|
Post by colinthehittite on Mar 5, 2017 7:29:52 GMT
I think the Newark Showground provides a more comfortable home for the Northern Cup than the dismal backwater within the previous venue – not that I would have complained... anyway, the squash courts of the old Welsh Open venue would win the dismal playing surroundings trophy. With ample free parking, a light and cosy room (at least until the last game when the traders threw open the doors to load their gear) and good facilities in our building I think the new home should prove to be a hit with both players and public. Increasing to 10 boards means more work for the organisers but makes the tournament one of the best attended on the UK DBA circuit. And what a joy to see new faces - I even played against one.
The unique format, huge workload of preparation and attention to detail of the organisers provides participants with a high quality tournament that I hope they all appreciate. For me it makes travelling from the south coast with an overnight stop well worthwhile.
The show was billed as having 70 participation games; in fact I think they had to be participation rather than demonstration and in that aspect it was working hard to draw new players into the hobby. Luckily it wasn’t raining as that would have hampered movement between the two buildings which are quite far apart. There was a fair range of traders with something for everyone, but for me attracting more 15mm figure traders such as the northern based Irregular Miniatures, would be an improvement. Irregular used to attend Triples and I always enjoyed sorting through their boxes for little gems, as so much of their stock is not shown on the website. The ‘bring and buy’ required sellers to hire a table for an hour, which worked better for the show organisers than for us tournament players who managed a quick half hour during our lunch break.
The tournament – coming last in a tournament is a salutary experience. Having tried manoeuvre, attacking weak elements, jumping on columns, gaining quick kill match ups (there were not many in the whole tournament), closing a few doors, ganging up on lone bows with multiple bows and other sneaky DBA tricks, all to no avail, I sat in the middle of the last board head to head with my opponent’s army to await the coup de tournament grace of one last defeat. At this point the organisers generously came over and told me the army I was using had not lost a game all day... after 5 heavy defeats I didn’t lose the last game, quite. We ran out of head butting time and I ‘gained’ a losing draw; definitely my best performance of the day. By this time my only joy was in playing to the audience – forgive my indulgence guys; I was not myself!
Congratulations to Mark and it was good to see Denis doing so well after a few tournament disappointments. Thanks to Paul et al for providing us all with such a great tournament and to the Society of Ancients for their generous support. Sign me up for next year.
Colin
|
|
|
Post by colinthehittite on Feb 26, 2017 8:17:47 GMT
With a superb format, the best prize table of any UK tournament and an excellent turnout of players, the 2017 Alton Matched Pairs kicked off to a great start. It was good to see Mike, new to the circuit I think, who must have travelled the furthest of any player. After drooling over the prizes we launched into the first game with gusto. I had recently painted Donnington Miniatures’ Queen Zenobia and took this opportunity to field her. In reality I can’t imagine she ever went into combat, but it was fun to have a female on a camel as one of my generals – not something you often see in DBA. My matched pair consisted of Palmyran (b list) against Later Pre-Islamic Arab (a) and by choosing the maximum number of light elements (LH, LCm and Ps) there were challenges and opportunities for both sides. In the short time available to choose from the two armies I think it would have been quite difficult to choose my favourite – the Palmyrans were chosen twice and the Arabs once.
My first game was excellent, with my opponent even more aware of the opportunities of my armies than I was. We stalked each other and ran out of time producing the only draw of the day. I lost my second game in a Biblical tussle that could have gone either way. It didn’t look like it was going to be my day, however, my luck changed and the victories just kept coming. 6 tournament games using at least 4 different armies provided everyone with excellent opportunities to show table top generalship. There was a very wide range of armies present – 18 players gave 36 armies – and there were some beautifully painted figures and terrain pieces. Several players had made big efforts to complete painting projects for the day.
Congratulations to Mark, with 5 wins out of 6 games, a worthy winner, but even into the last game we were unsure of who would prevail with several players vying for the top spot –just the way we like it! Well done for playing, David. Thanks to Martin for doing everything possible to ensure a great tournament for everyone.
Colin
|
|
|
Post by colinthehittite on Feb 23, 2017 7:25:13 GMT
I am happy with 6 games and 0 points for a draw. In fact, as I managed to lose a game without rolling a pip dice; we played an extra game, just for fun. ...which you won, destroying three knights with blades on equal results!! Colin
|
|
|
Post by colinthehittite on Feb 22, 2017 8:03:49 GMT
I would definitely vote for 6 games, for all the reasons Martin posted, despite the reduced gaming time in the afternoon. Most pressure is on you, Pete, if you are organising AND playing.
