Sunday 31 May 2015

Essex Warriors DBM Tournament Games Today

I finally got my second tournament game today.

Tim was using his Christian Nubians against my Samanids, 400 AP v3.2 DBM

I invaded and after deployment rolled the PIPs to get a reliable Buyid ally and a 6. This allowed me to pressure the open flanks of Tims army. I eventually managed to crush his flanks and take out sufficient elements from his CinC to win 27-5. I foolishly forgot that my Bw cant fight in two ranks v warbands which cause the premature loss of my CinC's command but it was too late to influence the outcome. My lone elephant padded around in the centre ground being avoided like it had the plague which was useful as it made the battle into two wings where I could exploit my greater command flexibility and concentrate most of my mounted troops against his right wing.






















Monday 25 May 2015

Been Painting Like A Demon Possessed For The Last 7 Days

Latest Painting Task


For the last 7 days I have been trying to knock holes in the vast amount of unpainted metal that I have accumulated over the last 30 years. I thought I had finished off the very last figures suitable for morphing into another army as well as a totally new army. Needless to say I was wrong as I realised I still have lots of Feudal spear, pikemen and other foot suitable for use for the Normans onwards.

Paul at the club asked me to paint up an odd figure to match two he already had and base all three up for use as a Hobilar element Irr Cv O. My figure is nearest the camera.

Mixed make lower quality hobilar cavalry
Below is the figures I have just finished including finally completing the very last elements for my Mamluk army.

Essex CRU51 Naffertun Handgunner

Minifigs Z310 13th C Crossbowmen Unarmoured

Essex NA16 Norman Archers

Essex Norman Milites painted as Military Orders Generals

Minifigs ZC365 Turcopoles with replacement steel lances

Essex Mid 34/35 mixed Feudal foot

Essex unknown figure code Feudal Spearmen
Having found a big bag of MID 75 Lowland Pikemen I decided that I should paint up the seven pike blocks they can create. I also have some old Gladiator Spearmen which I replaced the spears with pikes to create another two blockswhich need to be painted. These should give me the core of a Low Countries army, 13 blocks in all, in due course. I also have a load of later Minifigs pikemen which I purchased to do a Burgundian Army to paint up which will give me an additional 11 pike blocks. I think this army will never happen as I decided I didnt want it after buying the metal from Minifigs to create most of the old DBM list.

Mid 75 Lowland Pikemen

Mid 75 Lowland Pikemen

Mid 75 Lowland Pikemen
Mid 75 Lowland Pikemen

Mid 75 Lowland Pikemen

Mid 75 Lowland Pikemen

Mid 75 Lowland Pikemen

Sunday 17 May 2015

Early Armenians v Italo-Ostrogoths DBM 15 mm

Early Armenians Using a Totally New Configuration

Peter K at Essex Warriors wanted to try out his Italo-Ostrogoths and requested I come up with something contemporary for him. I dont have much in the way of Dark Age era armies as its not really an era that appeals to me but I had a look at his list date range and suggested I try the Early Armenians against him. They run up to 627 AD so fitted in nicely.

I didnt have much luck using them at Roll Call but thought that the Cv S version had some merit.
We usually play at 400 AP and I came up with the following using the DBM list.

Command 1
1 x CinC Irr Cv S
6 x Horse Archers Irr LH F
6 x Archers Irr Bw I
4 x Archers Irr Ps O
6 x Javelinmen Irr Ax O
6 x Ibernian Longchoporoi Irr Ax S
29 E/27 EE/9 D

Command 2
1 x Sub General Irr Cv S
6 x Horse Archers Irr LH F
6 x Archers Irr Bw I
4 x Archers Irr Ps O
12 x Javelinmen Irr Ax O
29 E/27 EE/9 D

Command 3
1 x Internal Ally-general Irr Cv S
10 x Cataphracts Irr CV S
8 x Horse Archers Irr LH F
19 E/19 EE/7 D

Command 4
1 x Internal Ally-general Irr Cv s
2 x Cataphracts Irr Cv S
4 a Horse Archers Irr LH F
7 E/7 EE/3 D

Army Baggage
6 x Baggage Irr Bg I

Army Total
84 EE/80 E/40 B

Peters army was in three commands, his CinC 18.5 EE breaking on 6.5 EE
Irr Sub 1 command 28 EE breaking on 9.5 and Irr Sub 2 command 18.5 EE breaking on 6.5 EE. His army totally 65 EE breaking on 32.5 EE. His largest command contained all the heavy foot whilst his other two commands were a mix of knights and bowmen.

I deployed with my CinC in the centre and his reliably sub on the right with that flank refused because his knights were too much of a threat until I worked out where he deployed.I deployed the two internal allies on the left flank with the aim of trying to overwhelm any mounted troops he might deploy on that flank.

For some reason Peter deployed his spearmen opposite an area of rough going but some way back. This allowed my to throw my light infantry forward into this terrain and secure it.

On reflection I was a bit rash and charged out of the rough expecting my Superior auxilia to be able to occupy the spearmen but a series of 1's on combat rolls quickly proved this idea flawed.

I managed to get round his right flank and after a couple of bounds succeeded in rolling up his CinC's knights and breaking the command.On my far right I slowly pushed forward my archers and started to snipe at his knights from an area of rough ground whilst my superior numbers of archers in the centre outshot his archers from this command leaving me with a single knight left to break this command and his army. 

In my centre I was gamely holding on with the remaining auxilia as just one more casualty would have broke my CinC's command. As his CinC's command fled towards the rear of the table and I was wiping out their knights and the CinC I finally got the last element on the small knight command to get a hard fought 10-0 victory. In BHGS terms this equated to 30-2 victory

Below are some pictures taking during the game. Note the very empty battlefield on the Ostrogoths side almost totally devoid of terrain.





















Sunday 10 May 2015

DBM at Essex Warriors Today

Early Armenians v Middle Imperial Romans

Richard at EW wanted a rematch against my Armenians as I slaughtered his Polybians earlier in the year. We are running a DBM Tournament and since neither of us had a tournament game I suggested he use his Middle Imperial Romans against me to get some practice in.

Surfice to say it wasnt a good day for the Romans as I comprehensively destroyed his largest command and had picked off enough troops from the other two commands to break his army after about 2.5 hours gaming. I managed to lose one Reg Bd I and fours Irr LH F whilst my Later Pre-Islamic Arab Ally sat out most of the game as it was unreliable yet again until the last two bounds. Thakfully the Romans were so far away from them I was still able to advance down the side of the table to get into position for when they might come on side.

Richards terrain fell on my side of the table so I added in some RGo to give my auxilia something to aim for.

The unreliable LPIA ally sitting at the top of the picture