It has been a while, my last DBA game. And I actually like the game although I know it does polarise opinion amongst games; it just works for me with little hassle or fuss. To this end, whilst in a reflective kind of mood, I thought it might be fun to play a few games at the club; rope a few more in.
The campaign is essentially the one that comes with the rule book but set in an island and with the addition of three extra armies over the six used normally. The new armies allow for a foreign invader (from beyond the island), a tribe of nomads and the army of the dead Emperor based at the central city on the original campaign map.
The background is simple enough, the Emperor is dead without an effective heir and so a war of succession breaks out. The Emperor's personal army is led by an evil (what else?) Chancellor, this is faced by the six armies of the islands six regions, who also hate each other. I have added a tribe of nomads by adding four camp sites around the spaces in the map from which they can start, essentially their equivalent of the three settlements the main players have. The nomads can be chased back to these campsites and if defeated there that one is forever lost. The Foreign invader, tempted to take advantage of the chaos, has three possible landing sites that work much like the camp sites. Once one has been lost they must operate from another, once all three have gone there is no way back for them and they are out or, the remaining forces come under the control of the player that defeated them. This all allows for nine players and a lot of politics!
The last meeting saw a few moves and several battles. Already some players have had a rough ride whilst others seem to have escaped relatively unscathed....for now, its all early days!
I thought you might like to see a few of the battle reports from the members playing, it is always interesting to see the various takes each has.
The first comes from Andrew (not Andy or Drew...so confusing these days). He is the Nomad faction and chose to attack one of my own cities. Interestingly, the Emperor's force also went to the same city and a bit of a row ensued out side the city gate...watched with some bemusement by the city populace from the wall tops.
Harthah, the
Scourge of the Desert, Serpent of the Sands, husband to a dozen wives, and
father to a hundred sons had been visited by the god Al-Qaum in a dream.
“This land
must be cleansed of the Infidel! Slaughter their sons, burn their buildings and
mate with their maidens, for they are soft of belly and round of rear!” said
Al-Qaum.
He consulted
his first-wife Shaqilath, Oracle of Al-Qaum, hoping for a sign as to which city
should kneel first. Shaqilath spend hours consulting the entrails of a
freshly slaughter camel and at last decreed “The decadent city of Elysium will
be the first to fall before you husband”.
So Harthah
gathered his forces and set off on this most holy of wars. This land would
tremble and bow at his feet.
He
approached Elysium through the desert plains, but on approaching the city
scouts reported that the forces of the so-called “Emperor” had gathered in
defence of Elysium.
Harthah
ordered his men into the battle formation known as the Camel’s Jaw, ready to
crush these Imperials and grind them into the desert sands as Al-Qaum wills it.
Battle was
met but the ending was not as he had planned. His elite units of Camelry,
the Teeth of Al-Qaum, proved to be as soft-bellied as the women of Elysium and
were slaughtered to a man. As a shrewd tactician Harthah knew when to
retreat and like the shifting sands he returned to the Oasis of Serenity to
plot his next move.
As they
retreated all that could be heard was Shaqilath saying “I said NOT to attack
Elysium, why do you never listen to me?!”
Indeed. The battle was indeed great but nobody came away with anything, each withdrawing back whence they came and leaving a mess outside the baffled city. No comment was made by the Chancellor.
Two of the regional forces next, Phil invading his neighbour, Drew. Drew had this to say...
I had a
great game against Phil, the new army you (Alan) kindly lent me allowed me to be a bit
more tactical then the Gauls I’d practised with. Unfortunately i lost but it
was pretty close and I’m used to that. Phil's follow up with a lucky 6 in the
siege on my capital was a bit of a s*#t. But not to worry as the Romulan Empire
has a long memory, we'll be quietly sharpening our biggest "stab in
back" knives...... our new motto is "Come the day"
Also Mark's
for it as well. LoL
Well, Drew did get a bashing and came off worse than anyone. As he says, he lost one city to Phil, another to a besieging Mark and then, adding insult to injury, lost a siege to Phil and so became Phil's vassal. Phil, understandably, was rather pleased with himself and was not in the least bit smug...well, not too much...
