Conwy Wargames Club Feb DBA games

Ian hosted a DBA game. I confess I am a great fan of Hail Caesar and before that Tactica, when DBA came out I took a dislike to it because it looked like chess and DBM didn't win me over. Now both these views of DBA and DBM were purely based on seeing games at shows, reading the multitude of articles that came out in the magazines at the time, but never playing them.

Since Ian has joined the club he's done a couple of games and the players have really enjoyed them, especially the DBM game. I realised there is no point being snobby  about a set of rules if you've never played them so in March I gave DBA a go.

Ian hosted providing a Roman and Sassanid army and Pete brought along an Alan army that could be adjusted to represent Visigoth.

Game 1
I took control of the Romans and Pete his Alans

Both sides deployed

Lovely Alan horse archers, which to our shock don't shoot arrows! Base to base contact is required. It took some getting used too, but I see the logic of short range horse archery abstracted in to close combat.

More lovely Alans

My Romans

My horse archers

My legionaries and auxiliaries

Sticky combat as we both manoeuvre to get an advantage 

As defender I got to place terrain and my use of these fields denied the Alans any swift flanking movement

I won the game, and really enjoyed it. I found some of he mechanisms familiar from Hail Caesar, and my mind adjusted too the small unit size quickly and I felt I was playing a real wargame and not chess. I enjoyed the tactical challenge, helped by not being familiar with the rules.

Games 2
Pete took over as umpire and Ian played the Sassanids and I took over the Alans. Sadly I took no photos, but it proved another enjoyable game. I used my speed to take the terrain and we clashed almost simultaneously as both our single lines met. I was able to exploit a gap created partly by Ian's lack of pips and partly by my winning a combat to get my cavalry behind Ian's line. This was exciting but it wasn't all going my way and we both were down to losing 1 more unit and we'd lose. This time it was me, done for by an elephant I was assured my horse archers could take, but rolling 1's is not going to help.

Another great game. I still love Hail Caesar but I'd definitely play DBA again.

Conwy Wargames Club Cruel Seas games

Mel and Dave co-hosted a Cruel Seas game taking it in turns to ref while Tony played in both games. 

They managed 2 games over 4 hours and really enjoyed it. I was surprised how long the errata was that had been issued by Warlords Games, definitely a sign of game rushed out for Christmas. The chaps were also puzzled by the torpedo rules because eligible target were based on size and their interpretation meant everything they were playing with was too small. One to look up post game I think.

Game 1 

 Game 2 

Feb 2019 ACW 15mm game

Dave hosted a  American Civil War game using the Black powder 2 rules and the Glory Hallelujah supplement. We played on a 6x4 table length ways and the scenario was 2 evenly matched sides encountering each other.

I commanded the Union forces and Ian the Confederates.

The table

The key junction to control

I deploy

In column of march on the road to make a dash for the junction

I deployed the artillery straight away to dominate one side of the table

The Rebs approach

Ian was concerned about poor command rolls so opted for march column to guarantee forward movement 

Slow going in the woods

I won the race to the junction and busied myself creating a defence. Ian managed to get a battery in place early on to dominate the road which was painful.

The red dice show units with casualties

Moving to create an overlap on my left

My battalion controlling the road benefited greatly from the musket and artillery fire from my right wing

My right wing dominating the Confederate left disordering it with a large volume of fire

My cavalry amazingly still holding on to the wood

The Rebs pouring it on but receiving more in return

I didn't reach the church, and I thought it too exposed, with good reasons as the Rebs get ready to take it.

Reb centre suffering

The Rebs make hard going of the fences

Reb view of the junction

The Reb left finally develops their attack

My right wing moves to the right to cover the coming flanking attack

My shooting is slowing the attack

The Rebs spot the obvious gap between my wings and send their cavalry in to the gap to shot at from traversing fire that disorders them

The End. The Union hold the junction and the Rebs although not broken are not far off a total collapse if they continue to attack. I really enjoyed this game and liked to added flavour the optional rules from Glory Hallelujah gave.