9th November, Tarrington

 

After our weekend in Kenilworth, the following Saturday saw us head off towards the Welsh border for the first round of a new Society of Ancients sponsored UK DBA League season.

This event uses the scramble format ... everyone picks/takes their army but, mostly, the army you play with is drawn randomly from a pool of everyone's submissions.  But (a) you fight against your own army the first round; (b) you fight with it in the last round; and, (c) in between, you will always get a different army and it won't be your own.

Further, the terrain selections come as part of the package.

I particularly like this last aspect as it allows the 'thinking' of the army to be complete.  I also think it speeds the set up ... it is difficult enough to hit the ground runnig with an army which might be completely new to you.  Being defender and having to choose the terrain modules as well would be a lot to think about.

 

I decided to go with Early Lombard as I was looking at needing to refurbish the warbands and updating the photographs ...

Here is the new gallery: Early Lombard 

That, and I thought it would be a solid sort of an army that I knew how to play with.  Tarrington requires that you specify before round one whether dismountable troops will fight on foot or mounted (and then everyone has to follow that choice): the 4 'follower' knights can dismount as warband (so I opted to define them as infantry).

So the Lombards would fight as a 3Kn Gen + 4x 3Kn; 4 x 4Wb and 3 x 3Bw.  I managed to defeat them in the first round and win with them at the end - so, for me, at least, that arrangement was the right one!

 

(Double prize fund ... books (left) offered in reverse order ... trophies for the players and their armies)

Armies I fought with and against over the six games included Dacians, Hyksos, Irish, Early Achaemenid Persian, Tuareg, Midianite and Khazar.  And Lombard.

 

(Baptism of fire ... taking the Dacian/Sarmation combo up against my Lombards)

 

(Tarrington 2019: some more of my games)

 (Tarington 2019: with the Early Lombards against the Khazars ...)

 

(Tarrington 2019: prizes for the best and worst armies plus the slayer award for the player with the bloodiest games)

 

Surprisingly, I won all six games, and so won this round of the UK DBA League.  I was able to beat the Lombards in game 1 and win with them in game 6.  And I got the lucky for the games in between. 

Actually, I'm surprised how badly the Lombards did (13th out of 16 scoring only 7 points all told, 3 of which were mine in the last game): then again, I was lucky not to have to fight Tuareg with it.

The top scoring army was Papal Italian.  The most challenging was one of the two Tuaregs (the other tuareg did quite well so don't read too much into any of this) ...

Here's some results

Position Points         Player                 Army                   Army Points Army Pos. Slayer Points
      1        18         Phil Steele         Early Lombard                       7              13                   33
      2        12         Patrick Myers   Dacian/Sarmatian                  13              4                    34
      3        11         Craig Allen     Later Carthaginian/Spanish         9             10                    27
      4        11         Colin O’Shea    Papal Italian                           16              1                    30
      5        11         Stephen Finn   Medieval Irish                          14              2                    31
      6        10         Richard Pulley  Khazar                                  10              8                    33
      7          9         Baldie              Early Ach'm. Persian/Lykian   10              9                    30
      8          9         Alan Davison     Later Hyksos                          7             11                   37
      9          9         Pete Duckworth Norse Irish/Anglo-Norman        4             15                   34
    10          9         Scott Russell     Tuareg                                 13               3                   36
    11          9         Neil Mason        Midianite                               11              5                    35
    12 Mark Johnson, Tuareg; 13 Mark Skelton, Numidian; 14 Martin Smith, Makkan; 15 Matthew Davison Early Imperial Roman; 16 Pete James, Sub Roman British (Vortigern)

 

(Tarrington 2019: the top 3, with Craig in the middle)

 

(more armies from the Tarrington scramble credits to Martin Smith)

So, another UK DBA League season begins.  Tarrington is a great event and a special challenge.  Well done Martin for putting it all together.

On a broader note, I know the players would like my to register our thanks to the Society of Ancients for their continued support of the League.  It brings people together and that is much appreciated.

 

(Tarrington 2019: the 'players and umpire' publicity shot)

10th November, Tarrington

Tarrington Scramble ... or 'the monkey writes Shakespeare'.

Yes we do get around.  A couple of weeks after the 2018 season finale in Portsmouth and the DBA circuit was off to Herefordshire and the first event of the 2019 calendar (yes, it runs from English Open to English Open) and Shows North was there.

Eventually.  I had a little excursion courtesy of a truck on the M6 ... so I lost my bearings and my junction (and temporarily, a wing mirror).  Thankfully no serious damage and after a short interlude, and a bit of wayward navigating, I was able to continue my journey - but not on the original schedule.

As I was half way there, with no other plan for the day - I decided to carry on.  Host and Umpire Martin M offered to play my games till I arrived ... however, it would mean his substitute army ('Three Kingdoms Chinese') would be entered rather than the one in my car ... Early Imperial Roman. 

You see, the format for Tarrington is a 'scramble', so you enter an army and play against it in the first round and with it in the last.  In between, it is random and you play with other people's submissions.  So 'Three Kingdoms Chinese' it was.

