To give me a break from the Bolt Action / Horus Heresy indoctrination. I put my collection of 15mm ancients to work and set up a game of DBMM.

Conclusions

I forget how balanced DBMM actually is. I am very new to the game and don’t have all the rules down. Especially having to teach myself. But the game was fun, over 3 hours tops, and hinged on critical moments. It gives me the feeling of an actual battle.

Pip allocation is a huge factor. Huge. A bad pip roll will ruin the engagement for you.

Carthage did win. It was a near thing, any given combat failure would have resulted in a different result.

I picked Rome 216-203 BC vs Carthage
After the roll, Carthage was the aggressor.

C and c	RegCv (O)	Hannibal reg cv	1	53	53
Sub general	RegLH (O)	Reg LF	2	25	50
lybian spearmen	RegSp(O)	reg sp o	18	5	90
numidian calv	IrrLH(O)	irr lh o	8	4	32
merc javelins	RegPs(S)	reg ps	9	3	27
libyan calv	RegCv (O)	Reg cv o	4	8	32
Bolt shooters	RegArt(O)	Reg art	2	8	16
Camps	IrrBge(I)	Irr beg	1	4	4
span merc calv	RegLH (O)	reg cav o	4	8	32
span merc foot caetrati	RegPs(S)	reg ps	2	4	8
span merc foot scutarri	RegAx(S)	reg ax	12	5	60
elephants	Irr El (I)		8	12	96
			Qty	Points	500
C and c	RegCv(O)	Reg cv	1	28	28
Sub general	RegCv(O)	Reg cv	1	27	27
Ally general	RegCv(O)	Reg cv	1	18	18
roman cav	RegCv(O)	reg cv	5	8	40
roman hastati	RegBd(O)	reg bd	36	7	252
veletetes	RegPs(S)	reg ps	18	3	54
triari	RegSp (S)	reg sp	9	7	63
greek archers	RegPs(O)	reg ps	2	5	10
arty	Reg Aty (O)	arty	1	8	8

The Carthage Commands were;

Hannibal- Libyan Cavalry, Numidian Cav
Sub General 1- Spearmen, Elephants, Bolt Shooters, Mercenary Javelins
Sub General 2- Span Mercenary

Rome Commands
C and C- Hastati, Triari
Sub General- Cav and Arty
Ally General, Veletetes and Greek Archers

Set-Up

I played on a 6×4 board with a couple of hills and roads (randomly generated) and a river.

I put the Romans in the triple-axis formation with a skirmish screen. The Cavalry took the right flank.

Carthage was set up with a single skirmisher, two elements of spears, then an elephant the next block over. To their right flank were the cavalry and, in reserve, the Spanish mercenaries.

Bound 1

Carthage had an amazing Pip roll which allowed their forces to push up the field rapidly. The Roman dice were 1, 1 and 2. The cavalry immediately put the Romans under pressure. A deep analysis would reveal the battle was lost on this first bound.

Rome did what it could with their movement. They pushed forward the skirmish screen. Took advantage of the weak left flank on the Carthaginian side with an aggressive cavalry move.

Bound 2

Rome seized the initiative and maneuvered their triari to take on the Carthage Cavalry. Carthage had to use their largest dice to counter the Roman cavalry threat.

Bound 3

The two flanks become a mess. Spanish mercenaries take on the Roman cavalry hoping to delay long enough so the main force can break Roman lines. The Carthage Cavalry nears victory when the triari arrive.

Bound 4

I must have missed the picture… the lines have crashed together, the Carthaginians sweeping away the Roman skirmish screen.

Bound 5

The Spanish mercenaries are holding while the Carthaginian Cavalry attack failed miserably. The Roman lines are on the brink of collapse.

Bound 6

Both sides have lost commands, and the Roman Cavalry and Spanish Mercenaries continue their death grind. The Romans stabilized the line using the left over trari.

Bound 7

Technically, battle was over at this point, Carthage destroyed enough units to win. I kept playing because I was enjoying myself.

A few more images are below of the continuation. I will most likely play another game soon, Greece vs Persia, or maybe 100 years war. We shall see.