DBMM at Cancon 2012 - Day 1

Arrived for Day 1 of DBMM2 at Cancon. As usual, the place is packed. The biggest gathering of wargamers, freaks, geeks and who knows what. This year there seemed to be more women playing, which is a positive sign (especially if we want to rejuvenate the hobby with young boys...).

Anyway, game 1 was versus Michael Stone, running Normans. My Ayyubids are essentially one command of very good Light Horse (LH(S) - Light Horse Superior in DBMM parlance), supported by two commands of 'Askaris' and junior 'Ghulams' (Cv(O) - Cavalry Ordinary) with a smattering of senior Ghulams (Cv(S) - Cavalry Superior). Normans are essentially lots of relatively lightly armoured charging mounted (Kn(F) - Knight Fast) supported by Breton Cavalry. Terrain, (I was attacker) was essentially a large open space between a set of enclosed fields in which Michael put his bowmen and the bad going on the other wing. I didn't waste time, deciding a Light Horse charge followed up by Cavalry was the best option.. Letting Michale hit me with that weight of a punch would be a bad idea...   the pictures tell the tale.

The Ayyubids line up for the charge

Some very poor dice rolling by Michael and 5 Knight down in the first combats

It only got worse from there.

I was lucky enough to be the beneficiary of Michael's bad dice..  once the first line crumbled I was able to exploit and he never recovered - Game 1 - 25-0

Game 2 was against Aaron Russell with Khitan Liao, he, his brother Zac, and their father Greg, have been coming to Canberra and plundering trophies for the last few years, and they play a very hard and skilful game.


No photographs I am afraid...  brief summary?

I made a deployment mistake, and Aaron is to good a player to do that against. His Light Horse poured through the gap. (My miscomprehension of the marching rules really) - very frustrating game. My dancing Ayyubids suffered from a shortage of PIPS, and then he turned on some amazing dice rolling. In two rounds of combats we had 20 combats, in which he rolled 14 x 6, 2 x 1, 1 x 3, a 4 and 2 x 5.  Needless to say when his Kn(F) were attacking my cavalry, just about every 6 was a death for my troops and I went down in a heap. I did manage to cause some casualties, but a very frustrating game. I was grumpy and really furious with myself. Only bright spot was my baggage fighting off about 7 separate attacks by Light Horse.. (go baggage!) 21-4 to Zac, and I felt he deserved the win, (but not by that much).

My mood was NOT helped by the fact every time I tried to go get food at lunchtime, the queue was round the block, (Note to CGS, two food outlets working very slowly for a couple of thousand people with a fixed lunchtime just doesn't cut it. I am now taking food to Cancon, and I will not queue for overpriced coffee, and overpriced slow 'Fast Food' again - I think you just gave a lease of life to my Thermos flask.) I have learned that a Sugar Low in the middle of the afternoon makes me a grumpy boy...

So - End of Day 1 - I expected my Light Horse to beat the Normans with reasonable dice luck, (and so it was). Game 2. My fault, but salt was rubbed into the wounds by Aaron's extraordinary dice.