I recently pitted 325 points of my favorite Patrician Romans against the Avars of Craig Bowser, Master of Nomads. In suffering a crushing defeat, I managed to demonstrate some interesting lessons regarding how to lose at DBM.

First, as defender, a good terrain plan resulted in a large gentle hill in my center. Craig could not take it all off. It was the last thing that I did right for the whole game. (More rough terrain would have been better.) Six legionaires deployed in line behind the hill crestline with four superior auxilia in reserve behind them, accompanied by the CinC. Five Equites covered the left flank; Foederati warbands and knights were arrayed to the right with four skirmishers in ambush on the far right. A line of psiloi covered the Foederatii front.

This deployment completely failed to recognize the nature of the opposition. The Avars consisted of four stands of fast knights and 28 stands of Cav and LH, all of them superior. As a small force, they were suscepiible to on table flanking which my set up forfeited. The Roman psilloi -which can support the infantry as a second rank versus mounted were squandered as a screen for the Foederati.

The Avars were in two regular commands with LH on both flanks plus a few in the interface. The bulk of the force was superior Cav; the four knights were opposite the warbands. Craigs plan proved to be a head on rush all along the line. My misbegotten plan was echeloned assault from my right to left with the fast knights first off.

The first of a steady string of great initiative rolls put the Avars in my face before I had moved four inches. On my left, the LH moved to slightly overlap the Equites; who in turn side slipped left. The reserve Palatima under the CinCs direction slowly moved to fill the gap next to the legion.

On my right, the Foederatl knights were nose to nose with a mixed bag of LH, Cav and knights. The psiloi were well placed to spring the ambush but poor initiative immobilized them. The warbands advanced en-echelon with four of the stands overlapping the rear of their fellow Foederafi knights. The psiloi screen was out of play.

A slugfest developed here that could have gone either way. After several turns, superior quality and superior dice carried the day for the Avars. The warbands also suffered by being in the death zone behand the knights and then by being over run by the Avar knights.

Meanwhile, the legionaires on the hill were slowly shoved back as they looked over their shoulder for the missing psiloi support. The reserve deployed piecemeal due to lack of PIPs. The Equites were outmatched by superior quality. Losses piled up and the main command broke too.

Taken as a whole, it was a complete disaster. The weakness of the Avars was not exploited; the strength of the Roman supporting psiloi was squandered; matchups of Foederati knights versus superior LH and warband versus knights drew the inevitable results. On top of that, I was out diced.

Hopefully everyone can learn from these lessons. The Patricians will be back!