On the first Friday of August this year, the NWA ran its fourth bi-annual DBA Championships. Young "Muz" Shaw giving Peter D'Costa's Late Romans a lesson in tabletop tactics with his Early Crusaders. The event was a great success, numbers were slightly down from April but we did acquire five "first time" entrants which was good to see (ahh ... more DBM recruits!) DBA is an excellent entry level game for beginners and has provided many new members for our club. The attraction of DBA is somewhat a mystery. No one plays the game full time but everyone comes out to compete. Despite being titled a "championship", the atmosphere is relaxed and social. No one takes it too seriously, just all good fun (or a distraction from the more serious wargames.) This event crosses all boundries by attracting players from outside the usual spectrum of Ancients gaming. We get roleplayers, Battletech and Warharnmer enthusiasts all competing on the same night using the same rules! Ages vary from 7 years up. For those readers unaware of what DBA is, it can best be described as a set of fast-play rules for the ancient and medieval period covering 200 historical armies from 3000 BC to 1485 AD. What makes DBA distinct from most rules systems is that all armies, regardless of their historical numbers, are comprised of twelve elements with 2-4 figures each representing a ratio of the predominant troop types in that particular army. Games last anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour. It's probably the closest thing we historical buffs have to chess! The simplicity of the rules greatly belles the opportunities players have for complex strategies. Most will write off DBA as requiring pure luck, but a quick study of results will typically show the same bunch of players doing well in the tournaments. Now, getting back to the championship ........ Congratulations to John Shaw for winning this championship. He stormed home with Early Crusaders defeating all four opponents with a near perfect score of 58 (out of max 60). John came second last year, so has finally worked his way to the top. On his heels was Paul Bertram, running Late Imperial Roman, on 52 points and Peter Zimmerman, third on 46 points using his venerable Hussites. Peter was reluctant to use his Hussites again as he came fourth in the previous April tournament but his decision paid off. One of the key battles for this tournament occurred in round 4 between Peter's Hussites and John's Crusaders. The latter dismounted all his knights to tackle the warwagons, a tactic that proved decisive in winning John the championship. Blades in DBA have always proven to be a very powerful troop type and this was born out by the fact that five of the top seven armies contained a sizeable contingent of "Blades." (that's Swords men/Legionnalres/men-at-arms in DBM.) Best Presented Army award went to Mark Walters for his superbly painted Hittites. The award was voted on by a select group of non-combatants conscripted by the umpire (as opposed to the usual "player voting" method used in the past.) This was Mark's second award for best presented army, the last being with his Early Goths in 1998. [See also the back cover for colour pictures of Mark's award -winning Hittites as well as other competitors armies - Ed.] Surprisingly, many of the favourites tumbled in the early rounds. Previous winners Mark Audley, John Waligora and Peter Stone all suffered defeats in the second round knocking them out of contention. Notable performances came from young Murray "Muz" Shaw (aged 7) winning his first tournament game in two championships. Chris Callas, (aged 10) trampled on many a senior opponent finishing 9" (have you ever seen grown men cry?) This was Chris' fourth championship and he has progressively climbed the rankings - look out! junior member Rob Jackson also faired well, placing 8th with his New Kingdom Egyptians. The magnificent trophies supplied by Eureka Miniatures with detail of the new 25mm AB Hittites inset. For more details on past championships and upcoming tournaments, check out our website for more details at: www.alpha1ink.com.au/~nwa/dbx/ For anyone interested in running a similar DBA competition, we use the following format for our event. Deployment rules have been radically overhauled as they are essentially unbalanced for competition use. The scoring system was also developed through much trial and error but has proven workable with large numbers of competitors over four rounds. Good luck! Competition Format: The tournament is played over 4 rounds. The rules used are DBA version 1.1 with deployment modifications as listed below. 15mm armies will be used. Each game lasts for 55 minutes plus or minus 10 minutes of playing time. Any army listed in DBA v1.1 can be used subject to the following conditions: Any element coded as 3Kn/4Bd, 3Cv/4Bd or LCh/4Bd or that can be exchanged for Art or SC can be deployed as either at the start of any battle and remains that type for the duration of the battle. All other choices are made once for the whole competition. Terrain is set by the umpire and may not be changed or altered by players. Scoring: Winning Player +15 points, minus -1 point for each element lost (-3 if your camp was looted.) The competition placings will be decided on total of points scored after round four. Losing Player +1 point for each enemy element killed (+3 if enemy camp was looted.) Drawn games 0 points to both players Except for drawn games, the total score of both players cannot exceed 15 points. Deployment: *Both sides roll 1D6, the lower scorer is the defender, the higher the attacker. The attacker then allocates dice pips 1,2,3,4 to each four sides and 5 & 6 to two adjacent sides of preference, then dices for which edge will be his/her base edge. Defender places camp Attacker places camp and deploys 6 elements (which must include the general). Defender deploys entire army. Attacker deploys the remaining 6 elements and takes the first move. Camps: If a camp is guarded by camp followers then this element is counted as an element of the army if lost. It does not increase the army size and cannot move out of the camp. If an element of the army defends the camp then no camp followers are provided. Note that the element defending the camp may not leave the camp during the battle. Results Table Placing &Name Armies Score 1 Shaw,John Early Crusader 58 2 Bertram, Paul Late Roman (West) 52 3 Zimmermann, Peter Hussite 46 4 Morgan, Martin Italian Condotta 44 5 Waligora, John Early Crusader 43 6 Wade, Nick Italian Ostrogoth 42 7 Stone, Peter Polybian Roman 42 8 Jackson, Robert New Kingdom Egyptian 41 9 Callas, Chris Italian Ostrogoth 41 10 Kalbusch, Roger Marian Roman 34 11 Wright, Andrew Marian Roman 33 12 Audley, Mark Early Swiss 31 13 Macaulay, Jason Sarmation 31 14 D'Costa, Peter Late Roman (West) 30 15 Saxton, Jared Classical Indian 29 16 Walters, Mark Hittite 29 17 Daymond, Lyle Muslim Indian 28 18 Metcalf, John Early Seleucid 28 19 Harvey, Glenn Early Sassanian 28 20 Sharp, Ian Later Crusader 26 21 Smith, Geoff Early Seleucid 20 22 Tan, David Medieval Indian 19 23 Jackson, Steve Early Byzantine 17 24 Shaw, Murray Early Crusader 17 25 Ware, Fbter Arab Imperial 17 26 Woztkowski, Krzysztof Romano-British 17 27 Kelly, Geoff Early Goths 14 28 McCartney, John Early Russian 14 29 Pavloski, Nick Later Samurai 9 30 Brake, Tom Mamluk Egyptian 8 Back to Table of Contents -- Kriegspieler #6 To Kriegspieler List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by Kriegspieler Publications. 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