DBA Alans battle report

Good news

Dave can now play TAGCON so we are back to 10 players, so no byes.

Managed to get in 3 playtests with the Alans tonight but alas forgot to take my camera!

Game 1: 4-1 vs Lewis' Ancient Britons.
Lewis deployed in 2 wings and was not able to get his warband across fast enough to support his cavalry & chariots which got run over by knights and light horse.

Game 2: 3-4 vs Tony's Late Imperial Romans (East)
Truly a game where I snatched defeat from the jaws of victory! 3-1 up I failed for 3 rounds to kills an auxillia (in the open!) with a knight which only needed to roll higher than he did to defeat it and destroy it and so win the game! Grrr, after that I deserved to get steamrolled when Tony's threw caution to the wind to try to grab points.

I did also manage to sack his BUA on turn 1 in a blade vs blade combat!

Game 3: 4-2 vs Stephen's Nubian Christians
A reverse of the game vs Tony- I managed to kill his general after a knight recoiled away from a camel and gave me 4-2 advantage for having the Cavalry general isolated and flanked on both sides! Up to that point it was close but looking like victory was going to be Stephen's.

Lessons Learned
The dice still hate me!

There were a few light horse vs light horse engagements- which I always dread as they can be so random! However, I've decided that having 3 light horse in such situations is better than 2, and 5 is even better! I am tempted to go with 6x light horse on occasion to get 3 working on each flank but have yet to try this (usually I take: 4x knights, 5x light horse, 2x blades and a psiloi)

So roll on the weekend, hopefully the light horse can annoy a few opponents

Craig

The First Crusade

Earlier in the year I purchased some Crusader miniatures 28mm Norman crossbowmen and spearmen, which were to be used as the start of the Norman force for my 1066 armies. However, painting up the Numidians got me inspired to carry on the desert theme so while waiting for the next batch of Numidians to arrive decided to paint up the Normans as the start of a First Crusade force.

I painted these up last night and will paint up the 2x units of spears tonight. Of coruse this means I've had to order the knights (Crusader and also Black Tree design- which I've never tried but are on special so thought I'd get a few packs to sample this line) and also some Syrians to oppose them,.

The Syrians (IV/6) are one of my favourite DBA armies and I've enjoyed using my 15mm version but have decided to upsize them to 28mm. So I've another couple of projects to add to the ever growing list. For the Syrians I'm using a mixture of Perry figures and Old Glory (mainly for the Cavalry units), we'll soon know how well they mix. I have never bought Perry but decided their infantry figures in their Crusades- Muslim Armies range exactly what I need.

I've designed both armies to start with 250 pts for Impetus but that is also similar in size to the DBA army and tried to keep closely to the units in the DBA list as well so that I can use them for either ruleset. I do prefer Impetus these days (and will be having a game of Numidians vs Imperial Romans using he full rules this Wednesday night at the club) but want to be able to sue them for either.

Here are the first two units of Crusaders.








Craig

Selucids & Numidians

More 15mm armies, even though I am trying to stop 15mm and concentrate on 28mm!

Seleucids:

• 1x Cav Gen
• 1x Cav
• 1x LH
• 2x Elephants
• 4x Pike
• 1x Aux
• 2x Psiloi

I didn't have a pike army and this one seemed to have a nice balance to it and thought it would be more of a heavy hitter army for at the upcoming CHCH DBA comp. However, I'm not sure I like it though, I'm more of an auxilia or warband player so I'm not sure if it will get much use. But at least now I have a pike army for vs the guys at TAG.



Numidians
A mix of ranges- the auxillia are Xyston (arrived and painted up yesterday), Libyan spear (to represent the imitation legionnaires-so count as blade), elephant and light horse are Old Glory, the Cav General is Corvus Belli. I've heard a lot of positive comments about the CB range but personally I don't like them and intend to use the larger Xyston figures whenever possible.

• 1x Cav General
• 4x LH
• 1x Blade
• 5x Auxilia
• 1x Elephant

I still have to paint up a few elements of psiloi (just in case) but don't see me ever using 5-6 of them! This is more my kind of army, light, fluffy and annoying and definitely not a powerhouse by any stretch of the imagination- however it also has a lot of mobility between the light horse and the auxilia.

At present its a toss up between these guys and the Galatians for the CHCH comp- I also received some Galatians/Gauls from Xyston yesterday so they need to be finished as well.

Craig

Warlord Games Romans

Tonight's work- my first two stands Imperial Romans (16 figures in total). Tomorrow nights task will be to finish off the bases and do another two stands. Two down, six more to go for my starter force for DBA.

The cavalry in the background are Wargames Factory and still need their shields finished- they were Tuesday nights task.






They look a bit shiny but I think that's just the flash- they have had a wash of GW's Devlan Mud but may get a black wash on their armour if it looks to shiny in natural light tomorrow.