Is DBMM Really A Much Faster Game?

Faster Yes Or No?

Following a series of posts in the DBMM Yahoo Group about night attacks and wasted times travelling hundreds of miles and then ending up sitting motionless due to night attacks I decided to examine the recent DBMM results posted on the BHGS website.

I looked at the listed scores and took the median range of 10-15 VP which are various sorts of draws.

Roll Call

http://www.bhgs.org.uk/roll-call---2015-results.html

There were 14 players listed with their 58 scores shown indicating 29 games ?

There were a total of 20 scores in the range of 10-15 VP [10 games?] out of these 29 games making it over 34% of games were draws.

The Challenge

http://www.bhgs.org.uk/challenge-2015-results.html

There were 28 players listed with their best four scores shown indicating 56 games ?

There were a total of 44 scores in the range of 10-15 VP [22 games?] out of these 56 games making it over 39% of games were draws.

So it seems that despite the claim that DBMM gives a much faster game over a third of the results showed that this isn't the case and players can expect a third of their games to end without a decisive result when using DBMM.

I often get a lot of stick if I post comments about the rules on the DBMM Yahoo Group and the moderator would not allow my statistical examination of the above results as he said it would "just inflame things".

One poster accused me of attempting to hijack the thread for my own personal reasons and then proceeded to attack me for only achieving three winning draws in the DBM Challenge to ensure I got a podium place in the last round.

Funnily I never claimed MM players entered tournaments and then only played for draws and most of us enter tournaments to win irrespective of the rules used.

Where does DBM come in to all this? Well I never mentioned DBM and I imagined its a cheap jibe at me for only achieving 18, 19 and 19 in my first three games despite trying as hard as possible to win in those rounds. The Challenge had a much higher proportion of draws than normal, 12 players with 24 games played over four rounds. Taking the range of scores shown as 12-20 VP [16 games?] meaning that 67% ended in some sort of draw.

I looked back at the Roll Call DBM results just to see if there was any pattern there, 9 players with 18 games and 11 games in the same result range - so 61% this time.

Having played Darrell, Andrew and Jer Morgan in the first three Challenge rounds respectively all of them will confirm that I played as hard and fast as I could to win.

My blog of the games below shows how the games progressed.

http://drewjarman.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/the-bhgs-challenge-dbm-15mm-results.html

I only achieved a podium place because I fought Gareth to destruction and having played him on lots of previous occasions I know hes a very competent player too. Only a spectacularly good result would have given me a podium place and I went for it when a defeat would have given me mid table mediocrity again!

Having attacked Darrell's Spanish ally for 8 bounds in my first game without almost no success, we both kept drawing, it was both frustrating for both of us, whilst Jer’s Spanish ally evaporated in quick succession!

Getting back to DBMM travelling for long distances and ending up playing games where you sit stationary for 45 minutes because of a night attack mechanism prevents you from moving and either getting destroyed as they get into the perfect position with almost no penalty or fighting an inconclusive game must be very frustrating to all concerned. The same can be said for DBM when Dust Storms happen that slow everything down. MM players say that the entire rules should be used warts and all as its what makes the game and whilst playing a friendly at a club I tend to agree because we all want to be tested in our game play. In a time limited tournament setting there is something to be said for the BHGS DBM convention of not playing Time of Day unless both players want to and always playing Weather unless both players agree not to.

Passing comment on night attack mechanisms isn't hijacking things and perhaps some list members should think about the deficiencies in the DBMM rules before making attacks on others whose choice not to use them because in their opinion there are plenty of better rules out there to use for ancient based games but instantly go into "Fan Boy" attack mode because someone else views dare to not agree with their own.

What does come out of this discussion is whilst the DBM player base is much reduced from the Golden Age of "One Game To Rule Them All" in today's fractured gaming community DBMM has signally not taken off to replace DBM in the big tournaments with Field of Glory still dominating most tournament numbers in the UK.

Its usage is patchy around the world with it being none existent in some regions with either DBM or FoG dominating.