DBMM at Munster 2012

Hugely enjoyable couple of days gaming with Dbmm rules at Cork in Munster S.Ireland over weekend.
Usual excellent hospitality from Richard and his family and another famous victory over his children on Scene It (Film Quiz) game for XBox (I also won a 'dance off' on an embarrassingly horrendous dance moves game on the XBKinnect !!).Usual gathering of wargame geeks at Richards and accompanying chit chat as edifying as ever.
Weekend got off to a interesting start as I travelled south on Friday with my Chauffeur (Mr Brittain) as due to wargames related waffling we managed to take wrong route through Dublin ending up heading towards Wexford (albeit still in a definite southerly direction) adding a couple of hours to our journey time.


I took my Maurikian Byzantine army (competition this year was themed for "armies of "The Early Medieval Period - 477 AD to 1073 AD" ). As per last year terrain was pre-set by organizers which I really like (although I know some dislike) as it speeds up set-up time thereby increasing actual battling time and eradicates ability to cherry pick terrain to order which can often be a game killer Imho.


Gaming on day one (Saturday) in the very nice venue of Cork University commenced promptly at 0930hrs.
My first game was against Greg Mann (a player who plays in a lot of Dbmm competitions in UK having won several and whom I have not played before) using Khorasanian.
A great (albeit quick) game as I advanced right up to his army and managed to break his left wing command pdq* with some decent combat rolls. (* pretty damned quick)
Killing the command General also got me first General killed trophy and very nice it is too  (my photo does not do it justice)

However my Kavallori came a bit unstuck against his Spearmen by failing to break through at any point in his line despite committing 2 Generals in charges !
They took some losses and then my left wing command was promptly shattered in one turn (his dice awesome mine back to normal) with the -2ME 'hit' on my center breaking the army.
This gave Gregg a 19-6 win. I was however chuffed to take any points off him.

My victorious right wing

My center with CiC and fellows having bounced off Gregs Spearmen (again !)

Game two in afternoon was against Steve Mills (with young Tommy the Dice Rolling Machine assisting) with an extremely nicely painted Sassanid Persian army (belonging to umpire Tom 'Grandad' Worden).
The table was most terrain heavy of the 10 and really was not optimal choice for either of us (again I like this 'deal with what you have in front of you' aspect of the pre-set option).
Persians had a block of 4 Elephants which rushed forward as I frantically tried to re-deploy some PsS to deal with them and divert my mounted line (my PIP dice rolls throughout were poor whilst the rolls by the DRM were awesome throughout) a central slog ensued as I could not escape and whilst I did kill 2 elephants the others wrecked havoc !
I did manage to break a Persian command but fell to another 19-6 loss.

Sassanids with those bloody elephants advancing (the pic does not capture the high quality paint job)

Day two (Sunday) started promptly once more and I faced off in morning against Tim Madeley (a cracking bloke I have played each year) who was using Patrician Roman.
Tim managed to set up his Legionaries on a central hill along with his Artillery and I thought my lot will have a torrid time attacking that (retreat or inaction not an option) but to his infinite and undying credit the Madeley chap advanced even coming off his hill 'fort'being a man after my own heart !
This made for a cracking game all across the table as I tried to hold his superior right wing with my inferior left (he had several LhS & KnF against my mainly LhF and CvS) whilst I took on his Legionaries and a block of Irr AxS on his left. with my Mounted.
I broke his right wing (his KnF dieing ingloriously to lowly LhF!!) but saw my survivors on this wing broke next turn.
My central command was teetering on the brink as well as his superior number told, but luckily (in a large degree indeed) I managed to break his left wing AxS command and both armies were broken in same turn. As Tim was nominal defender he got a 13-12.
A fast, furious, rip roaring, and exciting game this one with which I managed to double my score despite losing as such.