Martin had already won two games by the time I arrived, so had set up a winning position.  What could possibly go wrong?

(my first game ... African Vandal vs Alemanni)

Well, quite possibly, a lot!  In my first game I contrived not to win with an army of knights (African Vandal) against an army of Warband (Alemanni) ... Richard P managed to beat me into the lee of a favourable BUA and then tangle me up as I tried to get at him.  And, as ever in such circumstances, the harder I tried to force the issue the worse it got.

So who would have thought that in the next game I could beat Sassanids with Picts?  Well not me, that's for sure.  The world turned upside down.

(Next: Picts vs Sassanid Persian)

I guess this should have been as tough as riding down warbands should have been easy.  On the other hand, it is DBA (so anything might happen) and, also, I have a Pre Feudal Scottish army (which is not altogether different) which I have used frequently (at the English Open, even) so I did have some ideas.  They worked.  Well.

The next game had 'challenge' plastered all over it ... what turned out to be the event's most challenging army (lowest points scoring), Chimu (see below*), against one the the circuit's best players, Mark S, who regularly has my scalp hanging from his belt.

(Chimu vs Tarascans)

Mark had drawn, fairly appropriately, Tarascans, and I felt that that, at least, gave me some chance.  And I had a plan - and again it worked.  For a change I seemed better able to judge and work the flank opportunities than Mark!

So it all came down to using the Chinese, sight unseen, against Burmese.  Now I always seem to lose games involving the Burmese - whether with them or against them.  Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the game.  It had been a long day.

As I say, normally I make a mess of these games ... anything with elephants, really.  But this time I got lucky.  Indeed, that was my plan and tactic, summed up in a word.  Take whatever shooting and combat opportunities were going, make the best of them and hope to get lucky!  OK, I know you were expecting more from me than that but ...

Anyway, although I hadn't realised it, this game was also for the tournament ... and, courtesy of the head start Martin gave me, and me only messing up one of the remaining games, Myers/Steele topped the table at the end of the afternoon.

*******

It remind me of that old saying that if you leave a monkey randomly bashing away at a typewriter for an infinite amount of time it will eventually and inevitably write the 'Complete Works of William Shakespeare'.   

Well, I can be a bit of a monkey at times and have now played quite a few of these DBA events.  I am nevertheless very proud of the achievement.

Of course, it was not 'unaided' so although I have been credited with the win outright, we have agreed to adjust the points for the UK League to reflect the fact that I didn't play all the games myself.  Just in case, this time next year, it turns out to be an issue.

Exciting stuff, though.  Results:

1:  Phil Steele, Three Kingdom Chinese (15); 2:  Mark Skelton, Aitolian League (13); 3 Arnaud Marmier  Alemanni (13); 4: Richard Pulley, Sub-Roman British; 5: 10 Scott Russell, Burmese ... then, Tony Green, Aitolian LHG; Colin O'Shea, Chimu; Matthew Davison, Carolingian Frankish; Neil Mason, Tarascan; Martin Smith, Frisian; Mark Johnson, Sassanid Persian; Craig Allen, Galatian; Tim Rogers, Picts; Alan Davison, African Vandal.

Mugshots ...

I'll not shirk this one ... here's the winner getting his trophy, edited into a picture of the all the players taken while I was elsewhere ...

Indeed, we had lots of winners ...

In amongst that lot, we presented prizes for the UK DBA League that had concluded at Portsmouth with the English DBA Open ...

SOCIETY OF ANCIENTS UK DBA LEAGUE 2018

Here's the final standings ...

1. Arnaud Marmier – 93 points (4 tournament wins)
2. Martin Myers – 82 points (1 tournament win)
3. Richard Pulley – 81 points (3 tournament wins)
4. Colin O’Shea – 67 points (1 tournament win)
5. Mark Skelton – 62 points (1 tournament win)
6. Martin Smith – 61 points
7. Mark Johnson – 56 points (2 tournament wins)
8. Terry Ellis – 50 points
9. Scott Russell – 49 points
10. Oli Curant – 37 points

Then ... Phil Johnson – 35 points, Phil Steele – 35 points, William MacGillivray – 31 points (1 tournament win), Lindon Paxton – 31 points, Denis Grey – 31 points, Graham Fordham – 28 points, Simon Wilson – 27 points, Peter Ellis – 26 points, Matthew Bennett – 20 points, Andrew Wilkinson – 19 points, Tony Green – 18 points, Phil Barrington – 18 points, Chris Cale and Peter James – equal on 16 points, Steve Aspinall – 15 points ... a further 41 players took part.

Juniors (top 3) 1: Tamara Fordham; 2: Reece Bettison; 3: Jamie McManus

(here's our Junior winner, who couldn't make the Open, receiving her trophy later that week)

Army Performance at the Tarrington Scramble.

