Sunday, July 12, 2009

Tried "biggish" battle

It's been great of late. At work there are 4 of us al learning DBA together. Playing games during our lunch break. We keep a timer on the moves to ensure we get a result in time. This week we decided to try out a "biggish" battle - 2 v 2.

It was an interesting experience. We played totally non historical teams - Later Carthage (Commender in Chief) plus Patrician Romans vs Later Visigoths (Commander in Chief) plus Dark Age Welsh. We also tried to implement the timer for the game as well.

The first observation was a total feeling of lack of control - normally in a game of DBA I generally feel some level of control over what is going on. In the big battle I wasn't feeling that way - there was so much going on and with the timer running I didn't feel like I had tiome to comprehend what was going on.

On the tactical side, both armies had the same aim - try to demoralise the commander in chief's command. For us, we isolated 4 of CinC elements on the edge of the board, and with spears v warband we had quick kills on the opposition. But the bigger space on the battle field made it difficult to get the general in position to get enough pips to be able to use the warband effectively. We would get there but it would take time.

But then we lost our centre as the Roman mounted troops ripped through the Visigoths. That demoralised our CinC (in one bound we lost 3 elements of the CinC) and from there it was always going to be difficult. With the warband spread out, it was difficult because pips were double for some of the key elements.

All in all an interesting experience. I wouldn't recommend a timer on the moves for this kind of battle. To be successful at this form of the game I would need to learn to use the distance from my general better. I am sure we will give it a better go at some stage.

2 comments:

  1. Interesting....

    How long do you allow for turns when you're using the timer?

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  2. Hi Tim.

    Apologies for not responding sooner....just a right slacker - and honestly hadn't noticed a question on the blog...didn't think anyone was reading it.....I should do more!

    With regards to the timer - we generally use a 3 minute limit from when it becomes your turn to finishing your moves. It makes the game speed along and mean we have to think ahead a bit more to be ready for the time limit.

    Cheers.

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