Post-Tax Day BBDBA Tourney

We loaded up the SHADBAGers  (SHenandoah Area DBA Gamers)  Friday evening for the long haul to Columbus, OH, for the Post-Tax Day BBDBA tourney. In our group we had my sons, Sean (15), Nathan (11) and a school teacher of Nate’s, Roy Martin. After a short (too short) sleep in Washington, PA, we descended upon the open plains of central Ohio.

For us, it was to be a medieval weekend, as we all brought Book III and Book IV armies. Here are our lists:

Alan Spencer: Triple Syrians (IV/6): 12×3CV, 9×2LH, 6×3WB, 6×2Ps, 3xHd.

Sean Spencer: Triple Later Crusader (IV/17): 10×3Kn, 2×3CV, 15×4Sp, 9×3Bw.

Nathan Spencer: Triple Welsh (III/19b): 3×3Kn, 24×3Bw, 6×3Wb, 3×2Ps.

Roy Martin: Triple Feudal Spanish (III/??b) 10×3Kn, 3×3Cv, 3×3Lh, 6×4Sp, 12×2Ps, 2×3Bd

Round 1

Our first rounds put Nathan and Roy against each other, Sean against Jason Stelzer’s Later Crusader/Med. German/Feudal French, while I fought Jason’s Dad, Mike Stelzer and his Early Lombards.

Here is Nate’s Welsh (right) vs Roy’s Feudal Spanish.

Sean (above) and Jason Stelzer’s Knight Scrum gets ready to bang heads!!

My Syrians (left) vs Mike Stelzer’s Early Lombards (right) at the start of the second bound.

I put a large CV/LH wing on my left, and the CinC with the Warbands and Psiloi in the middle to take the hill in front of me. On the left, I placed my Lh wing, hoping to pick off a few knights and slow down his puch, while my Cav drove on his “unprotected” right.

Mike and I got off to a quick start, with my light horse wing scoring BIG on pips to get on Mike’s flank in the first bound and a possible shot at his CinC if Mike pulled up short on pips - he didn’t. The picture above shows the 6 pip he used on his left flank to turn and face my Lh.

In this game I rolled more 1’s and 2’s than ever before! My Light horse wing went down quickly, taking only 2 knights with them.

Then on the left, my pips were - DRY!!! Before I knew it, my Wb were getting gunned down, my Lh were broke, and when my Cav finally got into his bowmen, he was 6-1 and 6-2ing me like crazy. Still a great game, that should have been closer. 6-94 loss.

Also in the first round, Sean and Jason were clobbering each other. Sean lost 2 commands, but then killed Jason’s CinC’s command. However, Sean still lost more that bound, so the game went on to great slaughter on both sides. Sean eventually lost in a great game.

Roy and Nathan’s game (this was Nate’s first BBDBA game), was a bit of a one sided contest, with Roy winning large - namely due to some nice moves by Roy - but was stymied much of the game by Nate’s incredible rolls (he kept pushing off Roy’s Bd general from one of his bowmen who kept rolling 6’s vs Roy’s 1’s!!)

Round 2

This round had Nate facing his brother Sean, while I was facing Eric Vang’s Seljuk Turk with Ghaznavid and Ghurid allies (Elephants, knights and and Lh - oh my!). I can’t remember who Roy faced.

Here is Nate’s Welsh (left) vs his older brother Sean’s Later Crusaders

In this round, Nate broke one of Sean’s commands (ran knights and Cav into bow - ugly), but Sean eventually pulled out a win.

In my battle versus Eric, (sorry - no pic as I forgot to take one of my own game), I tried something totally new - a maxed CinC center. I ran the following command lists:

Left Wing: 1×2Lh(Gen), 4×2Lh, 1×3Cv, 1xHd.

Center: 1×3Cv(Gen), 9×3Cv, 6×3Wb, 6×2Ps.

Right Wing: 1×3Cv(Gen), 4×2Lh, 2xHd

Facing me were (from my left to right), Seljuk Turks (CinC), Ghurids (center), and Ghaznavids (with their nasty elephants).

Below shows our initial setup.

Here are the moves we made from that.

The big battle took place on my left, where even though Eric had the hill bonus, I was 6-1ing him and killed off a couple of Lh and a Cav. With his CinC’s command down 3, he was trying to pour it on with the Ghaznavid’s, but I was keeping him bottled up in pips from my threatening Light Horse on my right flank, and making him move toward me. He had picked off two warbands with bow (coming over the center hills), and a Lh from my left wing, but I was able to fill the hole.

He put his CinC in Combat (as I was pushing him back with overlaps) but it was too much too fast. Another high/low roll in combat on another Cav in his CinC’s command pushed it over for him. 94-6 win.

Round 3

This round had Nathan facing Eric Vang (who I played in Round 2), and I was facing my son Sean. This was really cool, as Sean and I love to face off. Some of our best and most memorable battles are against each other - normally. That was not to be today.

Sean promptly shot down my warband coming over the hills, and quickly 6-1′d the light horse and cav on his knights, to bring me crashing to my knees withing 40 minutes of the game start. 6-94 loss for me.

We started fighting a second (for fun) game and it was a close run item, but we ran out of time, and we gave the game to Sean (who was up 2 commands to 1, and he was chewing on the CinC).

My son Nathan, who was playing right next to me, set up an interesting defense during his game with Eric. Below is a picture of his Welsh Porcupine Defense of a Steep Hill.

Close-up of Porcupine Defense

Nate lost, but had a good game against a gracious and helpful opponent (kudos to both of them!!)

Many Thanks to John Loy, who not only hosted the tourney, but hosted my whole gang at his house (despite overrunning toilets and son throwing up!)

The trip home, while long, was basically uneventful.