Thank Heavens for Small Mercians

This last Saturday most of the MNG went to Coventry to play in the DBA Mercian tournament. This is the one where you take an army and swap with your opponent on alternate rounds.

The venue is the Quaker Meeting House in the middle of Coventry. That city doesn't get any easier to drive in and out of. It is a truism that the local town planners really did finish what the Luftwaffe started. Still, with Chris driving we got there in time and there was still room in the carpark. There were four of us, Chris with his Tibetans, Steve with his Welsh, Phil and one of his older armies, the Galatians (II/30b) and me with the Khmer. In total there were 24 taking part.

The first round is drawn mostly random, although they try to pair up armies. I think mine was the only eastern army, save Chris' Tibetans, and I ended up playing Colin O'Shea with Christian Nubians (III/12) which has Camels, Archers and Blades. I've never fought camels before, so it was a bit "oo-err" and a quick check of the rules to see what was going to cause me issues. Luckily the sight of the elephants and bolt shooter seemed to disconcert Colin as well. I ended up attacking, but even then I got the set up a bit wrong.

We had a slightly cagey battle due to PIP issues early on, but in the end I got stuck in, shot an element of blades with my bolt shooter (6:1 dice roll) killed the Psiloi he threw in front of my elephant and by the close of play I'd scored a win 4:2, partly with skill but with a decent slice of luck as well. 

Next round I was drawn against Phil.  As we were the last pair drawn there was no chance to ask for a swap out (which did happen for two other regular opponents later). Typical you take an hours drive and before you know it you're playing someone from 10 minutes up the road.

I wasn't delighted at playing a regular opponent who has fought the Khmer and used them quite a bit over the last few months, whereas I got Galatians ((II/30b), one of Phil's odds and ends armies with chariots of all types, including a scythe version and loads of warband that I'd never seen before. The selection Phil had made, once we got the right bits out of the box and agreed what army list he was supposed to have given me, is typical Phil: every bit is chosen for a specific purpose. Never having seen it before I didn't know what they were. I attacked again, as this iteration of Galatians has an aggression of 4.

By the time we'd swapped a few casualties each I remembered to take a photo. Things aren't going well. 

The elephants smashed a big hole in the centre. Luckily the loss of the scythe chariot doesn't count as an element loss. By this stage of the turn I've lost 3 elements to his 1. The Khmer are a tough bunch. 

This isn't the endgame state, but I did kill an elephant as you can see. I failed to kill the artillery and by the end of the turn Phil had ended out winner 5:4. Oh well, I'm 2 for 1, but the Khmer are 2 for 2.

Next I played Tony Green with Sassanid Persians (11/69b). Nasty looking army with an elephant, two hordes, cataphracts (4Kn) and a load of cavalry. Yuk. The two hordes mean you may have to kill even more than 4 elements as they don't count. I defended this time, so was concerned as to where he'd put the stuff that would cause me difficulties.

Luckily I was aided by Tony being very confused as to what games system he was playing, not sure what DBM/M rules apply in DBA and so on. My bolt shooter did excellent service, supported by my archers, and I'd shot one or two elements before I remembered to take a picture. My Psiloi are off to the left, hunting down an auxilia element in the woods.

I took full advantage of all of Tony's confusion, and ran out 4:0 winner. So I went in at half time with two wins out of three, and a very respectable 12 element kill count. That was a considerable improvement on my last DBA competition outing at Hammerhead last year.

Post lunch and time for swapsies again. This time I had Connor Truby's Thematic Byzantine (III/29) and I was defending. The terrain I had to use included a fort. Not. A. Clue. Apparently where you place the doorway is important, and you have to put an element in it.

I have no more pictures of this. The army includes units of double ranked cavalry, which I've never used before. I wasn't sure what I was playing at, the dice ran against me a bit and I was stuffed 4:0 in very short order.

Back with my own chaps, facing up to Feudal Spanish (III/35b) under the command of Martin Smith. No excuses here. I've got that army in 20mm, and have used it in DBA games. Just not against elephants.

I was attacking, so that should have helped me. Martin was unfailingly nice and thrashed me soundly. I put my troops in the wrong places, then couldn't get out of the way of things trying to kill my weaker troop types, nor turn them to my advantage.

Final game was against Tim Rogers, with me defending with his Commagene (II/44) a type of Successor army. As I was defending, this let Tim hide the Auxilia in bad terrain, so I couldn't get at them with my cataphracts. Then I lost my marbles completely and wasted my bows shooting at Psiloi that they can't kill. I thoroughly deserved losing 4:1. 

So, compared with my last outing I did about the same. P6 W2 L4, being completely blanked in the afternoon session. Of our group I did better than Chris (marginally) and Steve, but was a win behind Phil. We were all solid mid-lower half of the table, and at least none of us came last.

We all had a thoroughly enjoyable day, and I can bask in the glory that was a 5:1 W/L ratio for my chosen army. Shame I only won two of those.

And we were back in time to see the end of England / Scotland.