The 2019 DBA Pairs tournament in Alton
No blog from me for Salute this year ... it clashed with the DBA pairs event in Alton and there were adequate volunteers for the big London show this year - so I scooted off to Alton (which I missed in 2018 due to being at Salute). It looks like this may be an alternating commitment (alton-ating? OK - I'll move along) ...
Following the Telamon theme, I took Romans and Gauls - lists II/11 and II/49. Not Quite Telamon (to coin a phrase) ... my Romans were early Marians from the Slave Revolt period but still good opponents for the Gauls.
Alton uses a 'matched pairs' format ... every other round it is 'your' pair - and when it is your pair, your opponent picks which army to use.
Your challenge, if you like, is to pick a pair that is balanced enough not to give an easy game to the player who picks (not you) but which you know well enough to be able to win, either way. The track record suggests I'm not very good at that challenge!
Then again, I tend to pick the armies I am doing at the time, to give them a run out ... hence Romans and Gauls, following the Telamon theme.
The upside, of course, is that you do get to know your new armies better (seeing how 'the other guy' would use them too, which is really useful), and the prize tables at Alton ensure that everyone's a winner.
(in addition to the Trophies in the header pic, everyone gets to pick something from the table)
There were two ready-to-run armies in the prize stash, including these Nubians, painted by the organiser, Martin Smith, in memory of fellow wargamer, Bill Dunlop. Nice gesture.
It's about time I painted up and army for this reason. I've certainly got plenty of 'reserve' lead in waiting. But I am always touched by other people's generosity. So 'a big up' to all the people who do this sort of thing and make our little communities so friendly.
The armies ... (both very simple)
GAULS II/11 ... LCh Gen; 2 x LCh; 2 x Cv; 6 x warriors (4Wb); 1 x Ps
MARIANS II/49 ... 4Bd Gen; 2 x Cv; 7 x legionaries (4Bd); 2 x Ps
My 'away' games were Asiatic Early Successor - Eumenus vs Antigonus (I chose Eumenes = 2 elephants)
(Asiatic Early Successor wars)
Chichimec vs Mound Builders (I chose Mound Builders = general on a litter!)
(Dog People and Mound Builders ... not much armour in this one)
... and Early Polish vs Teutonic Order (I chose the Teutons as I have them on my back burner)
(a lot more armour in this one - heavily gepanzert on chivalry's Eastern Front)
The Polish/Teuton armies were very nicely put together, and a joy to play with ... but, like the other games, I could not outscore my opponent in any of the melees. In DBA that's not a winning formula.
(scenes from the Romano-Celtic games)
So I think we can safely say I wasn't troubling the leader board this time around. Martin asked me to slip into my Society of Ancients 'Life Vice-President' mode and hand out the prizes as I wasn't busy winning any of them :) ... So well done to winner Martin M (who did the donkey work for our victory at Tarrington).
My opponents took the Romans in my 'home' games and won with them. Except Martin who took the Gauls ... and won with them. As much as in any game, in Romans vs Celts, whoever wins the melees wins the game. End of analysis.
So ... a splendid day out and another vere around the learning curve.
These Gauls need the rub of the green in DBA. I had originally thought of building a Galatian opponent for the Thebans I am working on, but for this event matched them against Romans for two reasons: a. it joins up the Telamon theme (and the Telamon theme is why I took on the Celtic figures from David Constable's collection); and b. I thought the Theban infantry (5 with flank support or 6, if the double-ranked ... 7 with general) were every bit as tough as the Romans - just, being Spear, would be even better against the cavalry).
Given that the Thebans are pretty much finished, I think, once Telamon is done, the Gauls will become Galatian again and go in a box as opponents for the Thebans.
Appropriately enough, when it got down to my lowly position's pick, the Osprey book on Rome's Enemies was still there, so that came home with them.
DBA Yahoo Group (info, news and more pics here; you need to a Yahoo ID)
Telamon BattleDay (Gauls and Romans everywhere)
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