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.