|
|
|||||||||
|
|
By Herbert Wong
Introduction Thanks Lorenzo
and the Milanese players
for holding the annual Italian
DBMM Team Champion (ITC)
for
the DBMM
players.
The event in 2014 was grand and well
received by those who have attended.
It
is a team
championship using the Swiss System with
each of the four players
in every team
playing in each of the four DBMM game pools.
We
formed our team
“Yellow Dragons”
to participate in the 2013 championship.
Our team ranked
7th
out of 18
in the team
classification in 2013.
This year we formed
the team
again with the same three Chinese teammates and a new teammate, Mr. Mark
Gibson coming from N.Ireland.
With: Mark Gibson playing in Pool 1 with L.Sargonid Assyrian Andrew Lam
playing in Pool 2 with
Alexander Imperial James Cheung
playing in Pool 3 with Early
Byzantine Herbert Wong
playing in Pool 4 with WotR
English
Before going to
Training
and Army
List
Selection
My
training and
preparations
for the Championship began shortly after
ITC2013.
My
Later Hungarians
did well
in the competition last year.
I was hoping for
a better result this year.
I
had decided
to try my luck in the Medieval
Pool again.
The Medieval Pool is probably
the most complex one among the four
pools.
Complex because the army lists have a lot
of variants and sub-lists with many different army compositions and
possible combinations of troop types.
Almost
all
the Superior
Grade
troops types
are present in armies of Pool 4 with
BwS and KnS
in domination.
On
one hand, BwS can
destroy targets in range
by shooting at them but they can
be
quickly killed
by charging Kn and will lose two ranks if defeated.
On
the other hand, KnS can
smash and destroy
almost every troop types
just by frontal attack but
they are expensive in terms of army points, plus
they will flee
if they
have lost their close
combat against Bow.
That
left me with two choices when selecting
my army:
either it is able to defeat
these
two dominating troop
types, or I have
to field both of these
two troop types in my army.
I had tested several armies
for suitability.
The first
one was Serbian Empire,
which is
an irregular army with lots of IKnS,
plus plenty of LHO and PsO, which
are well suited for securing
the flanks
and supporting the Kn’s
charges.
I
found it unsuitable after practising with it for
more than 3 months because
the numerous Impetuous Irregular
Kn in this army must pursue most of the times and they
need too many PIPs to
change directions or to hold them.
Most
of the opposing
regular armies
in the trial games just
simply
slipped
away before
my knights were in a position to charge them. The photos
here are from one of my training games using Serbian
Empire (vs. 100YW English).
The
other ones I tested were the
French Ordonnance, Later Swiss,
Ghurid,
etc.
but I also found them unsuitable for reasons such as:
not
suiting my playing style, mediocre table-top performance in
fighting against the BwS and
KnS
combo, etc.
In
September
2013, I
switched
to the Ottoman Turks, which is
an
army with comprehensive
troop types capable of
dealing with
all kinds of situations in my test games.
I
even started
painting them.
However,
there are two weaknesses in this army list.
Its
compulsory choices had taken up
too many
army points, leaving
only
around 100
pts for
me to field other troops.
The
predominant troop type for this army. is Cv
which is not that good for battles
in Pool 4.
I
have to heavily rely on the handful of Serbian Knights in this army to
act as the striking hammer to break the enemy in a head-on battle.
Once they are gone,
I
will lose
the attack momentum.
The photos
here are from one of my training games using Ottoman
Turks (vs. Early Burgundians).
It was a hard
decision to
switch to another army again as it was
almost January 2014
and the Chinese New Year long
holiday would be coming
soon.
Then
I
found that the army War
of the
Roses
English (“WotR”) was capable of fulfilling all my
requirements. Among
the Book 4 armies, It has adequate number of good
shooting troops, some good
quality Knights,
which will be useful in case of need.
Even better,
its
BdS and BwS can support each other when fighting against
Foot.
Most
important of all,
regular commands!
I had finally made up my mind to use this
army.
Army Tactics WotR
has its strengths
and weaknesses.
Its
Army ME is small,
it is
short of Psiloi, and most important, it needs
to wear
down
its enemies
primarily
by shooting.
I
would like the enemies
coming forward against my army from
a
narrow frontage, preferably from
where I expect them to come.
My
prepared positions will be waiting for them.
I have set up these positions with a wider
frontage than theirs, so that I can maximize the combined firepower of
my BwS and RArtI.
for
maximum combat effect
in the killing grounds.
