English DBA Open 2022

Thanks, Bill.

I plan to be there.

For anyone coming by car this Sunday, I've just been informed that the M275 (the Westernmost route into Portsmouth) is closed for the next few days.

However, Fort Cumberland is in the East of Portsmouth so Eastern Road is the better route anyway, but it may be busier than usual (if it can ever be said to be busy on a Sunday morning).

Not a great turnout at Fort Cumberland in sunny Southsea yesterday but a select few did battle in the final event of the English DBA League – still, it made it easier for us all to fit into the casemate. The arched tunnel room was an even stranger place to play as it had been decorated recently for a Halloween event with a near life size witch hanging above the entrance, forcing me, for one, to duck every time I went through.

What to take to an open tournament? Thought I would try one of Claudius’ favourites which he has successfully used at two recent competitions - Medieval Spanish IV/68e with a IV/61 ally – heavy metal exemplified. The Venetian ally gave me a littoral option which if used would give my opponents another thing to worry about.

The group stage gave us five games and although I played four against a variety of later armies my first game was against a player from the ‘early’ group with Palmyrans. Massed dunes and other bad going stuff came at me and I was forced to play in a corner. Low PIPS didn’t help but finally the Palmyrans arrived. One bow element did most of the damage as my elements were being caught without recoil room because of the lack of PIPS. I struggled on to a losing draw.

The next three games brought victories but a hard clash against a Free Company army with maximum knights just took a win. I finished the group stage one point above all others in my group which sent me into the semi-final. Here we chose from a fixed list of Hindu and Muslim elephant armies with the most successful player from the group stage having first choice. With Tamils I struggled with low PIPS against Rajputs and was heavily defeated. Winning the playoff for third and fourth place meant I ended well placed in the English DBA league – more from Bill soon, I hope. A day of fun, hard fought games.

After struggling out through the jammed eighteenth century forts twenty first century security gate in pitch black darkness I eventually drove home with an attractive little trophy, a chariot model pack that will nicely fill a gap in my collection and a plastic model which will be perfect for my Chimu army. One happy gamer!

Thanks to the PAWS team, the SoA and to Magister Militum who donated an army which went to the winner – more from Bill…

Colin