Cannes 2006 DBM tournament report
Game 2
Following a lunch of fresh seafood tagliatelli in a delightful beachside restaurant, washed down with a couple of bottles of chilled Rose wine nicely set me up for the afternoon – and a good job too, as inside it was straight back to Blighty, as I was drawn against a textbook (ish) Patrician with a slightly off-piste Arab ally.
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The table had some difficult going, and a couple of orchards placed by me to disrupt the Romans, leaving a fairly clear central area. I expected to see some blades and knights deployed here, and auxilia holding the rough areas so my plan was to rush up in deep formation, pinning the auxilia into the rough whilst overwhelming any main strike force through clever exchanging of my bows, blades and chariots in the middle. |
However the Romans managed to out-fox me with a total refusal on most of the table, ganging up their auxilia – and eventually also their 8 Kn F – into one corner. Opposing the main body I had a under strength command, who’s clever idea was 4 Ps (O) to hold the rough.
I needed to push the Roman & Arab LH off the table at a pace, not only to score casualties but also to keep pressure on the Roman pips in the important part of the table – but the tricky Romans kept exactly in step with their allies, and failed to create any small skirmisher groups that I would be able to close against with the new march rules.
Soon Auxilia were expanding on my far right, and the poor Ps (O) looked set to be overwhelmed.
The command was severely stretched, with its chariots pinning the Romans in the rough going and then facing off a line of knights & LH, daring them to come into Overlap City – especially as they would have to shuffle into the DGo as well to confirm to my line. However this left just 6 bowmen and 3 blades to fight off the Roman left hook…now reinforced by the KnF.
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The bowmen were forced into a desperate scramble, separating into single elements, often at odd angles as they wished they were 25mm troops so that they would be able to move sideways in multiples of complete base widths. |
The situation called for stout hearts and no recoils.
But then some shock results on this flank started to hammer the Egyptians – who had already rashly committed the LH(F) into a double overlapped Kn, and lost it, severely weakening the small command. Another unlikely pushback and the Romans had a killer opportunity – a pair of Cv (S) suffered a 6-1 result and the survivor was recoiled into 3 Bw (O) – he was pursued by a KnF with a supporting LH
– he rolled, he dies, and suddenly 4 elements have exploded in a single combat, leaving the command teetering on the brink, and my flank flapping in the wind.
By now however the Egyptian bowmen were starting to make mincemeat of the roman refused flank they had nailed a general, and many, many single elements were scattered and the Arabs were flat against the table edge.
Just in the nick of time they rolled a massive 5 pips – enough to column up and scarper away in front of the baggage and away from danger and certain death.
But this could not save the Roman LH – they collapsed, exposing the flanks of the central Kn F block and initiating a swirling mass of combat between chariots, bowmen, blades as the Romans fought to exploit the opportunity to their front whilst shoring up an evaporating flank.
Even the Roman bowmen were sucked into the battle as the Egyptians closed in on the baggage.
The Egyptians were now fighting in an isolated pocket – they had collapsed on their right totally, but the two largest commands were still intact, and had formed a redoubt almost on the Roman base edge, as the Roman mounted left wing turned its attention to them. With both armies on the brink, the battered Egyptians were – just – the first to collapse under the weight of battle fatigue and casualties. 0-3 to the Romans.
The Technical Stuff - Post Match Analysis and Hammy-tastic Graphs