Colin
|
|
|
Post by colinthehittite on Feb 13, 2017 14:05:21 GMT
20 competitors is an excellent turnout. There was also a good range of ages and genders... My late medieval Spanish did a fair job of impersonating very early 16th century Spanish, although some of the infantry felt a little under dressed when they saw all that plate armour. With so much plate, pikes, barding and banners, the tables really looked the part for the Italian Wars. This is the first UK tournament to theme this period and was an opportunity for some players to dust off figures rarely used or normally used in other rule systems. The huge number of photos on Yahoo already posted by Martin gives a good flavour of what could be seen. There was a good spread of armies from the theme list and some players had obviously studied it much more carefully than I had as there were some allies present and a significant number of littoral landings to add to the tension. In a nice twist to the theme we all played with our opponents’ armies in the afternoon – several players were heard expressing the strain of tuning in to unfamiliar armies in a tournament setting. I’m not at all familiar with mounted infantry and struggled to use them in two games, with no effect on either game. Mind you, much of what I tried in those two games had little effect.
Every competitor was given an unpainted Psiloi element as a memento of the day – nice touch – and I helped Pete with his clear out by relieving him of some of his unpainted lead. Despite his hangover Tony won the day – congratulations. More alcohol for you to enjoy! Thanks to Pete for a great tournament – I’m looking forward to enjoying my prize Italian Wars rosso – witha little pasta (to be read with a sing song Italian accent). Two weeks to the Alton Matched Pairs. Another great tournament format and just a short hop south for many of you. Be there!
Colin
|
|
|
Post by colinthehittite on Feb 8, 2017 14:11:58 GMT
Thanks Pete. Thanks Terry and thanks to those who voted for my Early Russians. I'm very pleased. Perhaps I should'nt play this year!
Colin
|
|
|
Post by colinthehittite on Jan 31, 2017 11:17:50 GMT
In the early days of DBA 3.0 The Alton Clarifications appeared out of frustration with a number of grey areas of the rules. The need was plain and the clarifications were quickly adopted by other UK organisers and now, although rarely referred to directly, they are in common use.
I have a vague memory of a UK DBA tournament in which I think there was an actual rule change – a Chichester tournament perhaps? Rule changes are possible if those playing agree to them and if making a few careful changes improves the game for everyone, we ought to consider going ahead, after all there is unlikely to be an official update. I think an interesting and useful project would be to come up with a considered list of suggested improvements to the rules. I don’t think it would be a long list but it could be an interesting exercise and might lead to greater enjoyment of our game. Anything that moves the game closer to realism is good in my book and there are a few things in the rules that just don’t seem right – see the above posts as an excellent starting point.
Scott and Pete – why don’t you draw together your thoughts? I think you are nearly there. Bring them along to the Mercian. I for one would be really interested to see what you come up with. No pressure!
Colin
Ps My only concern with improving the lot of warband is that it would make Mark and his Tupi nearly invincible!!
|
|
|
Post by colinthehittite on Jan 30, 2017 21:06:10 GMT
On Saturday I played a few games of DBA3, Colin suffered badly from my borrowed dice throws.
The die was borrowed from Alan, and he got it from me.
Now to my query/thought/idea. Most times I burn dice I do not like, this is fine, but I wonder what people are going to make of an Elizabethan (Elizabeth the first) drain with melted plastic dice in it, a very secure datable find.
How many finds have altered what we think of as history, but that are in fact out of place.
David Constable I don’t know about the archaeology but you ought to keep Saturdays die for future DBA tournaments, David – it’s a winner! Colin (was it 5-2?)
|
|
|
Post by colinthehittite on Jan 30, 2017 13:57:46 GMT
Sorry to give you palpitations, Pete!! It’s the’ flee if beaten’ result that has made me hesitate in fielding Qaramita, knowing that the elephant circus is likely to turn up. However, now that you have shown the way perhaps I’ll try them. An impressive victory, and on Arnaud’s terrain; well done.
I suspect the Qaramita only used camels as transports and wonder if they might be better represented by the mounted infantry category, certainly primarily armed longbow camel riders sound like mounted infantry to me.
3 Bd are indeed powerful. As for Celtiberians – an excellent choice. If there were more open tournaments I would certainly field mine; they only fear one thing and that’s definitely not elephants. Fielding Palmyrans pushed me to paint the elements needed to adapt my late Romans – I finished the bows the night before.
I also agree that it is the combination of 5 elephants and a low aggression factor that make Arnaud’s army of choice so powerful. If you had won the terrain it could have been a very different game.
And talking of amending the rules, it was suggested in the drive home that the first elephant lost in a game should count as 2 elements – interesting, I thought.
