WINTERCON 12. More DBA Fun!

Hi All!

Another opportunity presented itself to get some DBA games in.

BELOW: Busted chariots fixed while you wait. Just what I need! (Stephen Hopkins' Baggage Element)

I travelled to our nation’s capital, Canberra to play in the DBA comp being held as part of the Canberra Gaming Societies ‘WINTERCON’ event.

As usual I took my Trojans along. I really must get some other 15mm DBA armies painted.

6 rounds were played.

It all started of well.

Round One saw me playing against the canny Stephen Hopkins and his Later Achemidian Persians. I killed his general in about the 2^nd or 3^rd turn. Game over

BELOW: Set up.

BELOW: End game. Mortal combat between Darius and Paris. Hector cheers his younger brother on from his Red Chariot!

Round Two and I was facing David Lawrence and his Pre-Fudal Scots.

BELOW: Battlelines crash. On the far right Hector and his Auxilia and an element of light archers (Ps) gang up on the Scot's King. One moment he's there,....

 BELOW: .... and the next moment he's gone!

It was another rather quick game and another win for my Trojans.  Yet again another enemy General was dispatched. Hector was now dragging two corpses behind his chariot.

Round Three and the wheels fell off; literally! I was facing Brenton Searle and his East Frankish.

This was a nightmare match up for me. His Foot (Spears and Blades) overmatched my Spears and single Blade, and his Knights overmatched my Chariot Cavalry. I lose.

 ABOVE and BELOW: The East Frankish horde proves too much for Hector and the lads, "sigh"

Round Four and we’re back on track with a hard fought win over Central Asian City States ably commanded by Steven Vassalo.

 ABOVE: A hasty redeployment of my chariots was called for after a overly complex initial deployment.
BELOW: Hector scores a breakthrough,....

 BELOW: .... And sweeps in behind the the CACS cavalry line to clinch victory!

Round Five and I was up against Jason Dickie and his Italian Condotta. A tough game for me due to Jason’s abundance of Knights, Bow, and Spear (with a Light Horse element and some Blade also IIRC).

I was blessed with an abundance of pips, so was able to work a flank and clobber his Bow and eventually it was sudden death for us both, being 3 elements each down.

 ABOVE and BELOW: My initial deployment. Using the wood as cover I move my blades (dimounted Chariots) to threaten Jason's flanks.

 BELOW: The battle goes down to the wire with the final combat going Jason's way. A loss, but with honour.

Jason won the 50-50 contest and took the game, (but only just).

Round Six and I was playing Later Imperial Romans, (East).

This was another tough game that could have gone either way and ended up going the wrong way for me.

 ABOVE and BELOW: The combined arms killing machine that is the Later Roman Army proves to hard a nut to crack. Blades and Knights prove too much,...

All in all a great day of DBA gaming with a podium finish for Hector and the Lads!

Results were as follows: 

Brenton Searle – 1^st III/52 East Frankish – 42 points

Lawrence Greaves 2^nd – II/78b Late Imperial Roman (East) – 42 points

Scott Driscoll (Me) 3^rd – I/26b Trojan – 34 points 

Gentleman’s Award – Steve Vassalo (by a very clear majority of votes)

Magister Militum – (Highest Adjusted Score) – Steve Hopkins

Executioner Award (most kills in a game) – Jason Dickie (with 7 kills)

 ABOVE and BELOW: Just two photos of other games nearby.

Cheers for now.

Comments Welcomed.

LANDWASTER '11. As viewed from BOTH sides of a battlefield

Hi All
Last year I played in LANDWASTER, a DBA tournament in Canberra. This was my 2nd tournament for the year and it had been my 2nd tournament in about the last 4 or 5 years.
In game 4 of the 6 rounds I was matched against my old mate Doug.
He posted a series of game reports from LANDWASTER, so I thought it would be noval to add my comment to the report he posted about our encounter in round 4.
I figured some of you might find it interesting to read about the battle as seen from both sides of the table.
My comments in BIG BLUE BOLD ITALICS.
Soooo over to Doug for the report:

GAME 4
At least I think this was game 4... Things were getting Hazy.. anyway - Scott (Trailape) is a top bloke to play against, hard but fair, and up for a laugh. As was customary by now.. the Waterway went down.. (groan). His army was a mix of Spear and Chariot cavalry led by Hector, looking splendid in his red chariot and shining armour.

