Although not really a tournament player, I thought I’d give this one a go.
And I must admit I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
As I’ve always thought that Warbands are underrated, I turned up with a II/11 Gallic army.
(Early Cisalpainian Gauls: 2 x Cv, 3 x LCh, 6 x 4Wb, 1 x Ps, with aggression 3)
1st game was against Ian Payne’s Marian Romans.I lost the aggression roll and was the defender, with a fort, two large woods, and a road.
One wood was discarded due to lack of space, and the fort was touching my left table edge.
Because of the road, Ian chose the end opposite the fort with the large wood.
Both of us suffered badly from lack of PIPs throughout this engagement, although this affected
Ian more than myself as his forces ended up in 3 or 4 separate groups while I mostly kept mine
together in one lump edging towards my left.
So low was both our PIP rolls that the foot of both armies never even came into contact!
All the action was on my left between 4 Marian mounted and 3 Gallic mounted with Warband
columns providing overlaps, and the Threat Zone generated by the fort protecting my left.
A lucky combat roll killed the Marian Cavalry General and 2 mounted for a 4:0 win.
2nd game was against Mark Skelton’s Spartacus Slaves.Mark was defending with a difficult hill, a wood, and a fort, all down one end of the battlefield.
As the invader I chose the opposite end which was completely open.
The Slaves formed up their Hordes on their right and their Blades on their left, with a few foot
in the wood on their far left. I countered this with most of my mounted facing the Hordes and
my Warband columns facing the Blades, supported by the remaining mounted.
However...although I kept one of my Chariots back in echelon formation to protect my left
wing wing from being ‘hard flanked’, I forgot that the Hordes were fast 5Hd (doh!).
I’d put them just in range of a flanking Horde, and with just enough PIPs Mark was able to
sandwich them...one Chariot lost!
Now Mark is an expert at ‘Threat Zone pinning’, and at one point this Horde had 3 (!) of my
elements (all facing different directions due to recoils, backing up, and Ps fleeing) pinned!
In the centre a Gallic Warband column drove the Slave Warband+Ps column back and back
and back until they were well behind the Slave battleline before finally killing the Slave
Warband...but the Gallic Warband column next to them was also driven back and back and
back by a Blade+Blade column until it too was far in the rear of my battleline.
On my right was a complete mess, with one Blade and one Warband lost each, and the
remaining elements all over the place. I did get one Warband through his line to flank one
of the Blades, but it got driven back and back and back until it bumped into the Warband
column that had killed the Slave Warband, and with nowhere to run it was destroyed.
Unfortunately, due to low PIP rolls, we ran out of time, with a final score of 3:2 to the Slaves.
It would have been interesting to see how this would have played out had we had more time.
Mark only needed one more kill for an outright win, but I had just about eliminated all the
Hordes on my left freeing up 3 mounted/Ps elements ready to throw against his Blades
(if I ever got the PIPs to move them that is!).
Oh well...we will never know...
3rd game against John (Antigonus One Eye) Saunders’ Galatians.Another low PIP draw I’m afraid.
Again I was defending with a fort, two large woods, and a road, and John chose the end away
from the fort, even though that had all the woods hampering his deployment.
The Galatians had a Scythed Chariot in the centre...which I threatened with my Psiloi...but John
screened it by placing one of his two Blades in front of it (his other Blade was his General).
My Psiloi+Warband column attacked this Blade, and the Psiloi recoiled exposing the Warband.
This managed to kill the Blade, which in turn exposed his Scythed Chariot.
Fortunately (for me), my Warband, assisted by some mutual side contacts, managed to destroy it.
The rest of the battle was just low PIP pushing and shoving, and the final score was a 2:2 draw
(the Scythed Chariot not counting of course).
4th game was against Tom Savill’s Syracusians.Despite my fairly high aggression, yet again I was the defender with a fort, two large woods, and
a road. Actually, this ‘misfortune’ of mine turned out to be a bit of luck, as it deprived Tom of the
Waterway his Littoral Syracusians were hoping for.
He chose the open side of the battlefield, leaving me with the two woods, even though this meant
that the table-edge fort was in his half of the table.
As the Syracusians deployed in two Hoplite groups, with a gap between them so their Artillery
could shoot, with all their mounted in reserve, I sent most of my mounted to delay his right wing
Hoplites (where even if doubled they’ll only flee instead of being destroyed) and concentrated
my Warband columns against his left wing Hoplites.
A sudden sally from the fort into his left wing flank resulted in a 4:0 win for the Gauls.
ConclusionTwo outright wins, and two drawn battles...not bad (although luck did play its part on occasion).
Note that although I deliberately chose an army with high aggression, I ended up defending in
3 out of 4 games! This meant I had to use my horribly made and badly painted fortress along
these lines: see fanaticus.boards.net/post/13722/
No one attempted to assault my table-edge fort, and it did sometimes force my opponent to
chose the cramped deployment base-edge to avoid it, or risk a sudden sally from the fort.
So, it may not be a battle winner, but it does have its uses...I'd like to thank everybody for such an enjoyable day with a great bunch of people...
...and I look forward to next year’s event (especially as I have now bought a beautiful
ready-made pre-painted barbarian fortress...and lots more Jaffa cakes!)
Some Helpful Downloads can be found here: fanaticus-dba.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Reference_sheets_and_epitomes
And here is the latest Jan 2019 FAQ: fanaticus-dba.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ_2019_1st_Quarter
