Philling in at the Northern cup

As I mentioned in the last post I agreed to make up the numbers at the DBA Northern Cup at Hammerhead as Phil wasn’t able to attend*. Chris K drove  - which made a nice change for me – so it was an early start on a Saturday to be at Chez Chris for 7:45. Then we were off up the A1 to Newark.

As previously trailed this was a 6mm based as 20/5/8mm elements tournament with  preset armies and terrain. As the frontage was 60mm and thus a change to normal base widths we were all given a shiny red Perspex measuring tool.

The terrain tables all awaiting the competitors. 

The purpose of this post is mainly to record the games played for the end of year report, so I won’t be doing a blow by blow account. The competition arena isn’t my normal habitat and whilst I admire DBA as a piece of design and enjoy the odd game, it isn’t a rule set I really want to invest a lot of time in. It is very much a game with a closed system and it was designed for competitions. Knowing the rules and how the game is played is very much its raison d'être. Complaining about cheesy moves and playing to the rules is rather missing the point. With that said, here’s a brief re-telling of my day.

The competition was played over 6 rounds. The first two were used seedings based upon previous Northern cups and other DBA tournaments. As this was my first show I was seeded 20^th out of 20, and played Peter Hodson in my first game. Apparently he’s quite good.

The game was two successors, Eumenes and Pitheon. I was the invader, which I guess gave me a slight advantage at the start, as I got to see Peter’s set up. On the other hand I allowed this to dictate to me how the game was to be played, and I walked right in to it. The terrain was set up in a way not possible in conventional DBA, I think, as it had a Built Up Area in the exact centre of the board. I knew I had a problem when Peter asked what type of BUA it was. I’d never really thought about the BUA rules and didn’t know the differences. Peter said it should be a hamlet. I should have objected on the grounds that if he wanted that, then he knew what he was doing. Anyway, only here for a bit of fun.

I never did get to grips with this opening game. I had a sort of plan, but on reflection it was never going to work. I should have sat back and made Peter come to me. Whilst draws don’t favour either player (you get zero points, but one for a loss) for a top seeded player with ambitions or expectations of winning a draw does him fewer favours than me. I’m going to be in the lower half of the table unless I get very lucky. As it was I went with trade mark MNG aggression and attacked whilst trying a flanking manoeuvre with my elephants. This was badly disrupted by my opponent sticking Auxilia in the BUA and then “ZOC-ing” anything that went near them. My army had nothing except for psiloi that could fight in such terrain.

I should have picked up the odd base kill but didn’t roll all that well, and ended up losing 5-0. No charity for the new boy.

With six games to fit in you play one an hour and have to finish in 45 minutes. Next for me was Peter Duckworth, who I’ve played before at one of Chris’ DBA afternoons. I was invading again, with Polybian Romans against Seleucids.

We both went fairly wide on an open terrain board (could have done with that in the last game). To that extent it wasn’t a very imaginative set up, and that suited me. Pete had gone with his elephant in the middle of his line, and I confused him by alternating blades and spears in mine, and looking to push out wide with some of my spare blades as he had to double bank his pikes.

For all the lack of imagination I  thought I was in with a decent chance. The lines clashed and I’d got decent enough match ups and should have been able to develop some flank attacks. Then we started the combats and I knew it wasn’t going to be my day. I out rolled Peter in a single combat but otherwise my random number cube performed sub optimally (these were provided by the organisers. Apparently it’s a Northern cup thing). It took a turn, I think, but I was out of the game on the end of a 4:1 thrashing. Slight improvement on the last game.

It's all go as the other players rush to finish game 2 in the time allowed

Game three, last one before lunch break. I was up against Tom Howes. I had Skythians, he had Sarmations. This was one of the combos Chris and I had tried out, except I got the terrain wrong. Anyhow, I had a plan and once Tom had set up I put it into operation. He had a number of units that would be relatively easy for me to kill without going near his knights until I had overwhelming numbers to flank him and so on.

Well, I didn’t roll above a 4 all game. Tom sent half of his army off to wander round the battlefield – which suited me fine – but my left limped forwards allowing Tom to re-organise as much as he liked. When we finally got into contact I got blown away in one or two turns, out scored in every roll and unable to flank due to lack of PIPs. This was the only game that really annoyed me all day. I lost 4:0 having, I thought, out deployed and out thought my opponent. A 4:0 loss was a bit hard to take. It was Tom’s only win of the day.

