Recoil! Musings and Thracians vs HYW English - posted by Vince Cholewa, 12 September 2023

 Recoil! musings after six games, and Thracians vs HYW English

Here are musings on how different 25/28mm is on 6’x4’ table, even with only 240 army points; a brief report on the first of my final three games on Saturday (all three draws); and many thanks to our beloved, verging on saintly, organiser and umpire, Neil Williamson, and to my six opponents, gentlemen all.

Neil runs a DBMM 200 competition, Recoil!, annually over two Saturdays at the Hutt Valley Wargaming Club. The first day we played within two groups, ancient and medieval dividing at 1000AD. The second day we crossed over between the groups. Terrain is preset, with the defender able to choose sides and, depending on the aggression dice, move zero, one or two area features .

First, my musings. The half-sized flank sectors make a big difference. The no deployment area 200 paces from the table edge can be blocked by only two elements (when it is 400p wide it’s five elements across). Further (or shorter ) with the flank deployment area being 200p-400p from the edge, it’s not far to move to get those two elements to the edge.

With my army being very light (I had more ordinary light horse and psiloi than anyone else!) and much better at going around, instead of through, my opponents, the lack of space in flanks was a problem.

Being aggression 1 I am usually the defender and have significant influence on the terrain. When terrain is preset I lose that advantage. More thought is required and an “up-cunning” of my plan.

My army: I use three commands in 240ap and all three generals are ordinary cavalry. The King’s nobles are ordinary cavalry and his command also has ordinary light horse and peltasts (Ps(S)). The Thracian sub-general has ordinary light horse, peltasts (Ps(S) and Ax(S)) and archers (Ps(O)). Xenophon leads a mercenary Greek command of hoplites (Sp(O)) and peltasts (Ps(S)). The Thracians are all irregular and the Greeks are all regular.

Game 4, Thracians vs HYW English (Shay Barrett)

Shay is brand new to DBMM, this was his second day of playing, and he has a brand new army that is still a work in progress. I have less than fond memories of some experiences from when I started wargaming at clubs in 1979 and the early 1980s so I was not going to be a dickhead to Shay. Neil sat with Shay for most of the game, we all three had some good conversations about tactics and options, and I think Shay learned good stuff. 13-12 to the English because our penalty points were equal, -2 each, and Shay was the invader.

I will post later about my fifth and sixth games.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/824840264342234/posts/2429763413849903/

Shay deep in thought. This pic shows the challenge Shay has. HYW English is a powerful but small army. How to defend and counter-attack when confronted by marauding hordes?

Neil, Phil Gates and Shay.