DBA Tournament, 2006

The third annual DBA competition took place on 8 July. Players/armies and generals were as follows:

No Burgundians this time, so things would obviously be different. To start with we all decided a bit of psychological warfare would be appropriate. Those medieval French looked a bit tasty. In fact, they looked a bit like the Burgundians. So we put the pressure on Trev and told him we thought he was favourite to win - just to see what it did to him.

Points were awarded as follows:
1 point for each element destroyed.
+1 point for winning
+2 points for destroying the General's element (making the general worth 3 points)

Round #1

Our little ruse worked. Trev lost his opening game in a clash with Andy's Anglo-Normans. I noticed that Andy's games lasted longer than anyone else's. This might be because, again, there were quite a few Knight-based armies and when you have like-for-like elements it can turn into a pushing match. Wins also for the Romans and Feudal English.

Round #2

Trev, the wily ol' devil, doesn't stay down for long. The French beat the Lithuanians. It's worth saying a thing or two about the Lithuanians. It was quite a gamble of John to use these since they are based around a lot of 'light' troop types. John, to his credit, made very good use of terrain and manoeuvrability. In fact, although they weren't a 'winning' army, they were one of those armies where you had to have your wits about you if you were up against them. In that respect they were a success and John certainly did his best with them. Wins again for the Romans and Feudal English.

Round #3

Actually, in this round the Lithuanians came within a gnat's chaff of a win against the Anglo-Normans. But not quite. Trev continued his run of wins and, I must say, at this point I started to think the French might actually do it. Even better, I had my third win on the trot with the Feudal English, which left me at the top of the leader board!

Round #4

It happens every year. I have a good start and then it all goes a bit Pete Tong. I succumbed to Trev's mighty French with a crushing 5-0 defeat. This only reinforced my feelings that the French would be ultimate victors. John finally had a win, with the Lithuanians beating the Romans! Andy also had a win with the Welsh losing again. Poor old Mark had a bad day - he lost every game. This surprised me. In the first year of the competition he won every game with the Normans. Both this year and last year he didn't do very well, and both year's he had the Welsh. Time for an army change, I think.

Round #5

The Lithuanians had another win (against the poor old Welsh). I had another bad loss (against the Anglo-Normans) and Trev's run of wins finally came to an end against Alan's Romans.

Round #6

The last round. The real sleeping dog had been the Romans. Everyone else's results had been a bit up and down. The Romans had a few hiccups, but even when they lost the battle they got a few points. Likewise, Andy had also had consistent results. This meant that only one point separated the two. And in the last round they came head-to-head. Fortunes wavered between the two but in the end the Romans won the battle and won the competition!

Final Results:

1 Middle-Imperial Romans (Alan Ockleford)
2 Anglo-Normans (Andy King)
3 Medieval French (Trevor Pearless)
4 Feudal English (Stephen Tucker)
5 Lithuanian (John Lambert)
6 Welsh (Mark Woodger)

Final Thoughts:

To be honest, I was glad the Romans won. It brought an end to the run of medieval knight-army wins. After the previous years' results I think everyone was starting to look at knight armies, especially if they had the option to dismount as blades. Hopefully next year will bring more variety. And it looked as though our little gamble against Trev actually worked. Clever, huh?