Being able to play with this army was one of the reasons for creating the DBA-RRR rules.

Gonzalo de Cordoba, El Gran Capitán.

He was known for his exploits at the beginning of the Great Italian Wars at the close of the 15th century and in the first years of the 16th century.

Minifigs even made a personality figure for him.

 The army arrayed. It is in 15mm scale and is a mixture of several manufacturers including Naismith, Minifigs, Viking Forge and Gladiator.

Spanish knights by Minifigs, but on Viking Forge horses. The ones supplied by Minifigs were very small and didn’t look right.

The Spanish Arquebusiers are a mixture of Minifigs and Naismith.

The pikemen are Minifigs.

The two elements of Jinetes (LH) which are Minifigs.

Spanish Rodeleros (Sword and Bucklermen) are a mixture of Minifigs, Gladiator, Naismith and Viking Forge.

Two pictures of the Spanish cannon. The cannon model itself is Naismith and the gun crew is Minifigs.

Here is a set of pictures that I took from the DBA/DBA-RRR events at Hurricon this last weekend.

We had several players travel from out-of-state to attend and a few fresh faces.

We had 10 players that participated.

The final standings after 3 rounds was as follows:

Hank Drapalski      III/36 Ottoman Turk      3-0      65 points

Roland Fricke      I/3 Swiss Confederate      2-1      50 points

Dan McKellick      I/1 Italian Condotta      2-1    46 points

Tim Relihan      I/26c Japanese      1-0-2      30 points

Rich Gause      III/27 Scots Jacobite      1-2      29 points

Ron Giampapa      I/26c Japanese      1-1-1      28 points

John Manning      III/46 Later Polish      1-1-1       25 points

Bryan Szwarckop       I/8c Valois French      1-2       22 points

Bill Brown       II/22a ECW Parliamentarian      1-3      22 points

Alan Ferrency      II/28c Hindu Indian – Rajputs       0-3       6 points

This is the French Ordonnance Army for DBA v. 2.2 during the reign of Charles VII at the end of the Hundred Years War. All figures are 15mm scale.

The army is composed of figures from Roundway with the exception of the two cannon, which are Old Glory.

I wanted the army to have a uniform look, but also have some individuality. I used the “Vigiles de Charles VII” as one of my main inspirations for this army.

Everything is handpainted by me and I did not use any decals or washes.

Here is a close up of the King, who is flanked by elements of the Scots Archers, his personal bodyguard.

This was my first attempt at painting a fleur de lis. I think it turned out really well.

The Ordonnance Knights did not carry shields with them during this period. The one thing that seems to be standard is the white cross on the cassocks of many of the troops.

All four Ordonnance knights stands are allowed to dismount. The dismounted version of each of the Knight stands has figures on foot that match the mounted version.

Here are the Franc Archers (2x 3Bw) and the Bow and Crossbow elements.

The gunpowder elements of this army consist of the handgunners, which are considered psiloi, and two artillery pieces.

STEPPE RIGHT UP DBA Tournament

Rich Gause ran the “Steppe Right Up” tournament on Friday night.

All eligible armies had to be of a Steppe terrain type.

All battles were played on 30″ boards and the player that had more LH could adjust their aggression die roll by how every many more LH elements that he had more than their opponent.

12 players attended.

Xi-Xia defending against some more mobile hordes of the steppe.

Jim Riley and Joe Coniglio having an Alanic Civil War.

More steppe action.

Rich Gause and Bill Melendez doing the Double Timurid Tango.

Marty Schmidt and the Central-Asian City States fight Rick Cundiff’s Central-Asian Turks.

A lose up of Marty and Rick’s battle.

Joe Coniglio’s Alans (R) in the steppe.

Rick Cundiff advancing in a box formation with his Central-Asian Turks.

A closer view of Rick’s Central-Asian Turks.

FINAL SCORES

Jim Riley                      II/58 Alans                                       68 points

Bill Melendez               IV/75 Timurid                                  51 points

Tony Aguilar                III/66 Xi-Xia                                     50 points

Bryant McLaughlin    II/36a Graeco-Bactrians                50 points

Rich Gause                    IV/75 Timurid                                   50 points

Marty Schmidt              III/8 Central-Asian City States    47 points

Rick Parrish                  III/66 Xi-Xia                                     46 points

Gray Strickland             II/26 Later Sarmatians                   26 points

Joe Coniglio                   II/58 Alans                                        25 points

Rick Cundiff                    III/11b Central-Asian Turks         22 points

Scott Gray                         III/79 Cuman                                      7 points

Dave Blackmon               II/38b southern Hsiung-Nu           4 points

Rich Gause presenting the “Steppe Right Up” award to Jim Riley, who won with his Alans.

