Dicemanrick’s Little Guys Den

One of the highlights of the Hannibal at the Gates tourney was my game with my good buddy Ron Giampapa. Ron was playing a Sucessor pike army. It was the third game in the event, and when I asked him how he was doing, he complained about these pike armies which are too compact to protect their flanks. He was the defender, so deployed first against my Polybians.

Count them...only TEN!

When he was finished, I just said “where are the rest of your guys?”. He only had been using 10 elements the whole tournament! The whole room broke up laughing (including Ron!) when I loudly proclaimed it to all.

I had a great time in Roland Fricke’s Spartacus big battle game. Here players fielded a normal army for either the slaves (I’m Spartacus!) or the evil Romans. Assigned the left flank near my fellow slave general Larry Chaban, I faced the wiley Spencer Ginder’s Romans. Through the whole game, it seemed I was always a pip short, whether for movement or combat. The new die I bought with a ‘bear” instead of the “1″ didn’t seem to be working too well <G>. I kept seeing the bear! One attack was to send in the legendary stand of slaves led by “Granny” into the fray. See my DBA website for the history behind this special figure, (http://dba.spearhead1944.com/Spartacus/webpage/index.html)

Granny charges home

Unfortunately our totals were the same, so the element was now stuck. On the next bound, the inevitable happened when Spencer “closed the door”…Granny was no more….but it was whispered that her body was not recovered by the evil Romans. The legend continues for another day.

Roland issed random event cards to both sides, and I used “hidden pits” (gave -2 to the enemy die score) to trap and kill a cavalry element trying to flank my line.

At that point, Spencer pulled his General back to regain command control. Things went badly for my forces as I kept coming up just short. Eventually my troops were demoralized (they did not break at 4 elements, but became -1 to movement pip and combat factor). My noble brother Larrius (Chaban) saved my troops by attacking the Roman left flank after he destroyed 11 out of 12 elements belonging to General Ronus in front of him! Larry was proclaimed winner of the event for this feat.

Slave forces: Mark Pozniak, Kirk Douglas, Larry Chaban, David Kuijt, Yours truly, and Don Ray

Here is a group shot of the victorious slaves (with our mean faces). The name tags all say “I am Spartacus!”

A fun event for all, as there was a lot of good-natured trash talk back and forth.

Sunday morning brought the Theme games. I used my Achaian Mycenean Greeks in a four player bracket. Like the NICT we would play each of our opponents. Joe Schmidt, a new DBA victim (player) was to face me, Ron Giampapa, and Roland Fricke…all of whom were in the NICT.

One guess who won…and it wasn’t a NICT player! My congrats to Joe, and hope to see him again.

Over all, this Historicon was one of the best. It was great to see all my “buds” and make some new friends. The food and beer were good and the company was good…you can’t beat that! Hope to see you all again at the next con.

Everybody please check out the video on Tony Aguilar’s blog!

Got back from Lancaster early Sunday evening, too tired to post. I had a great time! It was nice to meet all the old gang and add some new guys to the maddening DBA crowd…

Larry Chaban and I ran a preliminary event the nite before the con to accomodate all the early arrivals. Called Sleezy, Dismounting Cheesey Cheater Armies, armies had to have at least two dismounting elements.

Dave Bostwick is crowned by Larry Chaban

We had a full house with 18 contestants. Dave Bostwick (our adopted NH brother) grabbed the honors and the coveted Burger King crown! (with a copy of theme-honoring “Kingdom of Heaven”).

Although of course mainly Medieval armies were fielded, Ron Giampapa used Achaian Mycenean Greeks as his Cheater army.

Next event was Roland Fricke’s 2000 Years of Far East Wars, and my Southern Dynasty Chinese wre in the running till the last game.

One game with David Schlanger was notable as he cheesed me good! He ran a warband down a central road for 4 inches, then used anothe pip to allow him to close the door on my flank!

I eye-balled the distance in my bound, but totally forgot about the extra movement down the road!

It didn’t help him, though, as I won the game eventually.

Road cheese hits my flank

Next up was Mark Pozniak’s Carthage War theme event where my Polybians did rather poorly.