As WotR has a low aggression factor of one,
I would be the defender most of the time and therefore could place a lot
of terrain pieces in a way to create the aforesaid killing grounds.
I
came up with
a new idea
to use a Isolated Tower
(that is a BUAf, 40x40mm, costing
10AP), that forbids
enemy
elements setting
up within 12cm of it before the battle.
BUAf can
be placed within
the enemy deployment area.
The whole purpose is to
heavily reduce the area that the enemy troops can
deploy in their deployment area by placing a BUAf nearby.
If I am lucky enough to place it there,
I can use it to
distract
the enemy deployment plan, or
even channel them to
the
killing grounds.
In
one test game,
my
Burgundian Ordonnance enemies could only deploy
with 1 command
in the front,
to be followed by the other
remaining two commands.
I could just
concentrate all my
shooting against the enemy front command, and
broke it before the second
command took its position. I
finally broke his army
by fighting with 3
of my commands
against each of his
commands in turn,
i.e.
typically 3:1 odds
of attack. If
the
enemy did not follow my ploy, I would
make good
use
of the terrain and my regular
troop’s abilities to
outshoot
the enemy by fighting on
battle grounds with a wider frontage than that of the enemy, where my
boys can provide aid-shooting to the primary shooters.
No matter how,
my plan was to
avoid close combats as long as
possible. Close quarter fighting is
never
the strength of WotR.
As
my army
did not have
any
Psiloi, the task to clear the Difficult going
of enemy troops
would
be left to my BdS and BwS
where necessary. In summary,
my tactics were
to make
use
of terrain
and
my BUAf to channel
the enemy approach, wear
it down by shooting before commiting my troops into
close quarter combat. The theory here waited to be proved in the coming
tournament.
Tournament Games
Game 1 vs Early Crusaders
“The Duels Between Elites” WotR were
the defender and
I had
placed the tower close to
the
Crusaders’
deployment zone. During
the
setup, WotR placed
their Command
B,
Command A and Command
C from left to right
as
shown in the photos.
The
Crusaders
placed their BdS command directly
in front of my tower, obviously
he wanted to storm the tower with his heavy foot.
The
Crusaders’
ISpI command
was placed in the
upper left in the photos,
as reserves in the rear and
the Knight’s command
was
placed
in the upper right facing
the open. WotR had 2
plans.
Plan one was to
move Command
B to face
the ISpI and
destroy them by
shooting.
However,
since the enemy spear command
had been deployed
in the rear,
if I moved my
Command
B towards
them, I might exposed my flank to
the
Crusaders’
counterattack, which
sounded risky.
The
alternative was
to use the tower to draw
the Crusaders’
BdS towards
the tower.
Then
my KnS
and General would
advance and attack
them.
They had a good chance of
killing
a few of these 2ME BdS, and that
would break
this
Command.
Therefore,
I chose
the second plan. The photos below were taken after the Movement Phase of bound 2. The Crusaders were ready to storm my tower with RBdS supported by PsO. WotR Knights
of Command B took up
and reached
the flank cover position, the King
with his Royal Guard regiment (all RKnS)
were ready to charge those Bd
storming my tower. Crusader CinC with RknO
reached position
to cover the flank of
the Spear
command and part of the BdS tried to take the RH.
The Crusader
BdS proved to be a hard nut to crack.
WotR
knights had been repulsed several times and took casualties.
The WotR CinC
was
lucky
to survive a hard flank attack
and carried the day later.
On
the other hand,
2 Crusader BdS bravely stood
in the flank,
attacked and saved their
Command
from breaking.
In
the mean time,
the WotR tower
has fallen
after
repeated Crusader
assaults.
Crusader Sub
Gen challenged the WotR CinC and advanced against him
without
any troops protecting his
flank.
He
was killed in
the
next bound by the WotR CinC hard
flank attack
(the first personal combat). The 2 Crusader BdS finally
were slaughtered by
the third attacks into their
flank and their command was
broken. However one of the WotR dismounted Knights was killed by a
hard flank attack as well, the fight kept going with
the
WotR gaining
the upper hand. Finally the WotR CinC fought another personal combat with the Crusader’s CinC. Fighting against the Superior Grade mounted, with enemy overlapping its flank, plus the enemy rolling a SIX for the combat, the Crusader commander was killed. As a result, the whole Crusader army was broken.
Game
Summary The WotR
tower
was a distraction to the
Crusader’s plan, it
attracted his attention and
the Crusader had
committed
a whole command to
storm and attack it.