Colin
|
|
|
Post by colinthehittite on Jan 29, 2017 10:45:07 GMT
The new venue is excellent and what a great turnout.
I had a disastrous first game against David’s massed pikes, but the most exciting was against Mark’s Tupi – manoeuvre, unlikely results and a warband general surviving 3 rounds against knights maintained the tension right until the end, when my Palmyrans finally went down. I didn’t get to play against Arnaud’s elephant circus but did manage to force another player’s elephants to trample each other, saving me from disaster.
Congratulations to Pete in overcoming the trumpeting Tamils, a tricky result to achieve particularly as camels flee from elephants rather than recoiling – they were still playing after I had finished 2 plate games!
A great day, Alan, thank you and thanks to Magister Militum for their continued sponsorship.
Colin
|
|
|
Post by colinthehittite on Dec 13, 2016 9:57:40 GMT
I had a disastrous first game against Andrew’s Scots in which I struggled in my attempt to break out from the confines of a difficult hill and my knights failed to break through the infantry line. With a losing draw in my second game following an indecisive knight bash I was beginning to feel that it was not going to be my day, however, Arnaud provided me with the first of a string of victories when his infantry line collapsed under the hooves of my West Frankish knights. Richard’s Welsh bowman were decidedly sickly looking when they turned up on my billiard table terrain (the first time I laid terrain) and his massed bow fire merely delayed the onslaught. Finally, against Bill’s Anglo-Normans my bows were feeling equally sickly having to face his knights in the open, but when the luck turned my way in the second half of the game I came away with a decisive 5-1 win!
I was not able to stay for the final but it sounds like it was another game with a spectacular change of luck. Congratulations to Arnaud, particularly as he has played little recently.
I took West Franks – Normans with lower aggression. 6 knights, 3 blades and 3 bows gave me quick kill capacity against the expected solid infantry lines and some fast moving infantry to exploit bad going and deal with roaming psiloi. Deciding to field them prompted me to make my Normans V3 compliant by painting the Bd elements in particular. I was expecting more knight heavy armies and so was pleasantly surprised at the good range and mix of armies present. Of my 5 games I only met massed knights on 2 occasions – drew one game and won the other. On the 2 occasions where my knights met lines of solid infantry (Bd) I lost badly on one and smashed straight through on the other. The usual moral here – get good dice rolls at critical points in the game or...
Thanks as always to Lindon and Bill at PAWS. Some great photos, Martin, here and on Yahoo.
The next tournament would be in Penarth at Crusade, I think, although there was no mention of it on the Crusade website when I last looked. I hope to see some of you there.
Colin
|
|
|
Post by colinthehittite on Nov 28, 2016 8:08:57 GMT
With such a good attendance the Massive was even better this year – sign me up and as Martin says, early notification is very welcome.
Colin
|
|
|
Post by colinthehittite on Nov 14, 2016 10:45:16 GMT
Great day of fun Hott action today. Many thanks to the Staines club for running an excellent competition. Armies were many and varied, with a strong turnout of sixteen players. I saw medieval Russians, ancient Greeks and Spartans, 1821 Greek War of Independence, Ancient Brits, Normans, Arthurian/SRB, Maori, modern armoured warfare Welsh, Romans, Gauls, Waterloo Prussians, and Chinese/Terracotta Army in use. An album of pics is now in the Yahoo Hott group files- please add if you can. Cheers, and thanks again. Martin Seconded and more great photos! Colin
|
|
|
Post by colinthehittite on Nov 14, 2016 10:42:06 GMT
Thanks, Martin/Diades, for an excellent day of gaming in what is always a highlight of the DBA calendar. It may not be everyone’s favourite format but The Scramble can be hugely enjoyable when taking a laid-back approach – after all what can you do with Mongols forced into a corner surrounded by bad going! Thanks to David for the prizes and congratulations to Martin S (champion) who completely out played me in the last game with his beautiful Spartans, who then promptly force marched to Staines for Sundays HotT tournament where they met some even scarier opponents. What a weekend!
Colin
Some great photos on Yahoo and yes, I’m also surprised that the Tuaregs did not do better – did you say, Scott, that they only won the terrain once? That may largely account for their poor showing.
|
|
|
Post by colinthehittite on Nov 4, 2016 7:59:54 GMT
To Colin H. You said 5 (five) games + 2 (final four plus plate). It used to be 3 (three) + 2. So has it changed, or was this just a one-off. David Constable I can't see the English Open ever having been 3 games in the group stage , David. It is a day long tournament. Anyway, I hope you will be playing at Tarrington and not just spectating. Colin
|
|