With
only one army to protect against three neighbours it was immediately obvious
that diplomacy was the only way to prevent a war on multiple fronts. So I
decided I would take on the role of supporting the beleaguered Emperor in the
centre to reunify the Empire (though the Emperor declared war on me -along with
everyone else - anyway). I enlisted Steve to this cause also, thereby securing
my left flank and leaving me free to concentrate on my right, which turned out
to be Drew's place. It was
just luck that Mark also attacked him from the other side simultaneously (or,
as I see it, sneaking in the back door as I heroically fought Drew's field
army). My battle with Drew was one of the longest DBA games I can remember.
I was using the Late Seleucid (a) army list and he was using New Kingdom
Egyptians.
As the aggressor I rolled for the direction I was coming from
and got the worst result, with a deployment area cluttered with forests. This
combined with rolling a 1 for command points for the first few rounds to
prevent me forming a decent battle line for ages. I think my 2 elephants
were first to actually get into action but ended up facing off against archers
and pesky psiloi. His psiloi were chased off once but came back and destroyed 1
elephant. The other elephant then had a long-running battle with the same
psiloi unit, which it only eventually destroyed after he'd got himself into a
position where he could not flee or retire. Drew's archers on this flank
were very unlucky and achieved nothing except disrupting my advance a little,
and the same goes for his archers on the other flank where they faced off
against my two psiloi and 1 auxilia for the whole game. On the centre right my
2 cataphracts tackled Drew's four chariots, the two generals going toe to toe.
This is where my first kill came but there was lots of back and forth. On the
centre left my 4 elements of pikes, in two ranks, eventually got to grips with
Drew's blades but again there was lots of pushing back and forth with no
breakthrough for ages. I think I did finally kill one of them. Drew had
me really worried when one of his chariots swung in on the flank of my pikes
but he failed to engage them frontally as well so they were able to turn. They
managed to push back that chariot. At the end, my general finally managed to
kill the enemy general, the psiloi got trapped by the elephant against the side
of my pikes and destroyed. The final result was 4 elements (including
Drew's general) to me, 1 element (an elephant element) to Drew, but that was
not a fair reflection on the closeness of this epic struggle and I really felt
he had me on the back foot until the last couple of rounds. A really good
game.
The battle won, I captured Sisyphus (appropriate name considering the
uphill task I had winning it - go look up the Greek myth of Sisyphus if you
don't get the reference) and was free to attack Drew's capital. As Mark
had already taken his other city, meaning Drew faced losing all his cities in
year 1, I offered to spare his capital if he acknowledge me as his overlord but
Drew bravely opted to stand a siege, obviously hoping I would fail to take the
city, suffer losses and be forced to withdraw by the approach of winter. My
luck held and I rolled the 6 necessary to take the city on the first attempt. A
very satisfactory start to the campaign for me obviously, but I'm well aware I
got lucky both in the battle and the siege at the end. Mark's obviously
the next target.
Mark gets a lot of that, understandably really. Andy provided, as usual, a more rounded and reasoned report of his games. I shall end this post with his report. The next few rounds will be very interesting indeed!
Ixion
Campaign Diary
Army Muster
Anglo-Norman
army comprising 4 Knights, which can dismount as either Blades or Spears and
one of which is the General; four Spears (of the 4Sp variety); three elements
that can be deployed as either Bows or Psiloi in any combination; and finally
one element of either Cavalry, War Wagon or Spears (of the 3Sp variety).
Turn 1
Spring
Declared war
on Elysium, but invasion of Juno by Sea Raiders precluded an attack. Instead
the army (which fortuitously was stationed at Juno) took to the field to defend
Juno against some very Celtic looking barbarians under Bob's command.
