DBA Day of Battle

Last Saturday, February 18th, some local members of De Bellis Antiquitatis Carolinas, a facebook group, gathered at my home to play DBA 3.0 for a few hours. I will have to write a special post in the near future to extol the many reasons why I love De Bellis Antiquitatis, but suffice to say it is one of my favorite wargames.

Beefier than 2.2, with a higher price tag to match. But worth every penny.

I was concerned after attending Siege of Augusta in January, and Historicon in 2015, that interest in DBA might have waned since the last time I had played in a tournament in Glendale CA; 2006, or 2007. Some of this may have to do with the split in the DBA community over the development of 3.0, but more likely it is that in the age of Flames of War, Saga, Bolt Action, etc., DBA does not have the flashy commercialism and exposure that the newer, more popular games do.

Charles runs my Republican Romans vs Robert with Charles' Carthos. Elephants are one of those special troop types that ancients wargaming offers.

 So I knew that if we were to continue to enjoy this great game, especially as I believe this edition is the best yet produced, we would have to organize our own game event, and invite as many people as we could. We hope to do this at least every 2-3 months, and generate interest in building armies and encouraging others to join in. I believe that DBA is one of those games that requires the players to spread the word and help it succeed.

So I began furiously assembling the materials to host a few games in my garage, in case no one else brought their own gear. Of the six of us who were there, four of us had our own armies, but I had plenty to share. What I did not have was more than one game mat, so I bought some felt, some elastomeric patching compound, and a few cans of spray paint. For the cost of about $25, I had enough to make one 2'x2' standard mat, one 3'x4' mat for a big battle scenario, plus a water way.

 

We met in agreeable weather in my garage, with six of us in attendance. Jason up from Columbia, SC, while Robert, Nicholas, and Sean came down from Charlotte, NC, and Charles from Fort Mill. We casually determined pairings, then set to with our first games. Sean was the only one who had never played before, so I made sure he was paired with Jason, who is a veteran DBA player. My first game was against Nicholas, as I had promised to pitch my Hittite empire army against his Mycenean Greeks. Charles and Robert faced off with my Polybian Romans vs Charles' newly-painted Carthaginians. Charles had been so jazzed about playing DBA again, that he painted his entire army in about a week!

My Hittites, trying to break out into the open plains to take on the Greeks beyond.

In the second round, I faced off with Robert, pulling out my Shang Chinese and Koryo Dynasty Korean. These are 2.0 list armies, and definitely the most exotic in my collection. For those who complain that 3.0 has made their 2.0 armies obsolete, the figures work just fine with 3.0. We simply used the figures on had, and had a great time.

In the third round, we moved into the high middle ages with Hundred Years War vs Medieval French, me against Sean. By this round, Robert was playing against Jason, using Jason's Arabs and Rajputs. Nicholas and Charles mirrored our game, also with HYW English vs. French.

The wide variety of armies used at the event showcased the different character of each army, and how these differences affect the tactics to use. Next time I will use my Parthians to test the rules for rear support for light horse.

The plan was to finish up the day with a final big battle game, 3 on 3, but we ran out of time, and it was raining and becoming uncomfortably cool. If I was hopeful that our event would generate sufficient interest to play this game on a regular basis, this was confirmed in the next week as facebook postings and messages among the attendees started to share their plans to buy the rule book, collect and paint armies, etc. Since interest seems to be focused on republican Rome and the Macedonian Empire, I may have to look into putting together a campaign map that would allow us to play a simple campaign at one of our future events.