Showing posts with label DBA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DBA. Show all posts

Thursday, May 24, 2012

CanGames Day 3 Part Three - DBA and Wrap Up

DBA Tournament
I was really looking forward to this tournament and I was not disappointed.  There were 15 players altogether giving us a solid four games each. The tournament organizer, Tod, did his best to create reasonable match ups.

Game 1 Ancient British vs Macedonians
My first game saw me up against Macedonians. I managed some generally good match ups but the dice did not cooperate and the centre folded. Facing double ranked pike didn't help either. My second game was against Patrician Roman. This went as expected with fate tipping to the other side - but my opponent Ben is a very good player and definitely gave fate a hearty shove.


Game 3 Ancient British vs New Kingdom Egyptian
Game 3 against New Kingdom Egyptians  went a bit better with the foot sloggers on both sides hanging out while the chariots got to it - again I came up short. Game 4 saw me against Ayyubid Egyptians. With three straight losses I was a little rattled, I allowed myself  to be distracted by a kibbitzer and didn't put down enough terrain. I lost yet again.

Some of the other games
Crunch!

Burgundian Ordonnance vs some flashy eastern chariot army


Burgundians again
I have been holding off on this post for a while because frankly I was a little disappointed in my performance. I made a study of the rules, tried for good match ups, developed a set of contingency plans and still placed dead last. Ancient British has a reputation for not being the best tournament army but still I should have been able to pull off one victory. In the end, my scores were something like1:4, 3:4, 3:4, 2:2+General  which frankly isn't that terrible a performance for my first big tournament. My one lasting regret is that I let the kibbitzer distract me in the last game.  My opponent deserved my full attention.

So will I give up on Ancient Brits and get something more tournament effective? No - while a win would have been nice, just playing was the highlight of my weekend. When my boys do come out on top - I will relish it all the more.


Wrap Up
CanGames is a gamer's convention. Apart  from the small vendor's area there is nothing to do but game. This appears to be by design or at least tradition. During my volunteer stint we did regular headcounts including people not at the gaming tables. One of the committee remarked that if people weren't gaming, what else were they doing? I also saw one couple cancel a couple of Sunday games on Saturday afternoon because they had been gaming since Friday opening and were burnt out. I am not sure if the venue is big enough to effectively offer other activities and the formula seems to have worked well for the last couple of decades. It is certainly very well run with no major problems left visible to the attendees. 

Apart from the food situation mentioned earlier, my one complaint was the noise level. It is entirely due to the characteristics of the building and thus unavoidable but still I found it very difficult to hear even across a 2' table.

Would I go again? Without hesitation.

Friday, May 18, 2012

CanGames Day 0

Operating since 1977, Cangames is one of the longest running conventions in Canada and I suspect North America. For the first time in 30 years (you do the math - it has been a while), I simultaneously  have the time and money and interest to be able to attend. Unlike the British and European conventions I have heard so much about, Cangames is almost purely comprised of  participation games with a small vendor area at the back of the hall. It is spread over two and a half days and runs from 2 p.m. Friday afternoon with the last games ending at 11 p.m. on Sunday evening.

The schedule features approximately 180 games with the possibility of a few more being added to open tables. Each day is further broken down into five time slots to allow players to plan out their gaming weekend. Players have four options to play a specific game. For the nominal charge of $2.50, players can reserve a slot when they pre-register on-line, through a participating game store or via post. At the door, players can purchase game tokens at the registration desk for $3.00 then use a token to sign up for a slot on the game sheet at the tournament desk. The third option is to wait until 30 minutes before game start when the sign up sheets are placed out in the sign up area for free to all sign up.  I am told that the press of gamers to get at these sheets resembles gladiatorial combat. Each sheet has a cut off for number of players but extras can sign up as alternates. Finally, each game master has a small orange traffic cone they can place on their table to indicate they have slots open to walk by traffic.

After perusing  the schedule, I settled on three games. The first was the Sunday DBA tournament - my first outside of a small club event, the second was the Saturday evening Saga game  - I am excited because I have heard so many good things about this system and the third was a 1/2400 coastal forces game on Saturday day because I like the period. With a lot of extra time to spend and not a lot of spare cash to drop in the dealer's room, I thought I might as well volunteer and see the event from the other side. Each volunteer shift is 5 hours long and can be used to count toward the weekend's admission fees or toward the mandatory volunteer hours (yes that is an oxymoron) high school students have to perform to graduate. I will be assembling trophies, printing certificates and handing these out to the lucky winners. Unfortunately due to an oversight on my part or a last minute schedule change, my shift conflicts with the coastal game. Slightly annoying, but not the end of the world.

