Essex Warriors 2017 DBM Tournament 1st Round Results

Heres the 1st round completed and the second round draw.

Essex Warriors 2017 DBM Club Tournament

There are ten entrants this year which is two more than last year.

DBM v3.3 400 AP Single List using either the DBM or DBMM 2^nd edition army lists.

32-0 Scoring System

In Surname Order

Paul Brady – 0282 Patrician Roman MM

John Davis – 0443 Later Hungarian MM

Richard Gravatt – 0219 Seleucid MM

Peter Hockaday – 0443 Later Hungarian M

Drew Jarman – 0319 Welsh MM

Peter Kemp – 0435 Mongol Conquest M

Andy Leeser – 0236 Bactrian Greek MM

Bob McDermott – 0436 Later Muslim Indian MM

Tim Myall – 0264 Middle Imperial Roman MM

Steve Nutt – 0246 Kushan BC M

In List Number Order

Richard Gravatt – 0219 Seleucid MM 280 BC – 190 BC

Andy Leeser – 0236 Bactrian Greek MM 150 BC – 130 BC

Steve Nutt – 0246 Kushan 50 BC M

Tim Myall – 0264 Middle Imperial Roman MM 297 AD

Paul Brady – 0282 Patrician Roman MM 459 AD

Drew Jarman – 0319 Welsh MM 1118 AD – 1144 AD

Peter Kemp – 0435 Mongol Conquest M 1214 AD

Bob McDermott – 0436 Later Muslim Indian MM 1380 AD

John Davis – 0443 Later Hungarian MM 1444 AD

Peter Hockaday – 0443 Later Hungarian M 1491 AD

In List Date Order

Richard Gravatt – 0219 Seleucid MM 280 BC – 190 BC

Andy Leeser – 0236 Bactrian Greek MM 150 BC – 130 BC

Steve Nutt – 0246 Kushan 50 BC M

Tim Myall – 0264 Middle Imperial Roman MM 297 AD

Paul Brady – 0282 Patrician Roman MM 459 AD

Drew Jarman – 0319 Welsh MM 1118 AD – 1144 AD

Peter Kemp – 0435 Mongol Conquest M 1214 AD

Bob McDermott – 0436 Later Muslim Indian MM 1380 AD

John Davis – 0443 Later Hungarian MM 1444 AD

Peter Hockaday – 0443 Later Hungarian M 1491 AD

Armies by Books:

Bk 1 - 0

Bk 2 - 5

Bk 3 - 1

Bk 4 - 4

Armies by List Variant:

DBM Lists - 3

DBMM Lists - 7

1st Round
Player	Army	Score	Total	Position
Game 1
Peter Kemp	0435 Mongol Conquest M	15	15	06
V [05/02/17]
Bob McDermott	0436 Later Muslim Indian MM	17	17	04
Game 2
Paul Brady	0282 Patrician Roman MM	01	01	09
V [19/03/17]
Andy Leeser	0236 Bactrian Greek MM	31	31	02
Game 3
Richard Gravatt	0219 Seleucid MM	00	00	10
V [05/03/17]
Steve Nutt	0246 Kushan M	32	32	01
Game 4
Drew Jarman	0319 Welsh MM	15	15	06
V [08/01/17]
John Davis	0443 Later Hungarian MM	17	17	04
Game 5
Tim Myall	0264 Middle Imperial Roman MM	13	13	08
V [05/02/17]
Peter Hockaday	0443 Later Hungarian M	19	19	03

1st Round Positions
Player	Army	Score	Total	Position
Steve Nutt	0246 Kushan M	32	32	01
Andy Leeser	0236 Bactrian Greek MM	31	31	02
Peter Hockaday	0443 Later Hungarian M	19	19	03
John Davis	0443 Later Hungarian MM	17	17	04
Bob McDermott	0436 Later Muslim Indian MM	17	17	04
Drew Jarman	0319 Welsh MM	15	15	06
Peter Kemp	0435 Mongol Conquest M	15	15	06
Tim Myall	0264 Middle Imperial Roman MM	13	13	08
Paul Brady	0282 Patrician Roman MM	01	01	09
Richard Gravatt	0219 Seleucid MM	00	00	10

