The Battle for the Valley With No Name

Had a 100AP DBM game with Dave Wallace a couple of weeks back. Polys vs. Carts. Down to the wire, but once I had 'barkered' his general the writing was pretty much on the wall...

The Armies

The Field of Battle

4 foot board, two steep hills on my left (one in the south ('north' being top of the board, from my perspective) corner), one more or less in the middle, a wood in the north west corner and a gentle hill on my right, in the centre, opposite the second H(S). There was enough of a gap between these two centre hils for a four element group, side by side.

Deployment

Deployed my Hastati and Princeps (Bd's) double ranked, with the Triari (Sp) elements at the east of both lines, with the Equites (Cav) in the rear, LH on the right, and lights on the left flank behind the steep hill. Dave put his cav in the centre, LH to the West, Sp and elephant block just behind the gentle hill with Skirmishers (Ps) to the east of them.

And so it begins...

Dave threw away his mobility by taking on my blades in the centre with his cav. Made sense I guess - theory being that his Sp were at a disadvantage to my blades, but the cav were a match, factor wise. More than a match, in fact, with his mounted general thrown in. He moved his Sp/El block forward, across the gentle hill and took up position at it's edge. I kept it at bay with my LH...no way was I going to take on an up hill, double ranked spear block with an elephant in the middle!

In the meantime I had come forward between the two central hills, seperating the two heavy foot lines as I came forward. I secured the flank of my front Bd line up against the steep hill and supported it with the Ax and Ps on top of the hill. I moved the Ax forward so that it's Zone Of Control extended in front of the end of the front heavies line. This prevented Dave's Gallic cav waiting on the wing, so to speak, from joining his advancing Cv line - it would have crossed the front of my Ax, stopping it in it's tracks. Wasn't about to go into an Ax sitting up hill on Rough Going now was it?!

So one end of my Bd line had an overlap to begin with. Managed to envelop his end cav both flank and front with the Bd's, but the my front Bd element got cut down, and the flanking one bounced. Another died down the line too, but I was able to bring up re-enforcements from my second heavy foot line that was waiting patiently behind.

In the meantime the flanking element took on Dave's victorious cav (a stand). But hah! I had forced his element to turn with his back to his general's flank. In rolled the re-enforcements...one into the flank of his turned cav element which promptly died in the ensuing combat, taking his general with him. Huzzah!

After that, it was just a matter of time - I chased down another cav with the spear at the end of the front line, caught a Ps (that was rushing across the field to take on my lights on the steep hill) front and flank with my front line Bd's, and worked round my heavy infantry into the rear of Dave's heavies block (and I mean heavy - that elephant was mennacing in between double ranked spears). But not before the El had managed to come off the hill and cut down my other Sp element...and my Light Horse came pretty close a couple of times to saying good night [nurse] too! Smelly elephant...

My own Cv (including my general) danced around in front of the elephant, taking cues from the danger that the LH got exposed to and making sure that they kept out of the big beasties reach. Did try to work my mounted around the eastern edge of the hill towards the end, but Dave brought round his Gallic cav and closed the gap. So all in all, my cav just sat, danced and watched.

With the loss of Dave's general, even though he passed the initial rally test (rolled more on his next Pip dice than elements lost), he was pretty much hamstrung for Pip's (every move now requiring an extra Pip - general out of contact, you understand). And elephants are hard enough to use at the best of times. In fact, a couple of bounds towards the end he couldn't do anything at all...and so my Bd's on the hill finally managed to catch up with Dave's Sp. Only one was able to turn to face - overlapped vs. Bd uphill...well, at least it was quick.

Conclusion

Overall, a very interesting game. Dave took a gamble, but came off second best. By putting his slow moving heavies on the wing I was able to take on the cav in the centre without much fear of having my flanks swamped...well, at short notice anyway. Taking one bit of his army at a time, that kind of thing...still, by the way my Bd's were dropping to his initial cav assault, it could have easily gone the other way...

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