*1 Frisian, 2 Carolingian Frankish, 3 African Vandal, 4 Alamanni, 5 Picts, 6 Sub-Roman British, 7 Three Kingdom Chinese, 8 Tarascan, 9 Aitolian LHG, 10 Sassanid Persian, 11 Burmese, 12 Aitolian League, 13 Galatian, 14 Chimu

Links 

SoA UK DBA League pages

Fanaticus DBA Forum

11th November, Tarrington

The Society of Ancients UK DBA League 2018 Round 1: the Tarrington Scramble

 

Back at Tarrington after missing a year ... for the start of the new DBA League season.

Tarrington is a scramble and I took Mongol Conquest.

The reasoning behind that decision - and everyone's - is to be the subject of a forthcoming article for Slingshot ... but generally, here's how it works: 

... the army you take will be put into the scramble.  You will play against in the first round and with it in the last.  Otherwise it will be randomly allocated to other players and you will have something else from the mix.

So taking an army that you know well but which doesn't give your opponent too much of an advantage would be good.   Many players look at it as an opportunity to take something interesting but normally uncompetitive.  Some see it as an opportunity to set the others a challenge ... or two ..

So in addition to my Mongols, I got to play with ...

Pictish (Barbarian Conspiracy) ... Carolingian Frankish ... Skythian ... South Welsh ... Alexandrian Imperial ... 

That's a great mix for one day's wargaming I think.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was nice to finish with the Mongols - who had done rather well during the day - up against the Macedonians, whom I had already surrounded and beaten with Skythians.   We had worked out a plan by now.

The Macedonians are, you would have thought, quite a good army ... but came bottom in this particular test.  My fault, to some extent ... they played 6 games and I lost with them and beat them twice.  It is the luck of the draw sometimes.

A great day was had by all.  Mark won, the Mongols came runner up in the army stats and I finished about half way (played 6: won 3; lost 3) - a universal thumbs up to the Scramble format.

21st November, Tarrington

OK ... off to deepest Herefordshire for another round of the Society of Ancients UK DBA League - now in the 2015/16 season.

Actually, Tarrington is really quite accessible, being some 12 miles or so from the motorway (so just about dual carriageway/motorway all the way from my door) - so don't imagine it is the middle of nowhere when you see this event advertised next time: it is easy to get to and a great format.  Highly recommended - don't miss it.

The format is an open 'scramble' - you donate an army (any) to the pool.   You get to play against it in round 1 and with it in the final round.  In between, you play with and against a random army supplied by one of the other players.

I took Slave Revolt/Spartacus ...

(DBA Slave Revolt/Spartacus ... 15mm figures/mixed manufacturers)

Followers of this blog might recall I took a Marian Roman army to the English Open a few weeks back - with the back story that it was half of a pair that I had built for the Alton Pairs but then not been able to attend.

This is the other half of the pair ... the revolting slaves.   Bottled up in southern Italy with their camp in the fastness of Mount Vesuvius ...

... with Jean Simmons skinny dipping in a secluded pool ... (or so Stanley Kubrick would imagine it) ..

The army has 4 (fast) hordes, and I was interested to see how they would do over a sequence of games.

There were plenty of hordes in the army mix - and 2 cases (Aztec and Early Libyan) where they made up half the army ...

So ... The mix:  I/7a Early Libyan;  I/60b Early Achaemenid Persian (Cyrus);  I/60c Early Achaemenid Persian;  II/7 Later Achaemenid Persian;  II/40 Numidian;  II/45c Slave Revolt (Spartacus);  II/79 Early Russian;  II/34b Andalusian;  IV/55 Ottoman;  IV/63 Aztec;  IV/62 Northern Sung;  IV/80 Hussite  ...

My games ...

(Ottoman vs Slave Revolt)

(Andalusian vs Early Libyan)

(Later Achaemenid Persian vs Early Russian)

(Aztec vs Numidian)

(Early Libyan vs Early Achaemenid Persian)

(Slave Revolt vs Northern Sung)

A lot of generic/what ifs there ... not really hisotrical (nearest was probably Libyans vs Persians although wrong sort of Libyans perhaps .. ) but all of them intriguing challenges and plenty of opportunities for me to learn more about hordes!!!

Players supplied the terrain with the armies (and players drawing the army had to use the terrain - only and all - as provided) ... there was an option to provide larger boards but all I saw were standard 24" battlefields.

I quite liked ...

(those Aztecs and their pyramid ... ) ...

(the later Persians mostly made with the recently issued Westwind figures)

(didn't get to use these Hussites but thought they looked very good)

Well, I really enjoyed such a diverse series of games and with all that experience of hordes it was very pleasing to win my final game using my own army (and mostly employing the offensive power of the revolting slaves whilst the gladiators covered their flanks) ...

(victory to Spartacus and the revolting slaves)

Well done to the top three ... a good test and an enjoyable day ...

I won 2 of my 6 games and I think got one draw  ... so finished lower middle (slightly less successful than my army) ...  Then again, I did use both of the horde armies and the Aztecs, indeed, won the most challenging award (for the lowest scores) ... and I think I want one!

Thanks to Martin Myers for organising the event and thanks to all the players for a splendid set of nicely presented and interesting armies.

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