Then to cap off a long day, I hosted “Midnite Madness“, a single-elimination open tourney. Jack Sherif outlasted Bob Koffman to win at 4:15AM.

Four hours later I start Teams! So much for sleep…coffee….need coffee……

Team Stooge (me and Larry Chaban) field Southern Dynasty Chinese. Larry usually carries me cause my dice suck, but NOT THIS TIME!! So many 1’s and 2’s that it was pathetic to see.

Our pip dice vs their pip dice

This REALLY happened vs “Navy Yacht Club Team” of Jim Dundorff and Marty Schmidt. They rolled the 3 6’s for their move. Next up was Larry’s roll…..3 1’s!!!

It was downhill from there.

I napped for an hour (gettin too old fer this sh_t!!) and got up for our big battle Fortune’s Favorites in Sunny Spain run by Jeff Caruso. Read about all the trash talk on Fanaticus to get the background. I did well here, earning much gold, especially since I got the first kill for the Triumvirate to set the tone. Larry Chaban was declared the winner as he slew many of my compatriots. Senate wins again!

Now I can get about six hours of sleep before the NICT…the big one! I used my slimey, cheater, dismounting AngloNormans with the ever-popular war wagon accessory. The first round was a group of four, played round-robin style. Surprize, surprize, surprize! ( my thanks to Gomer Pyle). I won all three games. Next round for me! Next round is also a group of four to be played in the same way. Not so good fer me…2 losses and a win. The last of my opponents was Jim Dundorff, who beat me 4:3 in a good tight game with his Comnenan Byzzies. The strange thing is that our bracket ends in a tie between Jim and Mark Pozniak. They already played each other to a 2:2 tie. According to Society rules, if head to head play is a tie, then point count-back to opponents is used…TIE! Next is a coin toss ( or die throw). Jim won the coin toss to enter the finals. Jim—you remember him—the guy who just beat me 4:3!! His other opponent selected was Steve Smith. I beat him earlier as he was in my first bracket. He made it to the second round beacause the two highest non-winners were chosen to advance to round out the pool.

Final game. Steve Smith vs Jim Dundorff

Steve was using Free Company versus the Byzzies.

Short version is that Jim emerged 2008’s NICT champ!

Congrats, big guy!!

More later…..

I met Steve Parillo at Legions Hobbies for a few games of DBA on July 14. Man! I haven’t played DBA since Origins!! We split two games, with the first being my Graeco-Bactrians versus Medieval French. In this very historical match-up <G>, I had Steve on the ropes, but a series of bad pip dice dice (1,1,2,1) and equally bad combat dice gave him the 4-3 win.

Steve Parillo moves his Medieval French

The second game was more grounded in history. I borrowed some of Steve’s troops to make a Medieval German army (the “a” variety), and we went to it.

Seeing that Steve put a spear and blade on his left, I charged with a knight-heavy wing against it, while hoping to hold off his right wing knights with spears, a bow, and a knight. It was a wierd match as I COULDN’T kill the spears or blades for 3-4 bounds while Steve hammered on my left. Pip shortages for both of us extended the game, but I eventually prevailed 5-4..yes, it was a wild one!

Medieval face-off: French versus Germans

This picture below shows the deployment of Steve’s pikemen to try to slow my knights. The game was one of those “kill him before he kills me” fights with both of us prevailing on our right flanks.

Viking camp

Steve previewed his Viking camp for his newest army.

He did a great job with this camp scene, with the mounted looter taking a prisoner off, and the axeman slaying the local clergy..all in a normal Viking day’s work!

Sunday July 6 was a game day in Pittsburgh! Carl Scheu III trekked in from Cleve-land to do battle with the locals. I used Imperial Romans against his “Big Al’s” Macedonians. The game started well for Carl when I rolled a 1-1-2 for my pip dice on a critical turn. My plan on the far right was to advance light cavalry to pin him, then in a brilliant maneuver, retreat and form line in front of them with the cavalry deployed in column to their left. Of course, the pippage doomed that plan as I needed the 2 to hold some wild impetuous troops from advancing into the open where a bunch of Companion cavalry was formed. Maybe my dice would save me as Carl charged in with an elly, a knight general and a couple of light cavalry elements. I had an overlap..should help…

4 dead light cavalry later, and the command was in serious trouble!

