Grrr.....

With Watagases chased out of Parthia, it was time for Bobarsaces to pay a little visit to the former's erstwhile supporters in Hatra, and effect a little regime change. Wolgash, the leader of the contingent that had changed sides in the second battle seemed like a good candidate for the new headman there.

Hatra is a little rundown these days

The terrain was dominated by two large sand dunes, one in the middle of my deployment area, and another in Wayne's area to the left of it. There was also a rocky further to the right in Waynes's area. All told there was great terrain for Hatra's archers to defend, and lots of scope for camel led ambushes (though as it transpired, neither of has brought any cataphract camels this time). With no prospect of being able to assault the terrain fortress, and not really wanted to fight massed bows head on anyway, I needed to lure Wayne out of his hidey hole, so I planned to attack down the left with my main cataphract force, and mask the dunes in Waynes area with my own Hatreme contingent. The two other commands would be off table, one as a delayed command, and one as a flank march on the right, which I hoped might get into the rear of any command attempting to swing round onto my right flank. Starting with two commands missing can be dangerous, but the dunes would protect me, and I hoped that last weeks ambushes would make Wayne caustious about advancing past the apparently empty area of the table.

Mine is the tiny command on the left.

Wayne deployed more or less as I had expected, with a huge command of bows on the rocky hill, and the open area to the left of it, a mixed force around the dunes, and a command of light horse on the right. On the left he had a bunch of renegade Parthians led by some minon of Watagases whose name wasn't important enough for the great king to remember (SMOWWNWIEFTGKTR).

To many bows to handle

SMOWWNWIEFTGKTR and crew

As defender, Wayne took first bound, and started to shake his forces out, while waiting to see what else turned up before commuting. On my first turn, two bad things happened. Firstly, it appeared that Wolgash wasn't as loyal as hoped, so my Hatremes were unreliable, and secondly my flank march rolled a six, and so arrived way too early. I started to move my cataphracts out to the left to attack the renegade Parthians led by some minion of Watagases whose name is too hard to pronounce.

My Hatremes were less than helpful

On the next turn, Wayne started to line up against my Hatremes (while being careful) not to activate them, and my flank march steamed onto the table, and advanced rapidly with a good pip roll.

Flank march riding hard

Wayne's general, who  appeared to be answering a call of nature, was surprised by the arrival of the flank march

The flank marching command had great pips all game, and seemed to have a great chance of sweeping away the smaller Hatreme light horse command before their bow command could assist. However, all the hard riding had clearly tired them out, as their combat dice were pathetic, and after a few turns of engagement, their general rolled a one at a bad time, and the command turned tail and fled. On the plus side, they had at least stopped two of Wayne's commands from interfering in the rest of the battle.

The main battle was played out on the left, where I maneuvered my cataphracts to attack the renegade Parthians, while the latter  lined up ready to charge my Hatreme contingent, while being careful not to get close enough to activate them. My delayed command turned up fairly promptly and I fed them in behind the inert allies. Unfortately, having arrived on time, they proceeded to roll poorly for pips and took a long time to actually get engaged.

Jockeying for position on the left. Delayed command coming up behind.

There was some minor skirmishing, then unfortunately Wayne made a boo boo, and in has haste to chase off some light horse, moved close enough to my Hatremes to activate them. I say unfortunately, because if he hadn't, at the end of the bound they'd have changed sides when my flank marching command broke, and it would have been game over, and we could have had an early night.

Anyway after an initial surge of enthusiasm  ( 4 pips no less), the Hatremes reverted to their previous state of disinterest, struggling to get enough pips to apply pressure, and not doing well enough in combat to kill much. Wayne charged into their bows with is cataphracts and was successful on both counts, killing four bows and making a big hole. Eventually I filled it with some cataphracts from the delayed command, but he killed one of them too. Further left, there was a lot of fighting around the end of the cataphract lines, but I struggled to get pips to launch a full on charge into his light horse. Eventually Wayne bought his cataphract C in C over from the other side of the dunes, and charged him so more of my Hatreme bows, killing another pair and psiloi support behind. To add insult to injury, the sacrificial horse archer he'd sent in to stop his C in C being outflanked, also rolled well, killing another two bow elements and the psiloi behind. This broke the Hatreme command, and with it my army.

Big hole on the right made by C in C proved decisive

Now those of you who are actually familiar with the rules of DBMM will realize that we played this wrongly, and the horse archer should only have killed the front rank of bows, and that neither these, nor the C in C should have killed the psiloi behind. Doing this correctly would have left the command demoralized, but not broken, and with most of Wayne's line having more holes than a swiss cheese, I'd have had an excellent change to break his Parthian command, though whether I'd have done enough to the Hatreme's  C in C's command to break it, is dubious.

