How to win when you don't have any winners in the army

[John Meunier]

One thing I like about playing my Later Carthos in the GLADBAG double-sized DBA is that the army has a great combo of troops and high aggression. You get one high pip command and one low pip command.

So, after the enemy deploys his defenders, you can set your attacking troops in front of a juicy target and keep the low pip command somewhere it won't get murdered.

Alas, my Dynastic Bedouins are not so simple - in either regular DBA or bigger size. With a wad of LH and a LCm, a couple Cv, and an assortment of mostly light foot, there is not a lot of punch there.

This is any army that is not going to knock down the enemy and stand over him.

And, so far, I've failed to get the jab and move style down. (I get another try this weekend at Warparty.)

Advice? Wise counsel? Condolences?

[Bill Sumruld]

I am certainly no expert but, remembering football, if you don't have size and strength, you have to make up for it by speed, planning, and gang tackling.

[John Meunier]

I am certainly no expert but, remembering football, if you don't have size and strength, you have to make up for it by speed, planning, and gang tackling.

Bill, I appreciate the analogy.

It reminds me an awful lot - however - of Indiana University football. Every year our coaches say, "Yes, our offensive line and defensive line are small, but they are quick."

Somehow, Michigan and Ohio State never seem too impressed with our quick.

Maybe I need to study more film of Oregan State - Michigan or Florida - Ohio State.

[adsarf]

John

I've always loved armies with lots of LH. With a single good pip roll you can get them right across the board in a single bound. Trouble is that they are still only LH when they arrive.

In 25mm (which is what I play) LH have an advantage because the flank zone for deployment is 2 BW wide, so you can always slip LH round your opponent's flank with good pips on Bound 1. This is amusing, but eventually opponents learn not to panic and it stops working well as a means to victory.

The technique I try to use now, and I think the Bedouin should be well-equipped for this, is to hold the LH well back in the early game, and concentrate pips on gaining control of 1 bit of BGo. If I am defending, I place it centrally. You need to give your opponent time to advance, and to split his troops up on either side of this piece of BGo. When the time comes, you can move your LH with lightning speed to concentrate on just one part of the enemy.

I can't speak to double DBA, as I've bever played it, but I know from experience that LH and Wb aremuch more powerful in a highh-pip command in BBDBA than they are in regular DBA, because the risk of them getting exposed with no pips available is so much less, and they can always get to use their special abilities.

That's my view anyway.

Andrew

[John Meunier]

The technique I try to use now, and I think the Bedouin should be well-equipped for this, is to hold the LH well back in the early game, and concentrate pips on gaining control of 1 bit of BGo. If I am defending, I place it centrally. You need to give your opponent time to advance, and to split his troops up on either side of this piece of BGo. When the time comes, you can move your LH with lightning speed to concentrate on just one part of the enemy.



Andrew,

Thank you for the advice. That is exactly what I did today in the games in which I was defender. I went 2-1 in those games, which was a great result for me playing Dynsatic Bedouins.

Holding back the LH until your opponent makes some moves is something I like when the enemy and terrain make sense to do so.

[Stephen Webb]

Holding back the LH until your opponent makes some moves is something I like when the enemy and terrain make sense to do so.

It is a good tactic, but you may need a high PIP die roll to make it work.

[Xavi]

Usual strategy is to ZOC part of the enemy troops to break their line cohesion and then concentrate nenonazi-style (surround with superior numbers and beat the poor fella with baseball bats) on one element at a time. The use of light infantry to gain control of BGo and menace the enemy flanks is quite common in this approach. Business as usual, really: surron and enemy and beat the crap out of it with superior numbers and preventing his recolil, so you achieve a QK result.

The "problem" with this is that you have spped, but the hardcore numbers needed to win combats require the use of 3+ PIPs in a given turn to make it work. A pair of turns of low pips might cause your troos to end up in quite a bad position. But so is DBA, really.

