Sung Chinese vs Post Mongol Samurai

In the last weeks some new guys came at our club willing to learn DBMM. Me and Enrico played this "demonstration game" to show how lowly infantry could be useful.

Unknown to each other we prepared two fourth period armies. I choosed Sung chinese and this is my army list

I choosed a brilliant general to set up fast my PO and/or switch the attack from one sector to the other with double pip or an immediate change of pip order with no penalty.

The army was large enough to play an attritional battle and had some interesting assets as BdX and KnF.

I was the defender on the left and covered my flanks with a WW and a difficult. Along the WW on the right there was a difficult placed by the opponent. I decided to attack by echelon with AxS leading on the left and targeting the wood, my heavy infantry in the center aimed at the enemy AxI protected by the TF, while the Bw and Art right wing had to defend against enemt BwS and monks.

The enemy had 4 corps, quite small. Thre 18ME japanese corps, and a Monk 15ME ally. Each japanese corps had a core of infantry and supported Cv.

We both attacked with the left wing, but the japanese were wary of my 2 artillery superior behind TF.

I detateched my CiC from right wing to lead the IBdX reserve, because the center had the lower PiP dice. This is a very useful tactic that is seldom used.

The monks tried an outflank to avoid the gun barrage, and my RCvI tried to slow them down.

Enemy CvO manouvered in position to support the infantry through flank gaps

I engaged the enemy looking for the flanks

My attacks failed, but my ArtS raked the first enemy BwS

I was very aggressive on the left, forgetting that Ax support Cv against everyone.

I lost my CvI versus enemy monks, gaining time to engage enemy BwS corps with superiority. Unfortunately shooting 3-2 vs BwS proved to be uneffective. From now the monk went for the flank of my Art. My army needs some PsO to cover the Art flank in situation like that. Time to improve the army list

Enemy BdF engaged my infantry to protect bowmen and cavalry flanks.

I was quite lucky in the frontal assault on enemy TF, breaking trough immediately. Supported Cv was mauling my left wing, so I switched the left and central corps pip die with a brilliant stroke to take immediate advantage of the successful assault. The left corps was stopped and could go nowhere.

The enemy BdF and BwS were slowly losing elements. My losses were higher, but I had larger corps.

The enemy center with double line of AxI was finally pierced. My AxS slowly withdrew back in the wood.

I wasn't able to kill more BwS, but the BdF showed how weak they were in an attritional combat.

At the end of this bound we called the game, time was over. We played quite slowly explaining everything was happening, tactic and plan, to the new players.

I suffered more losses, 4-5 elements each corps, while my opponent had few losses in BdF and BwS corps and a nasty situation in the center. We both had suffered 10% losses, so it was a 13-12 for my opponent. In a few turns I would have lost the right wing and the japanese the center. Game was open for every result, but I think the Japanese was gaining the upper hand. My opponent played very well his defensive system, forcing me to echelon my attack, exposing the flanks and slowing my attacks due the 2 pips inept troops need to manouver. The brilliant pip switch was well played by me, but the manouvering problems could not be avoided. Even if the japanese lost the TF line, and there he was very unlucky in the combat rolls, he was able to commit his better troops in a 2 vs 1 corps attritional combat. So this time my tactic sucked.

A useful lesson learnt.

The game was interesting for some reasons:

-Artillery proved once again a major psicological factor. People try to avoid any frontal attack, and this costs time and pips

-TF are very tough to take, even when defended by AxI. I had some very hot dice, neverless it took a lot of time to wipe out 1/2ME troops.

-BwS are ubertroops when exchanging shooting vs BwO. Better avoid it.

-Japanese supported CvO were killers. I lost my KnF and could do almost nothing on the left wing.

-Again CiC leading a reserve proved very useful. And again 2-3 Bd lines were tough.  

-TF are extremely useful when integrated in a defensive system. Opponent needs reserves to attack them and troops to cover flanks. If TF are manned by lowly troops, this let you focus the elite elsewhere to gain a decisive advantage and win the game.