2nd Round
Player	Army	Score	Total	Position
Game 1
Steve Nutt	0246 Kushan M
V
Andy Leeser	0236 Bactrian Greek MM
Game 2
Peter Hockaday	0443 Later Hungarian M
V
John Davis	0443 Later Hungarian MM
Game 3
Bob McDermott	0436 Later Muslim Indian MM
V
Drew Jarman	0319 Welsh MM
Game 4
Peter Kemp	0435 Mongol Conquest M
V
Tim Myall	0264 Middle Imperial Roman MM
Game 5
Paul Brady	0282 Patrician Roman MM
V
Richard Gravatt	0219 Seleucid MM

First Run Out With Cilician Armenians

Cilician Armenians Invade the Serbian Empire

I have been building new armies over the last four years as part of Project Lead Mountain. Recently an old gaming buddy rejoined the club and has been getting back into the swing of DBM.

We have been pretty flexible on what games we played and whilst we have stuck with DBM v3.3 and using the M2 and MM2 lists we have been sticking to Book 4 games at the present.

I decided on using my Cilician Armenians which had not been used since I finished them and to my horror Brian went for Serbian Empire. 

Brians army was organised in three commands:-

CinC 26 E/23 EE/8 D [25% = 6 EE]

C2 24 E/22 EE/ 7.5 D [25% = 5.5 EE]

C3 22 E/20 EE/7 D [25% = 5 EE]

Army 72 E/65 EE/32.5 B

My army was a four command one totalling 88 elements and was the first try out. I was pleased with the performance despite Brian having the luck of the devil with his PIP dice rolls most of the time.

When we called time after 4 hours we were both in a strong position, Brian had started to break up my right flank whilst I had started to destroy his central position by killing some of his CinC's command Kn S. The game ended on a 5-5 score with neither of us having taken 25% from an enemy command which converted to 16-16 using the BHGS scoring system.

Project Lead Mountain 03/03/17

Project Lead Mountain - 3rd March 2017

As part of my ongoing attempt to clear out all of my unpainted, unwanted metal which I have called Project Lead Mountain I have been rationalising and rebasing older figures in my collection to sell off on EBay. I had ten bases of Psiloi crossbowmen which I have been trying to sell on EBay with little or no interest. I thought they would have sold but I guess there's only so many Ps a DBx player needs. They are suitable for the 13th C era onwards. Since they didnt sell I decide that I would rebase them into Reg Bw O and put Pavises in front of them to turn them into Mercenary Crossbowmen Reg Bw O. So a quick order to Tin Soldier for a number of their Pavises was in order to let me to the conversion. I only wanted to make four elements so have added the spare two elements of Ps into my collection.

I decided that since most mercenary crossbowmen seemed to come from Italy that I would decorate the pavises with various Italian city state patterns. Rebasing figures is always a chore but often works out for the best in the end. I painted the pavises whilst still attached to the elements bases before glueing the now spare crossbowmen in place. The end result is quite effective and they will be on EBay in the next few days. I am fairly certain that the helmeted castings are Essex but I can't ID the other ones.

As part of the rationalisation process I had some old Minifigs Z313 Frankish Crossbowmen which were in desperate need of rebasing. There were sixteen castings and I decided that they would be ideal to turn into Reg Bw O or I because they are fully armoured in a long mail hauberk. They will be suitable for the earlier style Reg Bw O or I Mercenary Crossbowmen in Feudal armies such as Communal and Papal Italian, Feudal French, Sicilian, Medieval German and Feudal English. I think they wont really be suitable for depicting troops after 1200 AD due to their armouring style. They will be on EBay in due course as they are surplus to my requirements. As a casting sculpt style they are pretty unimpressive but they are very old figures but so generic they will easily hide themselves in lots of armies with little problem. I didn't paint these figures having acquired them at a Bring and Buy some years ago but they were on horrible bases. 

Minifigs Z313 Frankish Crossbowmen

Moving onto figures I decided to paint and keep to finish off gaps in my collection I had already painted up an odd bag of eight Minifigs Z310 European Crossbowmen [Helmet] as four bases of Irr Ps O but as part of collecting for another army I got another bag of Z310 figures and decided that since I had too many Ps I would paint these to match the first batch and then rebase them all as unarmoured Mercenary Crossbowmen Reg Bw I which will be suitable for use from 1029 AD up to at least 1200 AD in the same armies I already listed above. The castings required almost no cleaning up and are a dream to paint up and base.  

