Recoil! Three game reports - posted by Vince Cholewa, 11 September 2022

Many thanks to Neil Williamson for organising his annual DBMM 200 competition, Recoil! We play with 240 point armies on 6'x4' tables, with Neil pre-setting the terrain. Defender chooses sides and, depending on the dice, might be able to move one area terrain feature.

Thank you also to my three opponents, gentlemen all: Wayne Watts (Marian Roman), Phil Gates (Italian Condotta, Venetians) and Paul Graham (Seleucids). I used medieval Polish. I won't be at the second day in a fortnight and Alastair Duncan will play instead of me.

My first game, against Wayne, was a disaster but not for him! He won 25-0. My plan was to use my Lithuanian command of light horse and cavalry to screen the crags on my right and delay the Roman cavalry. My knights and Polish cavalry would mass to attack the legionaries. The Lithuanians rolled 1 first bound and could not retire. Wayne rushed at them and we got drawn into a bitty series of combats. In the crucial combat the Lithuanian sub-general was 3v3 against Roman cavalry needed more than 1 to be impossible to double. Oops! At the same time the CnC’s command broke. The bound before my knights had hit the legionaries who were in a mix of single and double ranks. Only the CnC won and one knight, not next to him, drew. All the others repulsed. The CnC was double-overlapped and hard flanked, and the knight who had drawn was double overlapped. My dice were crap but Wayne played cunningly so he could exploit that. Well done, sir

Against Phil my diced went from ridiculous to sublime. My plan was for the Lithuanians to march on the right on the far side of a river that was only rough going to mounted. On the left the CnC’s hussars would go wide to make a nuisance of themselves, snipe at what they could and draw PIPs away from the Italian advance on that flank. The CnC’s knights and cavalry would demonstrate in front of the more plentiful Italian knights, then, being all regular, would fall back. In the middle the Polish sub-general would wait on his hill for the time to counter-attack. Well, the Lithuanians stormed over the river, won all five combats when they hit the Venetian stradiots and in subsequent bounds were an unstoppable force! My sub-general counter-attacked. 23-2.

My third game, vs Paul’s Seleucids, was decided by the craziness of an out of control scythed chariot. In Paul’s second bound, the fourth of the game, his one scythed chariot crashed into an element of Polish hand-gunners (Irr Ps(S)). The chariot had to pivot to conform (not planned, just how elements had ended up after an initial clash of cavalry and light horse) and then drew in combat. Because of the chariot’s pivot, the zone of death representing its flight from the hand-gunners contained two elements of pikemen and their general The game continued a little longer but the scythed chariot had done too much damage. 25-0.

Again, thank you all, I thoroughly enjoyed my games and everyone’s company. 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/824840264342234/posts/2159345090891738/

Wayne Watt's (Marian Roman) first bound, I had already had mine (medieval Polish). You can see the shape of the game. My Lithuanians on my right had rolled one and could not retire and the knights are moving to attack the line of legionaries. Wayne had deployed a kind of forlorne hope of two auxillia on his very left to block marches and drain PIPs

Selfie, Wayne and me.

Phil Gate's first bound (Italian Condotta, Venetians) after my first bound (medieval Polish). At the bottom right my Lithuanians are moving to cross the river, which was only rough going for mounted. At the top of the picture my hussars are moving to make a nuisance of themselves. Knights and cavalry in the middle

Selfie, Phil and me

Paul Graham's (Seleucid) first bound. Again, I had moved first with my medieval Polish. You can see my knights moving to the left away from the elephants, and my line of cavalry and light horse to delay on the right and skirmish with the elephants. The crazy scythed chariot that was to prove so pivotal to the game is next to the phalanx.

Peter Dunn

So you play a DBM 200 competition with a 240 point army. Probably explains the two wins 

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  Vincent Cholewa

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  Shhhh! Don't tell Philip Gates and Paul Graham 

  

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• Bruce Ferguson

  Peter Dunn Yeah, and he also plays 450 point games with a 400 point army, go figure

  

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