Where did the time go? I haven’t updated FOREVER!!! (I did upgrade to Windows 7 and that took a bunch of time to sort out, and I have been playing a lot of Civ4, and…you get the idea. Slacker!!)

Anyway, the quick report is that I won more than I lost but didn’t win anything! I had to work, so I didn’t even get to Gettysburg till Friday afternoon. This meant I missed Wimpy Wars and Teams (which I really look forward to).

Poles in action

The Open Event was first, and I used my newest army, Late Polish. I like the combination of troop types here, and who could resist war-wagon action??  They did well, winning the majority of games against my opponents….but not good enough to win.

Next up was “Midnite Madness”, run by yours truly. We had 12 combatants and it came down to John Loy edging out all others to win. He had the earliest army (Middle  Assyrians) and it kind of reinforced the fact that the early armies can compete with the late armies with good decisions and good luck.

Saturday morning was the “Quadrathon”.. four battles, one with armies from each book. I chose Early Mycenean Achaian Greeks, Southern Dynasty Chinese, West Franks, and Italian Condotta. Once again, I couldn’t place, and John Manning was the big winner. Congrats!!

John Manning wins the "Quadrathon"

Roland Fricke presents John with the winner’s trophy at left. (Thanks to Roland for hosting!) Last, but surely not least, was the Davids Medieval campaign, “When Things were Rotten”. Short rules version is that if you attack a neighbor and win, he becomes your “vassal” . The objective is to enlarge your empire by winning. Of course, you have to attack to win, and of course I picked chit number 22 in the first round. Yep, 22 players in the game (and I even got to pick second out of the bag! DICEMAN RULES!!

I won as the defender, but no vassal for me….

Next I pick 2 chits..one goes to the battle loser (Larry!!!), and I manage to snag 9 and 21…guesss who gets 21. I attack and lose…and get chit number 20 AND 19!!!!…see a pattern here? In the five rounds I managed to win most games, but never accumulated an empire. Loser!

The "Rotten" map in all it's spendor..

The big winner and Emperor of the Medieval world was the Black Prince, David Schlanger, playing !V/62 100 Year’s War English.

Congrats to Dave, and thanks to the Two Davids for another fun campaign game….

Saturday morning was “the big one”…..the NICT (North American Society of Ancient and Medieval Wargamers Invitational Competitive Tournament…WHEW!!!). Many DBAers view it as “The National Tournament”, although many disagree. Whatever you believe, it’s open by invitation only to those who win tournaments sanctioned by NASAMW, so the caliber of players is normally a little higher than open tournaments.

From Bob Beattie’s post on Fanaticus:

There were some 65 players around the world in our qualification pool. We had 10 show up at Historicon, we added our two visiting Aussies as special guests. Two other very experienced players were added as we tried to reach at least 16 in order to have 4 pools of 4. With 14 players we went to 2 pools of 4 and one of 6. In the pools of 4 each played the others in the pool. In the pool of 6 we did a swiss chess format. High scoring players played each other, likewise low players.

The the pools were divided historically. Pool A consisted of Rich Gause (0-3), Dave Schlanger (2-1), Doug Austin (2-1), and winner with 3-0 Larry Chaban. Pool B contained Jim Dundorf ( 2-1), Dave McDonald (1-2), Dave Bostwick (0-3), and winner with 3-0 David Kuijt.

The six player pool had Frank Popeici (1-2), Tony Aguilar (1-2), Mark Barker (0-3), Rich Baier (2-1), Greg Kelleher (2-1), and winner Jason Bostwick (3-0). Greg and Rich were tied as the highest scoring non-winner with 69 points each. They did not play head to head, so we used countbacks to break the tie. Rich was at 116 while Greg had only 93. This happened because both played 2 of the same opponents, but Rich’s third player was the 4th place player while Greg beat the last place player.

As Bob said, I edged out Aussie Greg Kelleher on points. I actually lost the FIRST game in the NICT to Jason Bostwick, so figured “what the hell” and went on. To my surprise, I ended up in the semis. It’s like last year’s NICT where I beat Steve Smith in the first round and he ended up in the semis! Deja vù all over again!

My Cheater Anglo-Normans lose to Jason Bostwick's Later Crusaders

I used my ever-popular Cheater, Cheesy Anglo-Normans with warwagon accessory. It’s  a versatile army, with knights that dismount to blades. I like archers, so the missile fire is there, too. The warwagon is a hit-or-miss thing. In my hands for some strange reason it does real well and I rarely lose it…go figure! It also un-nerves opponents who haven’t seen it in action (yeah, right!)

Anyway, at the end of the first round, we go to the next, with four contenders:

Larry Chaban (my Pgh compadre) versus Jason Bostwick, and David Kuijt versus the Diceman.

