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Cold Wars 2018 DBA Events - Open and Early Byzantine  [RSS] Share on facebook Share on Twitter Submit to Reddit
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Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut




Maryland

I'll be updating this thread as each AAR appears on my blog.

Since DBA is one of my 6x6 Challenge games (you can read more about that here), I decided to attend both of the DBA event at Cold Wars 2018. The first was an open event on Friday, and the second was an Early Byzantine event on Saturday.

I decided, for the sake of convinience, to just take the army I had built for the Early Byzantine event on both days - the Avars, or more specifically, III/13b.



This list consisted of 5 units of Cavalry (one of which was the General), 4 units of Auxilia, 2 units of Light Horse, and a unit of Psiloi. Nothing spectacular, but I thought it was a decent mix of average and relatively mobile choices.

This was a trial by fire, since my previous experience with DBA had been a single solo game I had played to try and get a rudimentary understanding of the rules before the convention.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
My first opponent in the Open Event was Mike D, who had brought along his Warring States Chinese.



As I won the roll for Attacker, Mike set up the battlefield with two plough, a road, and a gentle hill.



Both our lines advanced towards each other.



Unfortunately, rather ignorant of DBA's combat factors, and coming from ADLG, I didn't realize just how much the fighting favored Mike's crossbows compared to my cavalry. While I managed to kill one unit, I lost a unit in return, and my own line was disrupted.



The game quickly ended as another round of shooting from Mike's crossbow was enough to kill two more units (one of which was my General) ending the game with a 4-1 victory to the Chinese.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2018/03/27 13:31:34


   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut




Maryland

My second game in the open event was against Terry, who had brought his Medieval Germans.



I won the roll for attacker, and Terry put down two plough, a difficult hill, and a road.




My advancing line was fractured thanks to all the firepower Terry's Germans had. Meanwhile, my Light horse had managed to pull two Knight Hordes and a Light Horse away.



However, that didn't help much, as I lost both units of Light Horse and an additional two units of Cavalry, in exchange for a single Knight Horde. This ended the game with Terry's win, 4-2.

   
Made in us
Battlefield Tourist




MN (Currently in WY)

I really like the size of a DBA/DBM game compared to other games of ancients.

Thank you for sharing.

Support Blood and Spectacles Publishing:
https://www.patreon.com/Bloodandspectaclespublishing 
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut




Maryland

 Easy E wrote:
I really like the size of a DBA/DBM game compared to other games of ancients.

Thank you for sharing.


Thanks for reading!

If you like this sized game, I'd suggest checking out Triumph by the Washington Grand Company. I got the chance to take part in an open event, and had a lot of fun. It's definitely DBx based, but with better writing and a more diverse range of units and actual army building. It also doesn't get much larger in size - the playing field is about 2x3, and most armies are 12-20 units of DBx sized basing. Oh, and the game uses a card deck to determine terrain!

   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut




Maryland

My third game in the Open Even was against Mike G, the event organizer, and his Qaramita. This brought back memories from last year, when Chris and I played in a double tournament for ADLG using the Ancient Bedouins, with our goal being to get as many camels on the table as possible.



Once again, I won the roll for attacker and Mike set up the table. He placed down three dunes and a difficult hill.



I could only watch as the massive line of camels came towards me, completely unhindered by the dunes.



I was basically stuck trying to fight three battles - one in the center, and two in each of the dunes. Thanks to the distances between the dunes, I was overlapped in multiple places and lost a stand of auxilia.



I then lost a unit of cavalry, which left my general exposed.



While I managed to get another unit of cavalry up to support my general, Mike began to turn my left flank, removing another stand of auxilia.



And, finally, Mike caused another of my cavalry units to rout, ending the game with a solid 4-0 victory to the Qarmatians.

   
Made in gb
[MOD]
Villanous Scum







Good reads, made me realise how much I miss DBA. Gonna have to break out my Alexandrian Macedonians this weekend.

On parle toujours mal quand on n'a rien à dire. 
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut




Maryland

 ingtaer wrote:
Good reads, made me realise how much I miss DBA. Gonna have to break out my Alexandrian Macedonians this weekend.


Awesome! Alexandrian Macedonians feels like another of those classic armies that I'll have to get a matched pair with. I've currently got Ancient British/Early Imperial Romans and Anglo-Saxons/Vikings. I'm also planning on doing Spartans/Athenians.

   
Made in us
Krazed Killa Kan






State of Jefferson

What scale is that? Where do I find rules for DBA?
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut




Maryland

 doktor_g wrote:
What scale is that? Where do I find rules for DBA?


All of these games are 15mm, and in the US you can find the rules here.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/04/08 00:56:01


   
Made in gb
[MOD]
Villanous Scum







 infinite_array wrote:
 ingtaer wrote:
Good reads, made me realise how much I miss DBA. Gonna have to break out my Alexandrian Macedonians this weekend.