Cheers,

Xavi

[Prich]

I play with Mountain Indians ( Lh (Gen), 2 Lh, 5 Ax, 4 Ps) and my "best" element is my +3/+3 Gen, not a serial killer, but something to fear when he comes with the other two "500 paces runners, closing doors LH".
Hit the extreme of the enemy line, when you can find an element with an unprotected flank. Hit him as hard as you can, and then run!, and wait for another turn with 3+ Pips to attack again.

[Bill Sumruld]

Bill, I appreciate the analogy.

It reminds me an awful lot - however - of Indiana University football. Every year our coaches say, "Yes, our offensive line and defensive line are small, but they are quick."

Somehow, Michigan and Ohio State never seem too impressed with our quick.

Maybe I need to study more film of Oregan State - Michigan or Florida - Ohio State.

John,

Well, at a bit of a lower level I saw it work 3 years in a row for the little high school team I played on in New Mexico. 3 state championships in our class, of course we also played a lot of Texas teams that forced us to play better and who were also very serious about football (hint: this is the part of the country "Friday Night Lights" is about). Speed alone is never enough. It is the trio Speed, very careful planning (including contingency planning), and avoiding equal fights. You seem to have done a little of that recently. Xavi and others have gotten at the issue I referred to as "gang-tackling" with examples and even an illustration of street violence. Back at my hs, we ran multiple offenses and defenses with various looks and lots of stunts and audibles. We also got a scouting report a quarter to half inch, which we had to memorize, on each opposing team. Speed does you no good without superior planning and execution (that avoiding facing the other guy in situations where he has the advantage). Sounds like you already knew all that. Sorry for the ramble.

Bill

[John Meunier]

No need to aplogize at all, Bill. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. I'm thinking of passing your explanation off to our football staff. They seem to get stuck in trying to play Michigan like Michigan.

[Pthomas]

You can play me!

I quail in fear, like when Jason Stelzer played more often. Like when Indiana plays Ohio State or Michigan.

Oh no, I have to play that nice guy who makes my army go 'Poof', 'POof', 'POOf', 'POOF!'

Game over, man, game over!

[Paul Potter]

John, your asking for advice on how to use your horde of horse. I thought you did well at warparty. You used speed and Ganging up. Once you swarmed my right flank it seemed to me that you slowed down (possibly being concerned about my slightly better combat factors) which allowed me to have the time I needed to slowly (painfully slow) to choose which elements were going to fight. One of the fun things about the type army you used is that you don't have to stay put and wait for a fight to develope, just go somewhere else and choose were to fight. I always like to keep at least one light horse moving. This does several things, it causes concern in your opponet who spends time worring about what you are up to and he may be ignoring other things on the board. Plus oppurtunities may present themselves for the roaming light horsee to take advantage of. You made excellent use of the road. If you ever get a road again remember that your blade can do multiple 400p moves on the road in one turn. otherwise it can be helpful to move foot in column when you encounter the type terrian that I laid out and deploy into a line when you get close to the fight. I put the terrian out the way I did so that I could use it and the road for my axillia, psiloi and bows to trap and inflict a humiliating defeat on all those screaming wild horsemen of yours. It backfired as your screaming wild horsemen laughed at the rough ground, rode around it and only ended being one element away from winning.
I thought you handled your army very well and I learned that lots of bad going does not always take away the speed advantage of lighthorse and cav. Play this army a few more times and I predict that it won't be long till your opponents will dread seeing you deploy light horse. Thanks for the game. -Paul

[Terry37]

We don't call him "Light Horse Paul" for nothing!!!

Terry

[John Meunier]

Play this army a few more times and I predict that it won't be long till your opponents will dread seeing you deploy light horse. Thanks for the game. -Paul

I thought I would just stop bathing before tournaments. Then I can be sure my opponents will dread my presence.

Thank you for the good advice (that blade idea) and generous comments.

[David Kuijt]

I thought I would just stop bathing before tournaments. Then I can be sure my opponents will dread my presence.

You won't be the first. (No, not me!)

[David Constable]

With that kind of army you need two things: a die that throws high and plenty of money for drugs/drink to make your opponent useless.

David C.