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Post by proximocoal on Apr 15, 2023 19:22:39 GMT
Thanks to all my opponents and Martin for running a great event. Hope to see everyone again soon
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Post by Baldie on Apr 15, 2023 19:55:57 GMT
Fab day, cheers for organising it Martin. Looked like a scene right out of bletchley park when the scoring grid was being analysed. Bet those fools who played game 5 before game 4 was finished then tried yo hand in result of a different game helped.
Glad I got to come and meet peeps I would not normally get to game with.
I thought taking III/40a super Vikings was a stretch without going for the d list with allies. However it appeared I chose a fab list as long as they were not being played by me.
Brill day out
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Post by colinthehittite on Apr 15, 2023 21:34:26 GMT
In the 1980s film ’Clockwise’, John Cleese’s orderly world steadily falls apart through a series of very unfortunate events; relentlessly, one after another. Very funny, but you think it couldn’t possibly happen in real life. In DBA I suppose you could find yourself with the wrong army, in the wrong terrain, being forced into poor match ups, throwing low… and it could happen game after game. But that couldn’t possibly happen, could it…?
Great new venue for Alton DBA. A very atmospheric 1920s village hall – roomy, airy and with all facilities – in a very attractive Hampshire village. 1920s England at its best, with the elderly couple who look after the hall popping in to check we were all OK and scuttling off to make a minor adjustment to the heating, wide eyed at all the brightly painted little soldiers on display. No new-fangled fancy technology here, good old paper and pencil was the order of the day, chaps! Well, it works, and it worked jolly well, I say.
Good to see players from all points of the compass gathering in Jane Austen’s home village of Chawton and congratulations to those who did well. I spent the day fighting for last place but was pipped at the last post – you would have thought 9 points from 6 games would be enough to clinch it!
Thank you, Martin, for organising and managing an excellent tournament (he even had to play to even player numbers; slaughtering my Vikings with his Stone Age Eastern Forest Indians on the way).
Colin
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Post by martin on Apr 16, 2023 5:55:48 GMT
Final positions and armies: Alton DBA 2023
1. Paddy Myers…….North Welsh + South Welsh ally (122 pts) 2. Connor Truby…….Early Welsh + Viking ally (120 pts) 3. Paddy Green…….Medieval German + Leidang ally (107 pts) 4. Richard Pulley…..Norman + Viking ally (101 pts) 5. Martin Myers…….Andalusian (98 pts) 6. Pete Duckworth…Viking Raider (96 pts) 7. Denis Grey…………Norse Viking (95 pts) 8. Martin Smith……..Eastern Forest American (81 pts) 9. Baldie (Lee S.)……Viking Raider (78 pts) 10. Mark Skelton……...Breton + Viking raider ally (76 pts) 11. Bill MacGillivray….Pictish (76 pts) 12. Phil Barrington …..Medieval German (74 pts) 13. Lindon Paxton ……Carolingian (72 pts) 14. Keith McGlynn ……Islesmen (58 pts) 15. Peter Phipps ………Andalusian (58 pts) 16. Andy Unwin………..Carolingian (53 pts) 17. Peter Ellis ………….East Frankish (53 pts) 18. Neil Mason ………..Viking Raider (51 pts) 19. John Saunders ….Carolingian (51 pts) 20. Paul Clair ………….SRB Strathclyde + Viking ally (20 pts) 21. Colin O’Shea …….Norse Leidang (9 pts) 22. Steve Etheridge….Anglo-Danish (7 pts)
[nb - Players on equal points separated by tie-break criteria: head-to-head, generals killed, camps/BUAs captured].
With ‘Vikings and their Victims/enemies’ as the theme, Viking or Leidang appeared in 10 of the 22 armies used, or 11 if you include the Islesmen, a fair split between Vikings and Victims.
Plenty of variety in the armies chosen, from Al Andalus to the Scottish Isles to Newfoundland to the East Franks (around 15 different ones chosen). A good day for the Welsh armies, an unusual but successful choice, with all three variants represented. 🏴🏴🏴
Congrats to the podium placed, and to the ‘almost podium’ placed, and commiserations to those whose dice failed them.
