The 24th in my series of themed DBM competitions was played at Frome on 7/8 February. The theme was ”A Thousand Years Ago”, with 18 armies from Europe and the Near East all dated 1026 AD.
The winner was John Brooker, whose West Frankish army won all four of its games, beating Italian Lombards, Bretons, Bohemians and Early Serbians. The tight theme meant that there was a marked absence of exotica such as pike phalanxes, elephants, longbowmen and disciplined troops (except for the Byzantine and Fatimid Egyptian armies which did have some regulars). Fast Knights dominated, but there were plenty of heavy infantry (a clash in which Scottish “Thegns”, as Superior Warband, crashed through a mass of Russian spearmen was particularly memorable) and there were some armies with lots of light horse. Early Hungarians met Dynastic Bedouin in the last round, with around a hundred light horse on the table.
Next year’s competition will be entitled “Bajazet Yilderim”, featuring armies of the Ottomans and their enemies, 1360-1403 AD.