DBMM New Zealand : Four games at ValleyCon - posted by Vince Cholewa, 7 May 2024

Monday 6 May 2024

Four games at ValleyCon - posted by Vince Cholewa, 7 May 2024

A brief and belated recap of my four games at ValleyCon, which was the first outing for my Mitanni. Lessons learned from four draws (47/100) and many thanks to Philip Gates for running the DBMM competition (20 people took part?) and to the Hutt Valley Wargaming Club for putting on the convention (170 people!).

My opponents were gentlemen all, Wayne W.J. Watts (Early Hoplite Greek Thessalian) 14-11, Daniel Wade (Ancient British) 10-15, Andrew Bennetts (Marian Roman) 10-15 and, in the cross-over round when ancient played medieval, Keith V Trye (Early Burgundian) 13-12.

The lessons, in order of games.

vs Wayne, Thessalian: Throw away my ambush, which I never had the opportunity to use, and replace it with delaying battle. Mitanni are aggression 3 and my list is well set up for a flank march.

vs Dan, Brits: Don’t roll crap dice when my opponent rolls well! Not much I could do here. I was happy with my game management and then the dice blew up.

vs Andrew, Romans: Depending on terrain and my opponent’s army, my infantry command, Reg Ax(O), Reg Ps(O), Irr Ps (S) and (I) and Irr Hd (O), supported with some Reg Cv(S), can be a useful delaying force in the middle. I had been fixated on it as a flank guard. My reserve is highly mobile, don’t get stuck where it can’t march.

vs Keith, Big Onions: Sometimes a draw is about the best result. With terrain on my opponent’s side and a wall of longbows who can put down stakes, knights that can be mounted or dismount as Bd (S) that support the longbows, other archers and pikes, my army isn’t going through.

Overall, I am happy with my list, the only change I will make is to use delaying battle instead of ambush, and I need more games with chariots, the big bases really do make a difference.

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Wayne Watts (Thessalian) offering a trap - his flank march arrived on that flank soon after. I was using MItanni. My Hittite ally on my left misbehaved and was unreliable.

Same bound as the first pic, this giving a view along our lines. My reserve in front of the orchard moved right when Waynes flank march arrived, cornered it and broke it.

Andrew Bennetts (Marian Roman) vs my Mitanni. My infantry command would have been much better used in the centre to delay the legions. Lesson learned.

Barry Norris and Daniel Wade (Ancient British) vs my Mitanni. Daniel has played only five or six games and Barry was the Military Advisor.

Lots of inconsequential to and fro on the flank where Dan is moving light horse. The left is where the action happened and the British chariots swept away all before them.