All in all a bit of a frustrating result, as I had a good plan to deal with a difficult terrain set-up, predicted my opponents set-up correctly, concentrated superior forces against lesser ones, didn't feel that I made any significant mistakes, and still ended up losing. I guess I've been on a bit of a roll the last three games, and the dice gods decided it was time to put me in my place. Maybe now I should offer up some sacrifices.

Things Get Worse & Worse (Part 3 Parthian Civil War)

For those who say “History is Bunk”, we’ll you’re wrong.  The history books tell us there was a change of leadership in AD35-6, and having persisted in playing from that year, there has indeed been a change in leadership*.

Here I sit, desolate, friendless and cornered in a stinking sewer tunnel but close enough to listen to the sounds of the evil Bobasarces ‘entertaining’ my ex-virgin convict, sacrifices and household servants.  Luckily I keep the wife(s)*** in another city.

Points learnt today:-

# Even cataphract camels can hide in orchards.  Additionally don’t forget to look behind the hills.    

# If the baggage is large and the minimum troops are not visible – use your brain, think – they will be somewhere!!

# If the opportunity simply looks too good then it probably is!!  Pure aggression isn’t always the answer.

# If you are confident in each of three games, then just unconcerned as it deteriorates and then get beaten – it might be time to look more critically at the situations you put yourself in. 

Bob has again posted the battle’s content before me, in far more fitting prose and detail so I provide the data below to show the opposing perspective and some assorted irrelevant items that make up the DBMM experience (where we are, anyway).

First things first.  Rule query. 

I can’t find the rules for assassination by poison - of the CinC (player actually).  You have to wonder about the seriousness of the stakes, the throne of King of Kings, when your opponent lets you set-up terrain but before the first bound tries to bump you off by stealth.  I’m going to need to watch my playing partner carefully in the future.

Here’s the situation.  Due to a busy schedule on the day, no actual lunchtime and having finished a late class I rushed over to Bob’s expecting the usual BKK traffic issues so I’d skipped eating again and upon arriving I was decidedly hungry.  Hungry enough to for once mention it to my ‘host’ who, with an evil gleam, offered me a sandwich which he’d purchased that same day but hadn’t required.  He knows I have a fatal allergy to egg yolk** so offering me a Egg Mayo sandwich (“fresh” he says “well whatever that means in BKK” he added slyly) had to be some new form of Strategem that I can’t find in the rulebook.

So I want to be sure it’s understood – assassinating the opponent pre/during a game definitely results in a forfeit (0-25) loss.  Correct, aren’t I team??.  Maybe we need a food taster counter stratagem that works like scouting.

Having survived that opening gambit it was down to making the new batch of allies work.  I continue my search for a point of advantage in a world of KnX and LhF – relying on my own tactical skills is a sure path to defeat.

Deal of the Week - Nomadic Arab Allies

The use of KnF as KnX killers, having been tried by both players, clearly wasn’t working.  The use of masses bows while not a destroyer did have the clear effect of channelling the enemy so the Aramaeans (well some new loyal ones) would be used again.  This time we would try adding massed BdI from some Nomadic Arabs we’d managed to waylay and employ, as they would deal to enemy foot (who were Bw/Ax/Ps) if Bob persisted in using foot, they could stand up to LhF frontally and importantly would turn the KnX into inferior and that would make it an expensive fight for the enemy.  Sure against the KnX it would be bloody but losing allies isn’t that much of an issue.  We’d try and leverage the advantages by using as much SF as terrain as possible.

The field of battle had plenty of terrain, lots all along the centre line but nothing to cause problems and plenty of SF to play in.  The most challenging to deal with was an orchard on the centre line about halfway to our right hand table edge, which I planned to cover/block/delay with the only couple of PsS in my army plus a few LhF outside it to cover flanks of troops passing by.  Deployment was allies to the fore as a reliability insurance, Blades in the SF as much as possible aimed at opposing Bow with our bow on their flank into the open to keep enemy mounted honest.  The LhF was held back so as to move anywhere as required and the cataphracts were ready to move forward into what looked like an area of local numerical superiority, from behind the Hetrene bow line.  

Plenty of terrain to play in, we are attacking top right towards bottom left.

Having deployed second we could look at maximising matchups but were also wary of a missing enemy command, which I thought was the Samartian KnF, but it turned out eventually that I’d missed both the additional baggage on table and the missing Parthian troop minimums and it was Parthians that were to arrive later.  I put it down to the disorienting effects of surviving the assassination attempt.

On his statistically improbable first PiP role Bob declares dust on the horizon from his fourth dice.  I commented that it must be a delayed command due to the number showing, which had Bob looking quizzically at the dice and declaring that it was just a minor irrelevant dust storm without accompanying hoof beats!!  His PiPs kept the irrelevant dust storm hanging around a couple of bounds but it accidentally confirmed I had a flank march to deal with.  A few moves later it arrived on my left flank.

