Dark Ages DBA

After my game of DBA the other week I got to thinking that not only had I not played it in a while, but that it had been a long time since my various Dark Ages armies had seen the light of day.

Yesterday I got them out and had a few games.

First onto the table were my old favourites, the Sub-Roman British against some early Scots-Irish. This is basically cavalry and spears against chariots and auxilia. Against the odds the Irish defended, and set up in some marshy woodland on the coast.

Irish chariots.

British cavalry.

The Irish brought in some auxilia by sea to threaten the British camp. The British had left some pedyts to cover against this possibility and they basically spent the game in a stand-off.

The remaining pedyts spent most of the game watching Irish auxilia in a marsh.

The British did what the British do best; a cavalry charge. with hindsight doing this without bringing up at least a couple of supporting pedyts was a foolish thing. 

The British were thrown back.

And now the Irish responded. Although they were lurking in a marsh the Irish could bring up their fast-moving warriors to support the chariots and that open British flank was quickly exploited.

Amazingly the British cavalry element not only fought off the opposition, but destroyed it, giving the British the first kill of the battle.

Low PIPs meant they couldn't exploit the advantage and the Irish carried on feeding in auxilia and surrounding the British cavalry.

The British held off the attacks and got a stab at killing teh Irish general. They failed. I also sent in some cavalry against chariots that had recoiled into a marsh. In HOTT this chariot would be vulnerable and easy to kill, but in DBA it simply flees if it loses. I found that out when I double-checked the combat results.

A nice shot of the Irish general not dying.

The British general was surrounded and killed.

Some British cavalry broke through and sacked the Irish camp which, it turns out, still wasn't enough for a win.

The Irish got things together and destroyed more British horse, giving them the win.

It was a relatively close game. The Irish lost two chariots and their camp, whilst the British lost two cavalry (one the general) and a light horse. The Irish won 4g-3. The British foot did nothing.

For the second game the Saxons defended against a Pictish attack. The Saxons are nearly all warband, whilst the Picts are a core of fast pike-armed troops supported by light cavalry and psiloi.

Saxon warband in two ranks.

The Picts faced the Saxon foot with their own and put their horse on the flank to try an outflank the Saxon advance.

The Saxons charged with their main line and sent off their right flank to hold up the cavalry.

A brisk skirmish against the Saxon right flank saw the Picts hurled back.

The two infantry lines clashed. The solid Saxon warbands had the advantage here, but the deep Pictish pike-blocks were still dangerous opponents.

Indeed the first casualty was a Saxon warband. The lines shoved back and forth.

But soon the Saxon ferocity began to tell, and the Pictish line crumbled.

And collapsed. Their horse couldn't get over to the fight in time to stave off disaster.

The Saxons won 4-1. This was a second game lost because an army didn't coordinate their cavalry and their infantry. Make a note of that, kids.

The third game saw the Saxons defending against another attack, this time from teh Welsh. The Welsh are another warband army, but their warband are light and fast. They also have more psiloi and a cavalry general.

Although the attacker the Welsh adopted a defensive posture, using a hill and a hamlet to bolster their line.

The Saxons actually have a slight edge in a straight fight because their solid warband in draws against the Welsh equivalents. The Saxons charged ...

... and the Welsh were mostly pushed back. There's one exception in the foreground.

Indeed that was the flank where a Welsh warband destroyed a Saxon counterpart. This gave the Welsh a free element to use. And their advantage was that their warband are more mobile.

So as the Saxon centre drove the Welsh back through the hamlet, their right flank was now very vulnerable. And the Welsh general was leading his cavalry followers in an attack on the Saxon left.

As you'd expect, things were breaking up a fair bit as the various warband fights shoved back and forth.

The Welsh general in action. There's tidy!

The Saxon right was eliminated, but they were scoring kills in the centre.

The Saxon general was doing well, shoving back the opposition with great ferocity.

But the Welsh general got a kill ...

... as did some warband in the centre ...

... and over on the Welsh right their skirmishing archers prevailed over their Saxon opposite numbers.

The Saxon army saw a total collapse - the Welsh won 6-2!

The games were good fun, even if (having not played DBA for a while) I had to look lots of stuff up. It's very different from HOTT in many way.