My camera will be up and running in the next day or so–that means pictures! First up will be Andy Swingle’s long awaited commission. I have some things to finish up, snap pictures and send them off. When that is done, I can continue working on my stuff. Look forward to Kom. Byzantines and Seljuk Turks. I also have some Roman items that will be in progress: Early Imperial Aux. and artillery, and Polybian spear.
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Fellow Fanatici Will Michael was in town on 12/1/07 and we managed to get together at the Gamers Haven to play some DBA. Will wanted to play Biblicals and he was kind enough to bring the armies. My New Kingdom Egyptians were almost finished for Fall In! but still need three more chariots. Will had Early Lybians and Sea Peoples, so we we played two games, switching armies for each game.
Will advancing his Sea Peoples.
In the first game I played the Lybians, quite poorly I must add. Will won the terrain and I attacked. The plan was to cover my flanks with the Psiloi and send the Light Chariot general and warbands into the Sea Peoples’ line. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but it failed miserably. There was one bound of shoving, but Will got overlaps and crushed me 3G-0 I think.
Sea Peoples advance under my command.In the second game I used the Sea Peoples, but lost terrain again. Will set it up with a large patch of rough in the center with steep hills in opposite corners. I took the Psiloi option and set up two triplets of Blade w/Psiloi support and a 2 Bd. reserve. The Gen. went with the flying wing and I sent a triplet to sit between terrain features and act as a refused/static flank. I almost made a disaster of it by sending my reserve Bd. into the bad going where they were annihilated by Will’s Psiloi. The only thing that saved me was my flying wing driving into Will’s Bw. I managed to get my Gen. into combat with his, forcing him to recoil into his own guys giving me the win 4g-3. It was really close! Great games Will!
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On Saturday Jim and I headed out to the battlefield to take in the sights. We missed the HoTT action and the DBA open. I was running the Matched Pairs event. Here is a pic of the fun:
Results of the Matched Pairs event (compliments of DS):
Matched Pairs (12 players)
1 – David Schlanger, Shang Chinese vs. Early Northern Barbarians, 93 pts. [Winner Bracket 1]
2 – Larry Chaban, Later Carthaginian vs. Polybian Roman, 70 pts. [Winner Bracket 2]
3 – Jason Bostwick, Eastern Franks vs. Norse Vikings, 75 pts.
4 – John Manning, Kom. Byzantine vs. Early Crusader, 69 pts.
5 – Terence McPartland, Early Muslim N. Africa vs. Fatamid, 53 pts.
6 – Rich Baier, Meroitic Kushite vs. Saitic Egyptian, 51 pts.
7 – Jim Kasper, Macedonian vs. Later Achaemenid, 45 pts.
8 – Colin Rice, Big Al vs. Later Achaemenid, 31 pts.
9 – David McDonald, New Kingdom Egyptian vs. Hittite, 28 pts.
10 – Doug Austin, Marian Roman vs. Commagene, 27 pts.
11 – Ted Galacci, Feudal Spanish vs. Fanatic Berber, 26 pts.
12 – Carl Dietrich, Galatian vs. Mithradatic, 6 pts.Thanks to Chris Brantley for taking over while the last match finished out. I had to run to get a bite to eat. When we got back, Chris told me who won and I promptly forgot to tell the winners when I found out that we were an hour late for the Outremer event! Thankfully I was spared from the cut. Jim however, got cut along with the Dicemen, but they managed to play some games anyway.
The strategic map for the Outremer event. I played Komnenan Byzantine (b) variant, and was assigned to Sinope. My goal for this game was to take Constantinople and hold it for the rest of the game. As fortune would have it, that’s what I did. Mike Coppinger was my first opponent. I invaded Trebizond since I had nowhere else to go that round. We had quite the melee in which I was victorious. Turn two I sent my new vassal off to Georgia or something while keeping an eye on “The City”. During the first turn, Peter “The Cleaver” had taken Constantinople. I pulled chit #2 and invaded Constantinople–time to make good on my threats! Peter put up a good fight, but alas, I defeated the boy emperor 6-2 (my dice was hot!). I think I lost my first vassal to Georgia during this round. On turn three I was full of hubris and decided to continue the offensive and take Nicea. Let me just say that I was slaughtered by Terence McPartland and sent packing back to Constantinople. In the final round I sailed to Rhodes to take on Paul Stoklosa and hi Knights of St. John. This match was very quick. Paul ended up with a waterway on his board edge. On the first turn I landed a a force of 1Bd., 2Lh., and 1Kn., to the rear of his army. The mounted headed straight for his army while the blade element set himself to sacking the Rhodian camp. A bit of a pushing match and Paul’s general was dead. The camp held though! I went 3-1 (don’t believe the official results, I’m missing a win for some reason) with the Byzantines and had a great time! Thanks to the Two Davids for running a fun event.Jim and I headed back to get some sleep after that.
On Sunday I played in the Classical Theme tourney and was handed my worst tournament record ever–1-2. What a disgrace! My first game was a very close one with Roland Fricke and his Seluecids vs. my Classical Indians. It was nail biter until the end when my dice went south in a hurry; I was even betrayed by my dice cup! Roland played a tough game and deserved the win.
The first round of themes. Notice Bob calling down the favor of the gods–David Kuijt observes reverently.My next match was against Jim Kasper and his Etruscans. Again, I was slaughtered in what began as a close game. Jim is an expert with those Italians–great job! My last match was over quickly aided by good match-ups. My Indians crashed into James Millers Ptolemaics and just kept going.
Over-all, I had a great time, if a little sleep deprived. I’m looking forward to next year! Thanks again to Rich for the photos.
