DBA Battle, Part 1

Last night saw a DBA game between myself and a friend John Brock. John has only played a few games of DBA but likes it and we gave it a go last night.
The game pitted the unhistorical match-up of Papal Italians vs. Ghaznavids somewhere in Italy around 1150AD. The Papists had 3 knights, one of which was the general, 3 spears, 2 xbows and 3 psiloi and 1 horde. The Ghazis had 3 jumbos, one the general, 3 cav, 2 spears, 2 bows, 1 psiloi and 1 light horse. Real men take elephants.
John defended and set up pretty symmetrical terrain with a road bisecting the map and a wood on either side. I set up with my ellies and cav on the right and hoped to smash into his knights and end the game quickly but was seduced by his movements on my left and started playing 'his' game. I finally broke his spell and went to work in the center.
It was about this time that I remembered I have a camera and the following is a few pictures of what transpired in the middle to end of the game.

DBA Battle, Part 2

The venerable, inestimable, and all around good guy, John Brock smiles impishly as he plots my DOOM!Here you can see the bad position in which I put myself. My Spear and Bow caught with nary a PIP as I have to use them all to control my center. You can see John's Knightly contingent in the center ready to pounce. To the left is his Psiloi supported Spear wall, and between are the brave volunteer Bows who did muck things up quite a bit until my general had had enough and charged them and trampled them to minced meat. Note also how I fouled up my line further by getting a cavalry stuck behind the Bows. So much for my left maneuver element! At this point I was down 0-2 after bad things happened when elephants recoil!The usually unperturbable Mr. Brock does his best Captain Queeg as he frantically searches for answers to the dilemma facing him.

DBA Game, Part 3

The opposing lines, mid-game. To the far left you can see my Light Horse dancing with his Psiloi and an element of his bows harrassing one of my elephants. This is just before our centers charged each other; he with 1 Bow and 3 knights, 1 his General, and me with 2 elephants, including my general, and 2 Cavalry. The end result was his loss of 2 Knights and the Bow as my jumbos quick kill everything he had there; and my loss of 1 cav. Unfortunately I was too excited to remember to take pictures! I was really in trouble but John rolled a 1, then a 2 for PIPs and I was able to come out ahead. My Bow are still sitting on the road being too PIP-shy to advance.The Popemobile, 11th century style! Hordes of faithful pilgrims prepare to sell their lives to protect it, while priests pray for their souls.After the clash in the center, wherein one element of knights were destroyed, the Papist General leaves the other Sicilian Volunteers to their own fate; namely to be smashed into jelly under the feet of Ghazi jumbos!

DBA Battle, Part 4

What we're fighting for! A view out of the Ghaznavid camp and the precious water supply. At center right you can see my elephantry about to dispatch some Sicilian Norman volunteers.Set up for the final battle, mano a mano, as the two generals stare across the field at each other. Just out of the picture on the left, I maneuvered my Bow (finally) to take a pot shot at his extreme right to maybe disrupt his line, until I had enough PIPS to smash home with my El (Gen).The Anti-Climax! After all the maneuvering, posturing, and all-around setting up for the end-game, it all ended on a 'What the hell, I might as well take it" shot, when some lonely Psiloi forgot the rule about Not Being Seen! (Note: the PS was -1 due to my 'helper' for a total of 7-3.) Final score Ghaznavids 4, Papal Italians 3, in a very exciting game.