So after the first game and a well deserved coffee, Nick and I decided to double the stakes with a Gallic revolt.
As this was double DBA we extended the length of the table. I rolled as defender again as it was Gauls post 225BC and I had all the aggression of a happy monk - i.e.zero.
I chose a BUA (coz it looked good) and two fields as compulsory, then three woods, to represent the Gauls fighting a revolt in their own territory; setting up the ploughed fields and BUA in the corners and the woods in the center and other corner - it was all part of my cunning historical plan to have the warband rush screaming from the woods.
The Gauls
So I had 15x Wb(f), 1xWb(f) general, 1x Cv general, 6xCv, 1x Ps and set them up across the centre of the board with the cavalry on my left flank.
To make up the numbers we pretended that the Spanish allies had joined the ranks, hence the Spanish cavalry and Ligurians.
Spanish and Gallic cavalry heading into battle in the late afternoon sun.
View of the warband from the far left flank, long line of Romans can be seen in the distance.
Camp and Spanish allies (not allies ruleswise - just pretend - ssh!) on the far right flank.
Gallic center rushing towards glory.
S.P.Q.R.
Fighting the upstart Gauls were thousands and thousands of Roman blade and cavalry.
2x Cv Generals, 4x Cv allied and Roman , 16x Bd legionaires, 2x Ps.
The Roman line started near my center left.
And continued out to the right flank.
The cavalry on Nick's far right front to meet mine.
The Battle
Gallic center rush to meet their fate.
Turn 1
In turn 1 several interesting things happened. Firstly Nick reminded me that woods were rough going and all the fast Wb inside them had to be pipped as columns - ruh roh. Not so fast after all and it took several turns and good dice to move the mass in the center in good going and the five elements in the woods.
I aggressively deployed the cavalry forward and Nick responded in kind.
Turn 2
So by turn two, after Nick had wasted all his pips from the blade command by not using any of them, it was clear that he was going to wait for me to come to him, so I focused on getting everything forward.
The foot command pipped well enough for the forest warband to get into position although the center trailed behind; this wasn't so bad as although extended forward, I stopped the forest warband just inside the woods so as to taunt and goad the Romans into attacking them there.
The cavalry pipped well also, enough for the entire command to move as individual elements, so I smashed into the Roman Equites and their auxilia.
Combat was fast and fierce and overall in favour of the Gauls.
Turn 3
By turn three the cavalry combat was going well in the favour of the Gauls.
Although a melee broke out near the center where Nick's line was refused.
And finally the warband were in position.
The cavalry combat ended well for the Gauls and Nick's cavalry command became demoralised.
Turn 4
In a surprise move, one of Nick's legions smashed into the center warband.
But his other legion had not taken the bait to fight in the bad going.
So began the battle proper.
The first round of foot combat was just favouring the Romans and the Gallic cavalry continued to harass Nick's demoralised command.
Turn 5
With the center lines reformed the combat continued, the Gauls weren't about to cave and the Romans resolutely swept forward.
But with the Gallic general in the fray and quick kills being quick kills, the legion became decimated.
Turn 6++
The Gallic cavalry had been continuing to harry the remaining demoralised Roman Equites and formed up for what was hoped to be the final blow.
The Roman left flank was still refusing battle.
However the Roman center still fought on.
But the dice rolls were with the Gauls and the last few elements of blade were dispatched.
And the Equites were finally decimated.
With the game going to the Gauls, breaking the army from the number of elements destroyed, although it could have gone either way in the center to start with.
It was a great game and DBA 3.0 really delivered again, all the annoying 'yes but' niche headache rules seem to have been ironed out from 2.1, into an entirely enjoyable game.
It was great to get the 20mm ancients on the board again and half way through, when appreciating the paint jobs on Nick's and my own HaT and Italeri troops, I suddenly realised that Mark painted the sheer majority of mine - they still look awesome!
Large battle DBA 3.0 is a fun and accurate way to historically while away a Saturday afternoon and will replace DBM x, DBMM, and FoG - yes FoG, even after I bought all those damn army books! - for me from now on.
I wonder how it'd stack up against Hail Caesar?
