Visit to Glasgow Phoenix

I try to get over to the Phoenix club a couple of times a year to play DBA or HOTT.

On Tuesday I had 4 games of DBA against Mark.  I normally take along a historically matched pair of armies and something to take on his Wars of the Roses army.  All 25mm of course.

The first clash was Syracuse v Later Carthaginian.  Mark had the Africans bravely charging forward against their opponents some of whom had the advantage of being on a hill.  I threw a lot of sixes and blew them away in very short time.

The first game was a typical DBA line v line clash.  I tried something different for the rematch and split the Carthaginians into two groups with a gap in the centre.  I then refused the right flank made up of my Spanish auxillia and put cavalry on the right flank.  Finally I left my cavalry general in the centre.  The plan worked pretty well with my left flank winning the game helped by the general who sneaked through the centre and was able to get to the rear of the Italians.  Rolling more sixes helped.

By this stage I was quite embarrassed at my excessive rolling of 6s.  I actually changed my dice twice but it made no difference.

Mark was to have his revenge in the second round of games.  I started using Scots Common Army but although the spear held up well losing only one element the loss of my Highland Archers, Horde and Knights (on a draw v Blades) was enough. 

Using the Tudor army for the final game I tried the split army trick again massing the missiles on my left and the rest on the right.  All that firepower only managed to take out the hordes and the death of my general hastened me to a second defeat.

We each won two games so honour was satisfied on both sides.

Games played this year 113 miniatures 2 board

Systems played 36 miniatures 2 board

Sextuple DBA fun with two Marks

Two games on Monday at the Falkirk club against Mark Learmouth and four on Tuesday at the Glasgow Phoenix club against Mark Grindlay.

The picture above shows Mark L in what is the new traditional pose for a wargamer - taking a picture with his phone!



Mark brought along his Early Imperial Romans which I pitched my Ancient Spanish against and for the second game it was his Ancient Britons against my Later Carthaginians.  Neither of us had played for a while so we took a while to get back into.  I kept my tactics very simple and came out with two wins and an agreement that we would not leave it so long before playing again



On to Glasgow on Tuesday.  Our first two games were Spanish v Carthaginians.  The Carthaginians seemed to have the advantage in terms of the make up of their army which I used to good advantage in the first of the games picking off the opposing psiloi.  Mark was about to return the favour in the second game when a series of poor rolls thwarted him and I snatched a lucky victory. In fact at one stage Mark rolled 5 combat rolls of 1 in succession!

The third and fourth games were a first outing for Mark's new Wars of the Roses figures (see above).  We set up a Richard III v Henry Tudor match up.  Henry is an unusual general type, a CP. Basically blades but with a restriction on initiating combat.   Mark lined up with Henry at his centre and I opposed with Richard but the disadvantage of this inability to charge soon became apparent.  I concentrated my shooting and killed a couple of units and then took advantage of the gap in the Tudor line to roll up his Pike for a quick win.  Having swopped sides I kept Henry back as did Mark with Richard initially.  We got into a bit of a confused melee in the centre and this time it was Richard with a cavalry charge who made the decisive breakthrough.  One win each and we counted these two games towards the Society of Ancients championship.  A really good night of gaming.

As for the title - well they say that you can sell anything with sex so lets see if I can attract a new clientele to the blog!

Games 27

 Rules played 16 New 7
Places played 4 New 0