Pittsburgh Winter Classic DBM Tournament December 2011

This past weekend (Dec 2,3,4) eleven gamers from several States met at Legions for a DBM tournament. All armies were 400 points from the DBM or DBMM lists. I agreed to be a designated punching bag for the others (I do play DBM, but like DBA a LOT more). I already know most of the guys from the big East cons, although some I had never met on the tabletop.

I used Early Crusaders, a list with some severe problems (ALL generals are Allied, so can be unreliable), but I like the period and the figures.

Quick version:

First up was John Loy’s Medieval French. He whacked me 15-zip in a quick battle. Next was Doug Anderson’s Sicilians. Again, I slept with the fishes…

Next was Wayne Carter’s Later Achaemenids. This was my favorite game as it went down to the wire with either of us getting the win if we killed just one more element. He got the needed dead one, but I did manage to break two of his small cavalry commands. Sunday I first faced Kevin Serafini’s Normans, early “cousins” to my Crusaders. I got lucky here and won 15-0, and achieved my goal of “not getting skunked”. Last was Rob Cunningham’s Southern Dynasty Chinese, who cleaned my clock and broke my army quickly.

Crusaders await the charge of the Persian chariots.

The games were all enjoyable, with good opponents. I liked the variety of armies which showed up, and got to learn a few good pointers on DBM play.

I think I’ll retire the Crusaders from DBM (although they are better in DBMM) and morph them to Anglo-Normans. They will do much better for me since the sub-generals are not Allies.

DBM is a nice change from DBA with the large number of troops on the board–it looks more like a battlefield, but I  still like DBA more.

It was nice to see the Pittsburgh boys take top honors…Tim Hladon was first, and Kevin Serafini second. Congrats to the winners, and thanks to all who played…it was a fun weekend!

Crusaders turn the Norman Welsh flank.

Howard West awards Tim Hladon the winner’s trophy.

 

Fall-in 2011 Report

Fall-in this year was memorable for the snow, the gaming, and perhaps the last state-side visit for Phil Barker and wife Sue Laflin-Barker.

I got to Lancaster late Friday afternoon (drove across state after work) so missed the Thursday nite game and Big Battle Teams. Larry, my usual partner, found a substitute Stooge, and Mark Pozniak filled my slot. Was he to be a Joe DeRita or a real Curley kind of guy? The duo went on to win the event, so I guess he can be an official Stooge!

After shopping in the vendors area  I came away with few finds…a nice hill for DBA and some camp pieces. We also took the plunge and bought some DBMM rules for some of the Pittsburgh guys. It seems that there are fewer 15mm historical figures for sale each year….I didn’t even buy any figures at all!

My first game was a DBA 3.0 demo of the Battle of the Hydaspes. Porus and minions versus Alexander of Macedon. Maybe someday he’d be great, but he had to win here first.  Bob Beattie provided all the 25mm figures and board. Roland Fricke chose the army for Porus whiler Larry Chaban and I allocated the Macedonians. We chose to concentrate all our mounted on the left, leaving General Colin Rice to command the right flank (who we knew would do his duty for Macedon!). The game was called a few hours later after two Indian commands had broken and many dead elephants littered the field. We didn’t get to see a lot of 3.0 considering the lack of maneuver space, but did get to see how some of the newer combat match-ups will be handled. Pike and elephants are VERY different. Some discussion with Phil and an after-action  report of our thoughts on the rules was written and handed in for his view later.

Bob Beattie and Phil Barker observe the Macedonian left.

Next up for me is running the perennial favorite Midnite Madness, a single-elimination open event. We got eight entries, so a perfect tournament number meant the final game was over at a reasonable hour…2:15am or so.  Mike Guth (Bosporans II/26) bested Matt Torres (Free Company IV/74) in the last game.

After a few hours sleep, we began the next day with snow falling steadily outside. This evidently affected attendance that day as a lot of day-trippers bagged it. There were many more empty tables than normal in the room we use.

