DBA3 - First play through

DK came over for a quick game of DBA3. It was our first game of this version of the rules. We have played a number of games of DBA2.2 in the past and have had DBA3 for a while, but with life getting in the way and other games on the table we hadn't got around to playing it.

Anyway we had Camillian Romans versus Pyrrhic. Due to the extra details in the rule book I had to have Thracians standing in for unassimilated Italian Allies Ax3. 

The Romans were defending (on the left below) with the light troops on the right flank due to a difficult hill and ploughed fields (I liked the way you didn't know if this would be good or bad going until the first die roll). DK lined up the Pyrrhic forces opposite, putting his elephant and Kn General on his right - hoping for quick kills against my general and cavalry. 

The Romans advance! Trying to get the Ps to the Elephant. 

Clash of the cavalry ..... 

Amazingly DK rolled some truly awful dice .... Pyrrhic Cv flee, general recoils and the Elephant dies!

Whenever the elephant comes to battle it dies ... So much the the anicents super weapon. Having said that the scythed chariot is another useless element in our experience.

The Pyrrhic centre advances to steamroll the Romans. 

A minor skirmish develops on the Roman right. 

Pyrrhos goes for kill - unfortunately for DK his dice rolling isn't getting any better and DK's general is dead!

The Romans only need to kill one more elements for the win - but the phalanx is grinding up the centre. 

Now the push of pikes. 

The Roman cavalry move in for the kill on the remaining Greek cavalry. 

The phalanx takes out another part of the legion but the last of the Pyrrhic cavalry is wiped out and a win to the Romans. 

I enjoy this and not just because I won. The solid flank support made the spears tougher. The movement was quicker and the game flowed well. The phalanx grinding up the legion apparently follows current thinking of the period as I understand it. 

The key to victory was of course DK's terrible dice rolling - something which does happen very often and the loss of the General - 2pips to do anything!

Before the next game I will have to read the explanation with diagram pages in the rules ... It might make us stop having to check the rules so often 😃

Only have 2 armies to paint - Carthaginian and Celtic ...and everything else ......

Morts