Many thanks to a great bunch of players, and a big thanks to the long-distance travellers….good to see new faces as well as old stalwarts:- it’s the wargamers who make the day enjoyable (for me as organiser, and for their fellow players).
Photos will follow, on groups.io, Facebook and MeWe.
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Post by paddy649 on Apr 16, 2023 9:25:06 GMT
In preparation for Alton my choice of army was fairly typical. Owning several of the Armies I thought about taking Scots Common or Welsh. I even thought about chipping away at the lead mountain and painting Vikings or Frankish….but in the end time ran out so I chose the most colourful army with the most flags. Medieval Germans would provide a riot of colour with 5 knights, 6 if I took Leidang allies, and these might be able to ride down a few blades on a Viking themed day. This army was old! Most of the figures were Early Imperial Minifigs from back when the King was a boy and were purchased at the princely sum of 75p for a pack of 8. They were originally the German contingent for a WRG Teutonic Army and some of them were originally painted 35 years ago in Humbrol enamels. These were added to and refurbished into their current form when I got back into DBA.
The morning of the event was also typical as I threw Really Useful Boxes into the car, forgot to print out my Army list and stopped at Tesco to buy some Sandwiches. My idea to think about terrain while driving disappeared when the previews of the Grand National were on and it was only when passing Guildford that I selected my horses, switched off the radio and decided on a waterway for the Leidang, a compulsory fort and a road to keep things open.
My first game was against the legend that is Colin O’Shea and his Leidang. Winning terrain I dithered but eventually lined up my knights with blade in support and charged. The quick kills all went my way for a textbook 6G -1 win.
Andy Unwin gave me Carolingians in my second game and the only terrain was a central hill which Andy moved his knights onto while I played stay away. When Andy’s allied contingent strayed a few inches too far from his knights I went for it and got a couple of QKs while my bow broke up his knights formation. Andy fell upon my now out of position knights with no real effect before a glut of PIPs allowed my knights to return into hard flanking positions. A rather unfair 5-0 win!
Paddy Myers’ Welsh alliance was up next and I expected a tough battle. With all Paddy’s fast pike I elected to deploy my knights as blades figuring this would keep them safer from the Welsh Long Bow. Winning terrain I squeezed him with a waterway, a garrisoned fort and a littoral landing. Paddy echeloned and excellently covered his flanks with TZs so neither of us could find an opening. I eventually killed his Ps on one flank but lost my allied knight to shooting on the other. Both of us had created the opening but by then time was then called on a 1-1 draw. A tight testy draw with Paddy on top form!
My Scottish Islesmen took on Keith McGlynn Germans in game 4. I lost the critical terrain roll and rather than getting acres of bad going got a billiard table, awaterway, a coastal road and a fort behind my lines. Keith garrisoned the fort and landed on the baseline with intent of rolling down the road to take my camp but lacking PIPs he left his Leidang on their landing beaches and raced his knights forward to ride down my infantry of dubious quality. Assaulted his fort which was the only kill I could see…unless….Cheese Time! Apologising I landed directly into combat and hard flanked his Littoral troops while the fort fell. Keith could do little more than advance his knights but my shooting killed one for a very cheesy 4-0 two turn win. This allowed Keith and I to reminisce about our combined 80+ years in the hobby and compare painting techniques. Who knew small thumb pallets were a thing?
Game 5 was against Pete Duckworth’s Vikings and my knights eyed up all that blade to ride down. I won terrain and placed the fort behind Pete’s lines to bottle up his blade. My landing covered my rear to prevent any shenanigans as my knights advanced. The only points Pete could see were by capturing the fort and so he placed his landing forces in contact with it and attacked it with 3 blades. It was then that both dice decided to join forces and enter an alternate reality. 5-1 twice and this attack was seen off with heavy losses while my knights advanced into charge range and blade used the road to support. Pete extended his line before my knights charged. But the dice, still in their alternate reality, failed to deliver a single Quick Kill, bouncing 4 times and even getting doubled once. Pete again went into the fort and flanked my General but still the dice were not co-operating. My knights still failed to QK anything and suddenly I was 3G-2 down but Pete’s attack on the fort again went awry with 2 more 5-1s and 2 more dead. Crazily it was 3G-4 as with 4 PIPs my final 2 knights went in to redeem themselves….after 7 failed QKs I must make one to win the game….but No! Another knight died to hand Pete a crazy 4G-4 win. Quick math stat - 9 x 50-50 combats without a single game winning QK is about a 1:500 probability! Still that’s why we play this dumb game!
