There was a DBM tournament at CAPCON XXI in Columbus, Ohio, on 19 April 1998. This was a three round, 400 point, two list tournament ably run by Rich Hartley. There was a large selection of armies covering a wide range of periods. I noticed Middle Assyrians, Neo-Babylonians, Classical Indians, Attalid Pergamenes, Seleucids, Gauls, Early Imperial Romans, Patrician Romans, Christian Nubians, Nkephorian Byza;ntines, Anglo-Normans, Feudal French, and English 100 Years War. I brought War of the Roses, running the Lancastrians of Henry VI, the legitimate king of England (take that, you Yorkists out there).

First Round

For my first opponent I drew Doug Anderson's Christian Nubians. I expected my longbowrnen to fare well against his fast warbands and superior camels, but I was vay worried about my blades and auxilia -- especially since superior camelry now kill most foot on a simple win. The Nubians were the defender and placed out plenty of dunes and brush. I set up in just one-third of the board with the table edge securing one flank and the other flank resting in some brush. However, I deployed improperly and relied on auxilia and blades to hold the brush, instead of using my longbowmen.

Seeing my error, Doug immediately sent his camels right towards the brush (which the camels treat as good going) planning to cave in my left flank and roll-up my line. The only reserves I had to send were some more blades. By all rights, given my poor deployment, Doug should have had a big win.

However, within a few bounds Doug rolled three ones for his pips and most of his army went into spontaneous advance. Thus, when his camels hit my line, they hit it haphazardly and that, combined with some very lucky dice rolls, broke his camelry command. Meanwhile, on the rest of the front, Doug and I discovered the incredible deadliness of superior bowmen against fast warbands. I was killing three to four elements per bound from shooting alone. He finally reached my line of bowmen and had one round of melee before his C-in-C's command broke and the game ended with a 10-0 win for me. It was not very satisfying as I hate to win by luck. On the other hand, if I had deployed my longbowmen properly the game would not have been as near run as it was: longbows are simply deadly to everything in his army.

Second Round

For my second round, I was paired up with Rich Novak who was running 100 Years War English. I decided to use my infantry heavy list, hoping that my spearmen and blades would be bow killers, preferring to avoid the pure luck aspect of fighting bowmen with bowmen. As defender, I deployed a BUA in the right sector and scattued wooded hills around the board. Afrer set-up it appeared that my right flank was completely open with my baggage exposed and only a few wooded hills in the way. Seeing this, Rich sent a flying column of bowmen around that flank. However, instead of reaching my baggage, they kept uncovering auxilia hidden in the woods and the flanking maneuver bogged down into a slugging match. In the center, Rich deployed some bowmen forward trying to use shooting to break up my line of spearmen. The dice were very favorable to me and his shooting killed only one spearman and otherwise accomplished some recoils that simply slowed down my advance. Just as my spearmen were within range of reaching his bowmen, Rich let his French knights go into spontaneous advance. They burst through his bowmen and threw themselves upon the spears of my borderers. The loss of his knights brought his C-in-Cs command to within one element of breaking, and had it broken the losses inflicted on his other commands would have broken the army. At that point my losses were negligible. I even had the one necessary element flanked, I had a +1 advantage, and a simple recoil would have ended the game.

Since I won the first game by luck, it was only appropriate that the chickens should come home to roost. Despite two bounds in which to do it, I could not kill that element and my dice went south. Even worse, in order to try and get that element I gambled and left myself exposed to his counterattack. I paid dearly for that failed gamble. I could not roll greater than a two and within a few bounds my entire army fell apart. From befog on the verge of a 10-0 win, I managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and went on to lose 0-10.

Third game

For my third game, I drew Glen Boise who was running Feudal French. French knights, which could not dismount, versus English longbowmen. I hoped that history would repeat itselœ Glen was running four commands with lots of superior knights to punch with and plenty of horde guarding the camp to beef up the breakpoints. He advanced with his Ax(X), which would prove to be his downfall. I closed down part of the board with a waterway and a BUA. Glen sent one command on a flanl march and brought another command up to support it. My superior bowmen were all deployed to my front, including some in the BUA. To fight the flank march, I only had some ordinary bowmen and some of my own Ax(X). These troops could not, and did not, last long against the knight, and my sub-general's command broke.

Meanwhile, along the main front, Glen tried to restrain his knights from throwing themselves upon my longbowmen, and I discovered that Ax(X) is very vulnerable to the shooting of superior bowmen. I managed to break two of his commands about one bound after he broke my subgeneral. His two lost commands pushed his umy to its breakpoint und the game ended 9-1. Overall, I finished the tournament in fourth place.

Lesson

The biggest lesson I learned was the importance of flank protection, especially the placement of appropriate troops on the ranks. Only in the game against the 100 Years War English did I have appropriate flank protection: auxilia in wooded hills. In the other two games the enemy had plenty mounted and and I provided inadequate flank protection and almost lost both games because of it. It is somewhat ironic that the two games I should have lost, I managed to win and the game I should have won I 1ost. That is the fun of DBM, you can never tell how things will end up and armies you thought you can trash end up surprising you, and vice versa.

The other lesson I learned was the extreme vulnerability of inferior troops. My inferior spearman have been my achilles heel in almost all of my lost games. Despite their +5 modifier, when in two ranks, it always seems that they are the first to be destroyed and the sub-general's command that contains the spears is the first of my commands to break.

During the tournament, I found that the fast warbands and Ax (X), both of which are inferior to shooting, were easy targets for my longbowmen. In the future I am going to try to avoid inferior troops whenever possible, and load up on superior troops, which are well worth the additional cost.