We arrived about 20-25 minutes before the DBA Tournament was scheduled to start. John Loy and Tom "Speedy" Graves (he was running late to the con and had gotten pulled over by the Highway Patrol hurrying eastward on I-70!) were running an unusual format tourney. The players were divided into two equal groups -- Early Imperial Romans and Frontier Kingdoms (its enemies). In rounds 1 & 3, the Romans and barbarians Frontier Kingdoms slugged it out. In rounds 2 & 4, it was Roman civil war and the kingdoms fought amongst each other. The format worked out great -- plenty of loaner armies were available. I told Tom I didn't care which I played, and after the others had chosen, he told me I was Roman.
Round
1 (at left, Aaron and I slug it out in our game)
My first game was against Aaron McKibben -- who, along with Jeff Chattin, drove all the way from Indiana for the convention! Jeff was playing my Early Armenian loaner army, and probed forward on both flanks aggressively with his light horse. My own heavier cavalry were able to ride down his two stands of light horse on the right, then turn in on his battleline. Aaron made it a close thing, though, when his cataphract (heavily armored knightly style cavalry) rode down my legionaries, but I squeaked out a victory. I think Aaron enjoyed the Armenians as I saw him utilizing his light horse throughout the tourney. In one game, he took an opponent's camp twice!
In round two, I fought Pittsburgh resident Steve Pavillo, who'd also driven up expressly for Tom and John's event. Poor Steve's dice must have been "jet lagged," because even though I was targetting his flanks, his center crumbled due to poor combat die rolls. In this game, I quickly left the mandatory catapult (artillery) stand behind when I marched to the attack against Steve's Romans. I honestly think in most army matchups, Artillery is a somewhat useless element in DBA Ancients rules. Of course, it probably should be of limited effectiveness -- we're not talking firepower like massed Napoleonic artillery batteries here! Steve had skillfully recognized my thrusts on both flanks and had manuevered to counter them, but in DBA, there is simply nothing you can do if the dice declare you're not going to win. I commisserated with Steve, as I've been victim to that syndrome more than once myself!
In
round three, I faced Keith Finn and his Meroitic Kushite army. This East
African army was composed of mostly Spear and Blade heavy infantry, and
was probably the only army in the tournament that the Romans didn't have
more heavy foot than. Defending, Keith minimized the terrain and assembled
his long battleline. Once again, I split up my four stands of Auxilia (fast-moving
light infantry) to spearhead attacks against his bow on both flanks. My
center I deployed to delay until I won on the flanks and they could turn
inwards. It was just as we were closing that my command and control dice
went cold -- or I suffered from "Pip Lock" as Keith called it.
My army was poised to attack, but all I could do was spend my one or two
pips fixing problems -- cheif of which, was my failure to leave behind the
artillery unit in this game. The catapults got in the way, and even after
I pulled them back, they still caused problems and died miserably. Of late,
Keith and I have been having some epic struggles. This match was no exception,
and we hammered at each other for the full hour. Tom tried to give us a
bit of extra time, but we were locked at 3 elements lost each. It was a
great game, and a shame it had to end in a tie!
My final game was against Tim Ryan's Romans. I actually got a chance to set the terrain for the first time in the tournament (not that I expected to much with an Aggression of 3 -- 4 is max!). I clogged it up with woods and a steep hill to minimize manuever room for his light horse. The only difference between Tim's army and mine was he substituted one of my three Cavalry stands for a Light Horse. After last game, I exiled my Artillery element to guard the camp. I almost never use on of my 12 elements in DBA to garrison the camp, but I was determined not to let them lose another battle for me! As we made our initial moves, I felt like this battle was going well. Tim had advanced a Cavalry stand and a Light Horse stand to sweep around a woods. Two of my Cavalry stands charged forward to meet them, assisted by an Auxilia darting out from the woods. My legionary and auxilia center and left were wheeling into place to hit his battleline with overlaps. However, as we charged into battle, my combat dice decided to go cold. When I was expecting success all along the line, I rolled a succession of four "1's" and two "2's" on my dice. Suddenly, I was scrambling to keep Tim from finishing me off as huge rents opened in my lines. I was able to pull back my threatened units, and re-engage where I had the advantage, but the game was proceeding too slowly for me to make up lost time. Once again, Tom was accomodating and gave us extra time, but finally had to call it with Tim ahead 3-2. This was a classic case of a battle where I like to use the excuse: "I'm only the General...I can't tell them how to fight, when to thrust or parry!" As it was, I was probably fortunate at the end of the game to salvage a tie, rather than suffer a loss. Tim took advantage of the openings in my line excellently, and made all the right moves to close the game out with a victory. However, perhaps my troops were motivated to erase the shame of their fallen comrades' lack of fight, and struggled gamefully at the end.
So, yes, that scores out as two ties for me in a DBA Tournament. Those who play against me regularly know my Speed DBA style, so this came as quite a surprise to me. However, I guess I shouldn't be too shocked. Armies with lot of heavy foot can have extended shoving matches in DBA. And if the opponents don't give each other openings to capitalize on, it can be difficult to destroy enough enemy for victory.
Here are the results that Tom posted: