Cannes 2006 DBM tournament report
Game 1
vs Later Pre-Islamic Arabs
The famous - and immense – LPIA faced my New Kingdom Egyptians in game 1. (see pics of my Egyptians here) This was likely to be tough, as the army was similar to mine, with bows, blades and decent mounted stuff, but also a lot bigger.
| My Map
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Attacking on a relatively clear table, but with some rocky ground sat in the middle of the Arabs rear, I at least had the advantage in deployment – and with the LPIA opting for mixed Bd/Cm commands, they were in quite a quandary – deploy the camels too close to the front and they become a target for my bowmen, deploy the Bd (I) and they attract my chariotry, deploy the bowmen and my blades will be in there.
The table allowed me to practically fill it, and with the advantage of deplotying 2nd I had the matchups I initially wanted. The Arabs opted to keep the camels in reserve (ie hiding) and some good first pip dice saw me lurch convincingly across the board in a coherent solid line of troops – somehow my army was looking the larger of the two!
The competition had a secondary aspect – "Forward The Guards!" where each player nominated 3-8 identical elements from, the CinC’s command to act as the "Guards", and there was a special prize on offer for the player who’s Gardes (& CinC) killed the most enemy in combat. The LPIAs decision to deploy some bowmen to the front also gave my Gardes a fantastic target, and they raced out of the blocks towards the Bw (O).
The Arabs trickily attempted the "LH windscreen wiper" to avoid excessive casualties from my many bowmen, with several elements of LH fleeing back and forth across the front of their lines. This always seems a dead clever tactic….right up until the point the LH either get caught, or ...
...even worse - are forced to flee through their own lines due to some judicious pinning and intervening by and aggressively advancing enemy.
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On the right my lone LH (F) was doing a sterling job, putting paid to the rumours of the demise of the lone LH skirmish screen and holding off many Lh (I). |
As the amount of Arab territory shrank inexorably, their ability to keep out of the way reduced accordingly, as did the number of bowmen & blades fighting my blade (F) Guards.
Eventually they ran out of both time and willing bodies, and the game was over, 3-0 to the Egyptians!
Next.....
The Technical Stuff - Post Match Analysis and Hammy-tastic Graphs