First game up was “That Embattled Isle”, a DK/DS extravaganza. from the con listing:

9am – 5pm
That Embattled Isle
15mm Armies Provided
A series of 7 scenarios centered on Beleaguered England, and its Invasions. Each player will play in every battle. There will be a side A winner and a side B winner. There will be prizes. Games will be preset terrain, preset deployment, and sometimes special rules. We will be using Fast Blade rules (for the MIR, who have one element, and for the Viking Raiders, who have like eight) in scenarios where they apply. We will be using Fast Spear rules (for the Picts, who have half a dozen, and for the Feudal English, who have one) in scenarios where they apply All armies and terrain supplied — just bring your bad self.
GM: David Kuijt and David Schlanger

This excellent tourney featured historical battles and the players rotated through the games as attacker or defender. Each game provided different challenges, and some special rules were used to give historical flavor to the battles. I pretty much split my games, but had a great time in the event. This type of tournament is one of my favorites, and much thanks to Dk and DS for putting in so much time and effort so we could all have fun!

Dave Schlanger and David Kuijt (outsides) congratulate Mark Pozniak and Jeff Franz for "That Embattled Isle".

The day finished with another DK/DS production: “Viking Fury”! This game has each player running a kingdom. If you successfully invade another kingdom, they become your vassal, and any conquests they make contribute points toward you as their overlord.

My forces, led ably by Jarl Bjorn Ironside, were Viking raiders. First we had to capture a base for our raids and I chose to attack Northumbria…whoops…those guys were tough! “Back in the boats, lads…we’ll seek our fortunes elsewhere!”

Next round, I landed at the Isle of Man, hoping to secure it as a strategic point close to many hopefully weaker kingdoms.Could I hold it was the question as Jarl Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye (Spencer Ginder) set his sights on the same little island. Battle would determine the owner!

Spencer deploys his Vikings.

Spencer’s nice longship camp was used by my army as the waterway was to my rear. Spencer made a landing behind me, but after a few turns I eliminated that threat and later got enough casualties on his army to prevail.

Yay! I have a base! A few rounds later and I amassed a large enough power base to win the event, with seven other lords under my command. The last round was funny when DK told me he took away part of my “tree”, but he didn’t know that I conquered HIS overlord in the same round!

A rare shot of the Diceman (Rich Baier) in the last round

Fall-in was over that night and the next morning saw all the snow gone from the highways making it a safe trip home.

My thanks to all the guys who played and ran games (especially to DK, DS, and Bob Beattie) and to Phil and Sue for giving me so many years of good gaming with their rules….

 

September DBA at Legions

Seven gamers showed up for DBA at Legions for the September monthly session. We had a wide mix of armies, with a few loaners for those who didn’t have toys to play with.

September DBA at Legions Hobbies

We diced off for first round as we had six gamers at that time (Steve came in later). First opponent up was Tim Hladon with Later Teutonic against my Papal Italians (I brought them in anticipation of fighting Larry’s newly-won Mirliton Communal Italian…more about this later). I managed to get the win when my spears fled a cav from the line and I closed the flanks of the remainders. My horde sat in the back and never got in….

Larry won the painted Communal Italian army (with all options) at Hurricon. He put ten bucks worth of tickets in the box and merged with a nice new army! The worst thing is that he did the same thing on our last trip to Florida where he won a triple New Kingdom Egyptian army for FIVE bucks!!!

Communal Italian versus Medieval Spanish

Larry paired with Alan in his inaugural game with the Commies. The pic shows the nice Carroccio holding the center of the line. Not a bad deal for a ten-dollar investment!

Second game I faced Stephen using his Anglo-Normans with evil war-wagon. I used my Papals again and lined up with a spear wall opposite his war-wagon. He trickily shifted two knights to his left  (he was defender so swapped the elements). This left a force of three dismounting knights to threaten my camp defended by a bow and a horde…ooops….guess I better win quick.