Jim Dundorf (last year's NICT winner vs Dave Bostwick

In a close game, I edged David’s Byzzies in a 4-2 contest. I think my feared archers <G> were the difference here as I got real lucky in several shots.

Now I wait to see who I get in the Finals….

Larry beat Jason in his game (Larry said that Jason’s dice went cold to give Larry the win)

Me against Larry! Pittsburgh has another winner no matter who comes through!

David Kuijt deploys his Byzzies

Larry and I start the Finals!

Larry is using Antigonid Successors (my fault…I mentioned it on the ride to Lancaster!). His Elly quick-kills my warwagon and knights but my knights quick-kill most of his elements, so a good match for me, I think rashly.

He wins the terrain roll and “craps up” the field with bad going. The center of the field is still open, if I can make it there! The problem is that half my army starts in bad going and the damn warwagon takes up too much table space! It also doesn’t help when pip rolls are low. Eventually we get to grips, but sly Larry got all the match-ups he wanted as his pips were much better than mine.  He trampled my warwagon to splinters with his elly on the second try (Ack!! A bad sign for me!), but I retaliated with buttoxing his elly with a spear element. It went to 3-3 and time for one more for the win for either of us!

Knight versus Warband for the win!

Once more into the breach! Hey, there's someone on the flank!!

On my bound, I finally freed up a knight to charge his warband line. If I beat his die  I win. I was using a dice cup, so my roll was covered when Larry rolled a 1!! The look on his face was precious!! The cup was lifted, and we both roared when we saw a ROO!!! (The Aussies gave us the Roo dice, and I used it through out the NICT). On Larry’s bound, he used his normal high pippage to disengage, draw my knight forward, then spring his flank attack. Now high die for EITHER of us wins the title. Same as before he rolls after my cup goes down. A SIX!! He chortles with glee ’cause he KNOWS I’m the Diceman…but, but…I ROLL A SIX!! “Cheater!!” he howls out in jest (as I’m always cheating if I roll a six)!

On my next move I have 1 pip, so the spear and bow move as a group to peel off the flanker. I win with the knights and roll high enough with the spears to avoid the quick-kill.    Diceman rules!

Thanks to all for the good games, and especially to Larry for being a great opponent and  friend….

The Semi-Finalists: David, Diceman, Larry, Bob and Jason

Last two NICT winners salute the 2009 winner! (Jim Dundorf, Diceman, and Jon Bostwick)

Where to begin?

Stooge-sponsored “Long Pointy Things”  (4 pike minimum in army) saw 18 players on the nite before the Con officially started! The two Aussies (Greg Kelleher and Mark Brandon-Baker {The Fosters Brothers}) were also there but got stuck in the huge Convention pre-registration line so couldn’t play.  The winner was Jim Dundorf (last year’s NICT champ) with Selucid (II/19d), narrowly beating Jason Bostwick with Early Sumerian (I/1) {FIRST ARMY in the BOOK!!!}

Jason, Stooge Larry, and Jim

Thursday morning was Jeff Caruso’s “Fortune’s Darlings” –the Barbarian Invasion of the LI Roman Empire. We had a pile of gamers for this huge slug-fest! I ran Alans against Tony Aguilar and Larry Chaban, who both were pansy Romans. Tony’s general fell to my sword, but his second-in-command rejoined the fray in a short while as we were much closer to the Roman edge of the table. The combination of two armies against me were my ultimate undoing as my flank support never materialized (Frank!!!! <G>).  See Frank’s blog for a more detailed report here.

Thursday nite was the ever-popular “Midnite Madness” hosted by the Diceman. 20 gamers were whittled down to the two finalists: Father and Son Dave and Jason Bostwick. (Nubians for Dave vs Later Crusaders for Jason). The Bostwicki wimped at at 2:30am but promised to finish at home. They played the next weekend and the old guy won <G>.

OK…couple hours of sleep then Big Battle Teams!! Team Stooge fielded II/20c Ptolemaic. We lost our first match to John Brown and  Marcus Erlandson (Draco-Arachnid Alliance – II/32 Later Carthage) basically cause I screwed up the commands. A psiloi who should have supported the aux was put in the next command by mistake. Aux vs Ellys without support is bad! John and Marcus eventually ended up in the finals vs The Two Davids. We ended up fifth in the field at the end of the day. The Two Davids reigned supreme on points after the final match was undecided in time.

Rifleman Diceman with the Nock gun!

Rifleman Harris (Jason Salkey) from "Sharpe's Rifles"

I LOVE Sharpe’s Rifles!! Jason Salkey (right) visited the US with “The Sharpe Experience”… a display of uniforms, real artifacts, and weapons and equipment used in the television series that made Sean Bean a name.