Left to Right: Bryant McLaughlin, Rick Cundiff, Tony Aguilar, Bill Melendez, Joe Coniglio, Jim Riley, Dave Blackmon, Rich Gause, Scott Gray and Marty Schmidt.

GAUGAMELA GIANT DBA BATTLE

Don Harting put on a massive DBA battle based on the Battle of Gaugamela between Alexander and Darius.

This wastruly a masive undertaking as I believe the Macedonians had 51 elements and the Persians almost 80.

Rich Gause took on the role of Darius and I played Alexander. There were a total of 9 players and 6 of them were new ones.

Darius (Rich Gause) taking command of the situation on the Persian right flank.

A view of the battle , mid game.

The battle lines close.

The battle ended up a draw as we ran out of time. The Persian broke the right flank of the Macedonians. The Macedonians had broken the right flank of the Persians.

THE FALL OF ROME DBA THEME TOURNEY

Marty Schimdt ran the Fall of Rome Theme tourney.

The only armies that were allowed were II/78ab Late Imperial Roman East and West, II/83ab Patrician Roman East and West and the enemies of those Romans.

We had 12 players show up.

Mike Winters (L) takes on Joe Coniglio (R) is a II/78b East Roman Imperial civil war.

A close of of some of the action in Mike and Joe’s game.

More Later Imperial East Romans.

Gray Strickland’s Sarmatians deal with Mike Winters’ Late Eastern Imperial Romans.

Rich Gause and his Nobades, take on Don Harting.

Rob Jones studies the battlefield like a sand table in Iraq.

The two plaques for the “Fall of Rome Theme.” Rich Gause was the winner with the Nobades and Rob Jones was runner up with the Alans.

15mm DBA OPEN TOURNAMENT

Dave Blackmon ran the DBA 15mm Open Tournament, which brought in 10 players.

Dave added a special rule that the attacker got to choose what size board (24″ or 30″) was used and the defender deployed terrain as normal.

Rich and I had a great game. His elephant general got 6-1-ed 3 times, but I couldn’t kill him with bows either shooting OR in close combat. Even though I lost 3-4 it was one of the best games we had ever played.

Rich Gause and Rob Jones played the final game, whole the rest of us went to eat. Rob Jones won the event with IV/55b Ottoman Turks. Rich was the bridesmaid with the II/3 Classical Indians.

TANTOR ATTACKS DBA TOURNEY

Rick Parrish ran the “Tantor Attacks” Tournament on Sunday morning. All eleigible armies had to have a minimum of one elephant in them.

Don Harting was the proud recipient of a “Aguilar Ambushka.” I had rolled such bad pips in the first bound all con, that it wasn’t until the last tournament when I was able to do my favorite thing. I attacked his Scythed chariot from a marsh with my Psiloi and he was able to push the Psiloi back. Even though the little ambushers didn’t kill anyone, they distracted several of Don’s units long enough for me to win elsewhere.

Rich Gause and I faced off in another nail-biter. Rich won 4-2 in a long drawn-out battle.

Bill Melendez (L) and Don Harting (R) face off.

FINAL STANDINGS:

Rich Gause                  II/16b Demetrius

Tony Aguilar               III/10c Hindu Indian

Don Harting               II/19b Seleucid

Bill Melendez             IV/75 Timurid

Jim Riley ran The Battle of Pavia BBDBA game on Friday morning.

The Spanish forces were arrayed left to right.

Charles III Duc of Bourbon on the left flank, Charles de Lannoy (CinC) in the middle just to the left of the Vernavola stream, and Fernando Francisco d’Avalos Marquis of Pescara in the wooded area on the Spanish right flank.

A view from the French side of the battlefield. The French were left to right Francis I, king of France (CinC), Francois de Lorraine who are both on the left of the stream, and on the right flank of the French forces, Robert de le Flourance.

The three French commanders. Left to right:Dave Blackmon (Flourance), Jim Riley (Lorraine) and Marty Schmidt (King Francis I)

Flourance pulled back to allow time for Lorraine to come across the river. The king advanced on Pescara’s troops at the edge of the woods.

Flourance is desperately waiting for some relief from Lorraine’s forces as he sees the Spanish advancing on him. Lorraine’s forces were hampered by poor pip rolls as were unable to cross the stream before the Spanish arrive.

The Spanish pike and shot cross the stream repulsing Lorraine’s heavy cavalry. The two flanks are filled with hand to hand combat. The fight near the wood being partiucularly bloody.

