This was a standard 12 element DBA game between:
Russians III/79
1 x knights (general) 3Kn
4 x knights 3Kn
2 x light horse LH
2 x spears Sp
2 x psiloi Ps
1 x auxilia 3Ax
and
Swedes III/40d
1 x knights (general) 3Kn
1 x knights 3Kn
7x blades 4Bd
2 x bows 3Bw
1 x blades 3Bd
One table edge, the Swedish left, was the Baltic Sea. This had no bearing on the game at all since the Swedes didn't bother with a littoral landing and instead, as seen below, emerged from between two woods in a huge column led by archers and with the knights bringing up the rear. The Russians awaited them in a line with cavalry on the flanks, foot in the centre.
The Swedes struggled to deploy, hoping that sending archers into the woods would deter the Russian knights from attacking. Pictures below.
It didn't put them off at all and the knights piled in before the Swedish line could expand. Picture below.
The Swedes having been unable to deploy into a single line proved to be key. As the fight between the knights and the blades swung back and forth at first the knights seemed unbeatable, riding down two elements. (Knights destroy blades if they beat them by 1.) Only being deployed two deep prevented the Swedish line being broken. Pictures below.
The Swedish archers shooting from the woods repeatedly recoiled the Russian general, preventing his element from providing a vital overlap on a few occasions. Nevertheless the knights were able to destroy a third element of blades, making it three nil. In the next few turns however due to a combination of the knights following up recoiling blades, which led to the knights suffering from overlaps, and the new rule that in a drawn result blades destroy knights, the Russian knights began to take losses and soon it was three - three.
The Swedish knights, led by their general, had been impatiently edging their way forward through the crowd of blades. The Swedish general spotted the Russian commander and spurred forward. The two general elements clashed . . .
. . . and the result was an anticlimactic draw. However the Russian foot had moved forward and their auxilia had become isolated and were ganged up on by blades; overlapped twice they were destroyed and the win went to the Swedes four - three.
A very close and exciting game between two armies who'd never met before. Some surprises in the rules for us -
Kn destroy Bd when they beat them by 1, and Bd destroy Kn when it's a draw - meant it was always unpredictable, swung first one way then the other, and felt very realistic. Once again, DBA 3.0 provides a great game.