10th August, Manchester

 

Round 9 of the 2019 Society of Ancients UK DBA League

Turn out was a little bit down at Britcon this year.  I'm not sure why the National Convention's DBA round has not 'caught on' to the same extent as the other League tournaments - although, undoubtedly, it is disappointing only to be playing 5 games when 6 or even 7 seem eminently possible (the other events at Britcon have an evening sesion so the rest of the venue plays on well beyong our early finish).

This year, for a theme, tournament organiser Simon chose The world of Rome without the Romans (who would have ruled the ancient world 2000 years ago if the Romans had no longer been around in the 1st century BC and earlt 1st century AD?) ... a sort of runner-up empire play off.

 

Now I have long been fascinated by the Black Sea Greeks and their Bosporan, Scythian and Sarmatian enemies, neighbours and allies: such a fascinating mix of cultures.  Such a lot of gold.

So much so, indeed, that, some years ago, I had bought the figures for a Scythian/Black Sea Armati army but had then never got round to painting it.  Quite a few of the first issue Falcon Figures (now rekindled by Lurkio).  So, in an effort to get a moribund project moving again, and for it's nice mix of classical and steppe warrior types, I chose Bosporan.

It turned out to be a popular choice and the top army pick - I guess for that mix of low aggression and littoral terrain (yes, all that nonsense) and available knights ... although my mix was far from optimal thinking, or so it seemed.

It's a very colourful army and I pretty much got it done although, not for the first time, it went to war with the bases still very plain.  I'll tart them up a bit more, then do a special feature.

These were my games.

 

(DBA version 3: the Bosporans go to Britcon)

There are four of them as I made a satnav error and got stuck a few blocks away from the venue while Frank played (and won) the first game.  I managed another 2 wins and didn't do any littoral landings despite defending all through.

So a parr performance for the army and respectably mid-table for me.  I liked the way the army played although it never really got the whole 'rub of the green' thing going.

 

Colin did very well with another of the Bosporans and there was a great finish by local buddies (and occasional DBAers), Chris and Patrick, with their otherwise unfancied Meroitic Kushites.  The other popular choice was Commagene.

 

The whole event was pretty big as usual, and there's plenty of trade around the main hall.  There's really only the Manchester-based demo team from the Lance & Longbow Society there to make it a 'show' - which seems a bit of a missed opportunity ... then again, all the space is taken up with tournament tables and these always seem to sell out so the odd formula does seem to work.

 

(Britcon 2019: round and about)

(Tim Porter presented prizes on behalf of our hosts, the BHGS)

A splendid day, although, as I was dining with players from other games, I had a long wait before going out for the end of the evening.

UK DBA2019 League standings

The Society of Ancients Championship

11th August, Manchester University

Which brings us almost up to date ... August saw Britcon again ...

For me these days no longer the exhausting long weekend of DBM, Armati or FoG but a quick-fire day of DBA.  Saturday only ... five games.

Britcon is generally a themed competition and this year Simon was moved by the one thousandth anniversary of the battle of Cannae (the later one between the Byzantines and Lombards) and offered a list of Armies and enemies of 1018.

This actually fitted quite well with my tidying up programme as I have been working my way through an old Byzantine (generic) collection and it would be a useful spur to the process.  I got the new (8Bw) infantry finished and completed the army with Anatolian cavalry etc. and the previously refurbished camp.  It is all coming together ...

Now I said 5 games ... well in this case not for me ... like thousands of others that Saturday morning I fell victim to roadworks and sat on the M6 for 2 hours missing games 1 and 2.  They are building a smart motorway by means of running a thoroughly dumb one.

Fortunately the Umpire was able to stand in for those 2 games so no byes ensued and I was able to take my place for the afternoon session.  I got to play against East Franks, Early Muslim North African and Early Bulgar ...

I achieved a timed-out draw and 2 wins ... and a 4th equal finish.   Not bad for the only Byzantine in a Frank fight!  Of course I had set out to shoot my way to victory and the results were predictably random.  Against the Franks I couldn't hit anything.  Against the North Africans I probably had the right army ...

... and against the Bulgars I hit everything.  I think my averages were about on par but the 6s came all at the end against the benighted Bulgars.

Results ...

1. Mark Johnson, III/52 West Frankish;  2. Colin O'Shea, III/52 West Frankish; 3.  Tim Rogers, Fatimid Egyptian; plus ...

4= Baldie Storey, III/53 East Frankish and Phil Steele, III/65 Nikephorian Byzantine; 6. Richard Pulley, III/52 West Frankish; 7= Arnaud Marmier, III/33  Early Muslim North Africa with Tuareg Allies and Malcolm Hogg, III/52 West Frankish; 9. Tamara Fordham, III/71 Georgian; 10. Chris Rigby, III/14 Early Bulgar.

