27th October, Portsmouth

 

The English DBA Open 

Hosted at the splendid, though mostly off limits, Fort Cumberland in Portsmouth.  PAWS had to move their venue quite quickly, and, by associating with the veterans charity Forgotten Veterans, managed to find some space within this splendid military landmark.  I'll borrow an image from Google Satellite:

 

(click on the pictures for a better view)

What a place to play wargames!  I know the PAWS organisers would want me to recommend you to follow the link to the charity page and consider making a donation.  It would do some good.

 

(Fort Cumberland: the little Forgotten Veterans corner where PAWS now hosts its wargames)

(The English DBA Open gets under way)

I tried to keep my life simple and just use the latest army to come out of my reorganise/refurbish project.

 

(DBA III/65 Nikephorian Byzantine) 

The power of this army is in its archery ... protected by skoutatoi they fight as 8Bw and I elected to take some Varangians (4Bd) to stiffen them.  Even so, it is a risky sort of army as the first of those deep elements you lose counts as if 2 for Victory Points (and they don't get to count the protection of the skoutatoi in shooting exchanges - which I don't quite understand but it is what it is)

The rest of the army is basically cavalry.

See the Nikephorian Byzantine gallery.

My baptism of fire was against Serbs.

 

(The 2019 English Open: the Byzantines open their account)

It didn't go especially well.  I tried to match off against the auxilia and bows - which the Serbs were happy with, their 2 bow elements getting good shots in on my 4 (in DBA, bow vs bow ends up on quite low numbers so is very much subject to the vagueries of chance) and I rapidly lost a couple of bases to nil and was on the brink.

And so it went on through the tournament.

 

(enemies of the Nikephorians at the English Open 2019)

The only archers I was able to outshoot were the English longbowmen.  A win at last!

 

(Byzantines vs Medieval Spanish ... and ineptly trying to hold off a littoral landing)

But it was a glimmer of light on an otherwise under-achieving day.  Nice to play with, this version of the Byzantine military machine is handicapped by the double-based skoutatoi archers.  Too vulnerable in shoot-outs to be worth the extra on element count.  Unless you can consistently roll 4 or more in the distant combat.

So I didn't make it into the semis, and there was no plate competition this year (as the pool phase was running late and those that didn't need to stay were keen to get off) ...

The four semi-finalists got to play a knock-out for the title from a restricted set of armies providd by the organisers ...

 

(English DBA Open 2019 - knock-out options)

With no plate competition, and a long session in prospect, I didn't  stay til the end.  We had enough from the numbers to be able to present the League trophies and take some pictures.

Anyway, here's the DBA Open places ...

 

.. and for the League, that meant ...

 

... and Tamara Fordham retained her Junior title.

 

(Top players: the 2019 Society of Ancients UK DBA League)

Congratulations to Richard on a successful season.

There were 12 tournaments in this year's League, spread from Bakewell and Newark to Portsmouth and Penarth.  In all, over 70 players took part.  Congratulations to all of them.

The new League season kicks off in a couple of weeks in Tarrington.

28th October, Portsmouth

A week later and it was down to Portsmouth for the final round of this year's UK DBA League ...

The English DBA Open

Let's get on with the games ... I took the Early Lombard half of my new pair of armies blooded at Bakewell ...

As in previous years, four games were played within a pool (with your own armies) to promote four players into a semi-final/final run off using preset armies ... and the rest of us (mostly) then support a 'plate' competition.

Here are my pool games ...

(Early Lombard vs Maurikian Byzantine!  Who'd have thought it?)

(Early Lombard vs Indian)

(Early Lombard vs Tuareg)

(Early Lombard vs Imperial Roman)

I made it to the Plate competition, where I lasted one round!

... I was knocked out by the eventual winner ... Meanwhile the top players played their finals ...

Which Arnaud won, reshuffling the pack for the League positions also.  This one did (all) come down to the final round!  Well done to all the players in a tightly fought season.

29th October, Portsmouth

The English DBA Open hosted by PAWS  

There's almost no gap these days, and in a couple of weeks we'll be off to Tarrington for the start of a new UK DBA League season ... but here we were down in Portsmouth for the English Open ..

 

Take any army you like and play 5 games in a period defined group (where the cut offs depend on what armies people take) ... after which the top 4 go through to a semi and a final to make a champion.  The rest will play a plate competition if desired.