Carl Scheu III studies my deployment..

The game continued with the cav command defeated in a few rounds. I had a chance to kill his wing general but failed miserably. At least the rtillery kept his ellys and general away from my BUA.

The crunch in the center with his pikes against my Legionaries continued for quite a while, but my dice were my undoing (surprized??) 8 dead blades on 5 1’s and a 2!!

With two broken commands, my army was defeated miserably.

My thanks to Carl for driving in to the ‘Burg for an enjoyable game…at least for him! <G>. It was Carl’s revenge for the DBA game at NOWSCON that I won, evening our score.

The crucial cavalry attack

And the results!

The day started well as I left work at noon to travel to Columbus, Ohio…about 3 1/2 hours away. Plenty of time, as my first game is scheduled at 6pm. Get to Columbus fine, then try to find a ?@#$@@# parking garage. Drive in circles for 30 minutes, avoiding construction that seems to block every way closer to the convention. Run a red light while looking at my map (oops) and will probably get a ticket because they have those damn cameras!

Find a garage and park. Whew! Get my figs and terrain and start walking. It’s 94 degrees out and the convention entrance is clear around the other side. After a hike of what seemed 4 miles, I get my registration and head for the gamers. I check in with all the friends from GLADBAG (great bunch of people!), and go to find some food.

How much?? A hamburger and a bottled water for $11.50!! Wow!! That’s after paying $60.00 for two day’s admission plus $12.00 for entry fees plus $8.00 to park….something for the HMGS honchos to think about if they ever want to move the HMGS-East conventions!

Of course then I realize that I forgot my camera in the car—but I wasn’t going to hike out there again. So sorry, no pics…

Played in the Matched Pairs run by Marty Schmidt, who drove up from Florida to guest-host. The concept is to bring two historical enemy armies. For two games, Side A uses their armies with the opponent picking which army to use. The next two games use side B’s armies with the opponent picking their favorite to use.

It’s a great concept as you don’t want to pick unbalanced opponents cause you will get stuck playing the underdog army. My armies were Milanese Italian Condotta and Medieval Germans.

Short version is that I rolled well enough to save my butt in all 4 battles…even rolling about 8-9 6’s against Allen Sams (sorry, guy!). I won all four games and was Side B champ, for which I was awarded a certificate for any Osprey book from the kind folks at the Osprey booth. Thanks to all my gracious opponents and to Marty for the fun tournament!

Now my luck changed for the worst. I drove to the hotel near the Airport as I was to stay with another Pittsburgh guy. Unfortunately he didn’t add my name to the room as I was a last-minute guest and I didn’t get his cell phone number(DUHHHH!!!). I waited till midnite or so, then decided to try to get a room somewhere. A half hour later and two hotels full, I saw the road sign to Wheeling and decided to drive home….getting in around 3:30 am! The bad thing is that my brother-in-law LIVES in freaking Columbus, but I didn’t have his number either and didn’t want to crash at about 1am…ACKKK! And of course I couldn’t get my prize as the booth wouldn’t reopen till Saturday…

The worst part is I missed the Invitational Tournament the next day, so was really bummed about it all…c’est le guerre!!! Next time, note to Diceman: book the room and get the phone number, stupid!

After the Pittsburgh guys played a DBA Roman campaign, we had to humor the non-DBA players with a DBM Medieval campaign. I selected Italian Condotta led by an Englishman (Hawkwood!). The latest game on June 20 had me commanding Larry Chaban’s Teutonic Knights against the wily Howard West’s Hungarians (and Serbs, and Scots!). In a hard-fought battle in which I rolled VERY big dice, the Hungarians fled the field with two dead generals behind. Of course Larry was not pleased that I lost his artillery (again!!) so his siege of the city will be delayed…

The glorious Horde is attacked in the open by knights and LIVED! See my 6?

Howard deploys the Hungarians.