|
Post by colinthehittite on Jan 28, 2018 9:11:26 GMT
**ELEPHANT CIRCUS GAINS TOP PRIZE**
In a thrilling day of DBA in wet Wales yesterday Arnaud’s multi-elephant force, so long the bridesmaid, finally gained the success that has long eluded him. Battling his way through a string of tense games, Arnaud finally emerged winner of The Welsh Open.
Was it the reduction in the number of elephants in the army by one? Was it the fetching headband holding back those flowing locks? Probably just steady nerve and reasonable die rolls. Who knows, maybe we will hear from the ring master himself after he has tucked the herd back into their box never to be seen again. Well he was heard to say; ‘I’m going to retire the army now,’ rising from the carnage of the final game with a huge grin. Never again will we quaver when Arnaud and his pachyderm horde are announced as our next opponent. Is this the end of an era? Will the UK DBA scene ever be the same again? Will we all sigh in relief that it is all over? All these questions are yet to be answered, but one thing is certain... we look forward to Arnaud’s next fiendishly cunning plan!
Seriously though; congratulations to Arnaud and to Claudius who won the afternoon plate competition for us lesser mortals who failed to make the semi-finals. Thanks Alan for organising the fun and thanks to Magister Militum for their generous support.
Colin
|
|
|
Post by schmee on Jan 28, 2018 11:09:50 GMT
That is excellent news. I certainly will get back to you once the relocation chaos subsides. I'm feeling happier already. Great!
|
|
|
Post by martin on Jan 28, 2018 12:26:27 GMT
A fun day out - congrats to Arnaud (1st), Chris Cale (2nd), and to Richard 'Claudius Gothicus' who won the Plate competition. Many thanks to Alan and all at Penarth for running the event. Photo's now on Yahoo
|
|
|
Post by martin on Jan 28, 2018 12:35:35 GMT
"Cultural Philistine!!!!!"........"Mindless Vandal!!!!!"
Bill's new LPIA
The Final
|
|
|
Post by martin on Jan 28, 2018 12:42:03 GMT
Colin's Palmyrans
Steve's Free Company
Tim's Seljuk Turks
|
|
|
Post by martin on Jan 28, 2018 12:47:27 GMT
Thanks Martin, I will bring my horses again this year, but with a slave revolt, you never know! See you tomorrow in the rain. Hi Tim
Have sent a PM about Chris's Society of Ancient membership issue....if you see a notification at top of your page, should lead you there.
Pics on yahoo, inc the Sultan himself ( )
Martin S
|
|
|
Post by martini on Jan 28, 2018 13:49:43 GMT
Thanks to all my opponents and to Alan for letting me take part even though I arrived just after he'd finished the initial draw. Also thanks to Magister Militum for the prizes. I am much more used to playing in DBM tournaments where you play 4 games over 2 days (Sat and Sun) so playing 5 games in the space of about 5 hours is still a bit of a novelty for me. On balance, I enjoy the DBA events more, especially as it means I still get to have a lie in on Sunday!
|
|
|
Post by peteduckworth on Jan 28, 2018 15:07:38 GMT
Congratulations Arnaud. Well done. Just a shame I wasn't there to put the ribbon on you.
|
|
aldavion
Munifex
Looking forward to the Welsh Open.
Posts: 44
|
Post by aldavion on Jan 29, 2018 10:37:26 GMT
Thank you to everyone who took part and made it easy to umpire. Once again I learnt things I hadn't noticed but not so many as previous years so the extra practice I get at Tarrington and with the COGs must be paying off. I'll sort out the full results directly.
One trivial note. Someone left behind a small, green, square lunch box, presumably a DBAer. If it's your's let me know and we'll sort something out.
|
|
|
Post by martin on Jan 29, 2018 16:00:27 GMT
Despite a drubbing at the English Open a couple of months before I chose to run out my newish Philistines again, but with a twist. I used the Later Philistine (I/29b) version, with a solid block of 3 x spearmen elements, including my general, 3 x light chariots (LCh), a couple of loose order javelinmen (2 x 3Ax), plus a light skirmishing archer unit (Ps), in case I encountered any elephants, psiloi being a particularly good counter to the perilous pachyderms. The ‘twist’ was in the form of a Phoenician ally (I/35b), which comprised a heavy chariot (HCh), a cavalry element (Cv) and an obligatory foot unit, in this case a block of spearmen. Nothing fancy, BUT as it is extracted from a ‘littoral’ army it can, when required, land on the beach near an unsuspecting opponent to create some havoc, always a preferred weapon in the Smith armoury. The games unfolded as follows:-
1) We invaded vs Chris Cale’s Marian Romans, mainly legionaries and auxilia, who were accompanied by a Bithynian ally. Choosing to deploy on the side of Chris’s city, in my near right flank, we were soon attacking the legionaries manning its walls, but to no effect, the Philistine spearmen being twice repulsed, and some destroyed in the process. Shifting our attention to the centre, the Phoenicians and accompanying Phili’s launched at the Romans opposite, but were mown down. A resounding 0-4 loss, caused primarily by my unwise decision to attack the Roman stronghold without first assessing the chances of success.
2) Once again we invaded, but this time further afield, against Scott Russell’s scary Classical Indians (elephants, heavy chariots, cavalry, and archers). Goliath and friends, being placed second, chose to asymmetrically deploy hard left, opposite just half of the Indian array. As the lines closed my chariots trundled over some bowmen, and the spearmen took advantage of low initiative rolls on the enemy’s side (a ’1’ twice for PIPs, leaving the elephants inert) to close rapidly on the Indians, while a Philistine javelinmen unit sacrificed itself fending off an intervention by Scott’s cavalry. More bowmen, chariots and an elephant fell, leaving me with a 4-1 win, and a deep sense of relief, as Classicals are one of my most feared opponents.
