Roman versus Carthaginian Big Base DBA

Andrew Coleby and I had a go at Big Base DBA. Andrew took Carthaginians and I took Polybian Roman. Andrew won – those pesky Gauls cut through my Legionnaires (again). Aside from being a good game it also proved the concept of Big Base DBA, i.e. big bases with lots of figures, big table, but using standard DBA.

This was a trial of the Big Base DBA concept. Rather than rebasing I thought I’d give it a go with four existing bases on top 80mm x 40mm sabots. I think the table was 4′ x 3′, so smaller than you’d expected if you scaled up from a 2′ x 2′ table. All part of the attempt to fit within the bounds of my living room but still get sense of massed armies.

Unfortunately I was a bit focussed on the game so only took a few shots.

BBDBA-74 Table
BBDBA-74 Table

Andrew was the defender and placed a major water feature. He had elephants and light horse on that flank. His spear were in the centre between two bits of bad going. Cavalry and his camp covered his right flank. Most significantly, he had his two stands of Gallic warband between the elephants and spearmen, lined up with one of the bits of rough going.

BBDBA-75 Carthaginians and their general
BBDBA-75 Carthaginians and their general

My Triarii were on the flank of the river. I had Legionnaires and cavalry covering the rough ground where the Gauls were going to come through. More Blades faced the spears. On my left flank I had cavalry and psiloi facing the equivalent in Andrew’s army.

BBDBA-76 Romans face Carthaginians
BBDBA-76 Romans face Carthaginians

For some reason, now forgotten, I took a shot of the rather uninteresting left flank.

BBDBA-77 Roman left flank
BBDBA-77 Roman left flank

All the action took place on my right. Having deployed badly I spent pips redeploying. Andrew just advanced, hit my line, and blew it away. His elephants killed a Triarii, his Gauls got the other Triarii and a Hastati+Principes stand. He then got on the flank of the centre legions and game over.

BBDBA-76a Roman right flank
BBDBA-76a Roman right flank

Overall it was good solid play by Andrew. On my side of the table my pretty rubbish deployment was severely punished.

On the plus side it was good to have a quick game with a fair number of Punic Wars figures on table. The game vindicated my decision to rebase on Big Bases.

2 thoughts on “Roman versus Carthaginian Big Base DBA”

  1. Yes indeed, a strong Impetus influence at work here. Look great. I just don’t like Impetus as a set of rules.

    Reply

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