Last night was spent setting up tables and taking the needed of training (No WHS warnings about the glue guns though). For some reason the amount of lifting done seemed to be proportional to the age of the people doing it with the young 'uns standing around waiting for direction while the grey beards got stuck in. I have nothing on tonight other than picking up my badge on the way home from work.   I will post updates and pictures as the event progresses.

Next section

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Enemies of Rome DBA Campaign

This weekend marked the first game day of the Ottawa Miniature Gamers 2012 Enemies of Rome campaign. This is my first ever DBA tournament and my first long term tournament in any system. Each turn represents a year of 3 campaign seasons - each with one battle per pair of players. We start with a strategic map laying out the various major cities of the world of Late Republican / Early Imperial Rome and their transport interconnections. The map is also populated by various support armies loyal to a specific side.

Since we have six players, we  used a simple dice roll to decide which side attacks for each of three possible battles. For each attack that side specifies an enemy location it can reach from a city it owns then adds in 3 element support contingents from adjacent supporting armies as available and desired. The defender then adds in any support contingents they wish to use and it is off to the games table to play out the battle.

Attacker and defender both can use what armies they wish from their side but on the terrain of the actual area where the battle takes place. This results in interesting things like Celts in the desert and Pikes figuring out swamp wading tactics One notable point is that support contingents do not increase the break point of the army. Further, they only come on on a roll of 6 on their pip die. Once the battle is complete, any support contingents on the losing side dice for survival depending on the win-loss ratio of the battle. Once a contingent is used, it is spent for the year and cannot be used again. Dead contingents can be replaced at recruiting centres in the non-campaign season. Movement across water of the main army or supporting contingent can incur shipping losses depending on season and a die roll.

Unfortunately I had the tail end of the flu on game day so I am a little weak on some of the details. Following the advice of the original Purple Primer, I decided to stick with British as my main army and also - perhaps foolishly - used Ancient Brits for my supports as well.

Battle 1

I took a fairly standard army into the deserts of North Africa with 2xPs, 2xLh, 6xWb and a LCh General with another to keep him company. In support I took 3xLCh that due to their point of origin, would come in on my left board edge. Opposing me Duncan had some eastern army with at least one Nellie, some pikes and a mass of cavalry. Duncan had rolled poorly on the ocean crossing and had a core of 7 bases - The game was almost won! The first turn or two was spent with me moving my Wb into a rough patch and both of us jockeying our horses about as I tried to line up the Lh with the elephant. About turn 3, Duncan got his support contingent roll and moved a group of Cv onto the my left side of the board from his baseline. Turn 4 I got my roll and thinking like a Celt entered my LCh on the left as well to hit Duncan's support in the flank and end the game.

As it turned out - it didn't work out quite that way. I was unable to shake the chariots out of column into line fast enough and wound up losing all three including one recoiled off the board edge. Meanwhile at board centre, my Lh spattered off the El with some assistance from Duncan's core Cv.  Four units lost and game over.  Lesson Learned: Don't fight with your weakest arm against your opponent's strongest and make sure you have enough room to maneuver.

Battle 2
 Let's just get this over with quickly please? I forget the opposing army though it doesn't really matter other than it was foot heavy. I advanced my Wb (in two ranks to get the +1) across the board even using the extra move to contact because I was just that confident my boys would break through. After all my general was supporting them from the second rank.  That's right the second rank. With their general cheering them on from behind, in goes the first Wb with a +1 from his C in C - and loses taking the C in C with him. I lost my general + more game over thanks to utter stupidity on my part.  This match was over so quickly, we reset and went at it again. Same setup but with my general in front. I steam rollered my opponent.

