Some of us enthusiasts of DBA (De Bellis Antiquitatis, a fast-play set of Ancients miniatures rules) have been telling folks for years that Great Lakes is a hotbed of players and tournaments. We host three tournies at our flagship con, Advance the Colors, as well as one each at Warband, Warparty and Drums Along the Maumee. At Origins 2004, we had a record number of participants in three, packed-full tournaments, making Great Lakes' enthusiasm for DBA plain for the country to see.

The action began on Thursday evening with the Origins debut of my 15mm Double Size DBA event. I'd optimistically (I thought) listed it for 16 players, but drew 21 -- some from as far away as Phoenix, Colorado and Florida! The event is a smaller, faster-playing version of a "Big Battle" DBA Tournament (armies are 24 rather than 36 elements). I first ran the tournament at last year's Advance the Colors, where my players were wildly enthusiastic about it. As at ATC, I divided the players into Early and Later time period brackets, each playing three rounds. The players said they enjoyed commanding larger armies, but still finishing the tourney in a reasonable length of time (rounds lasted roughly 1.5 hours).

On Friday, I was a substitute GM for Jim Williams in the 15mm DBA Open. Two dozen players showed up -- even Chief DBA Umpire Bob Beattie drove down from Michigan to contend the field with his Hussite War-wagons. I had each player pick a nominal year for their army from the range listed for it in the rulebook. I then lined them up 1-24, putting the earliest dozen in one bracket and the second dozen in the Later one. For matchups, I had #1 play #2 in round one, the winner of that played the winner of #3 vs. #4 in round two (and loser vs. loser), and so on. Thus, most of a player's games were against contemporary armies. There were four rounds and I witnessed nothing but good sportsmanship and friendly play during the event.

The Grand-Daddy of Origins DBA Tournaments is Saturday afternoon's "Battles from History." Run by Great Lakes member Terry Hollern and myself, our format fascinates many as we set up eight historical battles, providing all armies and terrain. Instead of using the same army in all four rounds like most tournies, players rotate among the eight battles and are matched against a different opponent and on a different battlefield in each round. Regular DBA players have called Battles from History "the toughest tournament on the circuit." It requires skill to win with a variety of armies against all different kinds of opponents.

And speaking of winners, here are they are:

Double Size DBA
Early Bracket: Tim Ryan, Classical Indian
Later Bracket: Art Hayes, Patrician Roman

DBA Open
Early Bracket: Tom Graves, Macedonian Early Successor
Later Bracket: Tim Monaghan, Early Croatian

Battles from History: Bob Boggs

After our rousing success at Origins 2004, expect us back with the same slate (or more?) in 2005. Players should include a stop at Origins on their regular, convention schedule, as there are very few places in the country where you will see as much DBA going on! It's a hotbed, remember?