The final rounds are from a theme with armies supplied by PAWS ...

I'm working on my African armies so took Blemmye ... much like Nobades but with Auxiliaries as the combat infantry.

 

Grasping at a sense of place, I took the Cecil B Demille camp and terrain gear for these latter day Nubians.  I guess the monuments should all be half-buried in sand.

I got 5 good games on the DBA die rolling roller coaster ... and won 3 of them ... just enough to get into the top 4 on count-back (actually I won the game we had played) ...

Apologies for the missing picture ... I played Andalusians, Zanj, Lithuanians, French and a Scandanavian with German ally (so Art + 2 WWg!) ...

 

 

Here are the options for the finals ... we picked secretly our order of preference in seed order ... I got my top choice (Thebans with an 8Sp Gen!) and this served me well in the first game. 

 

I think Colin was using his extra cavalry to negate my infantry sledgehammer whilst enveloping my flanks.  Anyway it looked like it might take a few moves to achieve it so I bundled in as quickly as I could.  The Thessalians barely got better than 2 pips so my plan worked.

 

I was less fortunate in the final ... Martin's echelon attack looking vulnerable but caught me out at the vital stage ... also an attack on the camp bounced off with no effect (so was a waste of pips when the pips and the element would have made a key contribution elsewhere*) - so in this game my plan did not work.

 

Martin, the outgoing League champion is therefore the new English Open champion.  Well done and fully deserved.  Thanks indeed to all concerned.

 

Not everybody was there but we were able to present Mark with the League winner's shield and Tamara received the Junior version a couple of days later.  Again, congratulations to our worthy winners.

 

That was 2016 -17 ... Wow!  it flew by.  Thanks to Bill at PAWS for all the admin.

Thanks to PAWS for hosting the Open and to the Society of Ancients and Magister Militum for sponsorship.  Click the links in appreciation.

The final scoreboard will appear here when updated from the weekend.

*why are psiloi no good at ravaging camps?  Don't ask me - it seems a bit unbalanced perhaps...

30th October, Portsmouth

ENGLISH  DBA Open

The final round of this year's DBA tour was, once again, in sunny Portsmouth, and many of the contenders were present with some placings still to be decided.

I went along for the games and to help with the presentations (I was, of course, not in contention - it is a long season and I can get to very few of the rounds).

I took along the Nobades (or, at least, prototype Nobades)

... and here are pictures of the games I got ...

(English DBA Open ... vs Chinese)

(English DBA Open vs Lombards)

(English DBA Open vs Rajputs)

(English DBA Open vs Assyrians)

(English DBA Open vs Arabs)

We played off in groups of 6 (playing 5 games) to generate 2 semi finals and an optional plate competition (for which, one day, I will donate an actual plate as I make such regular appearances) ...

At one point I was indeed riding but my 2 wins out of 3 rapidly became 2 out of 5 (and didn't get any better in the plate) ... I did, however, kill a general (which is always a tick in a box for me) ...

The semis and finals were played with themed armies which allegedly tests the players better (though I am not so sure about that) - here's the list:

Players get to pick in order of qualifying, and select their option for the 2 remaining games.

They finished 1st: Colin O'Shea, 2nd: Lindon Paxton, 3rd: Peter Ellis, 4th:Richard Pulley

That left the overal standings: 1st and UK DBA League Champion: Martin Myers, League Runner Up: Colin O'Shea, 3rd: Bill MacGillivray, 4th: Richard Pulley, 5th: Arnaud Marmier, 6th Lindon Paxton followed by Pete Duckworth, Neil Mason, Martin Smith and Mark Johnson down to a total of 57 players altogether ... Tamara Fordham was 28th and won the Junior trophy.

There were 14 tournaments altogether ... Premier events, The Welsh Open, English Open and Northern Cup plus qualifying events at Great Bowden, Tarrington (both the Scramble and the Midland Open), Coventry, Alton, Bakewell, Manchester (Britcon) and the 4 seasonal events at Portsmouth, 

And then we lined up for the photos ...

PAWS UK DBA League Page

25th October, Portsmouth ...

The Society of Ancients sponsored English DBA Open 2015

Many thanks to the Portsmouth and Allied Wargames Society for organising and hosting the English DBA Open and running the UK DBA League which has the event as its final 2014/2015 round.