3) All fired up, we invaded AGAIN, my cultural Philistines facing Alan ‘Gelimer’ Davison’s African Vandals, a totally mounted (12 x 3Kn) army, with a beach of the north African coast on my right flank. My Phoenician ally landed and immediately struck at the Vandal flank, and it looked like they might have a chance of rolling up the enemy line and killing Gelimer in the process. However, Alan launched a counter attack upon the Phoenicians and sent a strong force headlong at the Philistine centre, like any true dark age cavalry leader should. Touch and go for a while, the fighting surged back and forth, but ended in a 3-4 Philistine defeat, just before my archers closed on the Vandal landward flank. Dohhhh.......
Having failed to make the finals, I joined the non-finalists in a super-fast-play three round Plate competition, with games time limited to about 30 minutes.
4) Seems like invasion is in our blood, as the Gallant Gathites now time-warped two thousand years to the Levant in 1100 AD, to face Richard Pulley’s Early Crusaders, who defended a castle on my front right, and with scattered patches of scrub breaking up the centre of the battlefield. Some desultory fighting trickled along on my left between chariots and Frankish arbalesters, while in the centre Richard’s pilgrim masses (4 x 7Hd), fell upon my pagans with cries of ‘Deus le Veult’ or similar. Thoroughly successful, they trounced my centre to give the Crusaders a 4-0 win, a Philistine humiliation of the worst order.
5) Remaining in the 12th century for the fifth game, I defended against a mostly mounted invasion by Tim Cale’s Seljuk Turks. The Mediterranean (a waterway) formed my left flank, while a small hamlet in my rear right helped delay Turkish outflanking moves. The Phoenicians landed in the enemy rear and set upon the Seljuk right flank, running down a couple of horse archer elements, while the Philistine main body advanced upon Tim’s centre, our spearmen despatching two archer elements to clinch a 4-1 win before his flanking light horse arrived in my rear.
6) For the last game I faced Bill MacGillivray’s newly purchased Later Pre-Islamic Arab nomad force (mainly swordmen and camelry, aided by a few bowmen). Defending again, the Med was this time on my right, as I faced south down a coast road. The Phoenician ally again earned their fee and my undying respect by landing close to the LPIA flank and causing some immediate slaughter and confusion. Bill was attempting to counter both this and an advance by the main Philistine body when luck went very much against him. His general fell from his saddle and under the wheels of a Phoenician chariot, and the game concluded with a 4 inc general to 1 Philistine victory.
So with three wins and three losses it was a fun tournament as ever. The Welsh Open is well worth the drive, especially with the attendant trade show and the much improved venue at the St. Cyres school. The Philistines had redeemed themselves after their dodgy showing at a previous tournament, so that was an added bonus. A graaaaand day out....!!
|
|
|
Post by chris on Jan 30, 2018 10:42:49 GMT
Thanks Alan for organising the event again, thanks to everyone else for making it an enjoyable tournament and congratulations to Arnaud for his victory! I was surprised my Marian Roman/Bithynian allies army did so well, but then I didn't see many Book IV armies at the event so perhaps that helped! And some lucky dice probably didn't hurt...
|
|
aldavion
Munifex
Looking forward to the Welsh Open.
Posts: 44
|
Post by aldavion on Feb 7, 2018 21:41:38 GMT
DBA 3.0 Welsh Open 2018 Once again thank you to everyone who attended and took part. We were a bit down in numbers this year but several folk made the effort to send their apologies for not attending. For those who don’t know we like to use a ‘World Cup’ format. Ideally that is four groups of three or four who play each other within the group. The four group winners progress to the semis, while everyone else plays in the Plate. This year there were three groups so the group winners were joined by the best placed runner-up. (To explain, the draw had been made for ten players when another competitor arrived just before play started. To avoid delay I kept the groups as they were and joined one myself with the stipulation results against me would only count in a tie-break situation. So they weren’t entirely ‘dead rubbers’.) For some reason the first round of qualifying produced a series of one-sided results. But the following rounds were more even affairs. Then the finals, which were all rather lop-sided score-wise but seemed much closer in actual play. Arnaud’s Pachyderms emerged victorious to hearty congratulations to him. Commiserations to Chris whose Romans valiantly tried to fend them off. Well done also to Steve who was the player who almost missed it for coming third. And honourable mention to Andrew who, before this tournament, had played a grand total of three games! Five games in one day and he went home with the fourth place trophy. Richard maintained a 100% record through the plate emerging victorious with Mark and Martin close behind. No tie-breaks were needed to separate these three. Finally a huge thank you to Magister Militum for sponsoring our event and especially to Richard for presenting the trophies and prizes. Full Results:
Open Champion: Arnaud Marmier II42b+ Tamil Runner up: Chris Cale II49+ Marian Roman 3rd: Steve Aspinal IV74 Free Company 4th: Andrew Dearden I32c Spring & Autumn Chinese 5th: Colin O’Shea II74 Palmyran 6th: Richard Pulley IV7 Early Crusader 7th: Bill MacGillivray II23a Later Pre-Islamic Nomad 8th: Martin Smith I29b+ Philistine 9th: Scott Russell II3b Classical Indian 10th: Mark Skelton II20d Ptolemaic Egyptian 11th Tim Cale III74a Seljuq Turk (Rum)
Plate
Winner: Richard Pulley IV7 Early Crusader Runner-up: Mark Skelton II20d Ptolemaic Egyptian 3rd: Martin Smith I29b+ Philistine 4th: Scott Russell II3b Classical Indian 5th: Colin O’Shea II74 Palmyran 6th: Bill MacGillivray II23a Later Pre-Islamic Nomad 7th: Tim Cale III74a Seljuq Turk (Rum)
|
|