Minifigs Z310 European Crossbowmen [Helmet]

The other figures were two bags of Minifigs Z311 European Heavy Crossbowmen [Mail, Pot Helm]. The castings also required almost no cleaning up and again are a dream to paint up and base. Their figure style is slightly later than the casting Z310 due to the Pot Helm so will be suitable to use in armies up to about 1300 AD as Mercenary Crossbowmen Reg Bw O.

Minifigs Z311 European Heavy Crossbowmen [Mail, Pot Helm]

This brings to a close this weeks installment from Project Lead Mountain. I still have a lot more figures left to paint and have purchased the metal for a new army last month with the proceeds of last years EBay sales.

Cilician Armenian In Disguise

Cilician Armenians Disguised As Mongols

This DBx army list has two elements of Irr LH F described as Armenians dressed as Mongols. I was at a loss what to do to create these two elements until as part of another EBay purchase I added one pack of 15mm Minifigs ZC350 Mongol Cavalry [Firing Bow] to the order.

I Googled for suitable images with very little luck, they were more traditional Asiatic Horde type drawings and thought that considering they were really Cilician Armenians in disguise I should try and make them fit into the rest of the army but still give them a flavour of what the Mongol Hordes would have looked like.

Like most of the Minifigs range they are very old sculpts despite the old company having remastered all of their horses over 15 years ago or more. They are still quite crisp castings and required minimal cleaning up to get them ready for painting. I added them to the list of items to be painted which took on more urgency this week when I decided that I intended to use the Cilician Armenians for the first time on Sunday at Essex Warriors and I wanted to swop out the two Arab-Muslim light horse elements of Horse Archers I was using in their place.

So to all those gamers out there who dismiss Minifigs as being old castings this isn't always the case and with a steady hand and a keen eye you can get some very nice results.

Minifigs ZC350 Mongol Cavalry [Firing Bow]

Peter Pig 15mm Tuaregs

Peter Pig Tuaregs in 15mm

Back in 2013 I ordered some of Peter Pigs Tuaregs from their range 0303 to make up an allied contingent to go with my other Arab armies. Despite it being ready to use I still have not ever played a game with them! The figures required some cleaning up and assembly. See http://www.peterpig.co.uk/ancients.html I ordered a mix of codes 03031, 03032 & 03033.

The large shields were all separate which means you can get some variety with a limited number of figures. I decided to take the army list notes literally and they were the famed milky white colour. I also have a ton of other camels from Irregular painted with brown hides to act as troops for the LPIA army and as mounts for infantry if needed. The one thing that really annoys me about the LPIA list is that all of their generals are mounted on horses which means that operationally you cant move though dunes using a small command due to the adverse effect dunes have on horses in DBx.

I could field a Tuareg army by using all of the camels but have never felt brave enough to try it! 

Here are two pictures of the finished Tuaregs which are now four years old and have never left their storage box to fight. One day maybe?

Baueda 15mm Medieval Tents Review

Baueda 15mm Medieval Tents

I spotted a bargain on EBay last week and whilst I knew better I bought them. I paid a total of £28-30 for 6 x 15MDV Nobles Tents, 1 x 1 x 15RNS Nobles Pavilion, 1 x LGS1 Ancient Supplies, 1 x LGS2 Generic Supplies & 1 x 15WFN Wattle Fence. The retail from Baueda for then all is €36-00 which converts to £30-47 plus delivery. So whilst I got a bargain I still ended up with so more items I dont know what to do with at the moment. I already have one of each of the LGS 1 & 2 packs meaning I now have four of them spare. I will be keeping the Wattle pack and will use it to create Temporary Fortifications for Dark Age and Early Feudal armies in due course.

I really like the Baueda range of baggage items [see http://www.baueda.com/index.html ] and I had been thinking of replacing my current medieval baggage with new elements. I have just completed them and have put them in the baggage box in lieu of the older items I had. Whilst they are clean resincast items with minimal flash they take a steady hand to paint them well enough to avoid you ending up with a messy looking set of tents.

The replaced baggage elements are now on EBay as they are surplus to my needs and they will offset the cost of the new tents despite their being Baueda castings. [Pictures below]. I guess that sometimes I am just a bit too picky for my own good as theres nothing wrong with them really.

The EBay link is here:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/192107489673?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649