It created an opportunity
for the WotR to fix a decision point
and commit their elites as well. The narrow frontage
of the battlegrounds had
favoured
the WotR
as they had
only a handful
of
their elite Knight units, the
Crusader
had committed their elites
set piece (first
came the
BdS,
then came the KnO,
and finally
their commander) and
their Commands
were
broken one by one.
However
the tower
had fallen quickly,
plus the tough fighting of
the BdS
exerted lots of
pressure to
the WotR
side,
to the extent that even their
CinC had been hard flanked.
He survived only because of luck.
Game 2 vs Ghurid “No Surrender!!” “I
was losing
the battle
at 5 o’clock, but
I won it back at 7!” Extracted from the film “Battle of
Waterloo” when
Napoleon commented
on his
Battle of
Marengo. I have
played Ghurid in my test
games, with the impressions that
their IPkX
were
good vs BwS, Kn and other troop types
except BdS.
They
can only fight up to 3 ranks,
not 4 ranks.
They
do
not
have enough punching power
to
prevail
against
BdS.
Don’t
forget that
Pike
can be quick killed by Bd in
enemy bound.
Therefore
I
did not choose to use this
army
in ITC.
So
when I knew
that
I would fight Ghurid in this
round, I
thought
As usual, WotR defended
and deployed first.
Unfortunately
I failed to place my 2
roads and consequently the tower
could only be
placed
near the short table edge.
It did not serve its intended purposes
for the whole game.
I
had
set
up my army on the right hand
side and Ghurid
had deployed on the opposite
corner.
When
we started to play,
I rushed my army towards the
open area on the left hand
side.
I
intended to
take the gentle hill if possible, or attack the Pike blocks
from
their
flank.
I sent my ILHO to take the gentle hill first,
to be followed by my bowmen.
With
hindsight,
it was a big mistake
to do so.
It made me to
move these elements of
my command A to the open and
had
stretched my line too wide and
thin.
I
also lost the
mutual supports
from my Command B that
had
set
up
on
the far right hand side.
Even
worse, my ILHO
was
no match to Ghurid’s ILHS and
my BwS
was no
match to Ghurid’s PkX.
Ghurid
commander wisely took
advantage of the opportunity
and
sent all his
forces to storm
against
my thin defense line.
I
lost
my ILHO quickly to Ghurid’s ILHS and my bow line could not be held
too long
against Ghurid PkX.
With
the WotR RBdS on the
way to reinforce my front line,
the situation looked
grim
for the WotR.
In the mid
game, my WotR army was close to being broken.
Its
Command A
had
lost 12 ME
out of 36
and its Command A
had lost 4 ME out of 12.
Both
of them became disheartened
and were
on the
verge of being broken.
In
addition,
the
WotR
Baggage
Command
was looted by
the
Ghurid Light horse!
Meaning
that 1
or more
ME loss on
either Command A or
Command C would break the WotR
army.
At this moment,
the Ghurid losses were
mild,
my guess was probably only 2-3
ME. Several times I wanted
to throw
in
my white towel and take a break.
My team
spirit reminded
me of my
responsibility
to other team members.
Even
a few points
more for this game mattered, as every point
counted
for
my team’s final score, so
keep on playing until defeated.
I
started
to counter-attack
with my BdS, who destroyed
the Ghurid’s Pike one by one.
There is a saying that “God
helps those who help themselves”.
From
this moment on in this game, my
dice
throws did not fail me
anymore. I must stress that I would have lost this
game even
by just one
unlucky
dice roll
in one of my BdS combat (such
as
I rolling 1 and he rolling 6).
But my boys did not fail me and they kept
fighting on.
The
climax
of the
WotR finally
managed to break 2 of
the
4 Ghurid’s commands and
inflicted
more than 40%
of Ghurid’s Total ME
The
losses was close to
the Ghurid’s
army’s break point.
It must be emphasized that in
the
last few bound,
even one bad dice roll of
WotR would cost them
to lose
the game.
Afterthoughts I made
my mistake
in my first
moves,
which
made me
almost lose this game.
With
hindsight,
I should have set
up a defensive line across the open between the central hill and
the woods, and
fought the battle along
the short table edge
instead.
As
my BwS supported my BdS, the PkX
could only attacked
my BdS supported by BwS
at combat factor of 5:5,
but I could have quick killed
the PkX
with my BdS
in my
bound.
The risk would be lower by doing so.
If
this was a
friendly game,
I would probably would have conceded
during the mid game. But
for team play, I needed to
contribute as much
score as possible.
This
kept me carrying
on, and
unexpectedly finally
turned the tables in my favour.
