***STOP PRESS*** King Leonidas almost killed in Sparta vs Pyrrhic battle 294BC

The Pyrrhic army invaded Sparta in 294BC.

Steve A's Spartan hoplites and cavalry quickly advanced, trying to catch Guy's Pyrrhic invaders getting into formation with their pikeblock, but leaving the Spartan lighter troops sat on a hill on their right flank, far away from the main battle. 

The Spartan cavalry tried to get around to the rear of the Pyrrhic pikes, but a Pyrrhic ally force of Psiloi S came on as a flank march and disrupted their advance, whilst a small number of Pyrrhic pikes broke off the main block to hold them in place.

Meanwhile, the Pyrrhic mounted companions raced across the front of their pikes from left to right to try and help, but the rearmost element of knight in wedge was caught by the advancing Spartan Spear S, and turned to give battle. The rest continued into the attack against the Spartan cavalry.

In the centre, 'Spartan hoplite-block' met 'Pyrrhic pike-block' in a clash of dust and thunder, and the battle ebbed to and fro.

Meanwhile, the Spartan cavalry were slowly overwhelmed and whittled down by the Pyrrhic psiloi, pike detachment, and the Pyrrhic cavalry. The Spartan cavalry were eventually all destroyed in the last move of the game.

King Leonidas found himself in the front rank of the battle against the Pyrrhic pikes, and came within ONE PIP of being doubled and killed.

The game ran out of time, and Steve and Guy counted up their losses. Sparta lost 14ME's and the the Pyrrhic army lost 6ME's, so the Pyrrhic army was declared the victor (this time).

That said, if the game had continued, Sparta may well have won as they had a smaller block of hoplites and a lot of psiloi as yet uncommited.

The majority of Pyrrhic losses were psiloi O who tried to slow down advancing Spartan Auxilia S, and were killed off over three or four rounds.

Great game, with some of the usual healthy debate around long-forgotten DBMM rules and clarifications.😁

***STOP PRESS*** Japanese Samurai repulse Chinese & Korean invasion 1465 AD

 The year is 1465 AD and the Chinese with their Korean ally decide to invade Japan.

The Chinese intelligence and scouting must have been faulty, as they sent an almost totally mounted force into the hilly Japanese lowlands..

The samurai defenders were luckily able to deploy between 'difficult' hills, and with sporadic woods to their front, placing a large command of Ikko Ikki warrior monks (Hd S) in the centre, and trusty samurai foot (Bd O) on both flanks, expecting the Chinese force to try and outflank them.

As expected, the Chinese manouevered quickly to get their cavalry forces onto the flanks, found that the difficult hills had been reinforced with Japanese psiloi and ashigaru (Pk F) and so turned away, preferring eventually to charge head-on into the Japanese samurai flank commands.

The first cavalry force to hit home was the Korean ally left wing, but over two turns it became obvious the attack would fail as the samurai killed three bases of Cav O, with more to come had it continued.

The Chinese left flank was just about to charge home when the game ended, and the large and higher grade Chinese cavalry command never saw action.

The game ended with the Chinese invasion being repulsed and a victory to the Samurai.

Chinese were Norman and Nathan, Japanese were Guy and Tom. 

DBMM Galatian vs Seleucid

The Seleucids invaded lands occupied by the Galatians, a people from the Danube area of Europe who had moved south through Greece and into Asia Minor.

The Galatian deployment was unusual in having three commands layered one behind the other, the advance command being all mounted cavalry, chariots and expendables, and the two remaining commands being all warband superior.

The Seleucids had two commands set up side by side, each having a mixture of pike, knights fast, elephants, and expendables. The right hand command also had a small number of light horse out on the right flank.

The Seleucids struggled to advance quickly as a deployment mistake had been made, mixing mounted with foot, and regular with irregular. This gave the Galatian cavalry and chariots the time to move out to their left, turning inwards to face the advancing Seleucids, and creating a flanking situation.

The Seleucid expendables were sent forward and made inroads into the Galatian cavalry before breaking through to hit the warband command behind. Bizarrely the Galatians also had expendables which were sent to attack the elephants, but the Galatian expendables were wiped out in one round of combat.

The Seleucid right hand command became very fragmented where the Galatian cavalry threatened them.

The Seleucid right hand command sent a phalanx of pike forward to try and further damage the Galatian cavalry, which served to soak up the very few movement pips that the Galatians were throwing.

Meanwhile the main Seleucid army had slowly rumbled forward, and the Galatian warband commands also moved out to meet them, although the game was over before they made contact.

