Our First Game of D3H2

For our first official game of D3H2, we decided to play identical armies against each other, and keep the fantasy elements to a minimum. So we used two of Bruce's Macedonian Successor armies, vanilla standard except for the Hero General elements of both armies. Both armies are 24 points; nearly standard 12-element DBA armies.

We wanted to work completely through the rules, following each section in turn from terrain placement to deployment to actual gameplay. We allowed a slightly larger than 3 square foot playing area, but otherwise tried to play straight up.

I thought it might be fun to document a game or two using a photo/diagram format - the results of which comprise this post. Bruce's army is shown using white movement arrows and type, mine is in black. Combat is shown using red "bursts" and eliminated elements are denoted with red boxes. The red arrows are are post-combat "flees." The numbers in circles after the army names track that army's losses in points. The first army to lose 12 points, and more points than the enemy, loses the game. I'd be interested to know whether you can follow the action from the photos.

Bruce defended in this game, and from the Arable terrain list chose 2 compulsory "Ploughed Fields," plus two "Gentle Hills" and one "Woods" feature. Dicing for them created the battlefield as shown in the photos. The Ploughs aren't quite legal-sized, but as they counted as "Good Going" in this battle, it didn't matter.

The photo above shows the initial deployment; each subsequent photo captures the game after a further pair of bounds. It was close-fought and neck-and-neck until the final bound.

Then on Bruce's next bound I lost an Auxilia, making the score 9-7. With my Pikes at risk of being outflanked in the center, I decided to break my usual rule about minimizing risk and attacked his Hero General with my own, though with a single overlap advantage. We both rolled high; I rolled a 5 and Bruce a 6, which meant we tied. Normally a tie score is a stalemate and the combat continues next bound. . . but not when Heroes fight each other. An odd total meant that both Heroes died! And so we both died. Our Heroes were each worth 6 points - 4 for the element cost and 2 points additional for the loss of the General - which took both our totals over 12. However, the loss of the Auxilia the bound before meant that my losses were higher by two points, so I lost the game in dramatic HOTT fashion, 15-13.

 
Game over, man!

We shook hands and played another game. . . may be the next post. 

See ya!