Stephen's Anglo-Normans attack

His massed bows were accurate enough to throw my spears back, but they braved the arrow-storm and closed with the bow and war-wagon line.

Steve rolled high enough to live, though, and it eventually took three turns before my spear General killed his war-wagon (missing a 5-1 roll the turn before!) Two bows fell and the game was over before his dismounted blades could get my camp. Whew!

It was nice to get together with a good group like this. Sorry, but I didn’t get the results of the others, but I do believe that Alan beat the Commies for their debut.

Hope to get a crowd again next month before the holidays start interfering with all our schedules!

 

Hurricon 2011

Hurricon 2011 (Sept 22-25) is now history! Mrs. Diceman and I went to Florida for the week. We hit the theme parks solo until Larry Chaban joined us on Wednesday. The weather was generally good, temperature in the 90′s, but 15-minute rains each day (it’s Florida!!)

First up for us was Bill Moreno’s beautiful batlle of Molino del Rey in 15mm using Regimental Fire and Fury rules.

Bill Moreno (maroon shirt) oversees the left flank commanders.

The  inferior Mexican troops did well against the Yankees for the most part…we retained control of one victory point site, but lost one. Several impressive cavalry charges by Mexican horse led by Commandante Larry caused the Yankees to concentrate much of their forces to oppose him and allowed us to keep the objective in the center of our lines.

The game was to continue for three more sessions, but we felt that we left our successors with a good start.

The culmination of the scenario was the attack on Chapultepec castle, a magnificent model made by Tom Milmore.

Chapultepec castle

To left is the ultimate prize…Chapultepec Castle. On the last session, the Yankees were assaulting these heights using scaling ladders.

Bill’s games are always fun to play in, and the great scenery and painted figures make it that much better.

DBA play started for us Friday afternoon. First up was DBA-RRR (Renaissance DBA modified). I used English Civil War (Cavalier of course!) and was lucky enough to win the event, even though I only used 11 elements in the first round (dummy!)

It’s an interesting variation on DBA, and I like the ECW period. I dusted off some 20-year old figures, re-mounted them, and took them along to play. Not too shabby!

Tony Aguilar plays Spanish in the final round

In the last round, I faced Tony Aguilar’s Spanish and luckily came out the winner, nailing my third enemy general. This gave me the tournament as my point total was higher than also-undefeated Marty Schmidt.

The next tourneys were not so good for me, although I pretty much split the rest of the games.

One memorable loss was an epic 7G-2 loss…dropping four stands including the General using my Early Macedonians!! SLAMMO!!

Caesar invades Britain.

I elected to sleep in on Saturday (too much vacation, beer, a head cold, beer..) so missed a good-looking Big Battle DBA game of Caesar’s invasion of Britain. In the pic, the Roman commanders Rich Gause and Tony Aguilar plot to beat the barbarians.

Saturday night was the pyramid campaign game “Chopped Sui” – the Far East in 617 AD. Inspired by the Two Davids, this event allows victorious invaders to control their new subject and grow their empires when the subject nation wins. Marty Schmidt attacked and conquered me on the first round. I went 1-1 in the next two rounds, but Marty had been conquered by Musashi (Yamato Japanese)…who ended up the big winner with his empire spanning most of the region.

Great convention, great site, and better gamers…..what more can you want?

Thanks to all the gamers who ran and participated in this con. See ya in a few years!!

Marty Schmidt (Khmers) readies to beat my Burmese.

 

Roman vs Dacian DBM Battle

Last Friday nephew Steve was up from North Carolina and we went to Jim’s to play DBM. This was a campaign battle from our current game and featured Crassus’ Marian Romans versus the evil Dacians led by Howardtrix (Howard West), a fearsome opponent, indeed!

The Romans outnumbered the defending Dacians by over a hundred points (Romans at 530points), and deployed with their CiC command behind field fortifications. Two mounted commands, including the Allied Armenians were on the right. A mobile force with naval transport was on the left.

Howard West and Steve Baier relax at game's start.

