DBA at Dave's June 15, 2013

Dave A. had his annual DBA at Dave's tournament. Dennis, our game master of ceremonies picked Book I armies this year. With a twist! Everyone would need an ally! I teamed up with none other than Dave, himself! I brought I/52b Early Hoplite Greek - Spartans and Dave brought I/52d Early Hoplite Greek - Theban. We opted for the (limited) flexibility the Cv and Ps from Dave's army gave us. In hindsight, I probably should have taken the Horde option. We had the phalax thing covered.

Our first match was against Gary and Pete's doubled up I/26 Achains. Lots of chariots. There is not much you can do with 20 elements of Spears. We tried to cut the game board as much as possible. We lined up against the gentle hill to the right.

Pete split off his chariots and Psiloi, trying to flank our left. Dave ran his Cav out of our middle. It served to distract their other flanking move.

These guys were having dice trouble. Which is hilarious when Pete and Gary get going. Pete kept getting 1's. His chariots and Ps were stuck in place. We slowly marched across the field.

 We tied up the right for awhile. Pete was still stuck on the left. We edged closer. Die rolls were favoring us. It let us made that loonnnnggg march at 200 paces a shot. For some reason, I don't have a shot of the end of the game. They one. They got in our camp. They flanked us on both sides. It gave us ideas for the next battle though.

 The next game was against Mike and Ron. Mike had I/19 Mitanni and Ron had I/52f - Athenians. More Greek on Greek fighting. We tried to embrace a modified "turtle". We basically had the same board layout. We set up like this:

x x x x x x
x x x x x x
x x x x x x
x x x x x x

The plan was to stay small and see what they did. And then expand out.

Mike's Mitanni's goes for the flanks. We continue to spread the phalanx. Dave sends his Cav out to their flank, again, to distract.

I break off a couple of stands to protect our camp. Dave's Cav starts pushing back a chariot. I can see now that we should have put the camp in the middle of the board. Mike's line is fractured. 

 The chariots and psiloi come in. The Spartans hold and they start to gain ground on the flank. Always watching out for the pushback kill. Dangerously enough in a double line.

The battle for the camp starts here. That side of the board quickly devolved into a hot mess. Pushing and shoving with Dave's General. In the camp, out of the camp, zone of control of the camp. 

The Spartans split. Main line deals with the Chariots. Small group on the Psiloi. We push Ps back. Hard to kill. 

Spartans are doing what they do. Kicking butt. I press the chariots. I am doing well against them and decide to re-form the line.

 We ended up losing this one but it was CLOSE. I took out 6 of Mike's Mittani. They had our camp and took out Dave's General finally.

The team battle was interesting. I liked the learning experience. Spartans our tough. I think the next time I play them, I am just going to string them out and forgo the double rank (only against Kn and Sp). That seems to be the only way to protect the flank. I need to learn to use terrain better.

WIP: Spartans Complete

The Spartans are complete! My first 15mm army. I ran out of shield transfers. I needed 5. Mostly because I didn't follow the instructions from Little Big Men. The basing turned out well. I am carrying on the Rod Stafford basing tradition.

Now I need to practice with these guys!

I have re-read the DBA rules. I am paying particular attention to the bad going handicaps. That seemed to burn me the last time I played. This is an ALL SPEARs army. Line up and march. I can also stack them for a bonus.

I am tempted to start on the Polybian Romans or Later Carthaginians that I have. :)

WIP: 15mm Essex Spartans for DBA Part II

The Spartans started getting their shield decals today! While I was at it, I started to base them. I realized that I did not have enough transfers. This is mostly because I mangled a good half dozen of them before I figured out that I needed to remove the plastic covering.

Yes. I am an idiot. So - an order has been placed with Little Big Men Studios for resupply. I sent a note asking if there is a way to get some lambdas in bronze. I rather like the black shields. I think they really grunge these guys up. I saw someone else do these and it appealed to me. I like a warrior that doesn't Armour All his shield. I want the dirty scrappers. I am also toying with the idea of applying some weathering to these guys. I have some pigment. I'm nervous.

WIP: 15mm Essex Spartans for DBA

I've been doing a bad job of tracking the work on my Spartan army.

I am in the home stretch. I've tried to keep the colors both simple and historically accurate. Armor is mostly bronze with some leather mixed in. Tunics are either white or red. Shields are mostly bronze again with a mix of all black.

I need to touch up the arms, legs and faces. I also need to tip the spears. Then apply lambda decals and base 'em up. It has taken me a long time to do these. I also worked on some Warlord buildings during this time. I need to put pictures up of those too.

WIP: 15mm Essex Spartans

I attached the spears to the Spartans today. Hooooleeee Jeebus. That s.t.u.n.k. But, I'm done. Click the pics to see larger photos. You can see where I have started playing with some colors. I'm still taking a very old school approach. I primed them black, then I drybrushed white. I need that drybrush to pick out the details. We'll see how it goes. I am going to start with the flesh tone first. Work up from that layer. I gotta get these done so I can practice with them before June. 

Next up: Bolt Action battle report. Maybe some X-wing too.