The city of
Juno was on my left flank, with a wood on the right. One element of Spears was
told off to garrison Juno, the remaining Spears deployed between Juno and the
Wood with an element of Psiloi in support. The two elements of Bows were
deployed in the woods, in column. The general and two elements of Knights were
deployed in column behind the Spears, and the final element of Knights and the
Cavalry were deployed to the left of Juno.
The Celts
deployed opposite, with a wood on their left flank, and a gentle hill on the
right. The Celts deployed their 8 Warband elements in the centre, supported by
their Chariot borne General and a couple of elements of Cavalry, with an
element of Psiloi skulking at the rear.
Now Warband
and Spears don't mix too well, at least not from the Spears point of view. On
the other hand, Warband really don't like Knights. Time for some rearrangement.
As defender I was allowed to swap the positions of two pairs of elements, I
chose to swap the Psiloi with one of the spears, so instead of having 3 Spears
in a line with a Psiloi behind, I had two Spears in the front line, with the
Psiloi on the left flank and the third element of Spears in the centre of
the second rank. This was done so as to allow the column of Knights to advance
through the Psiloi (as they are permitted to do) and then form a line in front
of the Spears.
The game then
slowed down as a combination of low PIP rolls on both sides, and in my case the
extra PIP cost of moving groups over 600p from the General and out of sight in
woods or behind the city, resulted in the armies closing at snails pace.
Eventually I
had the army rearranged as I wanted, with the Knights in front of the Spears,
the left wing Knights and Cavalry in line and in sight of the General, and the
Bows at the edge of the woods. In the mean time the hordes of Warband had split
like the Red Sea to allow the General and Cavalry to come forward and form a
united mass with the mounted in the middle and the Warband split evenly on the
flanks. To prevent my knights being outflanked one of my Bows left the wood and
took position on the end of the line of Knights, while the other advanced out
of the wood into range of the Warband and started to annoy them with archery. I
didn't really expect to kill anything, but by recoiling them I would give Bob
the dilemma of how to spend his PIPs, would he use one to get the recoiled
Warband back into line or use it elsewhere?
After a bit of
manoeuvring, a couple of Warband elements on Bob's right flank turning to face
my left wing, battle was finally joined as Bob's Cavalry charged my Knights; he
had wanted to bring the Warband forward as well, but didn't quite have enough
PIPs to give them the second move they needed, and would have been allowed, to
get them into contact. This turned into shoving match, Generalissimo à Generalissimo, with the nice neat line splitting up as my Knights
either recoiled when they lost, or followed up Bob's recoiling Cavalry and
Chariot. Eventually I rolled high enough to double the score of one of Bob's
cavalry units. First blood to me!
Meanwhile, on
the left flank my Knights charged into the Warband Bob had used to refuse his
flank. Bob got +1 for a second rank of Warband, but this was countered by my
element of Cavalry outflanking him, and as Knights get a quick kill on Warband,
I only needed to beat Bob's score by 1 to kill both Warband elements. So of
course the first round was a draw! Eventually Bob's luck ran out and I managed
to beat his score, killing both Warband elements. 3-0 to me.
The clash of
the Cavalry and Knights in the centre continued, with Bob not rolling enough
PIPS to bring any more of his Warband into the fight.
Now came the
decisive moment, the Knights on my left flank were able to charge Bob's right
hand end Warband units in the rear, forcing the one in the second rank to turn
and face. The Knights rolled high, the Warband didn't and died.
So, a 4-0 win
to the Ixion army, forcing the Celts to withdraw to Stheno. Shame his general
got away!
Turn 2
Summer
The war with
Elysium was put on hold, as the army pursued the defeated Celts back to their
beachhead at Stheno. Not wishing to face the victorious Ixion army in their
depleted state the Celts withdrew back to sea. Which I believe denies them the
use of that beachhead in future.