The Society of Ancients sponsors both these events and I was pleased to go down both to represent the Society and to play in the event ... unfortunately just my 3rd DBA of what has turned out to be an unusually busy year ...

Although DBA armies are pretty small, my boot was pretty full with the latest Slingshots and games as well as an armful of prizes and a box of widgets that had (phew) turned up just the day before ...

The widgets are a gift from the sponsor to the players supporting the UK League and will be distributed one-per-player while stocks last (my thanks to the Society for supporting this) ...

(the brand new SoA DBA measurement/deployment widget)

Made for us in acrylic by Warbases, the tool dual functions for measurements (1/2, 1, 2, 3 and 4 basewidths) and for marking the edge of the deployment zone (2 BWs in, and, aligned to the back edge on a 24" board, 3 BWs back from the centre) ...

I think it's turned out well, and certainly seemed popular with the players on Sunday ...

(SoA DBA widget in action)

Anyway ... I took along a Marian Roman army ... I had created it as part of a pair with Slave Revolt (yes - I might have been Spartacus) for Martin's Alton DBA Pairs event ... then wasn't able to go.  So the Open gave the army an opportunity to strut its debut stuff ...

(English Open 2015: Phil's 15mm DBA Marian Roman Army)

For the Spartacus Scenario, I had opted for a very basic 'blade heavy' army with legionary general etc. But as this was an open competition I thought a cavalry commander and the optional elephant might be a more entertaining configuration ...

So .. 1 x General (Cv), 1 x auxiliary cavalry (Cv), 7 x legionaries (4Bd), 1 x javelinmen (Ps), 1 x archers (Ps) and 1 x Numidian elephant (El) ...

The army is almost entirely Chariot Miniatures (from Magister Militum) and looking for that 'hastily raised' impression for the Spartacus scenario, I went for de-plumed Republicans ... 

(Chariot Miniatures Romans lining up as the army of Crassus) 

I confess the army lost more than it won but we all had an enjoyable day ... being an Open event, it got to fight an outlandish array of opponents ... from Hittites and Koreans to Renaissance Italians ... standing up now to chariots, now to bombards and eventually been skewered by plate armoured horsemen with heavy jousting lances.  Mules indeed!

(English DBA Open 2015: Marian Romans vs Hittite Empire)

(English DBA Open 2015: Marian Romans vs Serbian Empire)

(English DBA Open 2015: Marian Romans vs Koguryo Koreans)

Colin the Korean had brought along and played a very nice waterway which was a good match to my basing - and I have used a beached bireme as my camp for the Romans (not because the Romans can do littoral landings - though if they couldn't then who on earth could? - but because if you recall that bit in the Kubric film, Crassus bought all the ships so Spartacus couldn't sail away to Thrace ... or something like that) ... so I trust you'll indulge an extra picture or two.

(a scenic match ... figures by Phil, terrain by Colin)

I didn't make the semi-final but made the plate semi-final where I got 3 Italians to the good before all the legionaries got impaled by the knights in one horrendous round of combat ...

OK ... the armies used (or, more properly as noted by Martin ... ) were: Feudal English; Early Neo-Babylonian; Hittite Empire; Alan; Koguryo Korean; Teutonic Order; Serbian Empire; Venetian Condotta + Genoese allies; Marian Roman; Early Imperial Roman; French Ordonnance; North Welsh + Feudal English ally. 

The Welsh, Imperial Romans, Alans and Neo-Babylonians got their commanders into the semi-finals where a themed choice beckoned for the last 2 games ...

(English DBA Open: armies for the finals and semi-finals)

Mark and Martin made it to the final and fought it out for the trophy ...

(English DBA Open 2015: the final ... concentration - and perhaps a touch of mischief?)

Everyone seemed to have enjoyed their day and Martin's success in the Open also assured him the League title ...  here are the happy winners ...

(English DBA Open ... winner, third place and runner up)

(Society of Ancients UK DBA League 2014-15 ... winner flanked by the runners up)

See more about the UK DBA League

Full 2015 English DBA Open results

Full 2014-15 UK DBA League results

Many thanks to everyone involved.  Thanks to the Society of Ancients for continuing to support the project and thanks to Paws for running it all.

A new League year starts in Market Harborough in 3 weeks time.

I will be back on the road with a 50th anniversary flats game at Warfare.