Undead Vs Cappadocians DBF    

I tried out DBF with a 200pt solo game today, using Undead Vs my Cappadocian army for Ancients. 

Overall the rules worked well , having a more balanced feel at 200pts. I did make 1 or 2 mistakes with the rules, but that is the point of solo games, to raise questions that can be learned from. 

The Undead were the attacker, so I used the Terrain table for the Cappadocians which I assumed to be Arable ( that is what is used for a lot of more civilized armies in the rules). There was a ruined built up area (BUA) on the human left flank, some swampy ground to the right, and a road running down the middle. There was also a field beyond the swamp, a small wood in the Undead deployment zone and some rough ground near the BUA, all of which had absolutely no effect on the battle. The BUA and swamp did narrow the battlefield , so the Undead couldn't bring their numerical advantage to bear.

Initial set up

Undead Behemoth and Hordes with Hero in a chariot a Mage General

Knights with General, Bow and a pair of Behemoth with some utterly useless Horde to the rear.

A flank command of entirely Light Mounted

Heavily armoured knights ready for combat

Each Cappadocian command had 6 Auxillia, 4 Bow & 2 warband

A hero leading 3 light mounted

Turn 1 for the Humans saw some very low Pip rolls, so a piecemeal advance but no combat.

The Undead likewise roll poorly and shamble forwards, but not very far..

Another set of poor rolls for Pips, except the Light Mounted command who surge forwards led by a Hero General in a snazzy purple cloak. 

Side view as it Hero vs Hero & Light Mounted vs Light Mounted

The Human Hero destroys his bony opponent and his wingman to his left holds off greater numbers

The Undead Light mounted countercharge, with their Fear special rule causing the Human Hero & Light Mounted to flee  ( not very heroic...)

There is some bowfire exchanged but missile fire isnt great against the Undead. 

The Undead Commander closes with some Horde.

Auxillia & Bow facing Knights & Bow.

The Undead mage on foot is facing a mass of bow with Warband in support.  The archers throw a 6.

He foolishly rolls a 1

The Knights get stuck in against the light Horse. Each result was a loss for the Knights by 1, but I thought their Heavy Armour saved them. This was a mistake, as that only kicks in when Doubled, not merely beaten, so the Undead should have turned that flank.

The Undead Knights advance against the Human bow but fall short of contact.

The Undead Fear rule sends an element of Auxillia fleeing.

A big boney Behemoth charges the Knights on the Human right flank.

He had a Hero to his right, but a bad roll saw him felled by the Knights.

More Auxillia heroically running away while one of their comrades destroys the horde in front of them.

Undead bowfire is ineffective against the Auxillia.

A disasterous run of low results sees the Undead Light Mounted destroyed, breaking that command.

Some big gaps opening in the Undead lines

The Undead Mage uses what few Pips they got to Resurect 2 Hordes as the Command nears Break Point.

The Knights charge home, driving the Mage back.

The Undead Knightscharge home, but the weight of numbers makes this a risky move.

Knights engage the remnant Light Mounted while Auxillia charge the Undead Bow

The Undead Knights each destroys an Infantry Element, so 2 Bow & 1 Auxilla bite the dust.

Human Bow destroys a Behemoth while the Resurected Hordes die again, leaving the mage very exposed.

This breaks the Undead army, but I played out the Undead turn.

The Knights make no progress and lose one of their number.

The last of the Hordes goes down.

A hail of arrows has no effect on the last throw of the game.

It was a fun game, but obviously it is harder try to play both sides of the game at once. The only real mistake I made ( that I am aware of so far) is the mix up with the Heavy Armour rule, that effect is from High Morale...

I did the Undead a disservice with a very poor army list. I was using what figures I had available, but the Hordes and Behemoths both need an extra Pip to move so having both in a command with a Mage who needs Pips to cast spells was a recipe for inactivity as well as disaster. At least 1 Behemoth and 4 of the 9 Undead Hordes never made it into combat, and the wizard on foot didnt get a spell off before being taken out by a hail of arrows. Both sides rolled quite poorly for Pips throughout the game, but this meant the Undead Mages underperformed terribly. 

It was still a fun bash, and I finally got my Cappadocians on the table , with a victory for their first outting. 

I will try another 200pt solo game soon, but not with Undead until I can get some better options painted up. 

Phil

 I recently got my hands on a new rules set called De Bellis Fantasiae. 

They are essentially a reworking of the old Hordes of the Things rules, but with more complexity & options, and much clearer to read, as the rather dense text used in the old rules has been streamlined and plenty of examples with diagrams are included.

Eager to try them out, I opted for a quick solo game. The rules are designed to be played at 200 points in multiple commands, but I used 100 points for today, as I wanted to keep it simple for my first game.  At 100pts, the armies are marginally bigger than the old HoTT rules. My old Undead and Dwarf armies were used for this outting. Board size is dependant of how many points per side, so at 100pts a 2' square will do fine. 

I think my terrain pieces are a bit oversized for these rules but will serve well enough for now. The dwarves had a BUA  (Built Up Area) on their baseline, a swamp on their right, with a road crossing the board from the BUA and a rough hill on the Undeads rear left corner. The dwarves should have a camp , but I figured the village could serve for that. 

Initial deployment , with the Dwarves outnumbered 2:1

Dwarven Spears, Blades and crossbows, facing Undead archers, Knights ( including the General) a mage, a Behemoth, 9 Hordes and 4 Light Mounted that could ignore bad terrain., with a swarm of Bats ( Flyers) to the rear. 

The Boney lads up close.

Stunty Spear line, with alternating Blades and Bows and a Hero in reserve. 

The bats charge forward and are massacred, while the Undead centre advances.

The dwarf Crossbows exchange fire with the Undead archers and destroy one of them.

The heavy hitters of the Undead advances into striking range and the Dwarves (slowly) advance to meet them.

4 Undead Light Mounted gallanty charge a Dwarf Hero & Blades.

A block of 9 Hordes with a Behemoth in support close on the thin Dwarven ranks.

The Mage rolls a 1 while casting a spell, triggering Magic Fatigue , which is very dangerous for the Caster. 

The Hero dispatches his opponents easily. 

The 3 Undead Knights charge home. The General and his wingman destroy their opponents but the one facing the Dwarf Blade General ( in a stylish yellow cloak) gets sent back to the grave.

The Hordes finally make contact with the spearline.

The Generals go head to head, both can destroy the other. 

 

The Behemoth is destroyed along with the entire front rank of the Hordes.

The result between the Generals was a draw, which is fatal to Knights vs Blades, and none to good for Undead morale.

The game ended with the death of the Undead General , as they had suffered enough casualties to break the army. The Dwarven casualties were light, 1 element each of Blade and Crossbow, although it could easily have been much worse. 

Overall , I enjoyed the rules, although at this points value, it is effectively just Hordes of the Things. Now that I have a better handle on the rules, I will try a 200pt game on a bigger board.