My final game was with the Anglo-Danes against Steve Etheridge’s Germans. I had a pile of spear and blades with nothing to take on knights in the open but won terrain and got a central hill which I camped on to give an impression of strength. Steve took the other hill but overextended! My spear struck and killed two for a single loss. Forcing his hand Steve charged uphill with honours even, a QK, a 6-1 kill and 3 bouncing. However, 5 PIPs allowed me to surround his impetuous knights and hack them to death for a 4-2 win against the odds.
So that was that! Thanks to Martin Smith his for his excellent organisation in a large, easy to find venue. Thanks to the donors of l pile of prizes and thanks to all for good banter and some memorable games. My Germans, in the end, proved a poor army choice with a 1-1-1 record in my hands but proved surprisingly difficult for others to use. My 4 wins came with 4 different armies but those early decisive ones amassed enough points for the bronze; my first podium! Congratulations to Paddy Myers who went 5-1-0 and took gold while Connor also got 5 wins for silver but graciously left the lovely O’Shea army in the prize pool for me to claim. Interestingly both Paddy and Connor were using Welsh armies with South Welsh allies….which probably says something about army choice.
Protesters trying to glue themselves to Beechers Brook delayed the start of the Grand National and allowed me to listen to it on the M25 home. This proved opposite to the days DBA with my outsider falling at the first fence but Corach Rambler ending strong for the win. All in all - a good day out!
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Post by berkeley on Apr 16, 2023 15:39:27 GMT
Thanks again . Fun day despite the Anabasis /early start . Should have used the Normans though.
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Post by martin on Apr 16, 2023 18:05:43 GMT
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Post by diades on Apr 16, 2023 18:49:14 GMT
An excellent day. Well run Martin; great new venue. Convivial ( a word I don’t use often) atmosphere with banter aplenty. Martin’s opening address advised all to avoid 5th…last choice at the excellent prize table. Guess what? Having realised a few days before the event that the Mercians with Welsh allies I had prepared…a list Middle Anglo-Saxon, were ineligible, I brought Andalusian. I found them able to compete with anything, so had 6 great games. I defeated the NorthAmericans…just….tense stuff I defeated them with Carolingians….just…had my opponent chosen a particular set of combats in reverse order, I’d have lost. I had a tough game against Viking raiders. My Christian guard had polished off three enemy elements, but my general had paid the ultimate price securing the left flank..a 3-G draw. In the afternoon, pure civil war against an identical army. Neither of us was endowed with PIPs or high rolls. I was just slightly luckier than my opponent in an all psiloi clash in and out of a hamlet. Using the army for the last time, I took too many risks and my opponent properly punished me for it, a loss to the Welsh. Finally using Viking raiders once more, a lengthy game, where both of us had our periods of PIP drought, but my raiders were able to push Andalusian light horse too near to the board rear edge! Here’s looking forward to next year please MrSmith.
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Post by davidjconstable on Apr 17, 2023 4:17:13 GMT
POSTCODE ISSUE!!! Gents, looks like the postcode previously given out may lead you astray (despite being ‘correct’ for Chawton Village Hall). Please use GU34 1SB, The GREYFRIAR PUB then proceed 100m northeast up the road to the venue. Postcodes and towns can cause problems. I was recently looking at a friends route from Redditch to Hastings. It would not allow a search Redditch to Hastings, but would allow Hastings to Redditch. Glad to see familiar names going, it was always a nice meeting, even if the carparking was a pain. Regards to all. David Constable
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