An Alternate Deployment
Recent discussions at the Fanaticus Forum led me to review
an alternative deployment we have used for the standard DBA3 game. Both armies
distributed their twelve elements to form three groups, an advance guard, a
main body and rear guard. Rather than march our troops on to the table and
deploy, troops were placed in the standard deployment zone alternating with the
defender placing his advance guard followed by the attacker, the process
concluding with the positioning of all three groups.
Elements, within each group, may form a line or column(s),
but groups must keep a minimum distance of 1BW from the next group. We found
this an effective way to play out medieval games with armies organized in this
manner. A level of uncertainty is present when key troops are found out of
position and scrambling to relocate. Further embarrassment may come when
placing a subsequent group and you lack sufficient space to deploy correctly.
On the whole, the defender is not totally disadvantaged as
the complement of each group remains hidden until placed on the board and the
defender may still render a surprise to the enemy with the positioning of the
last group. In the example below, photos illustrate the deployment sequence of
Castilian and Andalusian armies (both armies are double size).
Andalusia, as defender, places his advance guard followed by
Castille.
The main bodies are positioned.
Lastly, the rear guard.
The battle
Light troops, on the Andalusian left sprint forward to take
a position among the rocks to the right of the massive array of Castilian
knights. Outnumbered, the Andalusian cavalry and light horse demonstrate their
bravado and move toward the enemy cavalry.
Seeing the line of Andalusian spearmen moving to support
their cavalry, the Castilian knights counter sending a portion of their knights
to deal with the threat. Elsewhere, both lines are closing the distance, eager
to clash swords.
In the clash that followed, Castilian knights fell foul of
the Andalusian light horse leaving a third of their original number to continue
the fight against Andalusian sub-general.
As the cavalry continue their struggle, the centre of both
armies is now fully engaged.
The fate of Castile is sealed when Berber javelinmen fall on
the flank and rear of the Castilian right wing to end the battle.
Observations
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In this
test, Castilian knights formed the rear guard, when positioned they faced the
Andalusian vanguard. Initially regarded as a masterstroke, I was equally
surprised as Castilian knights fell to Andalusian light horse giving them a
3-1 advantage on turn three. Subsequent turns, Castilian troops were falling
at a faster rate, ending with 8 losses to 2 for Andalusia.
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