ValleyCon, Thracians vs Mountain Indians - 27 April 2023

Four games at ValleyCon: Thank you again to Allen Yaxley for doing such a good job organising the DBMM competition at ValleyCon at the weekend. I played in group one, 3,000BC to 192AD, using 400 army points (AP) of Thracians, four commands and aggression one. My first three opponents were also aggression one and I invaded in each of those games. My fourth game was against Persians, aggression three, and I defended. Results vs:

· Che Tibby (Mountain Indians) won 23-2

· Jim Morton (Bactrian Greek) lost 0-25

· Graham Starkey (Samnites) drew 14-11

· Paul Graham (Early Achaemenid Persians) drew 11-14.

· Total, 48/100, I posted my thoughts about the army overall here https://www.facebook.com/.../8248.../posts/2338617806297798/

Here is the first game report, I will post the rest later.

Mountain Indians

Against Che’s Mountain Indians I wanted as little terrain as possible so I could take advantage of my greater number of light horse and the width of my army. Che’s Mountain Indians probably have about as many elements as my Thracians but with their pikes (Irr PK(F)) three ranks deep, the Thracians are wider. As you can see in the pics, the terrain fell kindly for me and only the difficult hill at the bottom of the pic would play any part in the game.

Che had light horse, archers and auxiliaries on each flank (Irr LH(O), Irr Bw(O) and Irr Ax(S)), pike in the middle with elephants behind them.

On my right I deployed the Thracian sub-general with lots of peltasts (mostly Ir Ps(S) and some Irr Ax(S)), a few archers (Irr Ps(O)) and light horse (Irr LH(O)). Theirs job would be for the foot to fight what was in front and for the light horse to go wide and try to envelope.

To their left was Xenophon with his mercenary Greek command of hoplites and peltasts (all Reg, Sp(O) and Ps(S)). I was confident the hoplites would gradually push the pikes back causing some casualties, combat factors 5 each but O vs F would eventually tell, and Xenophon would be a real threat. The peltasts were held back to be ready to move to screen the elephants if they came through gaps Che might make for them.

The King was next, with a big cloud of peltasts and some slingers in the front (all Irr, Ps (S) and Ps(O)) who were happy to take on the pikes. Behind them a couple of light horse ready to be a “fire brigade", with the nobles (Irr Kn(I) in wedge) held well back to avoid tangling with the elephants and able to be redeployed where they could be most effective.

On my left was a command entirely of light horse (Irr LH(O)) who would look to go around both sides of the difficult hill.

That is pretty much how the game played out. I moved the nobles to my left and the elephants shadowed them, with neither group fighting because of all our troops between them. The attacks on my right and in the centre went better than expected, Che’s combat dice being decidedly less than average. Eventually the overlapped Indian left broke then the hoplites and Greek and Thracian peltasts broke the centre, having caused many more casualties than I’d expected, and that was the end of the game. The losses of auxiliaries and archers, both troop types being 1ME elements, really told, while the loss of pikes being only 1/2 ME had much less impact on the army.

Many thanks to Che for an excellent game, played in great spirit 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/824840264342234/posts/2339853946174184/ 

Initial deployment, Che has the first move.

The game is approaching the end

Che's elephants are somewhat special. He has done a great job on them.

• 
  Gavin Pearson

  Magnificent elephants. And the rest looks great.

  

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    Vincent Cholewa

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    Che runs Potbelly Miniatures, which does 3D printing. Most of the figures are from his range and are gorgeous. He is also a superb painter and the army will look great when finished.

    

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• Rex Hurley

  Ohh will have to send him a message as I diodnt realise he offered the indians etc, or perhaps thats private files only.

  

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    Vincent Cholewa

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    Rex Hurley do get in touch with Che. Even if he does not have a particular file already licensed, he can often get it for you 

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    • Rex Hurley

      Vincent Cholewa Aye chatting now, its fair to say I/we now have some major problems appearing....(a) one hasnt yet lotto to pay for all that temptation and (b) one only has so much time left to paint it even if I did have the $