Aggression 4, I attacked in all games.

It was the last day of the heat wave and it rained stair rods in the evening.   Yeah, yeah ... I know ... it rained in Manchester (big news story ... !) and I bashed my car in the car park. Eventful day.

Hoping to do it all again next year.  Partizan in a week!

12th August, Manchester University

  

In the midst of all that Summer/outdoor fun, there was a trip to Manchester to play DBA ...

I stopped doing Britcon a while back for all sorts of reasons (mostly about competition culture and narrowness of focus, but that's another story) but I like Manchester and I do enjoy the cameraderie if only the timetable will release people for long enough to socialise.

DBA is a good add to the programme but the scheduling needs to ease up a bit (there is plenty of time at this venue!  We were the earliest to finish and nobody needed the tables) ...

 

(Britcon DBA ... lovely prizes, a diverse player base and a destination city to dine out in!)

The theme was 'armies,enemies and their enemies' of the Teutonic Knights (or something like that) ... I guess I'd better just say up front that it didn't work (most of the eligible armies weren't selected, the top 3 all picked the same list - and if you strayed from the obvious you fared quite poorly) ...

I took Seljuq Turks as I thought it would be 'different' and was one of only two armies on the shortlist that I had been tinkering with of late.  There were some other projects I'd have prefered to give an outlet to but they weren't on the list.

Anyway, it was fun and it did OK against the other Steppe army in the tournament.

Here's some of the Heavy Metal I came up against:

 

The other skirmishing army had more Light Horse than I did ... He put his faith in the depth rule, I gritted my teeth, stayed wide and exploited the flanks.

 

 

Thankfully the Cumans generally rolled lower scores than the Seljuqs ... so envelopment prevailed over punching through.

Tamara experimented with terrain and did very well overall.

Graham was a bit miffed by a late clarification that we would not be applying the dismounting rule as written in the book.   He had already picked and smartened up a Lithuanian army that benefits from the rule.

I see his point - but I also think we need to bear in mind that UK tournaments play a stripped down DBA.   As a 'non dismounter' my Seljuqs weren't allowed to vary amongst options available in the list, but had to stipulate the exact 12 elements at the start of the day ...  

I am able to 'tweak' the army if I know who I'm up against - but only if we allow the players to select which elements to employ once the opponent is known.   Other than the time and cross-checking, we could easily allow this.  Other armies can 'tweak' by e.g. dismounting. A few, of course have both a rich choice of options and some elements that can dismount.   I can't see any reason why you should prevent a player picking any 12 off his list (it is only 12 picks, after all ... ) but allow another player to vary his by dismounting.

And vice-versa, of course ... It is what it is.

Personally I would just eliminate the dismounting armies from the theme (so you don't need to make a ruling because the armies in play aren't affected) ...

The again, I'm not that keen on themes (as most of them seem pretty abstruse and don't seem particularly balanced) ...

If you are still with me ... such were the debates around Britcon 2017 ... a jolly little day's wargaming but some points to ponder.

 1st Mark Skelton III/83b Early Polish 

2nd John Saunders also Early Polish 

                                         and 3rd Colin O'Shea also Early Polish

Plus ... IV/18 Lithuania - IV/13b Early German - IV/28 Prussia - IV/36b Muslim India - III/79 Early Russian - III/74 Seljuk Turk and - III/80 Cuman 

Of course some of that apparent imbalance is because the shrewder sort of player can spot the optimum sort of army.

Anyway I enjoyed meeting up with everyone, had a 'learning experience' and didn't come last (just!) 

UK DBA League

11th - 12th August, Manchester

Britcon 2012

At one point Steve reassured me that we were the best Participation Game in town.   Indeed, that we were the only Participation Game in town.

(Greyhounds in the Slips by the Society of Ancients)

Actually we got a number of games of Greyhounds in the Slips played on Saturday, the players all enjoyed themselves and the Society of Ancients sold a bundle of games.  Indeed it went very well.

(Steve and Will look on as another pair of punters take on the GitS challenge)

Two days earlier we still hadn't heard whether we were invited (whether they had space and tables for societies and show games), and, as it was, we only had a proper pitch for the Saturday ...

Well, the further atrophying of the show side apart, there was some chink of light shining through at Britcon.

Gone, thankfully, was the corporate overload of the Slitherine empire.  Although there was no show to see, gone was the public-blocking Slitherine hoarding and intrusive computer gaming 'play and sell' station.

 (the Saturday stand with snapshots from the games)

The event had been slimmed (just the ground floor) and the Bring & Buy (which seemed well-enough organised) was down in what had previously been the cafeteria - giving a more nucleated feel.   The upstairs food outlet was now the only one open other than the bar - and so there was much less of the food clutter and debris spoiling the look of the main areas.

