Late Imperial Romans v Early Franks

We played a really enjoyable game today that, although it was a decisive result, really came to the wire in terms of what was going to happen.

My opponent took a Frankish list with:
WbG, 7xWb, 2xBw, Ps

I took a Late Imperial Roman West army so that I could use my newly painted Foederati knights and skirmishers along with my Romans.  My list was:
CvG, Cv, 2xLH, Kn, 2xBd, 3xAx, 2xPs

As I got to be the defender I set up a largely open board with just the one lot of bad going - a woods bisected by a road and some gentle hills.  The Franks chose to have the edge with the woods in their deployment zone and put their camp behind it.  I set up in a single long line.  The Franks set up in three groups with their archers on my left facing my Cv and Kn, so I swapped my Cv and Kn to my right side in exchange for 2xBd.

(Click pictures to embiggen)

Kamikaze Psiloi: Romans 0 - Franks 1

Rather stupidly, when I got lots of pips on my first turn, I did the Psiloi Dash all the way up the Wb in the woods and charged them.  Now this was plainly idiotic, but my thinking was that Wb can't kill Ps so I'll be able to annoy him and draw him out of the woods.  Which is all well and good until his turn when he does a double move to flank my Ps and kill it on the recoil.  Sigh... I'm sure that I'd be a much better DBA player if I didn't keep trying to be so clever.

Romans being Romans, barbarians being barbarians

Feeling chastened by the senseless loss of my Ps, I was much more sensible for the rest of the game.  I keep pacing my army forward.  On my left the Bw and Wb came out to meet me but their shooting failed to do anything useful.  On the right I sent my LH for an end-run around to threaten his camp, hoping to disrupt his lines a bit.

We have strategery on tap

The Franks sent their Ps back to intercept my LH, keeping their toes in the woods.  My LH moved to block his ZOC so that the rear of the two units would have some options next turn.  My Cv and Kn moved right, hoping to be able to get the Kn into the Wb which had come out of the woods.  My three Ax attacked the Frankish Bw but only managed to recoil them both.  On the left I got myself into a tangle, wheeling my Bd so far that it was hard to extricate them from the ZOC of the leftmost Wb unit and forming a potential obstacle to my Ax if it had to recoil.

Boing!

The next few turns saw lots of combat but no results.  My Ax traded recoils back and forth with his Bw.  In the centre his WbG began driving my Ax back despite being double overlapped by my other Ax and my CvG.  On the right my Kn charged his Wb in the open with a flank from my LH but they must have packed their rubber lances today.

One chance in 36.  Romans 0 - Franks 2

In an act of lunacy, the Frankish Wb on the right charged my Kn and to my surprise killed it with a 6-1 roll!  Oh dear.  The back and forth between my Ax and Bw continued on the left with the Romans being unable to make anything of repeated 3-2 and 3-1 combats.  In the centre the WbG continued to push back my Ax while my CvG beside him got stuck against the Wb.

Romans 1 - Franks 2

Still my Ax on the left were unable to buy a win.  In the centre my Cv lined up beside my CvG to give the overlap on the Frankish Wb who were finally killed.

A rush of blood to the head

The bad guy got 6 pips and after a moment of thought put into place a risky yet fiendish plan.  His Bw moved back from my Ax and the adjacent Wb unit made a double move to attack the Ax.  The Wb behind his WbG also made a double move and retreated, turned and flanked my CvG which was also attacked by the Wb in front of it.  The situation before we rolled any dice was as above.  His General has no room to recoil and is in a 4-3 combat in his favour.  My General has been flanked and is in a 1-3 combat to my favour.  Here's what happened:

A rush of blood to the neck.  Romans 2G - Franks 3G

Against the odds, both Generals were recoiled and killed.  On the left my Ax again recoiled his Bw and the Wb vs Ax fight was a tie.  The Romans were demoralized by seeing their General trapped and killed and fled the battlefield with head hung low.

