A busy club day at the Auckland Warganes Club saw 2 games of DBMM, alongside some 15mm DBR, some Star Wars Legion and an exciting looking Dystopian Wars naval game (Victorian Science Fiction).
James Hook and his Macedonian Imperials (complete with experimental phalanx) invaded Arabia and found themselves opposed by John Way's religiously inspired Arab Conquest in a 400AP encounter.
A powerful mounted charge led by Alexander swiftly drove in the Arab left, dispersing the small Bedouin command on that flank and turning the Arab line, leading to a decisive Macedonian victory as the Arab's foot stalled against the elephant supported phalanx.
On the other table and also at 400AP, Ben's Early Crusaders, en route to the Holy Land, stopped off for some R&R in Southern Spain. A dispute over an incomplete timeshare development saw the local Andalusian constabulary deployed in force.
The Crusaders had a hangover from the night before and so had to deploy first, defending the hills to their left with an infantry command strong in number if not quality (Sp(I), Bw(I), Ps(O), Hd(O)), while planning a decisive drive through the centre and right with Kn(O) and Bd(S).
In response, my Andalusians deployed their Regular Sp(I) in a deep defensive block to absorb the main Crusader thrust while light horse and cavalry turned the Crusader left and light infantry looked to infitrate through some wooded hills around the Crusader right.
And so the battle played out. Starved of pips, the Crusader left was eventually overwhelmed by the Andalusian mounted force but delayed these long enough to prevent their involvement in the centre. However, the Andalusian spearmen gamely stood their ground against the Crusader Knights and Bd(S), inflicting casualties as well as taking them, as the Crusader right was slowly but steadily eroded by flank attacks from the hills.
With time almost up we decided to play one more bound each, the Crusaders pressing forward but unable to inflict decisive losses, leaving the Andalusians with the last bound. The pips came down as 2,1,1 with the 2 irrelevant as it went to the rallying mounted command on the Andalusian far right! However 1 meaningful pip was just enough to allow an Andalusian psiloi to jump out of a wood on to the flank of a Crusader knight engaged with a stray light horse. A 2-2 fight and the Andalusians rolled higher! The loss of the knight broke a second Crusader command and with it the army as my Andalusians furthered their reputation for edging victory at the last moment!
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| The right and centre of John's Arab Conquest The sole contribution of the right wing was to frighten one Agrianian Ps(S). a bit... The centre did actually kill something, while the left flank pretty much fought the battle on its own. |
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James' Macedonian phalanx and elephants preparing to face the Muslim onset.
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Having defeated the Arab left, Alexander leads the victorious Companions forward to roll up the Arab line.
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| The relentless push and shove of quality (Crusader Bd(S)) against quantity (Andalusian Sp(I)) |
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| The Crusader left is at last routed, but too late for the Andalusian mounted to intervene in the centre. |
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| Almost the last act. A Berber javelinman is about to hard flank the isolated Crusader knight to end the game |
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