The Galatian cavalry command was slowly whittled down, not helped when the Seleucid light horse managed to get around and into their rear, and over two critical bounds the cavalry command went through disheartened and then broke. The Galatians then surrendered and the fight was over.

The Galatians had lost 12.5 ME plus their expendables, and the Seleucids 1 ME plus one expendable.

DBMM Classical Indian vs Seleucid 320bc

The Seleucid successor state (Guy) invaded India (Steve A), and met the Indian opposition army at a river delta, which combined with scrubby flat areas, made for an interesting and challenging battlefield.

The invading Seleucids set up their pike blocks inside a loop of the river, well away from the massed Indian bows on the other side, leaving a cavalry command on the other side of the river.

The Seleucid cavalry was immediately withdrawn over the river and behind the pike blocks when it was realised just how many Superior elephants and chariots the Indians had brought to the battle, but sent out some scythed chariot expendables to run interference.

The Indians crashed into the Seleucid expendables with some sacrificial inferior cavalry which were mown down to a man, but had used the time to bring up and position their superior chariots, which proceeded to kill off all the Seleucid expendables.

Meanwhile, the Seleucids sent off some psiloi superior and auxilia up the far left flank, which crossed the river and hit massed Indian horde, and were slowly whittled down by the steadfast horde.

Time was marching on, so Steve gallantly decided to cross the river with his superior chariots and elephants (which as the defender he didn't really have to do). The chariots were held up on the river bank by Seleucid psiloi and light horse, then joined by the C-in-C knight-fast fighting in wedge. Although the chariots had some initial success, they were beaten back and enough were killed to cause the command to go into disheartened status. 

The superior elephants were half-way across the river when the gong sounded and the game was halted. The Seleucids had lost 1.5 ME's and the Indians 13.5 ME's, so the Seleucids were declared winners, with the caveat that Steve didn't really need to cross the river, and Guy had missed one compulsory elephant off his army list.

A very enjoyable game, even with the challenging battlefield terrain. Lots of chat and laughter, and as usual with DBMM, good-natured clarifying of the rules as we went along. 

DBMM Sparta vs Thebes 375bc

 And so twas time for Sparta to invade Thebes on some trumped-up pretext.

The game started out very cagey, with the Spartans sending some galleys along the coast. The Thebans managed to avoid any ranged-fire from the galleys, but they were allowed to beach unopposed and landed their marines.

The Spartans and Thebans slowly approached each other, and then the two sides met, and the Spartans slowly gained the ascendancy through their Reg Sp S hoplites. The Theban strategy of outflanking the Spartans didn't work, and in fact the Spartans were just getting into the Theban rear area when we ran out of time. 

Thebes lost roughly 10 ME but Sparta only 0.5 ME, so although no single command reached disheartened, the game was declared a win to the Spartans. Well done Steve A. 

Sassy v Byzzy 600AD ish

Period: Ancients (books 2 & 3), Rules: DBMM, Players: Sassanid Persians - Guy and Robin, Early Byzantines - Ian and Adrian. Held on: 15th Feb 2010.


Right from the off I realised we were in trouble. My all-Cavalry left wing outnumbered nearly 2:1 in numbers and more than 2:1 in grading factor! All Cavalry led by Robin.

In the centre, I had arrayed my Blades and Bows which were opposed by Elephants and Auxilia.

On my right, Adrians command (a mirror image of my right) faced Hordes defending a hill and Light Horse on their far left.

The lines closed, but as my left and Robin's commands engaged, the rest of my army struggled to move ahead at speed. We held out as long as possible against their massed cavalry command, taking them close to disheartened status.

But it was densinted not to be a Byzantine victory. We were soundly thrashed. Although Adrian did manage to break the stoic Jewish Hordes on the hill. Oy-Vey.

A group of Byzantine rebels have sworn revenge and have joined Rupe's Moorish forces ready for his assault on Guy's Sassy-Nids.

Words by Ian.
Photo by Ian.

Swiss v Italisn 25-01-2010

A DBMM bame using Martin and Steve's 15mm Renaissance figures.

The game begins

The Swiss launched an assault in the centre and right wing. Artillery and support were on a hill on the left flank. They faced the Italians with Albanian allies and some Swiss mercenaries.

A push of pike on the right wing.

Once the more agile Italian force got on the Swiss flanks, the massacre began, although the left flank made good progress against the Albanians and two elements of handgunners held up a column of Light Horse.