Battle 3
This time I was up against Nick and his Marian Romans.  I had two supports for this match up both from my base edge and I went Wb heavy with just the obligatory pair of Lh to ward off the opposing horsies.. Pips were ok and we stomped across the board towards each other. Nick did some fancy wheeling about that I was able to match but which allowed him to chose the moment of contact.  Decision time found me two deep for the +1 but overlapped and facing Bd with Ps support. The first combat saw my overlapped boys go down under the Roman pila shower but the second pair stuck, removing the overlap and setting up the Romans to go down under a flurry of quick kills. At this point Nick decided to roll 6's lots and lots of 6's. Do you remember the scene in Gladiator where Maximus is galumphing through the Spanish wheat field? Well Nick was wearing Russel Crowe's sandals and my poor boys in blue body paint were the wheat stalks getting stomped under rusty Roman hobnails. Four dead end of game.


Oh those two support contingents I mentioned earlier? Over 4 or 5 turns, neither rolled a six to get on the board.

Aftermath
My fellow barbarians fared a little better winning two games and preventing our total humiliation. We retreated to lick our wounds and ponder how best to use the services of a minor Thracian slave currently in chains deep in the heart of enemy territory - Spartacus.....

A good learning experience even with the embarrassment of my stupid error the second game.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

2012 Purchasing Plans

Unfortunately Santa was not looking at the list provided and while many nice things were received for Xmas, lead was not one of them.

With Space 1889 rebooting into 15mm, I am left in a bit of a hard place. The status of the 25mm line is unknown yet I have enough miniatures in hand to feel committed to sticking with 25mm.  Further, while I do most of my wargaming in 15mm and 6mm, role playing is still done with 25mm. Practically, I have to plot out what I need and get that before it disappears.

So from RAFM:

  • Two 20 figure bands of Hill Martians @ $30 each = $60
  • One 20 figure band of High Martians @ $20 = $20
Sadly mounted are not on the menu as at $5 a pop (yes - very reasonable for 25mm mounted) Martian Gashant Cav are $40 per troop of 8. I would like to add a company of Canadian rifles from the Riel range but that line is under no threat so that will have to wait. A company of Japanese would also be nice but - much more expensive (around $80).

I have enough 15mm Celts to field several DBA armies or around 200 points in DBMM so I would have to say I am done with 15mm ancients for the foreseeable future. As mentioned in a previous post, Marc and I have been playing DBA with 6mm figures on 25mm bases - very nice looking. I have a DBAs worth of Alexandrians waiting to be painted and based but I would like a third army for some variation. I am thinking of Libyans as covering both books one and two and because they are dead cheap. Two strips per base so about 5 pounds sterling or about 15 bucks with shipping for  DBA army. Since I might be able to drop in on Baccus directly when we go to England in the Fall, I may let that purchase wait.



So planned purchases of around $100 an entirely achievable goal I think.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

DBA3

Over the Christmas week I got in a couple of DBA3 games with Marc. I took my new 6mm on 25mm basing Romans against his Thracians. A few of first impressions. The new quasi-random terrain generation removes a lot of cheese. No more setting symmetric terrain that suits you no matter how your opponent rotates it. The new move rates get you into the fight much faster. They aren't really any different from DBMM but on the small DBA table you won't be manoeuvring much. As a result of this, both games were under 20 mins. Blades following up was a little odd. This is another carry over from DBMM where irregular blades follow up but regulars - like my Marians, do not. I am not sure how I feel about this but at the moment it doesn't feel right.

I won both but only because I was able to tempt the Thracians out of the bad going. An enjoyable pair of games.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

DBA Marians almost done - Pushing forward

I got a little demoralized at pushing off projects so I sat down last night and put the final paint on enough 6mm Marians for a 25mm DBA army. I just need to base them up and do some flocking and they are ready for the table.

I had been toying with the idea of getting a horde of 6mm Greek psiloi to make up an early Libyan army. However, the Baccus Greeks aren't out yet and Marc has his Thracians and will be getting Greek Hoplites so that is enough for us to get on with.

I have also been toying with Space 1889 again and went over to the RAFM site for a quick drool. %30 off all orders - ending that day. So I ordered two lots of Martians, another batch of British, a Gatling gun and some Victorian Civilians. I then dug out my existing company of Brits and got on with painting them. Much progress of an evening.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Reinforcements

With some acting pay in my pocket, I was able to place another order with Baccus this morning. I have been smitten by the look of pikes since I first discovered 6mm so I ordered up some extra cavalry for my Marians and the 25mm GS DBA Macedonian Army - Pikes, Pikes, Baby!. This will give me two DBA armies to field with support options for the Marians and a start on DBMM as well. Marc has the opponents but I'll let him post about that.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Done (almost)

This morning I epoxied down my last chariot model leaving only a handful of singeltons rattling around the leadpile. There is some base painting to do and a lot of flocking but otherwise all my lead is in a playable state.

