Taste of DBA 3 at Cold Wars, 2015

My morning presentation of DBA 3 went  very well.  There were a dozen attendees.  Most were people who had played DBA in the past and now wanted to catch up with Phil's new game.  There were a couple of pure newbies who had heard of DBA and wanted to know more about it.  The rest were current players of various version of the game who wanted to see what was new.  I went over various aspects of the new game.  Then I answered questions about the rules and the army lists.  Thanks to David Shepps for taking the picture.

I had some visual aids, example games, a blow up of my Quick Reference Sheet, and sample Figures from the book.

On Friday afternoon, I set up 4 example battles.  This instead of the duplicate format, so players could get more samples of armies.  The games included  Spanish & Tlaxcalan Army   vs   Aztec Army (this pair had 6 Hordes vs 6 Bows), Hindu with Rajput allies vs Tamil with Sinhalese allies ( 5 elephants on a side), Republican Romans vs Germans (this is the sample game in Sue's book), and Anglo-Saxon Army vs Vikings 850-1280 with Pre-feudal Scots allies (this is the from the Battle of  Brunanburh and shows good example of Shield Wall.)

Here is a good picture of the Battle of the Elephants.

We had an odd number of players at the start so I played  the Aztecs against the Conquistadors  game with a newbie.  After a few bounds, long time player Mike McVeigh stopped by and helped the Spanish.  Mike thought they had won when they destroyed the fourth horde but he learned they do not count for winning, but after I got a couple Spanish, they finished me off with 3 other elements, including the general who had pursued too far :( 

On Saturday afternoon, we did a matched pairs event.  Still mostly a learning experience so not too specific on match ups.  Here is a picture of the semi-final game  between Polybian Romans and Later Carthage.  Note the battlefield from Cigar Box. Next is a picture of the two winners who each got a copy of Sue's new book, donated by John Curry.

I was available most of the time for questions and demonstration play, promoting Sue's book and the rules.

All in all a very successful introduction of DBA 3.  I look forward to doing this again at Historicon.

There were a some comments on The Miniatures Page about my Demo

BW1959	09 Mar 2015 5:15 p.m. PST
Thanks for running the games Bob, I had a great time.
Rwphillipsstl	10 Mar 2015 7:05 a.m. PST
Extremely well done.
dapeters	11 Mar 2015 1:28 p.m. PST
Bob Thanks for taking the time Friday afternoon and showing me DBA.

Announcement of Taste of DBA 3

A  Taste of DBA 3  at Cold Wars

POC:  Bob Beattie, member of DBA 3 Development Team

DBA  3 is Phil Barker's official new version of  his classic ancient/medieval game.  While building on the basic ideas of the earlier versions, this one has many new concepts and procedures that make it an almost all new game. 

Here is an opportunity to learn and play this latest official offering from Phil. 

Friday

10am – noon

Introduction to DBA 3

Event Type: Interactive Learning Experience

Scale: any

Rules:  DBA 3

Players: unlimited

GM:  Bob Beattie

An introduction to the new DBA 3

Get an overview of the new rules, play a sample game, ask questions, come and laugh at me for playing DBA 3  J

Friday

1pm – 5pm

DBA 3 Duplicate Tournament.

Event Type: Duplicate Tournament

Scale: 15mm (figures provided)
Rules:  DBA 3

Rounds: 3 - 4

Players: 8

GM:  Bob Beattie

Players will take part in sample games. All boards, terrain, and figures will be provided.  Each game demonstrates aspects of the new game. This is a chance to try out DBA 3 with no investment.   If you cannot play, feel free to come and watch a while.

Saturday:

1pm – 5pm
DBA  3 Matched Historical Pairs

Event Type: Pairs Tournament

Scale: 15mm  (Some armies are available)
Rules:  DBA 3

Rounds: 4

Players: 8

Any DBA 3 army is eligible with historical enemy

GM: Bob Beattie

Each player provides 2 armies that are listed in the rules as enemies.  Since the armies are matched pairs, it will be ok to bring two historical pairs from the DBA 2.2 list, but the troop types will be played as DBA 3.  For example, 5x Warband will be 5 x Horde, 3 x Spear will be 3 x Pike.    In two rounds player choses one of opponent's pair to play with, in 2 rounds opponent chooses one of yours.  This event is limited to pairs of elements on 40mm bases due to limits of boards and terrain available.  Players who want to use 60mm bases are welcome, if they bring boards and terrain. I will have some pairs available for those who need armies.   I can also answer questions about converting 2.2 armies to 3 armies,  If you cannot play, feel free to come and watch a while.

continue on to see what happened