CvS.
Both sides losses were heavy and mounting, and the loss of just a few
2ME troops either way would swing the game. In the end the KnX
finally got to the CvS - and cut them down. A 20-5 victory, but
certainly one of those times the score does not reflect how close it
was.
Game 4: v Nik Byzantines
The draw meant I got my chance to replay Mike C. After my 25-0
drubbing from him, I worked out to win I would need (1) a battlefield
19 elements wide (the number of El, KnX and KnX generals I had), (2)
some way to stop him moving away from me too fast, and (3) to get
across the table very fast.
Cue terrain that gave me rough hills, woods and enclosed fields down
both flanks leaving a battlefield effectively 19 elements wide. The
battle then started with 4 bounds of moonless night, so everyone
could only move 80p. My middle command got a 6 then 5 for pips in
the first two bounds so I could "race" across the table. When dawn
broke, KnX was parked just in front of his BwX/O, and my El and KnX
were not far from his CvS.
Mike had attempted to move a group on each wing to find a gap in the
flanking terrain barrier, but with only 80p moves they did not quite
get around in time to hugely influence the game.
The only wrinkle for me was getting 1 pip for my right hand command
just when I split my LhS into two groups. I had to let one group of
LhS impale themselves on some CvS, but otherwise the KnX and El just
chewed the CvS in their path. A 23-2 victory.
Conclusion
Overall a good weekend (if I exclude my baby getting sick and puking
on me on the flight home ...) I will write another post about my
thoughts on specific rules, but I ultimately worry that DBMM is a bit
predictable. The paper/rock/sissors model is stronger than in DBM,
and I felt in a number of the games one side had an edge (note I do
not mean a 100% edge, just more than 50% on equal generalship).
Where it was obvious, people set terrain accordingly, which
contributed to a number of dull looking draws or, if the terrain did
not fall correctly, a fairly predictable result. None of my games
had me jumping for joy since they were largely a matter of getting
the right matchups on deployment and then moving forward.
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