The forces to hand:

  • 22 Warband Fast. I have them as Britons though they could be any generic Celts
  • 11 Pike Fast. Some new Welsh spear along with some very old Picts. They can be mixed in with the warband or used as a pike block. I'm looking forward to experimenting with the Pk(F)'s unusual characteristics. Heavy spear who waltz through bad terrain - I like it.
  • 6 Slingers. Mostly used by southern British tribes and graded an un-inspiring Ps(O), I became very fond of these guys while painting them up and gave them all woad tattoos. I have a premonition they will be interesting if not necessarily very effective.
  • 5 Light horse (O). My "comtemptable little ponies". Two are actually Welsh but they'll pass in a pinch.
  • 6 Chariots as Cv(O). Four are from the old pack and represent line chariots. Two are pretty little models from Essex and carry the Battersea shield command figures mentioned earlier. A third general remains on foot for the moment.
  • 4 Warband (S). Three are general stands painted to act either as foot commands or as dismounts for the chariot generals. The fourth is an old stand of naked crazy Celts. I'm not sure about the generals. Superior makes sense historically with all the affluent hostage king's sons clustered into one command but they will not be able to keep up with the fast warband. I expect command and control issues if I am not careful.
  • 2 Javlineers. Graded as psiloi(I), these are DBA level filler for some lists. Made from Wb(F) with the centre figure removed after the Great Pict Pike Rebasing, they may return as Wb(F) command groups given the number of Battersea Generals I still have. This would allow me to dismount the chariots as Fast or Superior.
And that's the lot. Enough for DBMM 200, 100 or DBA using British, Scots/Irish, Caledonian or Pict lists. I really need more chariots for everyone and foot archers for the Picts but I'm off to a good start.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

200 points

With most of my remaining warband based up last night, I can just make 200 points worth of Britons if I put every piece of 15mm lead I own on the board. The distribution of troop type is off but I won't let that bother me.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Painting and Basing

The 39 odd 15mm ancients I now have based up are due to a need to work out a triplet of British chariot generals. Under DBx, chariots  Cv(O) can dismount as Wb(O) or in the case of the Britons, Wb(F) with chariot general Cv(S) dismounting as Wb(S). The Britons, Scots/Irish and Caledonian lists all have chariot generals, so I thought that getting the mounted and dismounted pairs based up was a good place to start.

In my purchase from George, I acquired a largish number of figures with the Battersea shield - a singular ceremonial artifact. Some were armed with spear and some with sword. Beautiful figures for sure but it's rather like having a handful of Napoleons at a Waterloo battle. I took three pairs and painted each pair identically. The sword armed for the foot commands and the spear to go in the chariots. I based up the foot commands as Wb(S). Getting four figures onto the 15mm deep DBMM bases involved some careful figure selection. I use five minute epoxy for final basing mostly because it's what I have and secondly because it is very solid bond yet will peel off if I need to re-base. I made up too much and scrambled to select the best of the remaining painted figures and base them up as well. I now have very nearly a DBA's worth of based warband. That left the chariot generals.

My four current chariots are Minifig - I think - and not wide enough to handle the Essex generals. This leaves me with two unpainted Essex chariots to work on and another to purchase. Oh. Dear.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

DBA with Marc last night.

I have played a fair bit of DBMM but wanted to try out DBA because it is popular locally. I had my friend Marc over to pit his flat Vikings against my flat ancient Britons. We went with flats based to 15mm for economic reasons and while I have a bunch of warband - they are still on the painting sticks. I must say, the vikings glued to bases looked good and store in a tiny tin.

What a different game from DBMM. Movement is much more limited, there is less of the feel of different troop types (Blade, 3, Blade 4 - all the same), impetuosity works completely differently (what do you mean my Wb don't advance automatically?). I have to say I don't like it nearly as much as DBMM. However - it is very fast playing.

To the results:

I sent a pair of light  horse around the Viking left. Marc responded by turning to face and there was a minor skirmish killing one of my ponies. However, I split his forces which was my aim.