ABOVE: Hector on my right, this wasn't the final deployment.
This wasn't the final deployment, with Hector switching to the centre and a Blade element (more of him later) moving to support two chariots on my right.

ABOVE: See those blokes with the bald heads second from the left in the front rank? Grrrrrrr....
I decided to mass my cavalry on my right and overwhelm the two cavalry in front of me then turn the line. Scott decided the best form of defence was attack and as I threw the column foward beside the waterway, he charged me with his two cavalry chariots - I had bow turning behind the column, and suddenly realised that the two Bw elements turning behind couldn't be pushed back and could cost me dearly!


This was my plan exactly. Initialy I was a tad aprehensive as Doug is a very experianced and canny player. His Bw was of concern to me on his right, so moving my Blade (Lukka Warriors) to that flank was a ploy to try and nulify them. Once I saw his 'blunder' with the column on his right I saw an opportunity to sieze the initiative on that flank and in turn roll up his flank.

LESSON ONE of DBA:

DBA is a excellent game for 'siezing' the opportunity, as usually one mistake can be fatal. With most systems, (such as DBM DBMM and FoG for example) you can bounce back from a single error. In DBA it's normally one mistake that can unravel the whole plan.

Luckily for me, the dice gods smiled on me, (oh.. how were they to turn!) and I threw off the first assault at 2-3, then moved out to get my own overlap and got a 4-1 to take out one of his chariots.

Unluckily for me! I really should have made more of this opportunity, but to then have potential success turn in to abject failure was quite disasterous. For the initial attack to fail was bad enough, but to then have the '4-1' result take a chariot out was just plain horrible!


By now I had elements pouring into the space on my right, behind and flanking the spear and blade that were left there as the second Trojan chariot succumbed. On my left I kept Hector and his other Chariot amused with Auxilia and Bw in a wood, supporting my remaining cavalry and LH that were facing off his Sp line in the centre.

Now both Chariots on my left were destroyed, and things looked very grim.
Lesson TWO of DBA:
Even when all seems lost, fight your way back into the game. If luck can be harsh (see Doug's comments on my failed Infantry assault below) she can also be forgiving. NEVER SAY DIE.


I had some extraordinary luck holding the Spear off (in one bound I had 5 combats and rolled 4 x 6 and a 2.. unfortunately the two was against that pesky Blade.. and the sixes weren't enough to do damage to supported spear). I was lucky not fleeing & sticking too much, as that would allow the Spear to contact me front and flank, but in the meantime, victory was turning to disaster on my right. I managed to kill the Sp with Cv in front and side at 3-3, but the remaining Blade (remember him?) was beating off all attacks.. and then to add insult to injury, got a 6-1 to kill a cavalry in front of him.

Clearly my redeployment was a stoke of genius. My Lukka Warriors obviously had a taste for horse flesh, (maybe they were Gauls).

I took a chance at a flank attack on his main spear line, which didn't come off at 3-3, and in return lost the cavalry attempting it. by this stage I was now two elements down, Scott was three down, and all I needed to do was kill this last Blade element, which was now completely isolated and surrounded by LH and Cv. For several bounds this went on, either sticking or throwing me back, I threw a bow in behind a spear hoping to recoil it into the bowmen with my cavalry, another fail... and lost the bow.. By now it was 3 elements each.

See notes on LESSON TWO. With the Lukka warriors fighting like Spartans in a narrow defile, I needed to now do a redeployment and get some support to them. Their luck wouldn't hold out for ever,...

I shot at his charioteers at 4-3.. several times, another fail, and still I couldn't kill the axemen as Hector drove his red chariot the width of the field to crash into the rear of my horsemen attacking the axemen, who again threw their opponents back, to die beneath the hooves of Hector's chariot horses. Game over, and I had gone down.

