Wednesday, 25 July 2007

Wimp Wars
Special Theme Tourney

A three round open tourney for early Historicon arrivers run by Larry Chaban and Rich Baier  The Wimp Wars tourney was open to all DBA armies fielded with a minimum of 5 Psiloi and/or Light Horse elements.  Armies with 2 or more light elements than an opponent were allowed a "scouting" advantage and allowed to add or subtract 1 from its aggression roll.
 

Thursday, 26 July 2007

Fortune's Favorites

A Big Battle (BBDBA) Republican Roman Civil War game run by Jeff Caruso.

 
Photo: Mike Porter

The initial layout....all roads lead to Rome.

Photo: Mike Porter

The armies converge for the decisive showdown.

Photo: Mike Porter

The Triumvirate's Crisis on the right.

HOTT 25mm Open Tournament

Manager: James Miller and Mike O'Neil
Scale:  25mm
Players:  Unlimited.

A Hordes of the Thing Tournament using HOTT 2nd edition and 25mm figures on 3x3 foot battlefields. Feel free to put 15mm armies on temporary 25mm size bases.

6-10 p.m.

The XXVmm Open Tournament
("The Doug Mudd Open")

Run by Rob Torres, the XXVmm Open featured standard DBA tournament play with 25mm figures on 3 foot by 3 foot battlefields.

10:00 p.m. till dawn

Midnite Madness
(The "David Ray Open")

A single-elimination DBA open tournament run in 15mm scale by Jonathan Bostwick.  Over thirty players vied for the winner's laurels.  The four top finishers were:

Friday, 27 July 2007

9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Big Battle Doubles
(The "Tony Bath Memorial")

Fourteen teams vied for top honors in the 2007 Big Battle Doubles Tournament.

Baltic Crusades
DBA Theme Tournament

A 15mm theme event organized by David Kuijt and David Schlanger and featuring four historical scenarios from the period of Teutonic aggression in Eastern Europe.  David Schlanger provides these pictoral highlights.

Saturday, 28 July 2007

9:30 - 12:30

DBA Walk-in Clinic: Learn DBA from the Masters

You wanted to play ancients and someone pointed you to
what he said was a simple, fast-playing introductory level rules set called De Bellis Antiquitatis or DBA for short. Reading it at home you were soon confused and started to get headaches!

2-6 p.m.

"Julie Stannoch" Teen Tournament

Manager: Hank Drapalski & Dennis Frank
Scale:  15mm
Players: Unlimited.

A 15mm open tournament for players under the age of 20.  Some loaner armies will be available. People who are completely new to the game are welcome to this event.

2-6 p.m.

"Not the NICT" Open Tourney

Manager: Hank Drapalski & Dennis Frank
Scale:  15mm
Players: Unlimited.

A 15mm open tournament for adult players not engaged in the 2007 NICT.  Some loaner armies will be available. People who are completely new to the game are welcome to this event.

2:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

The National Invitational Championship Tournament (NICT)
("Phil Barker and Sue Laflin-Barker
DBA Masters Tournament")

The NICT matches for winners of previous DBA tournaments and other invited players in a contest for bragging rights as the North American DBA Champion.  Run by Bob Beattie (bottom center). 

Photo: Bob Beattie

In a hard fought final match-up Mark Pozniak (Later Hoplite Greek -Athenians) (right) defeated David Kuijt (Italian Condotta) (left) to take top honors as the 2008 NICT Champion.  Mark describes the critical match-up as follows:

"We each had littoral landings which pretty well stiffled each other on my left. We stared at each other in the middle for a bit as he didn't want to charge my spear wall with his knights, and I didn't want to advance my spearwall any further exposing their flank to the Condotta landing. I was able to aggressively press my right wing (3 Sp, 1Ax) against David's left (2 Bw, 1Art, 1 Bd). ZOCing his shooters before they could form David's infamous "Cup of Death", I was then able to kill all three within the next four bounds.

"That left me with a commanding 3-0 lead. But no lead is safe against David. He was very quickly able to make an excellent attack pushing back my general's neighboring Sp w/Ps support which left his knight with an overlap against my general. General dead. Agggggggggggggh! I proceded to roll a 1 or 2 for pips the next three bounds while David clinically eliminated 2 more of my elements. While this was happening, I could have flanked one of his Kn and had a good chance of ending the game but needed four pips to move two elements. By the third bound, DK had covered the Knight's flank and I was resolved to accept my slow painful death."

Photo: Mike Porter

"However, I had one final hope -- I had a LH that could reach one of his Kn, but wouldn't have a recoil of my own. So, my 2 to his 4, winner takes all. I got the 2 pips I needed to make the move, and.... 6-1 later I go home happy."

7-10 p.m.

The Gothic Wars - 379 AD
Tabletop Mini Campaign

This was an experimental game run by Chris Brantley and Jeff Caruso and fought on a large gameboard depicting Roman Europe from Milan to Byzantium.  The game combines aspects of DBA's Big Battle and Campaign rules to simulate the Gothic Wars circa 379 AD.

Sunday 29 July 2007

DBA Themes Tournament

Thirty-four gamers participated in one of six "themed" tournaments designed to group eligible armies together by historical period and region. The six themes were:

• Biblical, plus Stone-age Pacific and Americas (107 armies)
• Greek Classical (600BC - 146 BC) (118 armies)
• Roman Classical (146 BC - 493 AD)(94 armies)
• Dark Ages Europe, Middle East, and Western Steppes (493AD - mid-11th C.) (89 armies)
• Medieval Europe, Middle East, and Western Steppes (mid 11th C. on)(128 armies)
• Asia and Eastern Steppes (93 armies)

Photo: Chris Brantley

The winners (from left to right) were Alex Halkiadakis, Alex Bostwick, David Kuijt, Doug Mudd, Bill Fischer, and Mark Pozniak.