Battle report [DBA]: The Lamian war (323-322 BC)

A good friend of mine was visiting me on sunday and so we made some matches of DBA. He has played tabletop earlier but isn't an active gamer anymore. Anyhow he quickly learned how to play DBA - it's simply a great game, easy to learn but difficult to master! Ok, he has played DBA twice before when we met after christmas, but that was also some time ago.

So I set everything up and we chose our armies. At the moment I basically own Greeks and Macedonians, so it had to be a combination of these two. My friend chose to field the forces of Antipater. I looked in the list for potential enemies and found Athens, which I played. With these armies we simply had to play the Lamian war (323-322 BC), which broke out after the death of Alexander the great. The Greek cities rose up again to regain their freedom, but were ultimately suppressed and lost their autonomy forever. Focus of the war was the town of Lamia (therefore Lamian war). This conflict was overshadowed by the wars of the Diadochoi, but indeed has much wargaming potential with it's land battles, sieges and marine operations. We decided to interprete the history for our needs, so the following battles are recreated, but only set in the context of the Lamian war 

1. Battle of Lamia

As in history, in our first game the Greeks were attackers. They marched north to conquer the town of Lamia. A Macedonian army was hastily send to prevent this. Both armies clashed on the fertile plains near Lamia. All hills were gentle, so only the woods were difficult terrain.

The view from the Greek perspective: the hoplite phalanx on the left, fully extended. Psiloi and auxilia behind the woods, on the extreme right a unit of cavalry. Not in the picture is a unit of light horse on the extreme left.

On the other side stood the Macedonians. On their right flank was a mighty elephant, in the center the extended pike phalanx. Auxilia closed the gap between the phalanx and the hill. On the hill were the psiloi, behind them the cavalry in reserve.

The deployment from another view.

The Greek general (that was me) wanted to resolve this battle quickly. His plan was to use his longer line to overwhelm the Macedonian phalanx before they could outflank him with their superior and more numerous cavalry (bottom right on the picture). So he pressed on with all his troops.

But it was too late! Antipater destroyed the auxilia, which should guard the flank of the phalanx. Things went bad for the Greeks, who seeked the decision in infantry combat.

This is how the final close combat began. Despite their longer line the Greek phalanx was thrown into disorder. To make things worse the Macedonian cavalry wheeld around to hit the phalanx in the flank, just in time. The Greeks are trapped and so the line collapsed. As the casualty rose the hoplites threw away their shields to run away. The battle ended with a glorious Macedonian victory, they didn't even lost a single base!

Conclusion: it was a fast and fun battle. The Macedonians had a good timing which brought them victory. I need to paint some casualty markers (you don't need them for DBA, but they look pretty cool and I'm a wargaming aesthete). 

Battle report: Avanti! Mussolinis offensive in North Africa

Hello there,

hopefully you saw the buildings I made for the North African theatre. Two weeks ago Björn and I made a small game, to begin our campaign. The war in North Africa started with an Italian offensive against the British - a foolish step Mussolini made, because his troops lost the iniative after some minor victories and were thrown back, so they were nearly wiped out. It was so bad, that Hitler decided to help his ally - the birth of the Afrika Korps.

The initial operations - the Italian offensive (red) and the British response (blue)

We began historically with a desperate Italian offensive against a British held village, somewhere between Badia and Sidi Barrani in mid September 1940. Björn took his British forces, I commanded the Italian attackers.

The British troops hiding in the village and the surrounding compounds.

The brave British only had infantry at their disposal, even missing an anti tank gun. So, they had to rely on close combat against enemy vehicles.

The village was fortified by czech hedgehogs. On the building in the middle is a Vickers machine gun. The rest are also manned by infantry, hiding in the cover of the clay huts.

The advanced defence positons at the crossroads - the gate to the village and therefore an important target.

The Italians began to launch a heavy frontal aussault on the British at the crossroads. Supported by two M13/40 tanks and an Autoblinda AB41, the Italian Infantry threw themselves into cover. The tanks tried to spot the British behind the lower wall, which took much time.

Unfortunately, the Italians had a British unit in their flank, but the Italian commander decided that the outpost at the crossroads had top priority. This led to heavy casualties under his men.

Ignored by the Italians, the unit had a good firing position directly in the flank of the enemy.

At the same time, the Italians also came from the right flank and took positions in the dry river. After heavy fire support from the tank, a squad attacked the small wall frontally. The British defendes decided to flee instead of dieing in close combat. 

Italian advance from the right flank.

The wall is taken, but the house itself remaines to be a nest of resistance.

The M13/40 fails to spot the well hidden British infantrymen in the building.

The building at the crossroads was still able to hinder the assault on the village, but the tanks were unable to spot the enemy inside. So everything had again to be done by the hard pressed infantry. There was only one chance to take the house - by attacking in close combat!

Just before bloody fighting begins: the Italians threw grenades to prepare the following melee.

It was a mercyless hand-to-hand fight, with neither side gaining the upper hand. In the end, only one man on each side remained. With a lucky hit Björn's British soldier knocked out the last Italian attacker and the house was saved. Recognizing that victory became impossible, I ordered my troops to retreat. Even though all my vehicle were intact, the infantry casualties were to high, with half of my company wiped out.

Last man standing. After fierce fighting he held his position, which was later named "Bloody Corner".

If you want to read another AAR, I recommend this one. We played the beginning of Operation Barbarossa.