Big Battle D.B.A.

   Nick and some of the guys at C.O.G.S. invited me over to join in on a four player game of De Bellis Antiquitatis last night. It was Late Persians vs Greeks in 15mm... We played a scaled up version (Big Battle) of D.B.A. on a double sized board with the equivalent of 3 standard D.B.A. armies per side.  The Big Battle rules introduce the demoralisation rule, which was a very interesting addition. Nick and I were the Greeks. It was close, but in the end the Persians won.

De Bellis Antiquitatis at C.O.G.S.

After enjoying my initial experience of having a go at playing "De Bellis Antiquitatis" (DBA) with 6mm miniatures at the "Joy of Six" wargames show a few weeks ago, I ordered the rule book, and printed out a set of paper tokens to try and get my head around the rules. The rules aren't very long, but the text is quite dense.. and a bit hard to fathom. Still enthusiastic however, I made contact with the DBA players at the Chesterfield Open Games Society via their Facebook group and asked if I could get in on a few games with them.

Nick and Simon from C.O.G.S. were keen to play and teach, and they roped in another chap (didn't catch his name) as a fourth person, so we had two games going on at once. It is much easier to learn by playing with someone patient who is already familiar with a game than trying to figure it all out from scratch from a book.  I ended up playing 3 games altogether and had a great time.

 

We played with Simon and Nick's miniatures and scenery, 15mm rather than 6mm this time (They use the same sized bases - just less miniatures per base)..

 

Game 1 - Swiss Army vs French Ordonnance Army (around 1500 AD)

Swiss pikemen anticipate a charge from the French cavalry

Game 2 - Marian Romans vs Revolting Sicilian Slaves (around 100 BC)

I was the Romans... It didn't go well for me!

The game going on next to me... Samurai vs...?? - all Nick's beautifully painted miniatures.

Game 3 - Romans vs Sicilians again - a much closer game this time...
 but Simon's Sicilians were triumphant in the end..

I am going to work on a couple of armies... Romans for sure, as they have so many enemies! - and Ancient Britons I think to start with. I think I will go with 6mm for my first two armies, as the miniatures are pretty cheap...

Thanks again to Nick and Simon for teaching, and letting me play with their stuff!

Frostgrave at C.O.G.S....

The Chesterfield Open Gaming Society meet every Monday evening. A few people in their group have been playing Frostgrave regularily over there, and I've been wanting to go over and join in for a while now. Due to family stuff I can't usually get out on a Monday - but something came up, and I did manage to get over this week at last! It's only a 25 minute drive from my house - The C.O.G.S. meet in a church hall near the football ground in Chesterfield. On the evening I went, here were quite a few different games going on; board and card games as well as some interesting looking 6mm wargames , and 3 games of Frostgrave...

 

I had told the Frostgrave guys I was coming via their Facebook page, so they were expecting me - they were very friendly and welcoming. One of the guys had prepared a new starter warband to play against me. We had a great game - It looked like things were going my way until a wandering zombie scored a critical hit on my Wizard!  

 

As you can see from the pics, they had some fantastic scenery - all made by one of the guys there... the buildings were all scratch built and have removable roofs... and all the stonework stuff was made using "Hirst Arts" molds - very cool! - And really nice to play on.. They got set up in about 20 minutes, from boxes in the back of a car - to this table set up!

 

Apparently they've started playing Gaslands regularily at their club too...
I'm hoping I might have a few more chances to get over again in the school holidays to get a few more games in...