Practice Run

Deployment

Jeff organized a DBA 2.2 mini-tourney for this weekend.  We will have five players present.  Ryan and I decided to try out my nearly finished Seulicids against his late Spartans (II/5a).  The terrain included a waterway, road, hill, and woods.  The Spartans attacked.  Ryan rolled five PIPs and launched his Psiloi across the board, attempting to QK the Elephant.  He failed and recoiled.

Psiloi Gambit

Flanked Psiloi

In the next turn,  I  advanced the Elephant and flanked him with a Psiloi that was deployed in the woods, destroying the attacker.

Scythed Chariot Attacks Spartan Line and is Destroyed

I launched the Scythed Chariot right away at the middle of the Spartan Hoplite line.  It didn't go so well. Thank goodness lost SCh's don't count against you.




















Ryan used his Hoplite Spears as a pinning force essentially, hoping to withstand my attacks until he could take out the Auxilia and Psiloi.  He wheeled the line and anchored it on a hill to reduce the maneuverability of the Knights.  I managed to quick kill one Spear element with my Knights, but a series of Knight attacks later in the game failed.

Forces approach

Recoil Risk

Ryan noticed that my Elephant and Pike line were near each other, so he used his Elephant to flank, forcing the beast to face about and hoping it would recoil into the Pikes.  My luck on the dice was unbelievable.  Because the Spartan line boxed in my Pikes, I risked an Elephant stomping in multiple turns at several points in the game, but the dice rolled in my favor.  For several turns, the Cavalry attacked and recoiled.

Boxed In

Ryan wheeled his main line back and anchored it on the flank, splitting off Spears to go after the lighter troops in the bad going.   He then adopted an annoying tactic of moving backwards just enough to keep my Pikes from being able to make contact each turn.  At the same time, he was careful not to give me much maneuver room.  The forces were boxed in, and I spent a lot of PIPs trying to get the line in order.

Warband before destruction

Meanwhile. Ryan managed to flank and destroy a Warband element, but his efforts to destroy Psiloi in the bad going never worked out.  He kept recoiling.  I finally managed to flank his cavalry and destroy it with the Elephant.

 

 The game ended in the bad going. My Pikes never engaged, but the Auxilia managed to kill a Spear element.  We both agreed that this was one of the funnest and most challenging games we have played thus far.  Ryan knows that it will be hard to win with the Spartans, but he likes the Spear heavy army.

Final Losses: Seleucids: 1-Sch, 1-Wb  Spartans: 2-Sp, 1-Ps, 1-Cv