And on to the third game. Geof Scott (who was introduced to me as "Scottie") had come over and watched our last game. Now Mike suggested that Scottie give it a go with someone who knew the rules (well, kinda!). Anyway, Scottie and I squared off, me with 100 Years War English and he with Italian Condotta.

The table was set up with a river running north/south along the eastern side of the field, with a road running in a curve from the north west corner to the south east, around a hill in the centre, crossing the river at a ford.

Scottie was the defender, so he deployed first at the north end of the table, with his knights on his left, foot in the centre along the road and his light horse on the other side of the ford. I placed my two knights facing his on the eastern flank (my right), my bows double ranked (this makes them more effective in their shooting) in the centre across from the rest of his knights, with the rest of my foot (dismounted knights) and an artillery piece (a very cool looking bombard) on my left wing right behind the hill.

As I was the invader, I rushed forward to seize the crest of the hill (a definite tactical advantage), whilst Scottie moved most of his line knights into the range of my shooters. It was at this point that the artillery piece actually did something useful (a rare event in DBA in my experience, as they can be hard to use - only shooting in your opponents bound (turn), and then only if you didn't move it in your previous bound). It picked off one of Scotties crossbow elements first shot.

Meanwhile, the bows pushed back his knights sot that I could engage his general with my own knights (including my general) whilst he was overlapped by my bows. I managed to push him back, and so I followed up, bringing my bows back into range with the rest of Scotties knights. A second round of shooting pushed back two of his knights and finally destroyed a third, whilst my knights again were able to push back Scotties general and his sidekick.

Whilst all this was happening on the eastern flank, in the centre, my dismounted men-at-arms (blades) had gained the crest of the hill, and engaged Scotties spears and auxilia (light troops). With the up slope advantage, the blades made short work of the auxilia, and his remaining spears were pushed back further down the hill.

With things starting to go badly for the Condotta, I prepared for my coup de grace. And then...my ride arrived, so I had to shoot through!

This was Scotties first DBA game, and to be fair, he had bad luck with his PIP dice (Player Initiative Points - the dice roll that determines the number of groups or single elements that you are allowed to move during your turn). He wasn't able to move his light horse into my flank and rear, which would have presented me with some difficulty to counter. Ah well Scottie, better luck next time!

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