DBA Game Knight at the Regency at Providence

A Headless Body Production

Location:  Regency at Providence Community Center, Phoenixville, Pa
Event:        Providence Gamer's Game Knight
Players:     Phil Gardocki playing Burmese
                      Garth Parker playing Classical Indian
                      Bruce Potter playing Viking

Preamble:   The players of Regency have a growing number of Ancients Armies and have a need to put them on the table.  So it was decided to do a 3 round robin event of DBA.

Game System: DBA

The Forces:
Burmese with:

     1 X Elephant (Gen)

     2 X Elephant

     1 X 3 Cavalry stand

     5 X 3 Auxilia stands

     3 X 3 Crossbow stands

Vikings with:
     I don't have the list, but I think it is:
     11 Blades
      1 Bowmen

Classical Indians:

     1 Elephant (General)

     2 Elephants

     2 Heavy Chariots

     2 Cavalry

     1 4 Blade

     4 Longbow

     

First Round:  The Burmese win the aggression roll-off and will be invading Norway.

The Burmese are awaiting debarking from their fleet in the fjords of Norway.

The Vikings form up in 2 groups near Oslo.

Landing unopposed, the Burmese also deploy in 2 groups.

At the end of bound 1, the Burmese advance a small amount with their main group.    A note on the Burmese figures.  I did not remount the army from "Warrior" and the 2 figure per elements are "Bow" and not "Psiloi".

 Bound 2:
 Not a lot happens till Bound 9, if you want to skip down a bit.

The thought here is to keep the Vikings divided.  To send 5 elements on the right to engage 2 elements of Vikings in the woods.  If the Burmese can win that, they will have 2 of the 4 elements needed for victory, and turn the main line of the Vikings.  But this will take time.

 Bound 3:

The Vikings see the trap, and re-position to deal with it.

 Bound 4

Since the Vikings are not coming across the board, the Burmese take the time to re-position their general.  This was so he could be within 6 inches of the woods, and avoid paying extra command costs to move units in there.

The Burmese on their right are holding up pending the re-positioning.

The Vikings have waited long enough and are not going to wait for the Burmese to dominate the woods.

Bound 5:

The Burmese realize their redeployment is not going to be leisurely at all and have to make decisions on priority.  If they can get in the woods, the Viking line will have to delay to deal with it. 

But it looks like an elephant and a bowman unit will be orphaned off.

 Bound 6

The Burmese finish reforming their main line, and force the Vikings to spin off a couple of elements to deal with the woods.

 Bound 7:

A bit of shuffling around.

 Bound 8:

And more shuffling. 

 Bound 9:

I don't know if this is typical of DBA.  10 minutes left, and no engagements. 

Bound 10:

I think the word for this engagement is "Sub-Optimal" for both sides. 

Burmese bowmen fall before the Viking General.  (plus 6 against a plus 2 will do that).  But the Vikings lose two Blades to the Burmese Hammer and Anvil attack with elephants.  Down the rest of the line is split 2-2 as far as push backs go.

The Vikings reform their lines and destroy the Burmese cavalry.  The Viking General, leading his body guard with their Raven standard, confronts the Burmese General in a dicey maneuver.  The Vikings are pushed back, but not into anything, and live to fight another bound.

 Bound 11:

Two minutes left on the clock, and the Burmese roll 1 command point.  The only attack that makes sense is another General vs General action, which the Burmese win!  The Viking General cannot recoil and so is destroyed, giving the Burmese the 3 + the General to 2 win.

End game.  The Burmese win 3-2 by virtue of killing the enemy general.
 
A couple of notes here for the DBA players out there.   We had made numerous mistakes here.  

One was we thought Blades could support Blades against mounted if one is behind the other. This was not discovered till later that this was not so. This explains why the Vikings bunched up like they did.

Another was elephants take 2 command points to move, also discovered much later.   And this explains how the elephants moved around as much as they did.  Though, the Burmese commander did roll a lot of 5's and 6's for command points and often did not use them all.

Another was on deployment, the Burmese could deploy 6 inches from the water, not the board edge like they did.

Round 2:  Burmese vs Indians.

The Burmese win the aggression roll and are attacking the Indians.

<Mumbai, 400 BC, Wednesday>

Returning with their loot from Oslo the Burmese run into the toll collectors from Mumbai.  As these things tend to go, diplomacy breaks down, and aggressive negotiations result.  Its a tight fit, and the Burmese adopt an ill-advised formation.

The Hindi's also have a tight fit, but their bowmen are much better deployed than the Burmese.

 Bound 1:

The Burmese have to get clear of the woods so they can spread out their elephantry.  The Indians spend 4 command points advancing their bowmen through their woods. 

 Bound 2:

Both sides have a lot of command points.  The Burmese angle their line.  This is because they are trying to get an overlap on the Indian Bowmen when their Auxila make contact.  Also this angle will allow the elephants to expand to the waiting support of their crossbowmen in the woods.  The Indians used their points to clear their bowmen of the woods and set up the firing line.

 Bound 3:

Both sides adjust their lines.  The Burmese had a shortage of points here.  The Indians look well formed.  But their chariots are facing archers in the woods, so the chariots will stay out of range of them.  DBA's note.  The Burmese crossbowmen in the woods are Bowmen, not Psiloi.

 Bound 4:

Burmese Auxila charge!  The board is too tight for their desired overlap, so one Auxila is left behind.  But the dice were kind and on the far left, and an Indian Bowman falls.  The other rolls are two ties, and a loss for the Burmese Auxila.

The rest of the board is more of just a lineup for future action.

It is a tight charge, but the Indian cavalry managed to avoid the Zone of control effects of the Crossbowmen and strike the Burmese Elephants in the flank.

Its elephant on elephant action frontally, while Indian Cavalry provide flank charge support.   Both elephant fights were ties.

 Bound 5:

A disaster for the Indians.  Burmese Bowmen came out of the woods, destroying the flanking Indian Cavalry.  Burmese Auxila destroy another Indian Bowmen.  The score is now 3-0.  One Burmese elephant is bounced, but the Burmese General wins, forcing an Indian elephant to recoil into their general, and both are destroyed.  The final score was 5 (plus the General) to 0 win for the Burmese.

We only had 5 players so I sat out the next round.  I took this shot because you are not likely to see this combo again.

 It's elephants verses War Wagons in this Classical Indians verses Hussites game.