Ancients gaming. Some people languished over the lack of it, some people have written articles on it and some people came up with, did the groundwork and actually RAN an Ancients tournament in Southern California! This historic (pun intended) event took place on August 3, 2002 at Hobbytown USA in Santa Clarita. It was the first of what many hope to be an annual Ancients tournament using DBA rules. DBA is short for De Bellis Antiquitatus a fast playing set of rules that can be easily used for tournaments as most games will play out in under an hour (depending on with whom are you're playing with!). There were seventeen brave souls who participated in this tournament, some were LA area locals, one man came from Bakersfield and a sizeable contingent hailed from San Diego and Orange County! Those gentlemen mentioned something about escaping a comic book convention being held that weekend in San Diego We had a couple of younger players in this tournament with the youngest being 10! There was a wide selection of armies covering time periods from Ancient Greeks and Tang Chinese artriies to the Feudal French and the Italian Condotta armies. There were a few extra armies, mapboards and terrain just in case there were any walk-ins. The only rule change that was made for the tournament was the elimination of the BUA (Built Up Area). Each player would play four rounds, regardless of the win-loss record. Each round would last no longer than one hour. Tournament scoring was done on a points system. Points were awarded for winning games, destroying elements, destroying the opponent's general and taking over the opponent's camp. The winners were determined by the number of points accumulated in the four rounds of play at the end of the day. The first place winner received a trophy, had his name placed on a plaque and also received a nicely painted DBA Late Imperial Western Roman Army. The tournament started with the quote from Marc, "Gentlemen, let the Kickus Glutteus Maximus BEGIN!" Amidst a few chuckles, Round One was underway! Robert Runnels and myself were the referees for the tournament, but each of us took our turn to play as well. There were many close games and there were those games where battle tales would be told for generations to come (I won't mention anything about a certain Numidian Army elephant, that was surrounded on three sides, by the might of an Early Imperial Roman Army and lived to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat!). Everyone commented on the good sportsmanship and the fun time that was to be had all around. After four rounds of battle, the dust settled and Dave Zecchini, with his undefeated Italian Condotta. army (By this time, renamed, "Vendetta" ), was victorious! That was no mean feat, as there were a couple of times where he was not sure if he could pull it off. Second place was a tie between Kim Harris and his Ancient Greeks (those hopping hoplites!) and DBA newcomer Chris Tenango (a 14 year old!) with his Eastern Successor army. Congratulations to the winners! Back to Table of Contents The Messenger August 2002 Back to The Messenger List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2002 by HMGS/PSW. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com