For the past 8 years I have been running an event named in honor of Dick Bryant, long-time editor of The Courier. Dick ran the very first ancients tournament in the US, using the WRG Ancients Rules (then maybe 4th Edition!) back in the mid-1970's. The event I am running uses the De Bellis Antiquitatis (DBA) rules, written by Phil Barker, et al. and published by WRG. In a typical DBA event, a player uses an army of choice and plays it against other armies from the master list. In the Duplicate DBA Tournament, there are only 4 armies, pre-set into two battle problems. Each player thus plays each side of each battle; using all 4 armies in turn. When I first did the event, the players deployed the army on a board with preset terrain. In the past few years, I have created battle problems (like chess problems) with the elements already deployed. Some armies are in a precarious position to start the game but since all players use all armies there is no need to preserve equality between the opponents. This year there was again two battle problems. One was in the "Biblical" era and one in the medieval period. The following is an overview of the situations. The Biblical Era battle was represented by the Battle of Kadesh, 1294 BC between New Kingdom Egyptians and Hittites. I used the army lists in DBA 1.1: The Hittites had 3 Heavy Chariots ,4 Light Chariots, 3 stands of Auxilia, and 2 Psiloi and the Egyptians had 4 Light Chariots, one stand of blades, 4 stands of spearmen, 2 elements of bows and 1 Psiloi. The medieval battle tried out a new idea. A double battle with results from the first one affecting the second. This will be 1066. First each player will have a Viking or Anglo-Danish army for the Battle of Stamford Bridge. The Vikings had 1 Berserker Warband, a bow, and 10 blades while the Anglos had 2 Huscarle Blades, 8 Fyrd Spears, a Cavalry and a Psiloi (light infantry). The loser of the first battle will command the Normans in the second part of this game. If Vikings, one less Blade, if Anglos, no Cavalry. The Normans, attacking up hill, get 5 Knights, 2 Cavalry, 3 cross bows and 2 Spears. The winner of the first part will fight the Normans with the army he used at Stamford (but with one less element to represent losses from the first battle). For example, if the Vikings win the first battle, the Anglo-Danish player becomes the Normans for the second battle at Hastings. Players will get a chance to start as both Viking and Anglo-Danish but results of each game will determine what the second commands are. It might be possible for a player to play Normans twice if the first game is lost both times. This schedule of battles proved a bit over ambitious and in the last round the event was 1/2 hour over schedule. Since I was doing the next game on the same tables, I gave myself some extra time. Nevertheless, some players got in only 4 of the 5 games. This did not result in too big a problem in determining the winner. The biggest problem was the convention staff who told people the game was filled, who then told me, who then told others who inquired about playing. As it turned out, there were three missing slots. Luckily some of my local club members filled in as a partner for some rounds and I reorganized the schedule to eliminate the two other missing spots. Many long term DBA players entered the event, and another half dozen told me they would have entered had the organizers allowed it. The players were Mark Luccioni, Patrick Kurivial, John Taylor, Patrick McMillen (last year's Rookie of the Year), Hank Drapalski, Martin Schmidt (the West Coast Champion who helped me in other events), Mike Goffinet, Steven Donlon (who contributed toward the cost of the trophies, thanks Steve), Mark Pozniak, Doug Mudd (who gave the hobby a big boost with his article in Smithsonian Magazine), David Schlarger, Greg Jablonsik (whom I think has been in all of the duplicate events I have done), and Dave Ray (long time master of the Midnight Madness). After almost 6 hours of play, David Schlander took first place with 6 wins out of 6 games (in all those games he eliminated 27 enemy elements and lost only 7). Mark Pozniak had 4 wins for second place. Using a tie breaker of lost element differential, John Taylor was the 3 place winner. Thanks to all the players who were great sports to put up with an early start time but a late start as I tried to get some more players. They also put up with schedule changes. Also, I had them use a draft version of the new DBA 2.0 and give me comments. Next year it will be back to the Classic Era and maybe Hussites with the new "double long warwagons" or Hordes vs Knights in the Jacquerie rebellion. TOURNAMENT RESULTS DBM 15mm NICT Ethan Zorrick Abbasid Arab DBM 25mm NICT John Shirey Khurasanian 7.6 NICT Dave Markowitz Seleucid Armati Arena Chris Boland East Late Roman DBA NICT Dan Hazelwood Sportsman Phil Gardocki DBM 15mm Open Phil Jarvio, E Samurai DBM 25mm Open Phil Roberts Abbasid Arab 7.6 Open Sean Scott Italian Condotta Armati Open Steve Herndon Nikephorian Byzantine DBM 15mm Theme Scott Allen L Carthaginian DBM 25mm Theme Rich Novak Polybian Roman 7.6 15mm Theme Robert Turnball Gauls 7.6 25mm Theme Scott McDonald Eperiot Italian Armati Theme Steve Herndon Republican Roman DBM 15mm Mini Rich Novak Spanish DBM 25mm Mini Gary Dziatko Palmyran Warrior 15mm Mini Todd Kaeser Aztec Warrior 25mm Mini Tim Brown Gupta Indian WAB Rob McCloskey Crusaders MW 25mm Jeff Hady MW 15mm John Martin & Mitch Abrams MOA George Soika Macedonian Successor DBA Midnight Madness Al Applegate War of Roses DBA 25mm Open Jim Mzik Viking DBA Teen Patrick McMillan DBA Biblical David Schlanger Chou DBA Classical Doug Mudd Parthian DBA Asia Eric Lauterbach Mongol DBA Dark Age Joe Coniglio Jr Norman DBA Medieval Alex Aimette E Crusader More Courier Dispatch Obituary Tony Bath: 1926-2000 Michael Gilbert: 53 Years Old Historicon Hosts 3000 at Lancaster Host 2000 Dick Bryant Open at Historicon Historicon Painting Competition Winners HMGS Legion of Honor: Bob Coggins Unexpurgated History of HMGS - Volume I Free Rules Offered Britannia Miniatures Has New US Agent Product News Calendar: Upcoming Conventions Back to Table of Contents -- Courier #80 To Courier List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by The Courier Publishing Company. 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