The DBA Gamer

On Saturday Jim and I headed out to the battlefield to take in the sights. We missed the HoTT action and the DBA open. I was running the Matched Pairs event. Here is a pic of the fun:

Results of the Matched Pairs event (compliments of DS):
Matched Pairs (12 players)
1 – David Schlanger, Shang Chinese vs. Early Northern Barbarians, 93 pts. [Winner Bracket 1]
2 – Larry Chaban, Later Carthaginian vs. Polybian Roman, 70 pts. [Winner Bracket 2]
3 – Jason Bostwick, Eastern Franks vs. Norse Vikings, 75 pts.
4 – John Manning, Kom. Byzantine vs. Early Crusader, 69 pts.
5 – Terence McPartland, Early Muslim N. Africa vs. Fatamid, 53 pts.
6 – Rich Baier, Meroitic Kushite vs. Saitic Egyptian, 51 pts.
7 – Jim Kasper, Macedonian vs. Later Achaemenid, 45 pts.
8 – Colin Rice, Big Al vs. Later Achaemenid, 31 pts.
9 – David McDonald, New Kingdom Egyptian vs. Hittite, 28 pts.
10 – Doug Austin, Marian Roman vs. Commagene, 27 pts.
11 – Ted Galacci, Feudal Spanish vs. Fanatic Berber, 26 pts.
12 – Carl Dietrich, Galatian vs. Mithradatic, 6 pts.

Thanks to Chris Brantley for taking over while the last match finished out. I had to run to get a bite to eat. When we got back, Chris told me who won and I promptly forgot to tell the winners when I found out that we were an hour late for the Outremer event! Thankfully I was spared from the cut. Jim however, got cut along with the Dicemen, but they managed to play some games anyway.

The strategic map for the Outremer event. I played Komnenan Byzantine (b) variant, and was assigned to Sinope. My goal for this game was to take Constantinople and hold it for the rest of the game. As fortune would have it, that’s what I did. Mike Coppinger was my first opponent. I invaded Trebizond since I had nowhere else to go that round. We had quite the melee in which I was victorious. Turn two I sent my new vassal off to Georgia or something while keeping an eye on “The City”. During the first turn, Peter “The Cleaver” had taken Constantinople. I pulled chit #2 and invaded Constantinople–time to make good on my threats! Peter put up a good fight, but alas, I defeated the boy emperor 6-2 (my dice was hot!). I think I lost my first vassal to Georgia during this round. On turn three I was full of hubris and decided to continue the offensive and take Nicea. Let me just say that I was slaughtered by Terence McPartland and sent packing back to Constantinople. In the final round I sailed to Rhodes to take on Paul Stoklosa and hi Knights of St. John. This match was very quick. Paul ended up with a waterway on his board edge. On the first turn I landed a a force of 1Bd., 2Lh., and 1Kn., to the rear of his army. The mounted headed straight for his army while the blade element set himself to sacking the Rhodian camp. A bit of a pushing match and Paul’s general was dead. The camp held though! I went 3-1 (don’t believe the official results, I’m missing a win for some reason) with the Byzantines and had a great time! Thanks to the Two Davids for running a fun event.

Jim and I headed back to get some sleep after that.

On Sunday I played in the Classical Theme tourney and was handed my worst tournament record ever–1-2. What a disgrace! My first game was a very close one with Roland Fricke and his Seluecids vs. my Classical Indians. It was nail biter until the end when my dice went south in a hurry; I was even betrayed by my dice cup! Roland played a tough game and deserved the win.

The first round of themes. Notice Bob calling down the favor of the gods–David Kuijt observes reverently.

My next match was against Jim Kasper and his Etruscans. Again, I was slaughtered in what began as a close game. Jim is an expert with those Italians–great job! My last match was over quickly aided by good match-ups. My Indians crashed into James Millers Ptolemaics and just kept going.