After the initial moves I had a plan for the situation as it existed.  Bob’s centre was weakly held by the Hetrene allies mainly, I suspect, because of the mass of mounted unfriendly terrain in the table centre where he expected neither of us to operate.  I recognised that it wasn’t to be a quick outcome but my Nomad Arab Bd were the ideal thing to take the fight into the centre and split Bob forces in two.  The only fly in the ointment was an orchard that was about to be occupied by a number of AxO.  However this was containable if isolated and I had the troops close by to do this.

On the left the plan was to delay and harass the mass of enemy KnX aimed to come through the gap between march and scrub.  I had a numerical superiority in LhF, a couple of KnX including a general to act as the cornerstone and the Arab bowmen who would be threatening an open flank if Bob pushed through.

The right flank advances, having past through the Hetraene bows, between the BuA and the olives.

It was on the right that I’d win the game.  I outnumbered Bob 2:1 in both KnX and LhF and I had the Hatrene bowmen in support.  It meant closing him down quickly, protecting flanks for long enough and hoping to out-run the potential flank march if it appeared on that flank, although the bowmen would delay it anyway so I accepted that as a calculated risk.

...... and the resposnse.

Bobarceses opening moves on our left .......

 On the left Bob used his stunning PiP count to manoeuvre the KnX around the bowline threat and come forward.  I countered by moving away.  The left danced around each other a bit, no mean feat with PiP intensive KnX on both sides and my iBwO so that Bob wasn’t happy the odds were strong enough to commit and I was happy to keep him at arm’s length.

In the centre I suffered a lack of PiPs to push ahead as fast as I wanted, not due to dice rolls but because they were used elsewhere with more urgency.  My plan turned out to be quite PiP intensive but as the centre wasn’t threatened they lost out and were slow in developing the attack.  Eventually we pushed forward (almost as a massed block) through the defending bow fire but the game finished a move prior to actual contact.  So the massed iBdI into BwO was basically untested, although we didn’t do well in a flank protecting sideshow.

The Blades that didn't quite make contact with the enemy bowline by the battle's end. 

On the right we went full steam ahead, fast enough to actually pass the ambushing cataphract camels who came out to engage out LhF rear guards.  But it cost us PiP usage and having flanks exposed to damage that was the real problem, as our attack faltered.  We did eventually hit the enemy line, caused some damage but couldn’t clear enough space (unfavourable combat rolls against the odds) to start the hard flanks and roll up the whole line. 

By this time the flank march had come on our left side, with plenty of LhF swarming along with a few KnX.  As we had about equal numbers, provided Bob’s KnX heavy command stayed conservative, I wasn’t overly concerned with a large light horse massed combat (come lottery) as it would be ongoing long enough for the right flank and centre to finish the battle.

On comes the enemy flank march (left flank, photo right)

Well that was the idea.  Of course something had to go wrong, and using a PiP intensive plan almost guaranteed an inopportune round of PiP numbers.  We did the best we could with what we had but it was a long way from ideal, and we were in a disorganised state, with disconnected groups and the front line was somewhat un-coordinated and with several gaps (the troops to fill them were in range, just PiPless).  Bob saw the disarray, sensed the opportunities and took some risks and pressed in with both the flank and KnX command.

The flank marches presses in on our PiP starved disarray.

The light horse confrontation (lottery )
quickly turns into a shambles as usual.

Back on the right flank it was in some ways a bit lucky that we’d stalled a bit because had we turned inward as planned to roll up the enemy command we would have had our rear exposed to the second ambush that came over the hill that was in the far right corner of the table.  As it was we were caught unawares again and suffered flank locking attacks.

So with both the flanks fighting in less than favourable conditions we were taking losses.  These rose quickly to the point where a command broke (ignoring that the final combat roll was a 1-6), knock-on effects cause others to fail and the army breakpoint was passed.  Game over – and I was surrounded this time with no tale edge to slip away over, hence my need to slip un-noticed into the undesirable portions of the adjacent Build Up Area.

I await my faithful servants, lords and general peasantry to come to my rescue.  [No, its not the final chapter].  My family will take up the challenge next week pending my return.

* = the good thing is that the same history books point out I will outlive both the next two successors and will die on the throne.  (The big golden one surrounded by beautiful women and sycophantic officials and hangers-on, not the small private white one in the little room).

** = As a basic safety measure everyone in my world knows this.  Despite having survived 50 years already it’s been through a realistic approach to dealing with dangers and symptoms.

