Game 2 Ayyubids IV/20 vs Medieval Scandinavian

Blade gone, and the Bw about to disappear

Owen was using his Medieval Scandinavian, which the pictures will show were 10mm figures - largely undercoated black, and very difficult to distinguish visually. As he has had them for 2 years or so, I reckon it is about time he splashed some paint on them. Especially as I had basically painted the Ayyubids in 10 days.

Be that as it may, he is a very careful competitor - makes few mistakes and knows the rules very well. He also has no compunction about exploiting the rules as written. Accordingly, when I was attacker, he laid the standard waterway, and a BUA, knowing I had nothing that could take it (Auxilia being my most powerful foot element). And when I deployed away from it, he then did a defender swap to put artillery in the BUA.

I saw he had deployed with a weakness on his left, with his line broken up and only a couple of Bowmen and a Blade to cover his flank, so I immediately piled 4 cavalry and 2 LH through the narrow gap between a marsh and the Waterway, and got stuck into his isolated elements. Meanwhile I had to use PIPS to redeploy away from the Artillery in the BUA, virtually leaving me with a narrow strip of about 4 inches wide to play in.

My assault on his Bw/Bd combo supported by his Kn general was initially successful, I was able to go in vs his Bw at 3-3 (with overlaps) and rapidly took two elements, and a flanking LH ensured his Bd was gone. 

General in trouble...

Ayyubid Psiloi arrive to support

By now his General was in serious trouble, having pushed forward and in danger of being hit both flanks and rear for a 3-2 shot. What I had forgotten though, was that DBA 2.2 allows a breakoff even by the slower element (I have been playing too many other sets of rules). And he was able to break off his General and pull three more bow across from his left (he had been moving them slowly and gradually to support, having had a series of 5 and 6 for PIPS every bound), and they immediately shot down a Psiloi and two Cavalry to add to the LH I had lost to the other Bowmen in the initial assault. Game Over. I had gone from a position of being 3-1 elements up, with his General isolated and hard-flanked, and just been outrolled across the board.

I commented to Owen afterwards that to my recollection, he had not rolled a single 1 during the game, his PIPS had been exceptional, and that in the final few rounds his combat dice seemed to be all 5 & 6's. 

Not a happy game for me, it showed the worst cheesey excesses of 2.2 terrain and deployment rules. I don’t like slow-moving troops being able to break off, and my dice didn’t do me any favours. Or more accurately, Owen's dice did him a lot of favours.

Shows the area between the 5" Artillery range from the BUA and the Waterway