Hector to the rescue! By consistently using a pip each turn I was able to extract Hector and drive him across from the far flank to assist the Lukka Warriors. Hector insisted he saved them, by the lukka's assert that they had just been "having fun with the horsies".

A fun game, but one in which the dice played a disproportionate part. I was lucky to get away with surviving the first chariot charge, but after that the combat dice were not in my favour. Where I didn't need high dice, I was getting them as in the centre vs his spear, and yet time and again, needing to roll 3 or higher to get that last element I just couldn't do it.

LESSON THREE of DBA:


Just when you need a high roll, you can be sure you have at least a 50% chance of getting a low one.


Scott's Blades should be rewarded with dancing boys, gold ornaments and some clothes. But yet again, I was left thinking that my troops didn't have enough punch to finish an enemy off when I felt he should have been on the ropes.

My lads are Trojans,.... not Greeks! Dancing Girls and a nice Horse steak was reward enough.
You can find all reports from all 6 rounds at Doug's BLOG: A LEAD ODYSSEY

CANCON 2012

 ABOVE: My first game at CANCON 2012. My Brits V French Marines.

BELOW: Prussian Landwehr V French Line.

 Hi All
Well I attended CANCON this year and I must say it was a hoot.
The three day event normally sees me playing all three days, (in the past DBM).
This year I just wanted to relax a bit more, so settled one day (Day 1) of shopping and 'looking around' and then playing 'SONGS OF DRUMS AND SHAKOS' (SDS) on the Saturday and DBA V2.2 on the Sunday.
SDS was a lot of fun. I'd only played a couple of games before, so the whole experiance was a bit of a learning experiance.

ABOVE and BELOW: My Brits give those French scoundrels a bit of a touch up.

All in all I found SDS to be quite a bit of fun. I'm not sure if SDS is as good a game as SHARP PRACTICE, (SP) but they can be played at a tournament, where as SP can't.

BELOW: Egged on by Colour Sergeant Thompson, my Riflemen dispatch some Frenchmen

On the Sunday I played in the DBA comp. I was hopeful of doing well, as in the last two comps I played in I scored a 3rd and 1st place.
Trotting out my trusty Tojans I managed to finished 9th out of 30. On handicap I apparently came 3rd, so not a bad result.

I lost in Round 1 to Early Hebrew, (thanks a lot to dismal dice rolls in combat)
Rd 2 saw me victorious over a medieval Cypriot army. Rd 3 and we defeated Alexander's Macedonians. Rd 4 and we defeated Sung Chinese. Rd 5 and Free Company got the better of us, but a Rd 6 victory over Goths restored honour.

BELOW: The DBA comp in full swing.

BELOW: The shortest DBA gamer I've ever seen. It was great to see so many youngsters playing a 'Historical' game.

BELOW: Travel buddy Stan does battle in only his 2nd ever DBA comp with Sub-Roman Brits. He finished 10th. Not a bad effort!

As usual for CANCON the trade stalls appeared to be busy.

BELOW: Dragon Painting Service (DPS) with Carlo at the helm appeared to have sold a swag of beautifully painted miniatures. I purchased the best part of a new 7 Years war Prussian Army ( all Front Rank miniatures). I suspect Carlo could sell Pork Sausages to Arabs.

BELOW: Between DBA games, a view across one of the game halls.

BELOW: A CANCON regular! Nic and EUREKA MINIATURES. As usual Nic was a pleasure to chat to and always had something new on offer. For me it was 28mm Saxon Guard du Korps Cavalry 1812! (I'll post a review of these magnificent miniatures soon).

And now for some photos of my DBA games!

Below: My Trojans envelope Alexander and his Macedonians.

BELOW:  The 3 photos below are of my game agains the dreaded Goths. This game gave me one of my best results, with the loss of only one element of Spears I got the better of the hairy Germans. My opponent had horrible pips.

BELOW: The following photos from my battle with the SUNG CHINESE commanded by the talented David Lawrence..

The Sung Artillery was of great concern, but by sending my 'Lukka' Blades, 'Hittite' Auxilia and an element of 'Trojan Archer' Psilo through the woods (green felt), I managed to destroy the Chinese bow on David's left flank, sweep through and capture his camp and attack his artillery in the flank.

