PAWS Spring DBA 2023

Bon voyage, gentlemen. Et bon chance.

Any survivors?  (Apart from Connor.)

Not sure how I should take this

I took spear-laden Phoenicians. Having rarely placed terrain for a few tournaments, I reckoned on defending quite a bit and so it was!

First Colin’s Phillistines…with littoral Phoenician allies. Plenty of terrain next to the waterway and a tiny marsh ahead of my left flank.
Colin’s two heavy chariots and a spear landing party frightened my landing away…
My spears trudged forward, but had to wheel right to prevent their right from being outflanked in a light troop face off in a large marsh. This forced half of my spears and the mounted to find a way around the left of the tiny marsh. Colin had far fewer PIPs than I, but made them count. With the timer looming I charged my left flank in, not being overly happy with the situation, but my luck was in and I came out the better of combat, particularly surviving a hard flank from sallying camp followers…

Next John’s Assyrians. A psiloi skirmish in front of a marsh on my front left flank was to and fro until my spears caught up: fleeing enemy psiloi and destroying auxilia. The Assyrian chariots were left with no option, but to charge, but my spear line held up! To say the Assyrians were not lucky in combat would be an under statement.

Third, Connor’s beautiful unadulterated Philistines. Spears faced off in the centre, mounted clashing on the right, with one of my psiloi filling in in a small marsh. I thought the game was going to be lost on the left where two enemy auxilia closed on two of my psiloi in….another marsh! My psiloi despatched both, albeit by one of them effectively throwing themselves under the enemy general’s wheels…Spears clashed for ages in the centre and my heavy chariot recklessly pursued light chariot prey down the right, frequently having to save hard flanking…

Final group game against Phil’s Midianites. His weaker foot lined up to face mine, whilst his camelry massed on his left to stage an outflanking manoeuvre. Cohesion and more PIPs allowed my spear to advance and to their thing, whilst the rest of my army frustrated the camels on my right.

I’ll save more until results are published…

Out of interest which armies were used please?

Thank you, some of us spectators eagerly follow these competition posts and like to read which armies were in play and how they fair against other armies.🙂

My first game was against Andrew with his Egyptians. Our spear and chariots were a stalemate, but I was able to get decent pips and re-jig the line to send some of my spears to destroy his archers. After this I could wrap the line and secured a 4-0 win.

Second game was against Phil with the Midiante. I sent Goliath out front on his chariot issuing challenges to any psiloi brave enough to fight him. Fortunately there weren't any Davids or Elhanans amongst the slingers and the psiloi were run down in droves. Phil's camels destroyed multiple chariots on the opposite flank but the rest of his lighter army folded before my frilly hats. 4-2 to me.

Game 3 was against Martin with the Phoenecians. Terrain formed a funnel between two marshes and the waterway. I rushed forward to prevent a break out. Unfortunately for me when my Auxilia attempted to hunt down the Phoenecian Psiloi they had the tables turn on them. Goliath took vengeance on some of the slingers (still no David or Elhanan) but on the opposite flank a heavy chariot drove one of my light chariots all the way back into my camp, fending off a flank attack to boot, and left my army open to envelopment. 4-1 loss

Game 4 was against John and the Neo-Assyrians. It was my turn to be pinned between a bottleneck (steep hills) and two ones for early pip rolls meant I couldn't expand out of it. John's heavy chariots were happy to take advantage and easily smashed my lighter chariots to ribbons, killing Goliath in the opening salvo (pick on someone your own size, say the Neo-Assyrians). Their impetuousness drew the heavy chariots into the ravine where they were surrounded and killed. I very nearly reclaimed the game (it was 3 all at this point) but without my general I knew I would lose a slow slogging match. I decided to go for a 4-3 uphill quick-kill, but it left me open to a return quick kill. Unsurprisingly it backfired and I lost 5-3

Game 5 was against Paddy and the Medians. It was a close run game. His cavalry were surrounding my chariots on one flank as I hunted archers through a ruined temple (edifice) on the other. Unfortunately (for me) Paddy's general was able to fight their way out of a pincer move which was my last my chance to seal the deal before the chariots came apart. 4-2 to Paddy.