The Britcon report was originally sent to the DBM Yahoo group in 2002. The Roll Call report appeared in Slingshot 225.
Britcon 2002
I was in the 25mm DBM competition with my Low Countries army – standard formation the C-in-C’s command of pikes, Bd X and S and psiloi immediately in front of the baggage, a command entirely of pikes on one flank and the firing-line of organ guns interspersed with crossbowmen and backed by Bd(X) in front of the C-in-C’s command. Normally a maximum-sized marsh, with any luck in one of my flank sectors where I could have my 4 Ps(O) in ambush, to be declared one at a time as the enemy tried to infiltrate,
The first round draw was lucky – Nigel Poole with the Thracians I’d ridden over with Feudal English at Berkeley two years ago. A very light army – two large commands of massed Ax with some LH and Cv, a small one mainly of Ps which was flank-marching. The flank march came on after 2 turns and its Cv general got into my baggage and destroyed all of it – surviving at least three combats in which I had a Bd(X) in his flank. I lost another Bd(X) to a marauding LH on a 6-1 in a straight fight. Meanwhile my firing line had just got within range of a mass of Ax and started shooting, with little effect. On the other flank Nigel was skirmishing with LH but ran short of PIPs and I was able to trap and kill 4 elements. Others went through a narrow gap between my pike command and the table edge and were followed by their Cv(O) general. Bad move. I turned a pike element and pinned him, from his rear – Nigel thought he could just ride away but not so, the general had to turn and face. The Pk charged, assisted by another, and recoiled the general off the table. The command broke, demoralising all the Ax except the ones which were now starting to be riddled with hail shot and crossbow bolts with Blades ready to come through and set about them. Although he hadn’t lost half the army yet, Nigel resigned so I won 10-0 (32-0).
On Saturday morning I was due to play the No. 3 seed, with Anglo-Danish. I’d noticed him with a bottle of whiskey on his table during the Friday night game, and gathered that he’d continued carousing. 08.15 – start time – no opponent. 08.45 – umpire appeared and offered me the 32-0 bye. I declined, and the umpire said 09.15 was the final deadline. 09.15 or thereabouts – umpire came back and took my results slip showing 32-0. 09.18 – opponent appeared, bleary-eyed and apologetic. We didn’t play. [The opponent, Roger Gregory, subsequently blamed the Irish contingent for his failure to appear; apparently they’d forced whiskey on him. We thought about playing the game anyway, but decided that with two heavy infantry armies we wouldn’t get a result in the remaining time.]
So I was top of the table with a perfect 64 points. Third game – Neil Sutherland with Patrician Romans, including 12 Wb(S) and the usual Bd, Ax etc and 4 Art(O). His artillery shot much better than mine, knocking off crossbowmen and organ guns and weakening my first line for his legionaries and auxilia to crash through it, which they did with some loss. However, they were then set on by my reserve Bd and Pk which inflicted heavy loss. A Bd(X) bagged a Kn(F) – disappointingly(!) it didn’t need its special ability because I doubled his score anyway… Meanwhile he’d held the Wb back, partly for lack of PIPs to deploy them properly, and my Pk were able to attack them with overlaps as well as a general. The Pk pushed back several blocks, then killed a couple, turned a flank or two and that did it. Wb command broken. It looked like a draw, but right on time a demoralised organ gun shot an auxilia dead and that was that. 9-1 (27-5) to me. I was still top.
Fourth game – the No 2 seed Dave Allen with Alexandrian Macedonians. I knew Dave from the Central London club where I’d played him several times and usually won. He had one huge command of 36 Pk plus a general, a small one of 4 Kn and 3 LH, and another of Ax and Ps which skirmished against my all-Pk command. His pikemen went for my firing line and lost only one element despite numerous shots, then broke the command in short order. His Kn were scared of the Bd(X) and stayed back, but his LH got round a flank and destroyed two Bd(X), then went for my baggage but bounced off. My reserve command then got into his victorious but broken-up pikemen, flanked some and destroyed two files. 8 down, 5 to go to break his army and opportunities beckoned. I shot another element dead. Then Dave slid a Pk element behind my Bd(S) C-in-C to form the “buttocks of death”, won the dice by 3 to recoil him and I failed to save the command (4 elements down), Dave’s pike element died too, of course, but we finished at 0-10 (2-30). Dave has since reminded me that we shouldn’t have stopped at that point but completed my bound – it was conceivable (albeit unlikely) that I might have got the 3 elements I needed to break his army too.
Fifth game – Simon Elliott, another Central London player, with Seleucids, late version with cataphracts. Also an El(I) and some Cv(O) which spent the game cowering on his baseline. Same pattern as in the previous two games – his pikes broke my forward command and were then broken in turn by my reserve command; his Wb(S), only 4 strong, were destroyed by my Pk and I slaughtered some Ax and the “Roman Argyraspids” to break a second command for 9-1 (27-5). His cataphracts were deployed on the wrong side of a large marsh and did nothing.
That put me back on top of the table with 120 points, just ahead of Dave Allen and David Fairhurst, who each had 119.