The End.

Losing more casualties than they caused, the centre and ruight inevitably collapsed.

Italian / Albanian = Steve.
Swiss mercenaries = Adrian
Swiss Centre and Left = Martin
Swiss Right = Ian

Words by Ian
Pics by Ian

DBMM Battle: Samurai v Timurid 18-01-2010

Samari v Timurid

The report of the following wargame took place on the 18th January 2010, using DBMM rules, 350 points per army and 15mm figures.

After initial Agression and deployment dicing Timur became the invader and after early morning maneoveuring the battle commenced at 11 am ish

The Timurids deployed their mounted forces in two main wings left and right with a weak centre.

The Samari deployed their Horde in front of their central foot command and then two further right and left wing commands of mixed mounted and foot.

As the Samari advanced the Timurid left wing moved further out, and the central command move to the rear of the right wing command. (as per IW's picture)

Combat commenced on the Timurid Right wing with the Stampeding Camels and Elephants have some initial success, however the wyle Samari soon managed to surround both foes and destroyed them. Timur then tried without much success to punch a hole through the Samari's left and central wings but the valiant Samari poured men in from both commands blocking the attempt.

Over on the Timurid Left both forces stood off each other as the Samari had the advantage of the upground and the right wing protected by a wooded area.
Eventually the Timurids charged uphill into the affray which see-sawed up and down as each side battled hard to maintain\ gain any advantage.

In the end actual time caused the game to be drawn to a conclusion after toting up the morale points lost it was agreed to call this a drawn game.

Report by Robin
Photo by Ian (apologies for poor quality)

Fuedal French v Fuedal Spanish

This was the second encounter between the Fuedal French (Robin) and Spanish (Ian) forces this time the spanish were led by El Cid ( a brillant general) played using the DBMM rules set

The Spanish won the agression dice choosing a river, Road, gentle hill (1/2 Fe) and vineyard. The French choose a road, 2FE steep hill, wood and Built up area. The River did not materialise as Ian rolled a 1 & 5. the reat of the features were placed as showen on the fiollowing map along with the initial placings of the commands.

The French first commands consisted of 7 Irregular knights Fast including CinC 4 Irr bow Inferior 2 Irr spear I 4 Irr Psiloi and a Regular artillery Ordinary bolt shooter. The second command consisted of 7 Irr knights F including general, 8 irr Spear I, 2 Irr bow I.

The Spanish first command consisted of El Cid Irr knight F, 7 Irr Psiloi O, 16 Irr Psiloi I, 4 Irr Bow I, 11 Irr Spear I, 2 Irr Blade O, and the cross Bagage Superior. the second command was 7 Irr knights F including general, and 4 Irr cavalry

As the French won the deployment dicing they deployed and moved first. Opening with a 6 knights of the 1st command forming a column of march and making a double move down the road also moving the bolt shooter and archers forward the second command wheel his knights on the right wing to ready his charge towards the Spanish 2nd command.

The Spanish replied by sending the knights of their 2nd command in a column of march down the road to meet the French resulting in the front elements in combat. The French open fire with their bolt shooter at the knight to no effect. But the resulting melee pushed back the Spanish knights.

The French knights expanded their column in the next bound to creat an overlap and brought their other knights forward with a double move to threaten the Spanish flank. After an ineffective round of combats. The Spanish used a brilliant stroke to double their pip points of their first command resulting in a general advance but not sufficient to bring their bows into range. the knights expanded their frontage on either side and their second rank of cavalry advanced to meet the threat of the French knights charging past the woods.

The following French 3rd bound was poor in terms of PIPa but saw the French CinC move into a position to meet the threat of the Spanish Foot along with the advance of 2 spear of the first command. The Knights of the 2nd command went into forward towards the Spanish Cavalry who had halted just out of range. However at this point the French caught sight of the Spanish Ambush behind the hill. This third command consisted of 4 Irr KN F including general and 3 Irr Light Horse O . No Missile fire took place as the their line of site was blocked by the abvancing knights of the second French command. The ensueing combats resulted in various push back on each side. The Spanish PIPs but enough to make 3 march moves with their third command and move some other units into a more threatening position. Again shooting was ineffective or unsighted the French won a melee or two.

Bound four saw the arrival of a French flank march on their left flank the movement of the art and bow towords the the Knights of the second command going into the Spanish 2nd command cavalry. The resulting combats causing losses on the Spanish side. The Spanish moved their 3rd command into a position to block the hole arising from the loss of their cavalry.

