Swiss Miss

So there I was yesterday evening, with a newly-based Early Swiss DBA army all ready to go, and time for a quick game of something. I didn't really have my DBA head on, though, and neither do I have a proper opponent for the Swiss, so I decided to play HOTT instead, since I can do that without bothering to find and read the rules first.

I put together the following army - 4 x Spears (including the general), 6 x Warband, 1 x Shooter and 1 x Rider. The warband were the double-depth blade elements, so would fight double-double ranked. It looked impressive.

I got out the Ceidonians to oppose them, fielding 4 x Knight (including the general), 4 x Spears, 2 x Shooters and 2 x Blades.

Both armies pushed forward. I made the mistake with the Swiss of not only advancing their spears off a hill towards the Ceidonian knights, but also aiming the warband block at enemy spearmen who had stayed on a hill.

The first combats.

And the inevitable results. The Swiss lost three elements straight off, destroying a Ceidonian knight in return. They now had an enemy on the hill on one flank and a bloody great big hole in their centre.

The Ceidonians exploited their advantage ...

... and rolled up the Swiss foot before riding down their general.

The end. The Swiss lost eight of their twelve elements, whilst the Ceidonians lost a knight in the initial attack and a blade to a lucky kill by the one Swiss element that managed to get into a decent position.

Not an auspicious first game and, I suspect, a reflection of things to come in DBA, where enemy knights will ride the blades down rather easily unless countered in a cunning fashion. Obviously the Swiss spear should have stayed on the hill to face the knights (forcing a standoff, because the Ceidonians would have been daft to try the attack), leaving both armies trying to win the battle elsewhere.