(the BHGS competitions: Armati)

Many of the usual BHGS boys have retired, and Nobby's babes seem to have taken over.    They seemed to cope OK and were nicely turned out in the new polo shirts.  All good, then ...

(the BHGS competions: Field of Glory)

(the BHGS competitons: Flames of War in a cold climate)

All the important games seemed to be there (FoG, DBMM, Armati, WAB etc.) plus, outside our period, FoW and FoG-R.   It is a pity they never figured out how to get DBA included in the programme.  It needs two one-day-only items on the list, with DBA swapping for something else for a day.

 (the BHGS cometitions: FoG-R)

(FoG-R highlights ... Lurkio's Bavarians)

I was freed from playing the infernal 6 competition games this year so had an enjoyable weekend presenting games of Gits and Bosworth, and generally publicising SoA, L&L and the Battlefields Trust.

 (Flames of War highlights: an iconic Messerschmitt lone wolf)

So ... on Saturday we ran a joint SoA/L&L stand and played half a dozen games of Greyhounds in the Slips with visitors.  Actually, the first game was between Will and Steve, who hadn't had the chance to play it at previous shows (they had been presenting games for L&L): they picked up the key points in the game and were running it themselves an hour or so later!   

They trained up very well!   We had a couple of disasters for Harry, and a couple of near run things.  We also did a couple of play test runs through the 15mm 'test' version of the forthcoming Bosworth game.

(all change: the Society of Ancients goes solo on Sunday)

On Sunday, although the joint stand was one-day only, I was able to take the offer of a spare table to give me base and ran through a few more games of Bosworth.  It still proves a tough ask for Richard though his army seems the stronger.   

 (play test Bosworth: the figures are standing in for their English counterparts - who will appear in the 54mm version)

The play seems to vindicate Mike Ingram's theories on the battlefield and deployment..

(the Bosworth playtests: a game in stages)

One of us, however, managed to get Henry V killed at Harfleur, and continued by dying as Henry Tudor at Bosworth.  In the latter case by frontally charging DBA bowmen in the open and not rolling 'up'.   I don't think it compromises the scenario, of course (I'm fairly confident that Henry would scarcely have done this in the real battle) ...

 (the Bosworth playtests: Henry's maverick death ride)

I didn't stay for the prize-giving - so can't give you my usual podium photos and event top lists.  I did see, however, that Scrivs got the Persian Helmet award.  A good winner, I think.  Best of luck.

OK - I enjoyed Britcon - it happened and, a little less flabby, seemed to be full of happy wargamers.  

It needs good communications, good publicity (any/more publicity) and a show worthy of inviting the public to (i.e. a few club demo and participation games and some non-commercial content other than ourselves and Lance & Longbow).   That said, count me in, BHGS, if you want to keep this going as a show to visit as well as a competition.

(some of the 54mm Bosworth figures: Lord Strange bides his time in Richard's camp - axeman at the ready! ... figures and cart by Irregular Miniatures)

My thanks to the Lance & Longbow Society for putting this combined enterprise together, and to will McNally and Steve Ayers in particular for their help and encouragement with the game.

The Other Partizan is on September 2nd.

12th to 14th August, Manchester

After 15 years, this was McNeil's last Britcon.

(Britcon 2011: everything stops for the fire alarm!)

Well it's been quite a journey ...

When they ask iconic questions like where were you when Diana died, I will always know I was a Britcon ... (Aston University): it has become part of who we are and what we do.

I was there when the old nationals crashed into a wall in Harrow, I was there when they tried to manage a public meeting to launch a national wargames federation (or to strangle it at birth depending on what you though they were all up to ...), and I was there when the new model Nationals, Britcon, burst into life.
Like tournaments or not, this one has been made to work, and has been made the premier National Wargaming event.

Yes, JD, you succeeded. Congratulations on the job well done.

Britcon this year was therefore a swansong ... lots of players there as guests of the management, there were presentations and there was polishing of helmets. There was a film crew and there was the search for a successor ...

(upstairs with the Armati players: a game you will struggle to see in play at Britcon ...)

Frustrated by last year's inability to make the vestigial wargames show presence work, this year I let Steve and Martin S from Lance and Longbow mind the pitch for me while I played Armati.
I enjoyed the games and banter a lot, but was really playing amongst friends as a shelter from the cheesier tournament play of FoG (which seems to play less gamily as a Doubles game with more points on the table) and in order to have some control over the amount of time I spend playing soldiers (8am to 8pm on the Saturday - and that for just 3 games! - is too much of a good thing ... even if it is a good thing!) ...

Struggling to get something I could cobble together from the over-restrictive theme (goodness! This is the year of themes alright ... why to people organise events then rule half the possible players out by insisting on banning most of the armies people have got? Doh! No wonder some events struggle for support ...)..

