DBM 5 June Alexander v Asoka

Another practice game for Anderida, this time allowing Andy and James' Macedonians to have a go against a Classical Indian army from 270BC (the Mauryas under Asoka). The Macedonians had thinned out their cavalry command a bit, and had massed their light troops on their right and left flanks respectively. Phalanx and Artillery held the centre. The Indians had a soft centre of cavalry, chariots, light horse and expendables (which was pretty much impervious to pike). Each flank had superior bow, war wagons, elephants and some light troops.

The battle opened with the expendables destructing on the phalanx and James' knights setting off abortively towards the centre, only to retreat from bow fire and the elephant threat. That flank put the Macedonian horse under heavy pressure - they retreated throughout the game and were one element from breaking at 11pm when we stopped. In the centre, the phalanx advanced but found it hard to get to grips with the Indian cavalry. On our right, the Macedonian auxilia cheerfully presented themselves to be shot at by our bow for most of the game, never daring to attack. Throughout all this Alexander and his companion cavalry sat at the back. Perhaps things would have been different had he been true to his historical nature.
;-)

So, a 5 - 5 draw when we stopped. Another fun game.

DBM Aztecs v Anglo-Saxons 16 May

The second practice outing for the Aztecs, this time against another 'extreme' army (and winner of the 'Daftest Army' award at Anderida a couple of years back) - Kieron's Middle Angl0-Saxons. This was perhaps the first DBM game we've played in which no cavalry whatsoever appeared on the battlefield.



For the Aztecs, we fielded a smaller army than for the first outing, keeping the allied Bow command but maximising the Blades and adding the Fast Warband option. We deployed with the Warbands on our left flank, the Blades holding the centre and the allied Bow on the right. Kieron and James' deployment saw TF guarding the flanks, and, err, a big line of Spear across the table.

Both armies advanced. Our Bow shot a fair few enemy dead. The main infantry clash in the centre saw inconclusive pushing between Spear and Blade, but the Warband proved deadly - the Wb(S) (the elite 'Cuachic' warriors, see photo) cutting through the Saxon lines and breaking a command. At the time we opted to stop the Saxons were half an element off a second command breaking (and hence the army) and 3 elements of any command off breaking the army.

So a reasonably conclusive victory for Montezuma. But we won't get used to it - the Saxons are probably the best possible set of match-ups for the Aztecs. And no one would possibly be mad enough to take such an army to Anderida...
:-)

DBM: Aztecs vs Alexander - 13 March

Our first game of DBM for the year saw us testing our Anderida armies much earlier than usual. We went for an extreme version of the Aztecs - two large commands of hordes, an ally consisting of massed bow and a final stronger command of blade and warband. Alexander's had two heavy infantry commands plus one mounted command.

Alexander invaded, and at this point the Aztecs noticed that they couldn't place any rough going. Ooops. Still a couple of woods went down - nicely giving Alexander's army an anchor for a flank protected by auxilia. Meanwhile the Aztecs deployed in a historical manner with the hordes on the flanks and the tougher stuff in the middle. The Aztec deployment covered the width of the board. Alexander's just over half with an incoming flank march.

And so it began - first roll and the flank march arrives! No time for the hordes to react - they suddenly start to face knights, cavalry and light horse on their flank. It took a while, but the hordes didn't stand a chance and over the course of the game were completely annihilated!

The hordes on the other flank were unopposed and charged towards the woods and auxilia in the hope of breaking through and turning the pike block. It took most of the game for them to get there and although they had superior numbers (by about 3 times) their lesser fighting capability meant that a breakthrough wouldn't happen fast enough. They were joined by the Aztec heavy command (backing away from a toe to toe confrontation with the superior pike). In the middle the ally bow command desperately tried to turn and face the oncoming mounted threat (as it piled through the horde). In doing to they exposed their flank to a devastating artillery attack and came very close to breaking.

By the end of the game it was an easy 6-4 for Alexander. Another turn (or maybe two) and it would have been 10-0.

So what did we learn about Aztecs?

• they look nice
• masses of hordes can be annoying for opponents, but in the end they died
  
• the horde command was too slow to take advantage of the refused flank
• their strongest troops look mediocre against pike and knights
• if we want to take advantage of the numerical advantage we need to do more than cover the entire frontage
  
• protect the bow from artillery

That said it maybe wasn't the best test. Alexander's army was lucky in terrain, flank march and some of the early fighting. However they deployed well and took advantage of their opportunities. Unfortunately having our large horde command struck in the flank on bound 2 by knights doesn't give us the best test of the effectiveness of massed hordes (I doubt many stronger troops would have fared too well under the circumstances).

Still it was good to get back to DBM - especially as I missed Anderida last year.