25th October, Portsmouth ...

The Society of Ancients sponsored English DBA Open 2015

Many thanks to the Portsmouth and Allied Wargames Society for organising and hosting the English DBA Open and running the UK DBA League which has the event as its final 2014/2015 round.

The Society of Ancients sponsors both these events and I was pleased to go down both to represent the Society and to play in the event ... unfortunately just my 3rd DBA of what has turned out to be an unusually busy year ...

Although DBA armies are pretty small, my boot was pretty full with the latest Slingshots and games as well as an armful of prizes and a box of widgets that had (phew) turned up just the day before ...

The widgets are a gift from the sponsor to the players supporting the UK League and will be distributed one-per-player while stocks last (my thanks to the Society for supporting this) ...

(the brand new SoA DBA measurement/deployment widget)

Made for us in acrylic by Warbases, the tool dual functions for measurements (1/2, 1, 2, 3 and 4 basewidths) and for marking the edge of the deployment zone (2 BWs in, and, aligned to the back edge on a 24" board, 3 BWs back from the centre) ...

I think it's turned out well, and certainly seemed popular with the players on Sunday ...

(SoA DBA widget in action)

Anyway ... I took along a Marian Roman army ... I had created it as part of a pair with Slave Revolt (yes - I might have been Spartacus) for Martin's Alton DBA Pairs event ... then wasn't able to go.  So the Open gave the army an opportunity to strut its debut stuff ...

(English Open 2015: Phil's 15mm DBA Marian Roman Army)

For the Spartacus Scenario, I had opted for a very basic 'blade heavy' army with legionary general etc. But as this was an open competition I thought a cavalry commander and the optional elephant might be a more entertaining configuration ...

So .. 1 x General (Cv), 1 x auxiliary cavalry (Cv), 7 x legionaries (4Bd), 1 x javelinmen (Ps), 1 x archers (Ps) and 1 x Numidian elephant (El) ...

The army is almost entirely Chariot Miniatures (from Magister Militum) and looking for that 'hastily raised' impression for the Spartacus scenario, I went for de-plumed Republicans ... 

(Chariot Miniatures Romans lining up as the army of Crassus) 

I confess the army lost more than it won but we all had an enjoyable day ... being an Open event, it got to fight an outlandish array of opponents ... from Hittites and Koreans to Renaissance Italians ... standing up now to chariots, now to bombards and eventually been skewered by plate armoured horsemen with heavy jousting lances.  Mules indeed!

(English DBA Open 2015: Marian Romans vs Hittite Empire)

(English DBA Open 2015: Marian Romans vs Serbian Empire)

(English DBA Open 2015: Marian Romans vs Koguryo Koreans)

Colin the Korean had brought along and played a very nice waterway which was a good match to my basing - and I have used a beached bireme as my camp for the Romans (not because the Romans can do littoral landings - though if they couldn't then who on earth could? - but because if you recall that bit in the Kubric film, Crassus bought all the ships so Spartacus couldn't sail away to Thrace ... or something like that) ... so I trust you'll indulge an extra picture or two.

(a scenic match ... figures by Phil, terrain by Colin)

I didn't make the semi-final but made the plate semi-final where I got 3 Italians to the good before all the legionaries got impaled by the knights in one horrendous round of combat ...

OK ... the armies used (or, more properly as noted by Martin ... ) were: Feudal English; Early Neo-Babylonian; Hittite Empire; Alan; Koguryo Korean; Teutonic Order; Serbian Empire; Venetian Condotta + Genoese allies; Marian Roman; Early Imperial Roman; French Ordonnance; North Welsh + Feudal English ally. 

The Welsh, Imperial Romans, Alans and Neo-Babylonians got their commanders into the semi-finals where a themed choice beckoned for the last 2 games ...

(English DBA Open: armies for the finals and semi-finals)

Mark and Martin made it to the final and fought it out for the trophy ...

(English DBA Open 2015: the final ... concentration - and perhaps a touch of mischief?)

Everyone seemed to have enjoyed their day and Martin's success in the Open also assured him the League title ...  here are the happy winners ...

(English DBA Open ... winner, third place and runner up)

(Society of Ancients UK DBA League 2014-15 ... winner flanked by the runners up)

See more about the UK DBA League

Full 2015 English DBA Open results

Full 2014-15 UK DBA League results

Many thanks to everyone involved.  Thanks to the Society of Ancients for continuing to support the project and thanks to Paws for running it all.

A new League year starts in Market Harborough in 3 weeks time.

I will be back on the road with a 50th anniversary flats game at Warfare.