On
that night I remembered
the Battle of Marengo.
Its
course of events and the outcome
were
similar
to that of this game.
So
I learned my lesson:
Never quit in DBMM!
You never know what will happen next.
Thank
God!
I
was very lucky in this
game.
Game 3 vs Later Swiss “ Secure Your
Flank!”
After I
came back from I was the defender. Please refer to the following photo for terrain and set up. Kindly note that the tower was placed in the Swiss deployment area, I hoped to reduce the Swiss deployment area and make them to deploy in front of my army so that I would fight the battle as per my pre-battle plan. For this battle, the Orchard placed by the Swiss was the strategic high ground which both sides would be striving to control. With hindsight, the Swiss Plan was to make good use of terrain that could help them to turn the battle into a short table fight (i.e. both armies facing the short table edge instead of the long table edge). The Swiss army consisted of 2 identical commands. Each of them had 24 RPkS, the General, some RBdX and RPsS/O, 32ME each. Their third Command consisted of RBdX and RPsS/O, which was good for fighting in DG. It had 10ME. There was no baggage train, an indication that this army expected to fight using mobile warfare doctrine.
The Swiss set
up in my opposite corner, using
their superior pike regular maneuverability
to come
from my
right, then turn
90 degrees and
thus be ready
to fight WotR
from the
short table edge. The Swiss initial move was brilliant and forced me to
change my
original battle
plan.
I needed to turn
my
battle line by 90 degrees
to form
a hasty
defense
line in the middle of battle field.
Both
sides moved cautiously.
We
faced each other across the short table edge with the Orchard dividing
the battlefield into 2 sections.
WotR had
set
up a defense
line slightly behind the Orchard
to anchor
their flank
to the orchard.
The
Swiss setup their Pike blocks
in 6 ranks deep, which could
absorb 3 ranks of losses
before they
would lose their attack
momentum.
This
was a very clever
tactic
against
the WotR BdS+BwS combo.
For
WotR,
Bw
in rear rank can
support Bd
and fight at +5, but Pike
fight at +7.
Assuming the Pk win the combat in its
bound, as both
these Bd and Pk were superior grade,
the combat factor after grade adjustment would be
9
(for Pike) vs 6
(for Bd).
The
Pk
would
destroy
the BdS with
the probability of 1/18.
Don’t
forget
Pk
could easily push back the Bd and
thereby
support the next attack by overlap.
And increase the chance of direct destroyed to 1/9. You might
argue that BdS
have a good chance to quick
kill
the PkS in
their own bound.
As
the Pike block was 6 ranks deep,
losing one or two ranks would not change their
combat factor.
The
BdS+BwS combo
could not afford any casualties as
once the first rank Blade
was gone, the second rank Bow
would
be easily destroyed by Pk.
I would rather not to take this
risk. So I retired
slightly back.
If I
could
control the Orchard, I could threaten the
Swiss’s flank
from there
if their Pike block
advanced against my defense line.
Certainly, the
Swiss commander
was also
aware of the importance of the
Orchard
as he
postponed his attack until
his smallest command
could
bring up
their Psiloi
to clear
the Orchard first.
In reaction,
I had
2 plans.
If
my command C
was kicked out of the Orchard,
I would retired my 2 bigger commands back to the RH on my left hand wing
to set up a
defense
line with my foot and avoid battle
where possible.
I
thought
the Swiss
would not
attack my new defense line as his
combat factor became 6 in RH
and mine would also be 6 if I
was uphill in his bound.
But my BdS+BwS combo could
quick kill his Pike in my bound. With this plan I might lose
my smallest command, plus the Baggage command, but my army
would still
be intact. If I won the
fight for
the
Orchard, then I would attack, as I could threaten the
Swiss flank
from the Orchard.
I
had set
up my defense line by
deploying my Bowmen inside the
Orchard, and
now it was up to the grace of God.
The Swiss
Pike block with
the lowest PIPs retreated
from the WotR command A and
the WotR immediately charged them in marching, slaughtering their first
rank (the Swiss first rank turned back to fight WotR Blade
but without
any rear
rank support,
together with
the
penalty
of being unable to recoil).
The
Swiss Pike Block
turned 180 degree and counter
attacked
fiercely.
My
WotR CinC's
chest
was
destroyed by
the piercing of a
long pike.
Once again, the
Swiss Pikemen had proved
that
they
deserved to be classified as
soldiers of the highest grade.
Now both
of the two remaining Swiss
commands suffered
4.5 ME and 6 ME losses
respectively, but
they were still far from
broken.