BELOW: End game for the SUNG.

The results of the DBA COMP were as follows, (and Directly from the Organiser Greg Kelleher) :

"Well DBA at Cancon has come and gone for another year. This year there were 30 players with 6 being juniors. The major prizes went to:
1st place Marcus Treganza
2nd place Stephen Hopkins
3rd place Chris Burg
Junior Champion: Bas Braham
Executioner award Chris Hersey

As can be seen from the list of armies below there was a great spread across the four books. Certainly the Early Hebrews proved to be the surprise army of the tournament.
As always I would like to thank our very generous sponsors Essex Miniatures Australia for providing trophies and prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places, Baudea for providing the junior champion prize and Hall of Ancient Warriors for providing the prize for the executioner award.
And thanks to you all. Without your participation there would be no tournament.

Player Army Score Count Back


Marcus Treganza IV/03 Anglo Norman 44 202


Stephen Hopkins IV/66 Later Polish 44 186


Chris Burg I/27 Early Hebrew 43 218


Peter Bismire II/03 Classical Indian 41 201


Jason Dickie IV/13a Medieval German 38 192


Brad Del Munns IV/74 Free Company 37 221


Darryl Hills III/04b Early Byzantine 36 194


Bas Braham (J) IV/83b Wars of the Roses 36 194


Scott Driscoll I/26b Trojan 36 189


Stanley Crabbe II/81c Sub Roman British 34 170


David Lawrence III/61 Sung Chinese 32 176


Sam Braham (J) II/07 Achaemenid Persian 32 164


Gavin Bowman IV/75 Timurid 31 215


Jon Willacy III/39 Later Tang 31 173


Chris Hersey IV/83b Wars of the Roses 30 199


Bruce Bell II/36a Graeco Bactrian 30 170


Jerry Hearn IV/83b Wars of the Roses 30 156


Alex Filewood III/05a Middle Frankish 29 207


Ken Filewood II/39b Ancient Spanish 29 158


Peter Braham II/43 Maccabean Jewish 28 199


Greg Kelleher III/14c Early Bulgar 28 179


Brenton Searle IV/26 Lusignan Cypriot 25 200


Patrick Hersey (J) III/66 Hsi Hsia 25 155


Michael Chellew I/52c Early Hoplite Greek 24 168


Alexander Bell II/12 Macedonian 23 181


Steve Jones IV/09 Eastern American 23 165


Ryan Blake (J) II/47a Early German 21 150


Ronan Hersey (J) II/15 Alexandrian Imperial 18 169


Sebastian Carraro IV/01a Komnenan Byzantine 16 160


Lysander Carraro J II/49 Marian Roman 16 149

Cheers,


Greg"

In summary, CANCON was excellent.

As usual the DBA was great fun, and I'm very interested in seeing Version 3 of these brilliant rules released.
You can find more photos and comments on CANCON 2012 here: LINK! (the very nice Storm and Conquest BLOG)

That's all for now.

Cheers! 

Successor Elites: Alexander's Foot Companions.

 Hi Guys

A break for a moment from Napoleonics.

I thought I'd share a few photos of my recently completed Hypasapists. I've got six 60mm x 20mm bases. 28mm Miniatures. Mostly FOUNDRY, (insanely expensive but very nice) with some OLD GLORY command Figures for a bit more variety. 

 I based them for DBA but will also use them for IMPETUS.

The Shields are all hand pained.

 My favorite figure is the Officer on the right (above). He's an OLD GLORY miniature, and seems to be 'breaking ranks' to urge the lads forward (as seen below):

"Follow me Men"!

I should add that the miniatures (including shields) were painted by FERNANDO ENTERPRISE to their 'SHOWCASE' standard. I wish I could paint that good.

UPDATE:
I thought I'd addsome photos of my recently completed Companions. Four bases of these Elite Cavalry will help secure Victory for the Foot Companions, (I hope). The miniatures are OLD GLORY. I added lances from my left over WARGAMES FACTORY 'Amazons'.

Back to work on my Dutch Belgians for 1815,...