Post-game thoughts:

1. My kamikaze Psiloi move lost me the game.  If I hadn't been 1 unit down already, the game would have been tied up at 2G-2G each and we would have continued.  Plus I would have had some Ps backup for my Ax, leading them to kill those pesky Bw.  I really don't what I was thinking...
2. Speaking of Ps, what was I thinking??  My other Ps just sat there all game, forgotten and lonely.  I could have moved through the Bd and given support to my Ax.
3. I should have been more aggressive with my Bd.  I've had some bad experiences in the past with my Bd being killed by Wb but the odds are with the Bd especially when I would have had the overlap on the left if I'd cared to take it.
4. Finally a game where I didn't recklessly waste my LH. I was very unlucky with them and my Kn, first to recoil from a flanking 3-1 combat, then to lose my Kn to a 3-2 combat.  Dem's da breaks!
5. It was a really fun game with both sides fighting in what I think were historically appropriate ways.

Middle Imperial Romans vs Suevi

This was my third game of DBA.  I didn't take any pictures of my second game, which is a shame because I can remember that I played poorly but I can't remember why.  All that I can recall is that I got split up into lots of tiny groups which were isolated and killed by the barbarians, and I was using Western instead of Eastern M.I.R. with Bw and Art, which I had no real idea of how to use effectively.  So let us move on.

I was playing II/64b Middle Imperial Romans again, with Ps instead of Art and Ax instead of Bw:
3CvG, 3Cv, 2x2LH, 3Bd, 3x4Bd, 3x4Ax, 2Ps

My opponent was playing II/72c Suevi:
3KnG, 8x4Wb, 2x3Bw, 2Ps

Here's the board: (click pictures to embiggen)

Some hills in each deployment zone, a wood in the top left of the picture, a road running from left to right, and a river running across the board between the armies.  The river has two fords, one where the road is and one right in front of those LH units.  We agreed that the fords would count as roads.

I set up my Ax in column on the road, thinking I might be able to sprint them across the ford and form a line over the river.  I planned to dash across the other ford with my LH, flank the mass of Wb and slow them down and give my Bd and Cv time to dismantle the Suevi at their leisure.  My opponent faced off against my Bd with his Wb, opposed my Ax with more Wb, and deployed across from the woods with the Bw and Ps.

This is what happened next:

 I kept rolling poorly for pips so he beat me to the river in all three spots.  I re-deployed the Ax to the shelter of the woods, diverted the Cv to threaten the Wb, and tried to slowly form a line with my Bd and Ps, while screening them with the LH.  You'll see that the Ps is in front of the Bd.  The idea was that the Wb would crash into them, recoil them to a support position, follow-up, and in my turn be destroyed.  Oh if only.  Meanwhile, my Ax narrowly avoided another recoil disaster, with fractions of a millimeter separating them from the angled element behind.

 My Ax finally overlapped and killed a Bw in the woods, so I diverted an Ax to get an extra overlap with the Cv against the Wb on the ford.  Now that my Bd line is established, I scoot my LH across the river.  My opponent rolled poorly for pips and was expending them all trying to rescue his remaining Bw and Ps in the woods so the river crossing stalled.  Too many columns perhaps?

Right about now I thought I had it in the bag.  I'd just killed the other Bw and got all my Ax together to pursue the lone Ps.  My Cv had only recoiled the Wb on the ford and the river had prevented me from closing the door on them, and it would be prohibitively expensive in pips to enter the river myself in pursuit, so I charged their rear with my LH to distract them.  This combat was, however, destined to just bounce back and forth and achieve nothing.    It was at this point that I lost my head.  Rather than waiting for the Suevi to reach my Bd line, I charged them as they exited the river.  My Ps fled and on his turn he crashed into my line.  Uh-oh.

His Kn killed my Bd, his Wb killed more Bd, and he closed the door on me, trapping another Bd unit and turning my Cv around.

My Ax caught his Ps and killed it, but my remaining Bd were trapped and killed.  Suevi 4 - Romans 3.

:(