Over-all, I had a great time, if a little sleep deprived. I’m looking forward to next year! Thanks again to Rich for the photos.

At long last, here it is. I’m sorry there are not many pics, but like I said earlier, my camera died. Thanks to the Diceman for the pics!

I drove up to Gettysburg with fellow Clevelander, Jim Kasper (Philistinejim). After checking into our hotel around 11:30pm, Jim wisely got some sleep, while I began to work on my Galatians. I finally finished them up (mostly) around 4:30am and fell asleep around 5am. Then it was back up at 7am to go get registered.

After registration we headed over to the Patton room for BBDBA action. We took Antigonos Gonatas (all Mike’s Models) as our army. We felt pretty good about our chances because Jim won his bracket (3-0) at the G.L.A.D.B.A.G BBDBA tourney over the Summer, and I had gone 2-1 with the same army we were using.

Our first two matches went by very quickly. Jim controlled the two heavy foot commands and I took the mounted and Aux. We fought Saitic Egyptian w/Lybian ally first (I’ll put up names as soon as the results get posted over at Fanaticus), which we had to grind out in the bad going, including hair-raising battles with our pikes vs. psiloi in the bad going! Our next opponents used Seleucids I believe. This match was ugly for our opponents because our deployment forced their mounted to deploy on their far left, rendering them useless for the most part. Jim held our flank and center while our mounted shock force “blitzkrieged” their right flank, breaking the C-in-C.

We knew round three was going to be tough. We played Rich Baier and the affable Larry Chaban toting their Bactrian Greeks. This was the best BBDBA game I have played in my short DBA career. This game was every bit the chess match. The highlight for me was the battle against Chaban on our right flank. It was his Elephant general vs. my Knight general. We both lost some jumbos and Aux., but the real fight was the repeated charge of my Kn. gen. against his El. gen., they clashed over and over with no result. Knowing my luck would run out, I pulled the general back. The game-breaker was going on our left flank, where Rich and Jim were brawling. Rick Lh. caused some serious disorder, and Jim played a very valiant game. Ultimately, Jim really needed the Cav. that was tied up with ZoC shenanigans on my flank. Exhausted, our C-in-C was finally surrounded and destroyed. Both teams were within one element of winning the game, but Rich and Larry played a good game and won (not only our game, but won their next match against the Two Davids). Congrats to the Dicemen! Here are a couple pics:

The view from the Dicemen’s side. This game had very few casualties, with only six or seven total dead combined I think.

Rich goes catatonic after realizing that they won. Exuberant, Larry stretches over for the Dicemen’s customary victory kiss. Observe the “6″ result on the dice by Rich’s hand.

The glorious dead…me and Jim post-defeat. I consoled myself with mouthfuls of Chabans communal trail mix.

When it was said and done, we headed down to the vendors hall with the Dicemen for some shopping before the Warbandia event. After picking up some Essex packs for a Bosporan army (picked with the Dicemen’s help). We headed back for Warbandia.

Warbandia action!
My memory is a tad fuzzy on this one, so bear with me–I was tired. My first match was against Doug Austin, who’s Brits would have put up a good fight against my Gauls if he would have rolled over 10 pips the entire game. My next match was karmic, and I could roll no pips. I was crushed by (name to be inserted when results are posted), who went on to beat David Kuijt for the victory the next round. My last match was against some poor young lad (name to be inserted when results are posted), who’s army I blitzed through. After gorging on some fine pizza and wings it was time to head back to the hotel for some much needed sleep. Day one and I had lost both events to the champs of each. I can’t complain!

Part 2 later.

Sorry to everyone looking for updates as I had promised.  Two factors contributed to me not doing them:

1) Lack of sleep.  I had 2 hours of sleep in over 24 hours.

2) My camera broke…yup…not happy about that.

Rich Baier is sending me some pictures and I will provide one big wrap-up of my Fall In! adventures.  I will be updating my win/loss record as well.