We had our first Flames of War tournament on Dec. 11 at the Guard Tower, and the results are listed below. Thanks to the gang at the Guard Tower for allowing us to play there. Just so that you DBM players know what we're talking about, FOW is a company level WW II game that plays a lot like DBM (lots of dice, 6s are generally good, 1s are still bad).

To the FOW guys, here's what I'm planning: We will have two or three more tournaments between now and the end of June. When building your armies, plan on Mid War (1942 and 1943). You may use: the Flames of War rulebook, Diving Eagles, Hitler's Fire Brigade, Old Ironsides, Desert Rats and Stalingrad Intelligence Handbooks. You may have two lists, but same company type (if on the first list the Company commander is an Infantry company, then he must be on the second list, as well).

The missions will be:

1) Meeting engagement
2) Free for all
3) Hold the line

Prizes will be awarded for Best Allied General, Best Axis General (largest battle total), Best Painted (largest painted score total) and Best Sportsman (largest sportsman score total). I will use a total score, not an average score. If the Judge does not play, he will have a vote on Sportsman and Best Painted. Keep in mind that this is a work in progress, and we should have this down within six months or so. My goal is to have things running smoothly by Origins, where we will host two FOW tournaments (one Friday, another Saturday).

The results of the Dec. 11 tournament are:

1) Ken Drushal	Russian	41 pts. Best Allied Commander
2) Jeff Merrick	German	38 pts. Best Axis Commander
3) Drew Sevel	British	37 pts. Best Presented Army
4) Alex Heyob	US	35 pts. Best Sportsman
5) Chris Freidiger	German	34 pts.
6) Joe Merz	Italy	31 pts.
7) Alan Wright	British	27 pts.
8) Tony Williams	British	27 pts.

The competition was very close. It showed that the 5-Step Program Ken Drushal ran at the Guard Tower this past fall was successful. You will be able to play at the Guard Tower every Saturday afternoon, if you want to practice. We are also working on a random terrain generator. If you want a copy of it, let me know.

Our Ancients tournament schedule for 2005 will be out the first of next year.

De Bellis Columbus

As for De Bellis Columbus in November, thanks for all those that showed up. We had a total of 58 attendees (5 DBR, 17 DBA, 36 DBM). In DBM, there were 30 15mm players and six 25mm players. I want to thank all that helped with the planning and execution of this tournament. It went off without too many problems. For DBM results, please consult the NASAMW website as the list is very long.

De Bellis Columbus DBA Results

We ran three tournaments over DBC weekend. On Friday, Bob Beattie came down from Michigan and ran two four-round DBA Tournaments, divided by "books' or time periods. We had 12 players for each event. On Saturday, we ran a three-round "Big Battle" tourney (split into two brackets), also with 12.

Book I & II Winner: Tom Graves, Neo-Babylonian
Book III & IV Winner: Tom Graves, Christian Nubian
Big Battle, Early Bracket: Tom Graves, Graeco-Bactrian
Big Battle, Later Bracket: Allen Sams, Early Hungarian

As you can see, Tom was on a roll that weekend (his friends say it's making up for years of futility with the dice)! Tom even went on to win the finals between him and Allen for Big Battle. Congratulations, Tom, on a truly memorable performance, and thanks to all participants!