Irrelevant Stuff

*** = DBMM aficionados often use Wf(S) to mean ‘Wife – Supervisor’ or ‘She who must be obeyed’ but here in Thailand it means ‘wifes’ (wives).  We have Wf(F) as in ‘First’ (palayar or mea luang) for the First/Major wife, Wf(X) as in ‘eXtra’ (mea noi [minor wife]),of which several are allowed****, and Wf(I) as in ‘Incidental’ (gik, guk and other impolite terms) for additional un-supported casual girlfriends and liaisons. 

**** = Both mea luang & mea noi (all of them) are for life and come with support requirements***** even once interest/involvement has past (male initiated divorce is rare(ish)).  While the law now makes only the first wife legally recognised as a spouse, any offspring of a mea noi remain legally legitimate children of the father (don’t ask me how that works in practice!!).

***** = Deep pockets are recommended otherwise they become Wf(B) as in ‘Bitchy’.  Relationships amongst the varies wives is complicated on a “keep your friends close, your enemies closer” basis and ensures that collectively they gather the most benefits from the support giver.  Hence men try and keep the actual identities secret, although not so much the actual existence.

NB:- None of the above is recommended for foreigners as the social mores that allow such undertakings are so complex as to be unfathomable to a western mind.

Parthian Civil War III: The final chapter ?

After last week's skirmish and treachery, Watagases was abandoned by his allies from the steppe, and fled to Hatra, where he apparently still had friends, as they provided him with a new contingent to replace those that had previously deserted. He augmented these with a large force of nomadic Arabs, and moved to continue the war. Bobarsaces now fielded 3 Parthian commands, together with the Hatreme contingent that had previously changed sides. So in the fall of 36, they armies lined up for a decisive confrontation.

A large force of Arab bows and blades was a surprise.

Once again Watagases moved aggressively, forcing Bobarsaces to deploy first. The terrain was fairly cluttered along the center line, with a BUA on my left, then a command sized gap, then an olive grove, some scrub, another gap, and finally a marsh on the far right. With not much space to maneuver,  I decided to flank march my light horse command, push through the right hand gap with my C in C and his cataphracts. The Hatremes with there bows and auxillia took care of the rough and the olive grove, and the small cataphract command was hung out on the left, looking small and pathetic, and not quite big enough for the gap it had to cover. An impression I reinforced by placing a couple of its light horse in ambush behind a hill on the baseline. The main ambush was in the olive grove though, with a bunch of Hatreme light troops, and two cataphract camel elements whose impetuosity would otherwise have been a problem.

Bobarsaces on the left.

Watagases deployed in more or less opposite fashion, with his Hatreme allies and the main cataphract command poised to push through the left hand gap, his Arab allies covering the rough and extending into the right hand gap, and a smallish horse archer force guarding their flank. Unsurprisingly, Watagases himself was as close to the table side edge as possible.

In the opening moves, Bobarsaces moved his cataphracts to the right to avoid the Arab bows in front of them, and maneuvered to attack the horse archers on the ride. On the other side of the table, Watagases took the bait hook line and sinker, and surged forwards with his cataphracts, leaving his (this time reliable) Hatreme allies behind. He also sent most of his command's light horse across to support the other flansk. As his line passed the olive grove, the cataphract camels surged out, though a couple of light horse send to protect the flank, prevented them from getting straight into the rear of the cataphracts. Nevertheless, over the next few turns they stripped off the flank support, rear ended one cataphract, and caused considerable anxiety and expenditure of meager pips before being dispatched.

Watagases charges forwards

And presses on despite the ambush

On the other flank, the flank march rolled onto the table on turn 4, and good pips allowed it to advance quickly, linking up with cataphracts and forcing the opposing force to retire. The threat to their flank, held up the Arab advance as they desperately tried to turn some bows round protect their flank.

Flank march rolls forward quickly

With things not looking good on the other flank, Watagases had no choice but to go for broke, and push forwards, despite his hanging flank, and camels in his rear. He still appeared to have local superiority, and the Parthian general on the far left of the line looked vulnerable. However, the latter rolled well to get a lucky kill, the ambushers behind the hill spring out to flank lock another cataphract, and another light horse worked round the open flank and killed another cataphract from the rear, leaving Watagases own command disheartend and close to breaking.

On the right, Watagases forces scrambled to make a line between the flank of the Arabs and the rear table edge, but started to take losses from their heavier and better organized foes. The final straw came when the horse archer command's general was six one-ed, breaking his command, and the knock on command breaking Watagases own command due to the reinforcements he'd vainly sent across.

The final act

 The six one finished the game a turn or two quicker, but I don't think it affected the final result much. Watagases himself wasn't able to slip away so easily, due the BUA and close presence of enemy cavalry. While he's presumed dead, his body was never found.

All in all, I was very pleased to have the ambush and the flank march work so well, and it's nice to win by low cunning. We've had three games of Parthian on Parthian now, and it's a tribute to DBMM that all three have been different. The first was a straight up the middle slugfest, the second was as much diplomatic negotiation as battle, and the third featured more deception and maneuver.