At this point I was languishing at the bottom of the table quite comfortably. I went off for my lunch break and did some retail therapy. I also met up with the Test of Resolve guys, and because I was wearing my “Wargaming for Grown Ups” covers T-shirt I was stopped by someone who let me know he’d got a copy of “To Ur is Human” but hadn’t played it yet.

So. Game 4. Because of the way the draw is done whilst the organisers try to keep you off the same table that becomes more difficult as you get to the people at the bottom as the draw is done Swiss Chess style, starting from the top. I ended up back on my starting table, so I took the Defenders this tine round. Would my experience from my previous game help me out?

This turned out to be my most tense and closest game, won by margins. Returning to the board from my last time out I looked to deny the centre ground like Peter did by occupying the BUA. However, I also thought I could do something clever by slipping a couple of cavalry units round the marsh on my opponent’s left. Having been on that side of the board before I knew it was possible, but when I measured it the scenery had been nudged a little bit, and the gap was now short by about 3mm. [NB I am not blaming my opponent for this; I am sure it happened in an earlier game and inadvertently by moving troops in and out of it]. A short discussion followed and we agreed – well, I didn’t argue – that we should play the board as it was.

There was becoming a theme in games against more experienced opponents that they would set up and sit back and wait for the attack. I fell for it every time, but then I’m there to fight a battle. So I attacked and had issues with a line sort of anchored on the marsh I couldn’t get past. As we went into the final turn my opponent moved a unit across to deny me a flank attack on the end of his line (this is the one DBA rule I don't understand: ZOCs extend through friendly units). When he placed them he didn’t say that’s what he’d done (all my other opponents said clearly that they had “locked” certain of my elements so giving me a chance to confirm that to be the case. I thought that he had got it out of place and wondered if that’s because he hadn’t had enough movement to position it. Either that or there was another cunning plan in the offing. When I swung round into the flank I was told I was locked. Cue discussion which we mutually agreed in my favour, mainly by sliding a measuring stick up the side of the unit and showing that it wasn’t in the right place. The resulting combat saw me walk away with a 4:2 win, my first of the day.

I think that four games of DBA is probably about my limit as I was beginning to either flag or lose interest a bit by this point. Anyhow, on to the next one.

I was now nudging up the table a bit. I might have been at the dizzy heights of 16^th or 27^th. Or perhaps not.

The next game was a bit chaotic. I was defending as Dacians against early Imperial Romans commanded by a chap known as Baldie. Well, he’s slightly more bald than I am.

I had forgotten everything I knew at this point and made a complete hash of my set up. I appealed to be allowed to change it, which Baldie let me do as he hadn’t finished setting up. I then got it wrong AGAIN, but had to live with that. This meant I had to shift bits of my army from left to right using PIPs in the early moves to get them in the right place. Even then I didn’t. Regardless I let slip the dogs of what ever and threw my warbands at his line.

It was a scrappy performance by me all round, really, but I pulled out a 4:2 win. Which just goes to show. DBA is a game of skill. Some of the time.

Last game was against Ken Gordon. He had Celtiberians and I had Later Carthaginians, but without an elephant. Even so, Hannibal’s lads are a good army.

My recollection of this game isn’t great, but I did once more storm towards the enemy line, which Ken had anchored on some rough terrain. Again, I should have stood back a bit and let him come on. As it was, without really thinking about it, I let myself get caught in a slogging match of spears v blades, where my one hope was a block of warbands getting a quick kill on the right of my line. I’d deployed short at the other end, covered by some psiloi. My inability to turn this flank with light horse (not enough PIPs at the right time) left me up in the air a bit. The wing where I might have made a difference was covered by lighter troops lurking in dodgy ground, locking units in place and stopping them turning the line. All a bit of a cockup really, but I was unlucky to end up on the end of another 5:0 drubbing to bookmark the ends of the day. I was unlucky not to kill a unit or two, which would have nudged me up the table a bit more, but I ended up joint 18^th, avoiding the wooden spoon. I guess P6, W2, L4 wasn’t that bad a result, and I could have easily been 3 all.

It was an entertaining day all round. Very well organised and the effort to provide all the scenery and figures must be recognised. My opponents were a thoroughly nice bunch, but it was a tournament and the opportunity to roll the newbie over was not to be missed by anyone. As to my performance, not coming last was a relief, as was actually winning a couple of games. I would happily take part again in another tournament at a future date, but not on a regular basis, I think. It's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there, as the saying goes.

* I was the answer to the tournament organiser's prayer, which goes:

"Oh Lord, thou knowest how busy I will be today, but if my players are to drop out, please may they do so in pairs"