Bound 5 saw the arrival of a second French flank march this time on their right. The French moved Spear and bow from both commands to further counter the threat of the Spanish 1st command taking up positions along the road facing hill 1. The melee between the French Knights and the Spanish Cavalry resulted in them being destroyed. The see-sawing melee between the other knights saw an element loss on either side wiped them out causing that command to becoming dishearted. The spear of both the French commands took up postions to counter the Spanish foot.

So with the incoming French flank marches and the loss of the Spanish 2nd command and time as usual passing fast we agreed that the French had sucessfully ousted the Spanish invaders.

DBMM100 Mini-Tourney - The Armies

Fought between Ian and Robin on Friday 13th March 2009.
The armies involved were:

IV/42 Islamic Persian: 1x C-in-C Irr Cv (S), 9x Persian Cavalry Irr Cv (O), 2x Turcoman Irr LH (S), 8x Persian Archers Irr Bw (I), 1x Camp Followers Irr Hd (O) and 2x Camps Irr Bg (I).

IV/66 Later Polish: 1x C-in-C Irr Kn (O), 3x Rycerz Irr Kn (O), 4x Czeladz Irr Cv (O), 2x Axemen Irr Bd (F), 4x Town Militia Crossbows Reg Bw (O), 3x Lithuanian Cavalry Irr LH (O) and 1x Camp Irr Bg (O).

IV/74 Free Company: 1x English C-in-C Irr Kn (S), 4x English Gentlemen Reg Kn (I), 4x English Longbowmen Reg Bw (S), 3x Breton Javelinmen Irr Ps (S) and 2x Camps Irr Bg (O).

IV/75 Timurid: 1x C-in-C Reg Cv (S), 3x Timurid Cavalry Reg Cv (S), 4x Timurid Cavalry Reg Cv (O), 4x Timurid Archers Reg Bw (O), 4x Persian Militia Irr Bw (I) and 1x Camp Irr Bg (I).

DBMM100 Mini-Tourney - 1st Semi

Semi-Final #1… Timurid (7) played by Ian vs. Later Polish (3) played by Robin. Fought in Poland; 3x woods.
The Timurid archers pressed strongly down their left flank and slew all in their path while the centre and right held position under a concentrated bow and Light horse attacks. The game ended before the Polish Knights struck a blow.
Lesson learnt: Get the Knights into combat against Cv as soon as possible.
Timurid Set Up:

Later Polish Set Up:

The Final Positions:

DBMM100 Mini-Tourney - 2nd Semi

Semi-Final #2… Islamic Persian (3) played by Ian vs. Free Company (7) played by Robin. Fought in Persia; 1x gentle hill and 1x rough going.
The Free Company charged their knights into the massed Persian bow with disastrous effect. Meanwhile the stalwart and skilful English Longbowmen took care of many Persian cavalry. Things were looking well for the Persians until the English C-in-C carved his way through a column of cavalry to force hard a bloody victory.
Lesson learnt: Don’t charge mounted into archers (especially not Bw (S) ).
Islamic Persian Set Up:

Free Company Set Up:

The Final positions:

DBMM100 Mini-Tourney - Final

Final… Free Company (9) played by Ian vs. Timurid (1) played by Robin. Fought in Turkey; 2x steep hills.
A tale of woe for Timur’s Inferior bow as they fell and ran to the accurate longbows of the Free Company. His cavalry were caught in the open and chased down by the ‘Gentlemen’. As dusk fell the few survivors drifted away.
Lesson learnt: None really… when Lady Luck deserts you, there isn’t a thing you can do about it.!
Free Company Set Up:

Timurid Set Up:

The Final positions:

All in all a pretty good four hours of DBMM100 goodness…

6mm Sarmatians - Part I

I got an amry pack of Sarmatians from Baccus6mm for Christmas.
They were initially requested as an army for Field of Glory as I had hoped to read them over the hols. But things didn't work out (do they ever.?).
So, now I'm just painting them up and basing them for DBMM (or some other derivitive) to determine exactly what I have.
I started with the Psiloi as they were the easiest...








Then I did the Light Horse because they were easy too...





Next are a few bases of Cavalry, then I may have go at some Knughts before painting up a few Generals bases...

Nicopolis at Recon 2006

The Wallachains...


Wallachians versus Turks with Serbs just arriving...


The Ottoman Turks on top of their hill...


French versus Turks...


French emerge from the woods...


View of the battle from above the Turks camp...