I got to heft Sjt Harper’s Nock gun! 7 barrels of pistol ammo bore, 17 lbs or so in weight! Fire from the hip only! It was designed for naval boarding actions originally, but it’s just too cool to ignore! The flag behind us is, of course, the proud South Essex…SHARPE’s REGIMENT!!

Jason obliged with autographs and a lot of good stories about the filming of the series in the Crimea and Portugal.

Friday evening saw “Fortunes Favorites III: A Summer in Provence”, another mega battle with the Triumvirate (Jeff Caruso, The Diceman, and an absent Mike Porter <what kind of excuse is an Ordination, anyway? What’s more important?? <G>>) versus a pack of wild Gauls hired by the Senate faction of Larry Chaban and company. In a real bloodbath, the true Romani were victorious and carried the field. Quite nobly, I actually attacked a lone psiloi of one command to break an army after Terence McPartland did all the main work! In true Patrician style I claimed the glory, but I did reward his generalship with 2/3 of the booty. I had T shirts made for the Triumviri, thus:

Diceman, Jeff and Mike...Triumviri

Fortune Favors the Bold!

Vegemitorix' Camp about to be attacked!

To the right is the Gaullic camp of Vegemitorix (Greg K.), about to be stormed by the forces of Ursis Iuniores (nephew Steve Baier from Arizona). Steve has some booty already in his column…look at the gold!

To be continued……

The first week in July’s game night was attended by 5 gamers: Larry, Jim, Joe, yours truly, and young new gamer Stuart.

Before Stuart arrived, the four of us paired with Joe and I using Condotta and Germans. Larry and Jim paired off for their game. Short story is Joe whacked my Germans. My high combat die was about a 2, and the pippage was about the same!

Two games ongoing...

Jim ended up beating Larry, but I don’t know what armies they were using…both Dark Ages I think.

Second pairing was Me versus Larry, and Joe versus Jim.

Taking Condotta this time, I hoped my luck would change (yeah, right!)

It was just a repeat of the first game..no pips and low combat dice. I just hope I get it all out of my system before Historicon!

Stuart then arrived for a game, and he played against Jim, while Larry took on Joe. Stuart was taught the fundamentals by Joe, and I served as his “tactical advisor” for the game. I think my presence was enough to influence Stuart’s dice though…the warband vs warband duels all went Jim’s way.

In a week it’s HISTORICON!!!!!!!!

Condotta face the Germans

Last game for the night...

I created a Word document to print your armies on a standard 3″x5″ index card. It saves me a lot of time when registering at conventions, and I also keep them stored on my computer for easy access.

See my webpage here for details and the document. Download the document, edit it with your army details, and print away!

June’s DBA game day at Legion’s Hobbies started a liitle late, but there were six participants for gaming. Jim and Larry played the first game and John and Joe, veterans of StoogeCon, arrived later with Lauren (who wanted to learn the game). John and Joe paired off with Vikes and Irish, and I got into DBA “teach mode”.

We used my classic Matched Pairs of Medieval Germans and Italian non-littoral Condotta.

Condotta deploy..

Lauren deployed the attacking Condotta well, with knights concentrated on the right and two 8-man bow units menacing my horse. It was a see-saw battle for a long tine as neither one of us could roll a kill, but my psiloi was the first to go. I evened the score with a spear.

Then I lost a spear but shot a knight out of his saddle with my solitary bow. (I even warned her about my deadly archers!).  Game now 2-2. As normal, my German knights haplessly moved back and forth in combat, mostly losing, but not getting killed (for a change).

The crack archers proved the victors as they whacked two more knights in the following bounds….5:1 and 6:1 splits sure help!

Our game went long as she was learning the rules and our dice were both pretty bad, so Jim and John played (sorry, didn’t get the armies). My new veteran then matched wits with Joe on a Dark Ages Littoral fest…both armies choosing to land in a wild game.

Last Game!

The gamers at Legions

Last game of the night is to right. The waterway would spin to the right, so both armies chose to land…Viking blade marauders and wild Irish chariots!

I think the game ended about 11:15 or so with Joe getting the win.

Hope to see everyone again for the next game dayy in July!

Last Friday was a change in pace as Eric brought up his ships for a nite engagement off Guadalcanal. Larry and I were the “bad guys” as Jim and Eric took the Americans. Neal played Eric’s forces when he arrived later. Our forces were Haruna, Nachi, Jintsu, Hatsuyuli, Uranami, Nowaki, Hamakaze, Kuroshio, and Ushio. ( 1 BC, 1 CA, 1 CL, and 6 DDs). Among the similar-sized forces opposing us was BB Mississippi , CL Honolulu, and CA Chester.