Final game – David Fairhurst with Navarrese (1360). Two commands of Ax(S) and assorted knights, and a third of Free Company Bw(S) and Bd(S). Tough customers. I varied my deployment by forming the three commands in line – a marsh protected one flank (sort of, anyway – I had my 4 psiloi in ambush there). David skirmished against my pike command with psiloi while his knights rode away from them, and I strove to get the pikemen forward and into a large group of auxilia. He attacked with the Free Company English lads but found they were outshot by my combination of guns and crossbows, and he lost 3 longbow elements for only one crossbow one. His second lot of auxilia spent the game chasing elusive psiloi in the marsh, except for 4 elements which tried to mug a Bd(S) and were first repulsed then killed by my Blades. Other Blades, including my C-in-C, went for the longbowmen and killed enough to break the Free Company command. It looked like a win for me.
But my C-in-C was well forward and David attacked him with a Kn(O) – bit of a desperation measure as he needed to win the dice by 3 and would almost certainly be in dire trouble on my turn if he failed, but he got the dice and my C-in-C died. I’d lost only 2 elements and the command held, but I could no longer allocate PIPs and my centre command turned into an impetuous mob chasing the English who still had most of their Bd(S) including the general. Even demoralised Bd(S) will beat Bw(O), and they did. My pike command caught up with some Ax and started killing them, but my immobile C-in-C’s command was broken by knights and then my impetuous crossbowmen also went down and my army broke. 1-9 (5-27). David had lost 44% of his army.
So David Fairhurst won the competition, Dave Allen was second and I finished third, which got me a nice trophy. The SOA team won the Saturday night quiz so I have a trophy for that as well.
Roll Call 2022
My entry was in the DBM Imperial Rome and Enemies period [15mm figures, 400 AP]. I took a Numidian army dated 6 AD – I thought it unlikely that there would be any other Numidians about, and so it proved. I had 3 commands of Numidians, each with 8-12 light horse elements and assorted crummy infantry, plus a maximum-sized Roman ally with a cavalry general, 2 cavalry elements, 10 legionaries and 6 auxilia. At 400 points and all in-period armies I expected my army to be wider than most, so I should be able to dance around flanks. 10 of the 26 armies were Late Romans, and 4 were Palmyrans.
First game – Parthians, under Dave Hutchby. He had just as many light horse as I did, and cataphracts backing them up. No flanks to go around. My Romans were in the centre, with one Numidian command behind them and another on each flank. The Romans faced a few cataphracts (5, I think, including a general) and advanced to meet them – I had overlaps as my javelin-armed light horse drove off his horse-archers. He charged – his general killed two legionary elements but the rest bounced off, except one element which died. On my turn I swung a legionary into the flank, with another as an overlap – then threw 1 in the combat. Fortunately he threw 2, which meant he recoiled into his own general. That command broke, and on one flank my light horse comprehensively smashed slightly smaller numbers of horse-archers. 10-0 to me (31-1 in BHGS scoring).
Up to the top table to face the redoubtable Iain McNeil (junior), the No. 1 seed. He had Palmyrans – not a good matchup for me. Like the Parthians, but with Regular cataphracts and Superior Light Horse. Again his army stretched across the table.
Iain was manoeuvring to get his cataphracts into my Roman auxilia. I could see what was coming, and decided to bring on a clash on one flank as quickly as possible, before he was fully deployed. I hit a line of mixed light horse, plus 2 cataphracts, with light horse including a general. I had one overlap. Iain threw a string of 1s and I killed 3 light horse and a cataphract without loss. That seemed to disconcert Iain (interesting that top players use the same forcible expressions in such circumstances as we lesser mortals) and he gave me an opportunity by advancing a line of cataphracts, with the general second from the end, where my light horse could hit it in the flank. I did so, with one overlap – needed to win the dice by 3 and got 6-1. The command held, but Iain’s morale was severely affected. From then on the luck changed, and while I broke the badly damaged command by sweeping away horse-archers I just couldn’t finish off the army. He had a small built-up-area, so that he could have a large area of enclosed fields to get in my way – I took the village with psiloi and the 4 element equivalent penalty was eventually decisive. Finally he broke my C-in-C’s command but my Romans secured the last two elements I needed – cavalry hitting horse-archers with two overlaps and legionaries trapping a lone cataphract. I won 8-2 (26-6) to general amazement and applause.
Next I faced Geoff Pearson with Alans – maximum lancers (Fast Knights) and minimum light horse. After deployment he was taken aback to see the legionaries, two elements deep, deployed at an angle on the flank of a line of lancers. The rest of my army galloped forward and then retreated slowly in front of his light horse and a few lancers – relying on the Romans to do the business.
Geoff split off 3 lancer elements to face off the Romans, then lost control of them. Excellent! The middle one was poking its nose out just asking to be hit, so the legionaries closed at a run – 4-1 up and he’s Fast. Dice – 1-6, 2 dead legionaries, gap in the line. It all went downhill from there. Those three Fast Knight elements broke the Roman command, and when the light horse finally clashed I lost a general to another 6-1. A sad 0-10 defeat (2-30).
Finally I faced Late Romans commanded by Steve Dyett. He set up in a corner and cautiously advanced; I sent my Romans towards a mixed line of legionaries, auxilia and archers while trying to prise open one flank and screening the other. His light horse clashed with mine – I killed 3 elements but lost 5, leaving my command 1 off breaking. His shooting badly disrupted my Romans and they took a long time to get into contact. I pulled back the damaged command, and by the time limit it looked safe for a 5-5. Unfortunately that command got 1 PIP on my last turn and I couldn’t get everything out of the way – he could attack one light horse element with a Fast Knight, straight 4-2 combat. I threw a 1 and died, thereby losing the game 4-6 (12-20).
I finished in 10th place out of 26 – not too bad, but it could have been so much better. .