The Apothetic vs the Uninterested

Apart from Wayne, who turned up early, there was a general lack of interest in the ongoing Parthian civil war. Having begun in the spring, both sides were determined to finish it in the fall, but in the event were unable to motivate their allies to gather for battle before the following spring, and having reluctantly gathered, three of the four allies present were unreliable. There was also no fighting anywhere on the battlefield, except for a small area on my right flank. Anyway, I hope the good people of Parthia appreciate the statesmanship that allowed victory to be achieved with so little bloodshed.

I fielded the same force as for the previous game, as I saw no point in changing a winning team, and anyway it had been designed with the expectation that Watagases would bring a Hatreme ally. Their big bow block is very awkward for Parthians; LH(F) don't want to go anywhere near it, and while the cataphracts are immune to shooting, charging it would be an act of desperation. Any cataphract that loses its initial combat is going to flee and require 2 pips to turn around, even if it doesn't get rear ended by light horse sitting behind the bow line.

As the defender I was able to place a BUA on Wayne's left flank which would be difficult for him to defend against my Armenian ally. My plan was therefore to storm the BUA with my Armenians, and then set about whatever command was next to it from front and flank. I was happy to see Watagases and most of his cataphracts out towards the other flank, as I figured my horse archer force opposite them was too big for him to ignore, and could play run around the marsh long enough for the battle to be decided elsewhere.

Allies, who needs em ?

Having both allies unreliable put a bit of a damper on the plan, but at least the nasty archers were unreliable too. When Wayne showed no inclination to spend pips talking them round, I realized that if I played my cards right, I could get them to change sides. Accordingly, I avoided taking any aggressive action, and concentrated on getting the Armenians to play. Wayne had obligingly moved his left hand command over right in front of them, and with the reinforcements I'd send from the center I thought I could win there by weight of numbers, and with the inherent fragility of LH(F) it wouldn't take long. As it happened I managed to activate the Armenians at the second attempt, and they steamed forwards. After a couple of bounds of trading losses, Wayne rolled a few too many ones, and not only did I have the four element kill advantage I'd been looking for, his right hand command broke too. With the Hatremes changing sides, Wayne's position was completely lost, and Watagases discretely slipped way with many of his supporters.

I'm confident we'll be able to capture him in the next battle, as a new foot stall would come in handy. I'll also make him correct all the various misspellings of Bobarsaces in his account of the battle.

Wayne's My Hatreme allies

Since the Hatremes are on my side now, I'm going to make them fight in the next battle, and let Wayne figure out how to deal with them.

Well, That Didn't Go Well (Parthian Civil War Part2)

Points learnt today:-

* The gods are not yet ‘green’ - if you are going to sacrifice virgins to the dice gods don’t use re-cycled ones, they seem to demand the real McCoy.

* Don’t smirk at your opponents mis-fortune until you have utilized it to the fullest. 

* Unused opportunities are so quickly lost.

* Indecision is your greatest enemy.

A tale of woe was had last night, but because I, the great survivor King of Kings Watagases I of Parthia, again lurked near the table edge all game I was able to slip away at the end of the disaster and live to write this tale.  This civil war will go on until one of us is killed on the field of battle (there’s no glory here!!).

The CinC is here - hiding on the flank.

The massed iKnF gambit was only going to be a surprise once* so the Samaritans weren’t re-employed and this time the Hatrene bowmen were.  The field was to be more open than last time with, if possible, a split table and a denied flank with the bowmen corralling the enemy heavies to fight and die, or forced into time consuming maneuvers. 

As the rightful owner of the highest throne we sallied forth in search of the usurper (that is we invaded again) and chose a field with a marsh just our side of the table centre and slightly offset to the right.  Another was further away and to the right with orchards beyond the marshes in Bobasaces deployment zone on his far left (our right).  The disappointment was a BuA that appeared on our left flank as we have only allied bowmen to take action in any terrain.

We came upon Bobasaces already deployed, Armenian allies, mainly foot and mainly in the open clearly going to rush forward into the BuA and thus threaten our left flank.  Some Samaritans, recognisable from the previous week*, lurking at the rear left (as we looked at it) clearly in fear of the likely ‘anti-fragile’ options available to the great King of Kings.  From the left and on across the centre up to the right side orchard was the great cataphract ‘wall of steel’ from two commands, with a few LhF advanced pickets.  Beyond the orchard was an unsupported but reasonably sized group of LhF.

Our allies were to deploy front and centre as with the nature of these unfortunate necessities of man power, they are prone to being unreliable at the most inopportune times and are best placed where their fear of the advancing enemy prompts them into remembering their commitments.  Reactivating unreliable allies is simply so unlikely and PiP intensive that I rarely try it in game time as it destroys any initiative you may have.