I was pip starved generally so took a while to move the centre and right flank up. My chariots went out to the right and the warband straight up. I was able to contact Marc's left with the chariots while finally getting my Wb into striking position. One of the chariots was blocked by the Wb, denying me overlaps on both flanks. There was a tussle with between the blades and chariots seeing me lose one but this opened up space for the warband to get in.

The finale was a tense pair of bounds where I was just able to save a pair of flanked warband that would have cost me the game with good rolling. I countered with warband on blade taking 2 with a flanking quick kill for the win.

It all came down to two die rolls - but we had fun!

A good game and I will play again but it isn't DBMM.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

New Recruits

Here are the new boys ready for priming:


Terrain

Though the ground cloth wasn't the best for table top use due to cats, it has worked well as a cover for the redneck gaming table. To go on that, I have started working on some terrain. I purchased some 1/8" MDF sheet, cut some rectangles to DBA, 1/2 FE, 1 FE and 2 FE sizes then free handed some ovals and cut them out using the band saw. I then beveled the edges using the belt sander. If you are going to do this, a dust extraction system and mask are highly advisable. I put a 1/2 FE and a 1 FE aside to become swamps for my Scots-Irish. The rest were painted green giving me generic tree or hill blocks.

The swamps had their centres routed out for the water bits. Even more dust and honestly not really necessary. The deep routing caused the boards to warp and I had to back fill the large central cavity with wood putty to provide a surface for the troops to stand on. Next time I will just route out a few selected pools - much less work and dust that way.



The next project was trees. Back in my model railroad days, I had been given a pine forest. I dug these out and prepared them as per instructions. Since I would need to be able to move the trees around the the troops on the field, I cut out some MDF disks using a blind hole saw and beveled the edges using the belt sander. Small MDF disks can really fly. I painted the disks green and drilled mounting holes to spec for the trees as I epoxied them into place. A quick snip for any trunks projecting  from the bottom and a kiss from the belt sander and they were flat and ready to go. Last step is to put the flocking on the branches.
I'm well pleased with the result.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Little time for gaming

Life has been a vortex of busy again. I have been able to rebase the celts ont MDF and I have 2 1/2 ME hill shapes cut out and painted.  This afternoon, I'm going to work on the game board and try my hand at forming the base of a swamp terrain section.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Almost done with DBA Celts

Yesterday being thanks giving here, I spent a good while painting up a decrepit DBA Briton/Caledonian/Scots-Irish/Pict multi pack I bought decades ago. While nowhere near the quality I've envied on the net, they will be I hope serviceable. Just need to stick down the chariots and cover the bases and they're ready for battle.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Armies again

Right so while spending a frustrating day waiting for a delivery that almost never came, I went through the few 15mm miniatures I have. I found that I have more than enough for British, Scots-Irish and Pictish armies in DBA and DBMM 100. The paint needs freshening up and or completing and some weapons need replacing but I'm in 3d business. More to follow.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

They're here....

DBMM and DBA arrived in the posts yesterday excellent service from The Keep

First impressions:
DBA - Wow that's it? Note that this is a good thing.
DBMM - I like the larger font, I'm neutral about the glossy paper and the overall size doesn't fit with the rest of my miniatures materials. As far as the rules go, I'm going to have to do a bit or reading, some updating from the commentary and get in a couple of games. Looking forward to it.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

So much for saving money

I gave in and ordered DBA and DBMM 1.0 from The Keep via their E-bay shop I overpaid the shipping and Paul was kind enough to refund the extra - liking the service so far.

Armies on the Cheap II

I found that I could get full colour printing on medium card for $2 a page so I went for full armies.


Early Imperial Roman










Early Imperial Romans


Scots Irish / Celts










Scots Irish




It worked out fairly well. With the Scots, I positioned the individual elements by hand with space to cut between each. This meant two cuts were needed to remove the white space between elements and thus sore hands. For the Romans, I used a grid to position each element on the page with a touch extra to allow for trimming. To make things even simpler, I used a guillotine to cut - bad move. despite my best efforts, the card slid around on the guillotine,the cut line was hard to see and as a result, a couple of imperial foot commands came up a little "short".

In future, I will use the grid and black cut lines but trim by hand. Once you get the rhythm, its straightforward and accurate. Still - DBMM card armies are a lot harder on the cutting hand than DBA.