I ended up with 'The Goths of Totilla' ... Yes, you know him ... the man who charged into Narses at Tadinae. Well, the eunuch general was scarred of them so I thought they might do me some warlike service, too.

(Glorious Goths at Britcon: some of mine and some of Carl's)

It's a very nice army actually, and spurred me into a bit of painting and tidying.

With the travelling Armati players only playing warm up games on the Friday, we had five scored games over the weekend, and I came out about square (actually a very strong performance for me: I might have won a couple of 'scenario based' Armati events over the years, but these Old School 'bring your own' events often see me at the bottom of the table with no wins at all!).

(the ferocious Moors join in the killing)

My favourite unit of the weekend? Certainly the Moorish Light Cavalry I was almost obliged to take (the only LC available, and necessary to get the benefit of all the light units).

Now,many Armati players will tell you that 'key' javelin armed LC are a liability, and hardly worth the price ... well I christened these the 'ferocious Moors' after the Late Roman unit on the Notitia ('Equites Mauri Feroces') from whom it seemed like they must have been recruited ... They had a very high kill ratio, mostly against HC ... sometimes, yes, with their missiles, sometimes charging into the flank.

However, they did not let me down when I trusted them with a game turning frontal charge. OK, the HC were exhausted from defeating some of my own HC but it isn't a move you see that often in Armati.

I like it when the armies start driving their own narratives ...

(as tough as they come ... FV3 and out of command - but scary enough if you are a Hun!)

Wimps of the weekend must surely go to Craig's Hunnic Heavy Cavalry who pussyfooted around with the Gothic Slave HI ...

FV3 against Craig's FV4 with impetus (who would sweep them away if he won) - so he nurdled up to them just behind their flank to charge them from round the corner in a future turn: not brave enough to charge with the odds all in favour.

Not very Hunnic at all ...

So, what else?

The Apres Ski was excellent and tiring in equal measure ...

(convivial scenes from the Britcon Bar)

The usual suspects won, of course ... the other events, as well as the Armati, or so it seemed ... the 'show' was poor - and boring for the people doing it (except those traders who still cater directly for the tournament audience - otherwise the 'show' is really a whopping great Slitherine banner in the shadow of which everyone else - and so that means fewer and fewer - get to lurk if they are lucky enough to be allowed in) ...

(Meth the Merciful's splendid Sarmatian army)

(Patrick's Carthaginians battling away in the FoG 15mm events)

(Graham's English fluttering in the FoG 25mm)

The Flames of War terrain was great, and favoured to front - the FoG terrain was rubbish as you'd expect from a game that doesn't value it ...

(some splendidly plausible Flames of War terrain)

You wouldn't know about any of the other games as FoW and FoG are the favoured children of the event and take centre stage (anyone not dancing to that choice of BHGS tunes is tucked away somewhere in the building) ... then again, I did get to present the Society of Ancients Sportsmanship award (the Persian Helmet) so, OK, there was some role in the event for those of us who have supported it since the very beginning.

Nobby from Flames of War takes over from now.

So having congratulated JD on all he has achieved, what are the notes for Nobby?

Well (a) it isn't a Flames of War tournament and it is a 'fix' that FoW has the best placed tables (try shifting the layout around so that the show gives equal prominence to the other games that are in the mix) ...
(b) when JD talked to me about his big project years ago it was to create a sort of UK Historicon (with all that entails) ... he created a tournament games feast, but not the diverse 'convention and show' the Historicon analogy might suggest. There is much more that can be done - so much more.
(c) the game all day format is far less popular than the BHGS insiders think: more people would come of the game pressure (indeed all the regulation) was more relaxed ...

(d) you inherit the project at the point where the wargames show side of Britcon has almost been killed off. It can be resuscitated, but only by a massive change of attitude (you might be just the guy to do that!): see Roll Call (the BHGS are great at competition events that don't host shows ... but their events often clash with 'regular' wargames shows, so you can tell they don't go to them or maybe even understand what makes them tick) ...

Good luck!

Amongst the tanks, Ironsides and Goblins there are still quite a few Ancients events hosted at Britcon ...

(Britcon awards ceremony in full swing)

Ian Stewart, Shaun Drummond and Neil Howard won the various FoG 15mm categories;
Dave Handley won the FoG 25mm;

Jan Van Embden won the DBMM;

Wayne Richards won the WAB event, and ...
Bill Wilson won the Armati.

Paul Crozier won the best painted army (ancient/medieval) for his Seljuks.

Ian Speed won the Society of Ancients Sportsmanship award
THE PERSIAN HELMET

God bless the good ship Britcon and all who sail in her ...

Good luck, Nobby ... (just ask ...)