On the left I had my Sub General with a almost total LhF command who it was decided should meet the Armenians in the open ahead of the BuA rather than bottle them up in there, if only because we were moving first and wanted the initiative.  As I said allies were front and centre but the right of our table was interesting.  I, the great leader, had a mass of cataphracts, even more LhF in support and paths between the terrain features which were NOT occupied by unreachable foot.  By putting the KnX to the fore and advancing between the terrain we would sweep the lesser number of enemy LhF before us (or destroy them) and there was nothing to stop us appearing clear on the flank/in the rear of the enemy.  It was an opportunity to great to ignore.

The deployment left us happy.  Our centre was secure, the left could be fought or delayed by choice and in response to the enemy actions and the right was a goldmine of great options even though the distances involved meant it would be a reasonably slow progression. 

With four out of the eight commands on the table being allies you kind of knew something was going to be unreliable.

Bob rolls first PiP dice and the allies come up ‘snake eyes’, both commands are standing around contemplating their navels.  At least his iKnF weren’t going to be haring off at an inopportune moment!!  I smirked, I shouldn’t have but I did.  And the decision was made for me on the left flank, advance up into the open but don’t activate the enemy and force his remaining commands to try and manoeuvre the un-manoeuvrable ‘wall of steel’.

Foreground left, unreliable Samartans, foreground centre, unreliable  Armenians.  Rear right, BuA (without houses but with dice) defended by freely maneuvering LhF.

We also had even more time to chase the isolated LhF on our right flank, corner them and break them (where upon some KnX in the centre would also quit the field).  It was not a quick result plan but it would be a slow press with an unbreakable wall and there was nothing to stop it.  The enemy LhF turned and ran around the marsh as their best hope of delaying the inevitable but we had the numbers to cover both exits, they would be eventually caught and crushed.  We were confident. 

The chase around the marsh (with very wet centre) begins.

 Our opening PiP roll was taken and another unreliable ally, the Hatrenes feeling unappreciated (that’s 3 out of 4 on table allies being unreliable) but their job was to block the centre of the table and shoot things that passed by.  They could do that without ever advancing so it wasn’t such a loss.  The Scythians anti-cataphract teams accepted their pay and were rearing to get on with it.

We were actually over-confident.  The Sub general mucked around getting the perfect line up to deal with the Armenians when the time came and I, as a KnX general the great smasher of LhF, couldn’t decide which way around the march to chase the enemy (the cataphracts went left and the LhF went right but I tried to go both ways with my one element!!) and ended up doubling back and wasting three bounds. 

Bob' few LhF crossing the Armenians to tempt  my  LhF forward.

Bobasarces used his few central LhF to try and provoke my Sub general into action and come close enough to activate his allies.  In addition he spent a huge number of PiPs trying to unsuccessfully activate them by negotiation.  We weren’t going to be sucked into getting to close but with our superior numbers and position felt we could quickly crush the enemy provocateurs and so charged in.

Bob's largely outnumbered LhF (now with recently self activated Armenian support) about to destroy my LhF due to incompetent wielding of weapons (dice).

This is where appeasing the dice gods correctly comes into play**.  At no point were our PiPs beyond good, usually below average but the charging Parthians combat dice were shocking!!  And again the next bound, and the next.  The Armenians finally reached a negotiated activation and joined the fray.  Quickly my Sub General’s command went disheartened while the Scythians had passed through the Hatrene line and become stranded mid-table so as to not to go impetuous. 

The shortage of LhF that were blocking access to the BuA is clearly obvious.
"Dice gods, give me back my Lh command"

Next bound, the sub-general broke, the Hatrenes switched sides which left the Scythians completely surrounded with bows in their rear – Game Over!!  (I slipped two element widths to the right and personally left the table)  The entire game decided on a small frontage (about 8 elements wide) mostly in a flank zone, luckily for Bobarses the opposite one to where I had stationed myself - if I’d been there things would have been different!!.

Centre, in three groups, are the Scythians with enemy cataphracts in the foreground  and the switched side Hatrene command to their rear. Surrounded - game conceded. 

That's the CinC, flags flying & that's the table edge.  Okay, exit stage right (return next week).

Once again I survived so I will be back – as Bob said “It’ll have to be the best of five”.

I wasn’t beaten by the enemy***, I was beaten by missed opportunity and indecision.  Having been handed a golden opportunity to attack on two fronts, one almost unopposed I’d dithered, reversed my decisions and missed the no-going back point too often.  (At one point I held the Scythian iKnF when I should have turned them left into column, and then released them to go headlong into the unprotected Armenians flank, a move Bob had no troops capable of intercepting.  But I just missed it while focusing on the lost opportunities).