Tims right wing rushed into contact with lesser opponents

Face off in center

Tim tries to stop my advance with his hand

Huzza ! first of his Knights being removed 

Nik Gaukroger and I had a friendly rivalry from last year as to which of us might finish bottom (and obtain a trophy) as he felt I robbed him of this illustrious prize last year, but it seems the Munster group drafted in a 'ringer' in form of Padraig (last years umpire) fielding a Tuareg array and I faced him in last game.
The table was to his advantage as it had several dunes and scrub fields that his CmS like.
However with nothing more than my usual simple plan of advance asap and engage (aided by getting 3 night bounds) I was surprised (never faced a Camel heavy army) to find that the CmS are so plain awful, as despite Superior grading their low combat factor of 2 makes just about every combat a high risk venture for them as 2ME Troops.
They seemed to simply melt away (a few did cause my KnF grief). Padraig had a flank march with a large command of Warband which appeared on my right but too far way to make any impact as the Camel commands were quickly destroyed and his army broken.
No claim by me to any great tactical feat in this one simply a dice rolling contest the CmS are hard pushed to win.
Great kudos to Padraig for attempting to use Tuareg at all and for being aggressive with it too.
I won this one 23-2 and so nearly doubled my score again.
This lifted me from 'relegation zone' to a lofty (for me) 12 place.

Remains of the central and first to be broken Turaeg command 

Turaeg friendly terrain but to no avail

The flank march arriving

Four enjoyable games against 4 gentlemanly opponents and scoring every game (thereby without suffering a 0-25) made this one of my better competition results.
I must remember next year to again not read the rules or have any practice games as this 'tactic' seemed to work for me !! Looking forward to next year already.............

Only 'downside' to this years competition was the Munster blokes 'gift' of a Dbmm measuring stick as it was 'adorned' with what can only be described as a hideous and ghostly image of Willy Coughlan !! I had to turn mine 'face' down as I found it disturbing and am convinced the eyes were watching and following my every move !!! see for your self (or yer'self as they say down there)

A selection of pics and insults

Tuaregs about to succumb to Nik's Khmer

Willy 'The Face' Coughlan against Mick 'Chinaman' Hession. Note chauffeur looking 'lost' to left and an onlooker literally biting his nails with tension and excitement !

Battle of the 'Tonys' as Messrs Fitzgerald and Bergin enact a Byzantine civil war as Richard tries to stop his hairline receding behind them.

Steve 'The Lucky Maurikian' Bainbridge (eventual winner) against Rob 'The Orangeman' Brennan (note also the 'Two Tonys' confused as to which side of their table to be on)

Tim 'Mad as Me' Madeley looking for excuses in rule book against Mark 'How Did I Win That!' Gibson

Jan 'Van the Man' Embden snapping one of his figures in half as Nik 'Race you to the bottom' Gaukroger watches bemused in a battle of strangest names encounter (Note Dave 'The Don' Houston in background seemingly playing on wrong table)

Stephen 'The Wandering Chauffeur' Brittain against 'The Face' in a classic 'dice cup or tactile rolling technique' match up with Tom 'Granda' Worden the umpire ready to step in if things get rough.

'Wandering Chauffeur' making rudes gesture at enemy troops

Jim 'Tesco' Gibson lining his dice up as an on table reserve

Dave 'The Don' Houston posing contentedly as other fellow appears to have forgotten his army

The results of the competition were:

No    Name                          Army                                    Score
1    Steve Bainbridge        Maurikian Byzantine         79
2   Mark Gibson                Nikephorian Byzantine     76
3   Richard Aynsley          Early Vietnamese                71
4   Jan Van Embden        Pre Samurai Japanese      66
4   David Houston            Christian Nubian               66
6   Stephen Brittain         Early T'ang Chinese           58
7   William Coughlan      Seljuq Turk                          53
8   Greg Mann                   Khurasanian                        52
8   Nik Gaukroger             Khmer                                   52
10  Seamus McKenna      Kushan                                  50
11  Tim Madeley                Patrician Roman                49
12  Richard Murphy        Sogdian                                 47
12  Gary Barr                     Maurikian Byzantine         47
14  Jim Gibson                  Dailami                                 46
15  Rob Brennan               Medieval Vietnamese        42*
16  Anthony Fitzgerald   Nikephorian Byzantine     40
17  Mick Hession              N&S Dynasties Chinese     38
18  Tony Bergin                Early Byzantine                   32
19  Steve Mills                   Sassanid Persian                28
20 Padraig Bracken        Tuareg                                     8


* = Only played three games.