ALTON DBA MATCHED PAIRS 2017

Zanj Revolt prize, painted by Colin
 Pre-Feudal Scots prize, painted by Smiffff

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