This was a night engagement using General Quarters 3rd edition  rules.

Jintsu's column hammers the Honolulu

The US ship’s radar gives advantages at night, so they have an edge for detection. Basically, each ship column roll to detect and acqire enenmy vessels. If enemy is detected, ships may elect to fire star shells to illuminate potential targets.

Each side scored several hits to each other, with Haruna on fire from the big guns of the Mississippi. Fortunately, I doused the fire on the next turn and several turns later repaid the damage with a critical hit on Mississippi…a turret pentration which endangered the ship if uncontrolled. Jim couldn’t control the damage, so scratch one battleship!

The battle was pretty much over at that point. The picture shows Jintsu’s column raking the hapless Honolulu. Although Jintsu is afire, it’s guns were still active! What’s not shown are the tracks of the 9 torps in the water heading dead for the slow-moving US target! The “circles” are the star shell bursts for illumination.

We called the game at that point.  Jintsu would manage to put out the fires later, but her speed was down to a crawl. We thought she would make a juicy target for the Marine aviators on the island and wrote her off.

StoogeCon II is history, with 8 gamers contesting in two events. I think the beautiful weather limited participation as a lot of potential local warriors had new “honeydo” lists to complete! There also was an event in Columbus OH the week before which stopped a lot of Ohio gamers who couln’t do two weekends in a row. Our thanks to the out-of-towners Frank Popecki and  John Loy for making it a tri-state event! Two new Pittsburgh gamers came to the event (John Conomikes and Joe Drazovich) and we wish to welcome them to DBA madness! Larry provided the donuts and there were none left to mail to the Cleaver! <G>

Twilight Zone time: John and Joe are Pitt students who re-started the Pitt Gaming Club that WE started in 1972! They were taught to play by “a guy who learned how to play DBA in England with Phil”..who is Doug Welsh, a gamer we have known since the early 80’s!! Deja vu all over again. As we were cleaning up two old West Virginia gaming adversaries from WRG 6th edition tourneys (Tom Hazlett and Steve Herndon) were vising the store….the gaming community is one big family!!

Gamers at work!

I ran Achaian Greeks, I/26a, in the Open and fared badly. John Loy (Libyan Egyptian, I/38) massacred me in the opening battle 0-4Camp. Yes he killed 4 and ALSO captured my camp! The four 6’s he rolled for the first four combats didn’t hurt…

Frank Popecki cleaned my clock next with Early Sumerians (I/1c), 4-0. At least I won my third game vs.  Joe Drazovich (Scots-Irish, II/54) 3G-1.

Overall winner, finishing undefeated was Larry Chaban (East Frankish, III/52). Larry only lost two elements in three games, and also played the most recent army. For some strange reason everyone chose early armies to play!

Diceman congrats winner Larry Chaban

Next up was Warbandia!! Minimum of six warbands and no ellys allowed. I used Boudicca’s Ancient British, II/53. john Conomikes whupped me (4-3) in the opener with Suevi, II/72c. I managed to win the next two versus John Loy (Caledonian, II/60) and Kevin Serafini (Gallic, II/11). The winner was Joe Drazovich (Early German, II/47(b)). The great thing is that Joe and John..yeah, the “noobs” fought each other for the championship!

I guess it shows well that DBA is a great game system when new blood can whup the “old guys” and emerge with the victory!

Frank Popecki was awarded the “Best Painted Army” gift provided by Steve Parillo and Kevin Serafini. Nice toys, Frank!

A great time was had by all, and we hope to see you all again at the next StoogeCon event…

Larry present Joe with the winner's certificate

Kevin presents Frank with his gift card

Sad to say that the picture of Mulder on the prior post is the last one taken. He collapsed on Good Friday, and the vet determined that a form of cancer was causing internal bleeding. We held him while the vet euthanized him, but it was weird because there were no apparent symptoms. Tough way to lose a good friend of ten years..

We had been looking for an Irish Wolfhound puppy without results for three years, but unexpectedly got a note from a show-friend who recommended a breeder with pups. What’s the chance of that?? After thinking long and hard on it, we got the new female home on Thursday 16th, so welcome the new war-dog Kiera…

Kiera says Hi!

Born Jan 10, she’s now 42 pounds and taller than our Sheltie! The name Kiera comes from an Irish origin. It is the feminine form of Gaelic Kieran, and means “Dusky; dark-haired.”

She won’t rep;ace Mulder on the top picture, though….he’ll always be the “Top Dog”!

Wake up, daddy….we need to go out!  Old guy Mulder in front, my head just visible, and Daren the puppy (now 13 months old!)

Mulder and Daren try to wake me up

Mulder has one of his Sacred Treasures, the soft ball in his mouth.