The main Dacian attack command was a strike force of Allied  Sarmation knights on Howard’s left. The game began well for the Romans when the Sarmations rolled a “1″ and became unreliable while they sat about debating how to attack the Romans. This respite was short-lived as they rallied a few turns later and charged headlong into the Roman lines.

In a confusing melee, many of the knights fell to the Armenians and Roman auxiliary light horse. Gradually the large size of the Sarmation command became telling as two Roman commands teetered toward demoralization.  The Sarmations finally broke and the pursuit was on!

But the Sarmation war-leader, although attacked and virtually surrounded for FIVE turns overcame all odds and broke both Roman commands!!

The game at that point was over as the loss of two commands and a few others on the remaining Romans was enough to break the whole Roman army.

Crassus left the field muttering under his breath “I hate these rules!” (Not really…but some things are odd…the General of a broken command can still attack and only loses his add..he is not demoralized like the rest of his command who all fled the board in rout!

In campaign terms Howard had a Pyrrhic victory, losing double what the Romans lost. Most of his casualties were in expensive knights, and mine were in Light Cavalry and cheap infantry.

View from the Roman left. Steve watches the Dacian foot approach.

Game end. The Roman right is shattered.

The previous battle of Wilson’s Creek (US Civil War) ended a week later almost historically. The Rebs rallied their superior number to trash the Yankees…but Lyon did NOT die….perhaps living to become a great leader for the US forces (or maybe to become a successful drunk and end the war in a minor staff function under Ben Butler)

 

 

 

On the other table was a FOG game from the same campaign with Kevin’s Romans versus Jim and Neal using Armenians..they were still playing when we left, so I don’t know who won….

Jim, Neal and Kevin get to it in FOG.

 

Wilson’s Creek…Aug 10, 1861

Lo0ng time, no post! Last Friday we met to play the Civil War battle of Wilson’s Creek.

Background:

After almost being driven from Missouri, the Missouri Guard Division under Sterling Price joined with a Texas Brigade under Ben McCullough and an Arkansas Brigade under Bartholomew Pearce. Union General Nathaniel Lyon confronted them in a spoiling attack at Wilson’s Creek on August 10^th, 1861. The Union attack surprised the Confederates, and even though the smaller Union force abandoned the field, the intensity of the fighting caused Ben McCullough to withdraw his two brigades from the army and thus ensured the ultimate failure of Sterling Price’s attempt to gain control of Missouri.

The game begins with a surprise attack by the Union troops on the bivouacked Rebs. We used “Mr. Lincoln’s War” rules for the game and 20mm figures. Eric commanded the left flank (Lyon) and I took the right (Sigel).

Eric (Gen. Lyon) surveys the Yankee deployment

 

The area is lightly wooded on the whole and we used scenario rules to handle that. Our opening attack went well on the whole. Most of the troops here were newly-raised, so a variable roll was made to determine troop quality. The Union rolled much better than the Rebs (so far!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Union troops attack the sleeping Rebs

A few turn later, the Rebs take a "likkin"!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We adjourned the game to continue on the next game day with the Union sweeping away several Reb units with the loss of a Cavalry Brigade who stupidly remained mounted when the Reb skirmishers open up on them (new rules…I screwed up!) The Rebs are all alerted now and are moving ominously toward the Union troops , who are still outnumbered. Did we kill enough to make the game even?

We’ll find that out on Friday!

 

Donate for NZ Earthquake Relief

Please donate to the NZ Red Cross to help earthquake victims….many of our wargamer buds were affected, although all are uninjured. Greg’s little guys were trapped in his collapsed hotel!

 

DBA and HOTT at Legions

Six of us got together on the first Monday of the New Year to play DBA and HOTT.

Larry wanted to debut his HOTT army so I obliged. Jim, Alan, Dean and Steve paired off to do DBA battle.  The HOTT armies were in 15mm, not the 25mm used at the big 3 East conventions. My army was Forest Satyrs, mainly by Splintered Light. I used a substitute figure group for my magician as I haven’t finished one for the army yet. Larry’s army was Dwarven, all from Splintered Light.

