A great time was had by all (especially me…more later) at Cold Wars 12-15 March in Lancaster, PA. The first event was “Big Guns” hosted by Larry Chaban and yours truly. The armies used must include at least one artillery piece. Since we only had 11 participants, I was FORCED to play <G>. Unfortunately, my Italian Condotta Venetians overcame all opponents, including two pike armies (and me with FIVE non-dismounting kniggetts), so I won my own tournament!
Big Battles teams was next, with Team Stooge (Larry and me) vanquishing two fine teams to get into the finals versus the Two Davids (Kuijt and Schlanger) . This was played Sunday, so more later….oh, the suspense!!!
At 11pm, I hosted “Midnite Madness”, a single-eliminations tournament. Our field was only 12 contestants, as theere was a competing event for the first time. GLADBAGger Mike Demana triumphed over Alex Bostwick for the last win at about 2:20 am.
Alex (right) congratulates Mike on his win
I actually got to sleep in next morning and went to spend some money at the Dealer’s Area. Best find was Splintered Light’s new 15mm Irish Wolfhounds and handlers. Now I just have to send a photo of my dog to the painter so they match the color! Also looked for some Mongols to finish an army I bought on EBay, but Essex was sold out of them…somebody must be building a FOG army!
Matched Pairs was next. Here you furnish two armies, historical opponents. The other player you face picks which army to use so the armies better be balanced! I used Italian Condotta (arable variety) and Medieval Germans. After three rounds I was undefeated, so won the tournament (WOW! Two event championships..I was on a roll!! And NOT the Diceman type!!)
The DBA Team Cup was next and The Dicemen (Alex Bostwick, Jonathan Bostwick, Larry Chaban and I) didn’t fare too well . I played Book I and used Meroitic Kushites and won one, tied one (time ran out on a good game where we tried and tried but couldn’t get one more deader to end the game…3G to 3 was the final score), and lost one to John Manning, who said it was the first time he ever beat me. It was the only game I lost all weekend!!! Team WADBAG claimed the well-deserved honors.
The Two Davids (K and S) win and set up terrain
Sunday saw the finals for the Team Event. The Two Davids pit Thessalians with Phokian ally and two artillery against our Southern Dynasty Chinese with three ellys. They placed several woods and a gentle hill to try to channel our attacks where they wanted them…sly dogs. They had some aux and psiloi, but all our heavy foot is blades, so we didn’t fear the bad going as much as their spears. They set up the Thessalian two commands first, both near the center of the board where their camp was. We had to deploy all our forces next, and chose to weight the left with our cavalry wing led by our CinC. The left center in front of our camp was a blade and bow force, and the Elly command went on the right. We tried to compact our frontage and had some concerns over his group of light horse which we knew would bet used sooner or later to try to turn our flanks or head to the camp.
They deployed the Phokians in the center, with the artillery opposing our ellys….surprise!! But little did they know that we predicted it and maneuvered the Junbos in column to the right open flank on top of the hill, their movement was covered by interposing blades in front of the artillery to mask its fire.
Ellys on parade!
The gentle hill is in front of the elephants in the pic with a small wood to their left. My great luck continued for the most part as our pippage was rarely bad enough to hurt our plans. The low command rarely got a 1! It took a long time to maneuver our troops as both teams tried to get local advantages. Kills were few and far-between as the combats occurred mainly in the large woods opposite our camp and the small woods in the picture to left. My Ever Invincible Bows of the Willow Spring finally got a spear after about 12 shots! David K and Larry fenced on the left and exchanged a few elements. David S and I were basically stalemated while I worked a force of three blades and a psiloi around to menace his flank.
Stalemate in the Center
The pic on left shows the center of the game for most of the time. Phokian artillery is to left of center, and the horse element in the center is the Thessalian CinC. The Chinese blades throw back most of the attacks launched against them. Chinese horse brings up the rear, ready to plug any gaps if needed.
Suddenly, the unexpected happened as Larry’s left flank cavalry based attack took out the Thessalian general and broke his command!
The enemy camp was in sight! With shattered resistance, the attack was pressing until…le disastre!!…our CinC fell, stuck through the heart!
One broken command on each side now, and we were only still in the game because our opponents had more casualties. DK pressed on the right against our smallest command (needing 3 more casualties to break) as DS mounted the Light Cavalry sweep around the right that we had expected. Of course that’s when our pippage started to suck big time! (I AM the Diceman). Our hopes were still high as DK tried to finish off a trapped bow who fought magificently versus a Thessalian auxiliary. The bow was pushed out of the woods, but managed to kill the aux with a bowshot aided by one of the routing left flank’s bowmen. Next he tried a psiol, and he moved a unit to it’s rear so it would die if recoiled.
I WOULDN’T die!!! I pushed the attacker off and killed one in the next bound.
I threw a Jumbo into a lone spear after unexpectedly clearing the small woods (DS rolled 3 1’s for combat!) and was promptly rewarded by a dead elly, as DS rolled big and I didn’t….
Then DS’s two maniac Light Horse approached our camp. If the camp fell we were doomed as it counts a 6 dead (2 per command). I intercepted and ZoCCed one with a Light Horse general of the center command, but couldn’t stop the last as he hit the camp!! Big die roll on the line, and the result was 6:1 and I rolled the 6!! Light horse fled and both lights were killed two turns later, breaking the Greeks. Chinese victorius!
View at game end
Here is the view of the battle’s end.The only troops standing still face each other in the center. Larry’s cav command is almost all off the board in rout, and the troops at the top have all fled off the board or were killed. Our white tent camp has a routed bowman near it and the victorious Light Horse general is seen after he killed the remaining enemy light horse for the win.
Our great thanks go to the Two Davids for the fabulous game…it looked like we would have no decision for the longest time until things broke free. I’m sure we will all remember this one for a long time…
See here for my photos taken at Cold Wars,