Next weeks cunning plan already devised, fire-alter installed and OoB written.  It'll be make or break time and no flank sitting by the CinC either - well maybe not, we'll see - unless its essential.

* = See Part One of the Parthian Civil war.

** =  Further research indicates Parthia didn't sacrifice virgins (recycled or otherwise. It appears I'll need a new army for those activities).  

*** = Okay, not strictly true, he did take good decisions to keep me as engaged and off balance as possible from the position of weakness he started with.

Engaging Parthian Usurpers (Part One)

The Rhus have been painted enough to get fielded and they have had an impressive if butt-clenching existence*.  Their only non-wins over a span of more than two months* (that’s eight encounters) was a lose and a draw, both to the Parthians.

The Rhus are getting rested, to allow some extra paint work can be done including alternative allies, so that they can be fielded in differing guises.  Wait for the 100% all Rhus, no external allies monster to appear next, followed by Viking allies then the final Viking/Leidang option as the total package.

As Bob said, we both have the ability to morph our Kushans into Parthians, where they are even more monochrome than the Kushans (who still fell to the Rhus) as they lack the pachyderms and assorted Indian foot, but do, I suppose, have more ally options.

Thus, in line with a growing trend of fighting civil wars where we can, it was deemed time to decide who was the King of Parthia and who was to be a footnote to (DBMM in BKK) history.

Firstly I needed a cunning plan.

With the Parthians being iKnX & iLhF with little else, the KnX are the kings of the field (albeit somewhat un-manoeuvrable), while the LhF would be buzzing around ensuring the KnX were too PiP starved to attempt more than basic manoeuvres.  As I didn’t fancy using outright luck to win a ‘walls of steel clash’ I looked at the idea that the winner would be the one who destroyed the enemy’s KnX while keeping his own intact.  What did the most damage to KnX??  Well, that would be Wb, Bd and non-X knights of which none were available unless I used allies.  Amongst the allies there was only the impetuous, fragile iKnF of the Samaritans and Scythians.

Knowing I had a huge Arabo-Aramenian army usurper Bobarsaces was bound to expect a large Hatrene ally bow-wall to be used block off a significant part of the table.  So the first decision was not to employ Hatrene mercenaries.  At this point I couldn’t decide which KnF group to bring - re-introduce the cursed** Scythians or a larger group of Samaritans who didn’t come with any flank protecting LhF. 

So the plan was going to be to charge the usurper’s KnX with KnF, destroy as many as possible and then use my own then almost invulnerable KnX, with flanks well protected by Lh, to slowly mop-up all enemy on the field.  That meant I needed the maximum KnF to ensure the enemy was as damaged as much as possible – decision made – bring BOTH allies, Samaritan and the cursed** Scythians.  To improve the odds the terrain would be chosen to box him into an area so that he couldn’t easily get the KnX away from in front of the KnF.

I was a bit off putting to learn on game night that Bob was also using a AD35 list, the only time the Samaritans are available and I didn’t want a KnF on KnF conflict just as I hope to avoid the mutual KnX clash.  However Bob was even more dismayed when I, as invader, selected two Marshes as terrain and a flank edge as the additional allocation number.  Maybe it was all bluff.

I got the terrain I wanted, interfered with a little by a SF between my M’s but that could be both a boon or a bain.  I deployed first and put the two ally commands with all the iKnF (12 including 2 generals) as far forward aimed directly in the only space where Bob’s KnX could deploy.  My KnX were held back to be the reserve and the Lh commands on the flanks were well back also because I would need to use them to re-deploy quickly to counter Bob’s deployment and provide the flank protection for the Kn’s.  LhF were to be sacrificed to protect flanks as the heavies made an unrelenting push forward because we are an all mounted army.

Once Bob had deployed I was confident that my plan would at least be tested, I had the matchups I wanted.  All I had to worry about was the missing 4^th command.  Game on and the KnF went forward while Bob’s attempts to breakup the formation weren’t overly successful although I lost a general, and once we hit the enemy line we were doing damage.  The missing command appeared in the rear (as delayed) which was better than having to deal with a flank march.  Now my Lh commands were then able to be redirected to cause the maximum discomfort, including the CinC lead group, plus a few Scythians, going after a lesser number of Lh wide on the left flank.

As a good King and leader, the allies were always going to take the casualties and this they did but by the time they broke they had broken one enemy ally command and disheartened two other commands, although this didn’t affect the Kn’s in those two commands.  At this point it was still in the balance, my fresh KnX reserves and a fresh LhF command joined the main fray but the matchups were no longer ideal, so I had to do damage elsewhere to break another command before my army took enough random damage to tip it over 50% (the fresh commands weren’t going to break anytime soon).