The game started with my normal crap movement dice as Larry maneuvered to get his matchups. I foiled his plans early by rolling big on the first mage cast…and his Behemoth fled!

Satyrs versus Dwarves

I peeled my centaur (beasts) wing to the left of the hill and Larry countered with his mobile troops and included a flyer.  Seeing an opening, Larry later attacked my horde in the rear. Recoil and they die…..but the dice were kind to me. 6:2 meant the flyers flew off the table edge in flight!

Next the behemoth Jabberwocky and supportds  attacked my front, hoping to drive the Hero back (he couldn’t recoil as the Horde was reversed!). Once again my dice were fearsome as a 6:1 smashed the Jabberwock!

A dwarf blade also fell to a 6:2…THREE 6′s in combat rolls!!! At this point the game was pretty much done. Larry did kill one of the Centaurs, but couldn’t kill the other when I rolled big.

 

 

 

Larry's Dwarves with Jabberwock Behemoth and Flyers

Next I matched up with Dean in DBA who used his nicely-painted Vikings agiansy my Communal Italians.

This game was a complete opposite of the other..I was rolling 2′s or 1′s for every combat so went down quick 4-0!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flyers attack

Dean deploys his Vikings

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DBA games begin..

 

New DBA armies posted

I posted several DBA armies to the site today:  Arab Conquest, Norse Viking and Leidang, Comnenan Byzantine and Mongol Conquest. See the site at :

http://dba.spearhead1944.com/DBAarmies.htm

 

Gettysburg and Antietam Visit

On Wednesday four from the Burgh (Howard, Larry Stone, Tim and I) took a nice day trip to Gettysburg and Antietam. The day started cold and dark (left Howard’s at 7:15 am), but the trip was nice to Gettysburg. Once there the weather cooperated and it was a beautiful Fall day—sweatshirt weather!

We had all been to the battlefield many times before, but each visit you see something different. The new Visitor’s Center looks real nice compared to the old one, for example. After that we hit little Round Top. The Parks Service is gradually clearing trees that grew since the battle, and if you haven’t visited for a while the new sight lines really change your understanding of why such areas were important to the battle. Many new fences were also in place and orchards growing where they were in 1863.

View from Little Round Top towards Devil's Den

Tim and I climbed down from little Round Top to Devil’s Den way below. In 1863 Union Regiments CHARGED down this hill…it was hard to walk down it! When you get to the bottom and look back up where you came from, it’s hard to imagine fighting down that slope.

Tim and Larry man a gun at Little Round Top

But these guys look a little better...

Devil’s Den is still kind of creepy with all these gigantic boulders lying in a heap and you realize that a lot of blood was lost here in 1863.

Afterward we trekked to the Confederate lines to find Longstreet’s statue hidden in the woods and my favorite Wolfhound monument (New York’s Irish Brigade).

This is always a nice touch..to see the faithful dog lying beneath the Celtic cross likes he waits for his master to return.

Irish Brigade Memorial

The Pennsylvania Monument was next and then “The High Tide Mark” where the surge of the Confederates was halted.

Here I always think of that scene in the movie “Gettysburg” where “Lo” Armistead dies and we visit a small scrolled marker notes where it happened, the ground below marked with 6 or 7 small Confederate flags placed by admirers.

From here we hit Culp’s Hill and then left for Antietam.

After a short trip we arrived at Antietam in late afternoon. The temperature and light was dropping so it was only a quick stop.

This site marks “The Bloodiest One Day Battle in American History” where 23,000 soldiers were killed, wounded or missing after twelve hours of savage combat on September 17, 1862. The Battle of Antietam ended the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia’s first invasion into the North and led to Abraham Lincoln’s issuance of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.

Tim and Howard at Antietam

Burnside's Bridge at Antietam

The trip home after was long and dark and I got home about 1030 pm. It was a nice day trip, though and the good company made it even better!