The DBA Gamer

Greetings! I have two updates for you today: the first is the introduction to my DBA Hobby Guide, which can be found above under “Play DBA!”. I plan on adding a page a day, so please check back often-and get those paint brushes ready! The second update is some more Historicon shots.

My Dad sent me some photos that he took at the Whimpy Wars tournament on July 25th at Historicon. I figured I’d post them for your viewing enjoyment.

Bob Koffman calling the combats in my match vs. his Neo Hittites. Notice my dice…

The Thracian line advances. The wood was infested with psiloi-Thracians are very good at clearing psiloi out of the woods.

A shot taken during the opening bounds of my final match vs. Steve Baier’s Alans. Those are knights on the right. Also, notice the dice scores, mine is the small dice. That’s pretty much how we rolled during the entire game.

That’s me measuring how long my Thracians have to live…but remember the dice scores I mentioned.

The Thracians–all tuckered out from killin’ off Alans, Phokians, and Neo Hittites for the win. Towards the foreground you’ll see one of Philistinejim’s Mike’s Models light horse drafted in for the tourney.

I forgot to mention my purchases!

Museum Miniatures were on sale for 10 cents per foot, and 20 cents per mounted, so I got Seljuk Turk and Komemnan Byzantine armies for $12.00 total-all options! Turks will be painted first, after finishing Andy Swingle’s medievals.

I picked up 2 packs of Corvus Belli Early Imperial Roman auxiliaries, and a pack of Essex Ballistae to morph my Marians into Early Imperial.

I grabbed 2 Buaeda camps for my Turks and Byzantines.

I got a pack of Little Big Man transfers for hoplite shields.

About 40 or so assorted Litko bases (magnetic).

I also purchased the rules for HOTT!

Last, following Paul Hannah’s advice, I purchased several packs of really nice 3D hills to use as terrain.

*I also updated my win/loss record to reflect the events of Historicon. If anyone can fill in the gaps, or has records of my elements lost and the inclination to tell me, please let me know because I’m a bit fuzzy.

Oh the joy! I had a great time at Historicon, and I really have to say that the fun was 90% meeting many of the Fanatici in person, and 10% gaming. In this case, the people really made the games enjoyable.

I walked away from the con winning the first qualifer of the year for the 2008 NICT, a 9-3-1 record for 1-on-1 DBA games, and I got to school Phil Barker in Sunday Themes (I won 5G-1). To top it off, Phil told me it was the best game he played all week. No matter what you think of Phil, I was flattered.

Here’s my record for the 1 on 1 tourneys I entered:

Wimpy Wars: 3-0 1st Place (Thracian)
Midnight Madness: 2-1 (Early Crusaders)
Not-the-NICT: 2-1-1 (Pyrric)
Sunday Themes: 2-1 (Early Asian Successor: Eumenes)

BBDBA Doubles was miserable: 0-3 (Antigonos Gonatas w/Hellenistic Spartan Ally)

Although I am proud of how well I did (not many can claim a winning average in every tourney they entered), I need to adjust my playing style to suit the scoring system used at sanctioned tournaments. Simply getting the win isn’t enough, I need to make sure that I can kill more than just 4 elements, and taking my opponent’s camp should also be a priority. I only managed to kill one general too. I also had two games that were not resolved, one of which I won and the other was a draw. Both of those games really hurt my scores. So in preparation for the 2008 NICT I will be scrutinizing the scoring method and attempting to maximize points. I plan on using the scoring for all of my casual games this year. On to event coverage.

Saturday was the NICT and Not the Nict, which I played in. As I mentioned before, I pulled a draw and a tough loss to Rob Torres. Below is a shot of one that I won. I forgot to take a picture from my other match, where I shamelessly garrisoned my camp with my elephant when I had to fight an all Aux and Ps army.

Later Pre-Islamic Arab vs my Pyrric-it was a blood bath.

Next shot is from the game that I had a draw. My opponent laid the terrain and it was simply too constricting for me to move, and presented him with command issues, which slowed him down too much. I can’t remeber his specific army, but it was primarily composed of knight and blade. We played for close to an hour and our lines never made contact.

I have to say that my battle line looks pretty cool.

The next shot is of the final match of the NICT between David and Mark.

Notice the score on David’s dice to the left. He rolled another one of those when Mark’s Lh charged David’s Kn general. Had to have been a heart breaker. As David noted later, this match proved that you can do well with many of the armies in the list, instead of just trying to take a “killer” army.

Next up was the “Gothic Wars” campaign battle run by Chris Brantley and Jeff Caruso. Lots and lots of fun! The political rounds were great fun with much backstabbing. The black hearted Emperor Theodosius ( David Schlanger) even attempted to assasinate me! Better luck next time novice-don’t mess with the maestro!

My army is in the foreground to the left, assaulting the BUA. I eventually razed it to the ground. Emperor Gratian tried to send an army (lined up on the hill to the right) to re-take the citadel, but after I destroyed it I turned around and sent him packing.

You can see the armies aligned to fight post BUA razing in the next picture.

Sunday Themes

My biggest heart breaker of the weekend. More about that later. I chose to play in the Greek Classical theme and took Early Asiatic Successor-Eumenes. My first pairing was against Phil Barker, who was using Later Hoplite Athenians.

Phil knew from the start I was going to butcher his army. He was right-I won 5G-1. It was cool to play Phil, and he was a great sport.

My second match against some Arab army I can’t remember.  Beginners, notice the use of terrain on my part.  I drove him to his camp.  Unfortunately, we did not get a decision-but i won on points.
I went on to play Bill Fischer’s Lydians for the trophy. I was too thunderstruck at Bill’s systematic annihilation of my army to take a picture. It was a great game that was quite a chess match, with huge redeployments on both sides. Dice rolling was good too. But Bill smelled weakness on my left flank and manged to kill off my light troops and rolled up my flank. I manged to take out a Sp and Ps, but it was too late. Bill caught my last psiloi in the open against his mounted general. I lost 4-2. It was a bummer, but Bill’s a great guy who deserved the trophy. What follows are some more photos from the last day. I hope everyone enjoyed my reports and pictures!

Phil and Sue.

Themes players.

Larry Chaban and David Kuijt.

David presenting the trophies.

Themes winners, left to right: Alex Halkiadakis, Alex Bostwick, David Kuijt, Doug Mudd, Bill Fischer, and Mark Pozniak.