My
WotR Command A
had lost its General,
but all
my
Commands were in good
condition.
While I was
pondering on whether or not to
commit Command B against the front of another Swiss Pike block, time was
called.
Game Summary It was a
battle of brains,
with both commanders
calculating carefully and being cautious.
During
the first two hours, we marched
and counter-marched
until both
sides found the importance of
the Orchard, where the
Swiss committed his Light
troop in attack.
The
WotR Bowmen stood
their ground
bravely
and they repulsed and defeated
the enemy assaults.
Then
WotR
counterattacked,
but there was not enough time
left to conclude with a decisive result.
The WotR
seemed to have the upper
hand before the game
was ended,
though it had lost its CinC.
I
enjoyed this game, not just because I
was playing with a
respectable DBMM general, but
it was like playing a game of chess.
Game 4 vs Italian Condotta with Swiss
ally “Bowmen Lead the Way!”
The last
round of the tournament finally.
I
had
accumulated 50 points
for my
previous 3
rounds. I
needed
to have a good result this round to have a decent chance of claiming any
trophy.
Regardless of
whosoever
my opponent was and whatsoever his army was,
I would
play aggressively and attack. I had a bad start to this game, becoming the invader and therefore unable to use my tower. Further, the Condotta commander had successful separated the battlefield into 2 sectors by placing a 2FE DH and 1FE Marsh in the centre. Even worse, I had to deploy first! So no doubt we would set up in opposing corners, I need to move out of the DGo first and reform them before I could properly set up my battle line and attack. It was a challenge. My plan was to move the infantry of my command A into the 1FE Marsh, clear and secure it and then would roll up the enemy’s line from there. My last battle against the Swiss had proven that my Bowmen were as good as PsS in close combat, even when fighting in difficult terrain. Moreover, I could destroy the PsS just by shooting at them. My bowmen should be capable of executing my plan successfully. The photos below show the initial deployment and the movements in the early stage of the battle.
The Condotta
commander was surprised by my initial moves, he
thought
his RPsS (all his Ps were S)
would not
lose the fight
in
the DG, and
therefore
he
need not send
his
BdS
to reinforce
that sector yet,
though he might regret his decision later.
The
Condotta RPsS
had been destroyed or
bounced off the
Marsh
after they had been shot at for several bounds.
Right now the Condotta sent
his BdS
into the Marsh to
try to plug the gap, but
it was too late.
The WotR BwS started
to massacre
the Horde group outside by shooting at them.
Thanks to their superior quality and good dice rolls,
the WotR Bowmen inside the Marsh
had repulsed the attacks of the
Condotta BdS and PsS.
Eventually,
the
English
quantitative
superiority
won the
fight for the Marsh
for them.
As the
Condotta’s left
wing
command
was close to being broken,
the Condotta
advanced the Swiss Pike block
to attack the English
in order to save the day.
Their
attack was doomed as they were attacking from a narrow front with an
insecure flanks.
WotR
encircled the Swiss Pike block
from their insecure flanks and
slaughtered them.
The
Condotta army was broken and the game
ended in a
WotR's victory.
Game
Summary The big
surprise
in this battle was
the battle-worthiness of the
WotR bowmen
who
led the way into the marsh.
They had won their fight against the
Condotta PsS despite there being no rear rank support for them
in
distance shooting or
close
combat.
Thereafter,
it was just a matter of time for the English to
roll the Condotta
battle
line.
If
the Condotta
had
sent
their BdS into the marsh early
in the game to react
the WotR’s initial movement,
the outcome of the battle
might have been
different.
Trip Conclusion
Surprisingly, our
team
managed to win the 2nd
runner up
this year.
It was encouraging for us and we are very
happy to have the achievement.
I
felt relaxed and relieved, not
simply because
of the end of the
2 days of hard fighting.
I
was glad that my preparation for the tournament that lasted for
the whole year did work. Many thanks
to Lorenzo and his team for the
huge
efforts
they expended in
arranging
and organizing this fantastic tournament.
The
event made it possible for
20 teams, totalling 80 players, gathering
together, playing games, exchanging their views and sharing
information about their favorite hobby.
It
was really a wonderful moment.
I
also wanted to take advantage of this opportunity
to thank Lawrence Ho, of our
player group in Hong Kong,
who had
spent a lot of time with me in our Sunday
early morning training games thoroughout the year,
enlightening me
with many
new ideas
on the army list and game
play.
Finally
ITC has
already
become part of my life
and I hope I can come back
to
|