Awesome! Alexandrian Macedonians feels like another of those classic armies that I'll have to get a matched pair with. I've currently got Ancient British/Early Imperial Romans and Anglo-Saxons/Vikings. I'm also planning on doing Spartans/Athenians.


It is a nice pairing with Persians. I have Ancient Brits, Athenians and Marian Romans myself. Took my Macedonians for a spin and got thoroughly flattened by feudal Japanese, Polynesians and Celtiberians! My first time playing V.3 and I have to say I like it allot, though the new camp rules I found difficult to keep in my mind.

On parle toujours mal quand on n'a rien à dire. 
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut




Maryland

Good to hear that you like v3! It's my first experience with the game, and it seemed pretty fun, even while I was getting thoroughly smashed.

As for the next AAR:

In the last game of the Open Event, I faced Mike D and his Warring States Chinese again.



As the attacker, I watched as Mike placed down two plough, two difficult hills, and a river. I decided to set up so that the river would split our armies in two.



Both sides advances cautiously, now aware of the other's capabilities after the result of the first game.



I decided to push on the right, hoping I had the advantage against Mike's troops. However, I only managed to recoil his line.



On the next turn, I swung my main line into battle, and removed one of Mike's crossbowmen.



While our lines pushed and shoved each other, Mike removed an auxilia from my right.



In one desperate push, the game ended. I lost a light horse and a cavalry from my right flank. On my left, however, I not only managed to sack Mike's camp, but I also killed his general, a unit of blades, and a unit of light horse. The Avars secured their first victory, 6-3.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/04/13 12:56:07


   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut




Maryland

Alright, that's the Open Event done with. Now on to the Themed Event!

On the morning of my second day at Cold Wars 2018, I took part in a Themed Event for DBA, based around the Early Byzantines and their enemies. As I had the previous day, I used the III/13b Avars list, with its mix of Cavalry, Light Horse, Auxilia, and Psiloi.

My first opponent was Nick and his Italian Ostrogoths.



Nick placed two plough, an enclosure (the green field), and a wood on the table.



While my line shuffled forward, Nick used his pips to maneuver his knights from column to line. I decided to try and reach Nick's camp with my two light horse for an early point.



That, however, turned out to be a terrible idea, as Nick was able to simply force both units of the table with his psiloi.



The shooting from the Ostrogoths was then able to break my line into unmanageable chunks, and a poor combat saw one of my cavalry units fall to an opposing unit of knights.



The game ended when Nick was able to overlap my cavalry, removing it from the table and winning 4-0. Apparently I hadn't learned much from the previous day!

   
Made in gb
Regular Dakkanaut





Scotland

Nice reports. Was an interesting read.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/04/19 18:37:57


 
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut




Maryland

Thanks for checking them out.

The second game of the Themed Event was against Mike G and his Later Sassanid Persians.



Finally, someone else managed to win the initiative roll, and so I became the defender. I chose two gentle hills, two brush, and a BUA.



Unfortunately, due to the BUA's location, I was unable to deploy my full line, which caused a couple traffic jams as Mike's army approached.



With a lucky roll for pips, however, I was able to get most of my own units up and ready for combat. Mike's movement stopped just short of combat.



Then, with a resounding crash of metal, men, and mounts, the two battlelines smashed into each other. With so many combats, Mike and I decided it was likely that this turn would be the last.

And as it turned out, it was! While Mike was able to knock out two of my units, I took out four of his, and so won 4-2.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/04/26 14:10:31


   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut




Maryland

The final game of the Themed Event was against Mike D and his loaned Middle Frankish.



Mike won the roll for attacker, and so I placed two gentle hills, a brush, and a river.



Of course, Mike chose to invade on the opposite side parallel to the river, so I decided to slowly send a psiloi around my force to see what the river was.



With a bit of scouting, the psiloi discovered that the river was paltry and wouldn't offer any protection, so the Avars finally got themselves moving.



Of course, my delaying allowed Mike enough time to prepare his lines. In hindsight, I should have gotten across the river and charged Mike's slower infantry force when his army was still condensed.



This meant that when my Avars went in, it wasn't going to go well for me in terms of match-ups - as it turns out, Cavalry and Auxilia don't do so well against Knights and Spears. In the first round of combat I lost two units.



While I was able to sack Mike's camp (as he was too focused on the battle in the center of the table), my line continued to break up, as I lost another auxilia.



I took out another unit, but Mike had a crushing round of combat, routing multiple units from the battlefield. Victory went to the Franks, 6-2.

And that conclude all the AARs from Cold Wars (about a month and a half after it ended). I really appreciated all these games, which were quite enjoyable, thanks in no small part to my opponents! I'm looking forward to getting more games of DBA on the table, especially since I have a couple of paired sets of armies that should work well against each other.

   
Made in us
Battlefield Tourist




MN (Currently in WY)

Cheers! Thanks for sharing!

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https://www.patreon.com/Bloodandspectaclespublishing 
   
 
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