Thus we actively pursued the enemy out on our left flank and boxed them against the table edge.  It was end-game time and in one bound, had we won all the flank command combats (with enough dice points) we would have pushed the enemy over their 50% mark.  But it wasn’t to be, we in fact lost a couple of combats, and then they avoided the combats in their bound, and I didn’t have enough PiPs to catch them all again subsequently.  Thereafter I had taken the few casualties elsewhere to pass the 50% mark myself.

An oscillating battle, down to the wire and as bloody as hell.  Great fun.  

I could blame slightly below average PiP dice (recorded fact), certainly less than Bob’s, but such is life (virgins to be sacrificed*** before the next encounter to appease the dice gods) although I can’t complain about the combat dice. 

But please NOTE that I, King Watagases I, rightful king and all round good guy, survived, and NOT a single cataphract was lost by me in the exchange (unlike Bob who managed to kill off many of his leading nobles) so I will be returning to again fight for my rightful place on the upper most throne in the land. 

[Don’t forget I’m also the biggest fluffiest Kushan**** after recovering from a first game lost – I will do it again!!]

* = Battles not reported due the learning experience producing to many embarrassing errors to admit too.

** = Refer to February 2012 Blogs for the cursed Scythians story.

*** = An action completed last night in preparation for tonight’s game (although a recycled virgin had to be used).

**** = This group of battles are reported in Feb-March 2012.

Parthian Civil War Part I

It's been a while since the last post, though we've played a few games since, with Wayne's Rus beating up sundry opponents, and only being stopped by Parthians. Since Wayne has also had some success with these, we felt we needed to sort out who was the true King of Parthia.

The figures we used were much the same as for the Kushan civil war, but the absence of elephants changes the dynamic significantly and lets cataphracts rule the battlefield. As it happens both Wayne and I had bought 4 bags of Baccus cataphract figures, and so have the same numbers of elements available. With no advantage either way there, the choice of allies could swing it.

Sarmatian Friends

This then is the report of the first battle between King Watagases I (Wayne) and the usurper rightful king, Bobarsaces. Hoping to get an advantage in the knight arm wrestle, I brought a Sarmation ally consisting of 8 fast knights. Suspecting that Watagases would turn up with a huge bunch of bow toting Arameans, I also brought some Armenian friends to counter them. Watagases though had even more friends on the steppe, and bought both a Sarmation and a cursed Skythian ally. However, to afford all that he had to leave some cataphracts in the box, making us about even in the heavy department.

Initial Deployment

Hoping to appear decisive, Watagases attacked, and placed two marshes bracketing my deployment area, hoping to box me in. There was some rough on the centerline on my left too.

Watagases decided to keep the real Parthians in reserve, and let his allies do the fighting. Bobarsaces placed his Armenians on the left to occupy the rough, and squeezed two more commands into the central area. The Sarmatian allies were delayed in the hope that they might make a surprise impact.

The deployment dice rolls made Watagases deploy first, and also get first move. This suited his purpose of trying to bottle me up, and the Sarmatian and Skythian allies advanced rapidly. Being outflanked in the rough could have been a problem for them, but Bobarsaces Armenian allies were initially unreliable, and couldn't advance to occupy it.

Sarmatians and Skythains advance rapidly in the centre

Still seeing two commands of Kn(F) advancing headlong into my well formed lines with minimal flank support, I felt quite confident, a feeling reinforced by the timely arrival of my own delayed Sarmatians, and by killing the opposing Sarmation ally general with a lucky 6:1

Sammy Sarmatian takes the early blood bath

However, the death of the leader spurred them on, and they retaliated by killing the Armenian ally general, and the Armenians folded like a wet paper bag. Several cataphracts were slain too, and only the arrival of my Sarmatians stabilized the situation and allowed Watagases two allied commands to be repelled and broken. By this time though, Watagases reserve line of cataphracts had trundled up, with support from the light horse command that had initially been wide on his right.

Watagases reserves arrive. My army is a mess.

So we squared off for round 2, Watagases with two fresh commands, and Bobarsaces with one fresh command (the left) and two battered ones in the center. While the forces were evenly matched, Watagases had the problem that having lost two whole commands, he couldn't take many more losses before reaching his army breakpoint. Indeed in the end, it was losses suffered by light horse trying to fight knights, that finally pushed his army over the 50% mark.

The final showdown.

Watagases himself though had stayed out the central action, and instead lead a force to attack the light horse on Bobarsaces far right. Since the latter were somewhat starved of pips by the need to dress the lines in the centre, he was able to achieve some success, trapping them against the table edge, but not quite doing enough damage to break them before his own army collapsed.

Watagases side quest

All in all, a close, fun and brutal game. Somewhat unusual in that both sides initial front lines were pretty much blown away, and it came down to a fight between the reserves. Since Watagases himself survived, we'll have to repeat the exercise and try to finish him off.properly.