A shot of the three Spanish commanders. Left to right: Rich Gause (Pescara), Tony Aguilar (Lannoy) and Tim Harwood ( Bourbon) Pescara’s “lucky hat” couuldn’t save his command from breaking under the assault of Lorraine’s infantry and the whole of King Francis’ command.

The final shot of the battle at game end. Bourbon, on the Spanish left flank, broke the Swiss under Flourance and Lannoy’s foot put the nail in the coffin of Lorraine’s forces which had been whittled down my Pescara.

What a mess! Who is who?

I ran the DBA-RRR Open tournament on Friday afternoon.

  Some of the players from the DBA-RRR Tournament. Clockwise from bottom left: Marty Schmidt, Scott Gray, Bryant McLaughlin and Dave Blackmon.

Marty’s New Model Army on left fight Dave’s Parliamentarians.

The Catholic League takes on King Charles of England.

Moghuls vs. Venetians.

Gray Strickland’s Moghuls are at it again, this time fighting Dave Blackmon’s Parliamentarians.

 Rich Gause’s Venetians  clash with Bryant McLaughlin’s Bavairian led Catholic League in the last round pitting these two undeafeateds.

Rich was the evntual winner beating Bryant, who was Recon 2010 DBA-RRR champion.

FINAL RESULTS

Rich Gause                         I/6a Venetians                                           71 Points

Bryant McLaughlin        II/6 Bavarian Led Catholic League    67 points

Marty Schmidt                 II/23 New Model Army                          60 points

Dave Blackmon                II/22c ECW Parliamentatrian              48 points

Scott Gray                           II/21b ECW Royalist                                  4 points

Gray Strickland                II/26c Moghul                                              3 points

DBA-RRR Pickup games

On late Saturday night, Rich Gause and I played some pickup games with Rob Jones and Mike Winters , who were not able to make the DBA-RRR events on Friday.

Both of them were keen to play and had brought their armies with them.

Mike Winters with his Spanish Imperialists take on my Japanese.

Rob Jones contemplates his battle plan with his Maximillian Imperialists as he takes on Rich Gause and the Ottoman Turks.

Some other shots of the Maximillian/Turk fight.

We had 10 players who drove from 3 hours away to take part in some friendly conquests. We started at 9:00 AM and played two tournaments which ran up until almost 7:00 PM.

We had a short break for lunch, which was graciously provided by Rene’ Blackmon. (Dave’s wife) Her “Taco Soup” did indeed rock.

I ran the “Scourge of the Republic” campaign based on the “Two Davids model. The scene is around 55 BC and the battle between the “barbarian factions” and 3 Roman players for conrol around the Mediterranean.

A view of the map after the attacks have been declared.

Devin Gause (Foreground L) as Pompey defends Hispania against the Numdian hordes of Marty Schmidt. (Foreground R) Jim Riley (Background L) as the Dacians takes on Kevin Schwabe, who is playing the Caesarian faction. (Backgound R)

Jason Schmidt (Crassus) defends against the attack of the Armenians. Crassus was to far under the Armenian diominance, but broke free in the 3rd phase.

Musashi Miyamoto (top) assaults Rich Gause’s (bottom) Sarmatians.

Dave Blackmon’s Ancient British (bottom) attacked Bill Melendez’s Gauls (top) and were victorious.

Pompey and Crassus realize that Romans don’t die easily. Devin Gause (L) and Jason Schmidt (R) fight it out. These two Romans beat on each other until Jason came out victoiuous preventing being taken over.

A close-up view of the Romans face to face. After much indecisive banging away Blade-on-Blade, Pompey held the heights, but was killed by Crassus thereby breaking his army.

Rich (L) attacks Britian who was defended by Dave Blackmon (R). The Sarmatians came out victorious.

Marty Schmidt fighting Musashi’s Ptolemaics…no doubt he was telling him that he was going to be his “bitch.” Mushashi was overlord of Sarmatia, Britainia, Gaul, Italia  and Hispania which made him a tempting target for Numidian ambition. The Numidians were victorious thereby controlling a swath of nations that encirled the Mediterranean.

The view of the map at the pinnacle of Ptolemaic dominance.

A view of the map after the 4th round after Marty’s subjugation of the Egyptian slave masters – the Numidians were overlords of all except for the Dacians, Armenians and Crassus who remained independent. The Dacians and the Armenians never did get taken over at any point in the game.

The Warlords (L to R): Dave Blackmon (Ancient British), Devin  Gause (Rome – Pompey), Marty Schmidt CHAMPION (Numidian), Jim Riley (Dacian), Jason Schmidt (Rome – Crassus), Musashi Miyamoto (Ptolemaic), Rich Gause (Sarmatian), Tony Aguilar (Armenian), Bill Melendez (Gaul) and Kevin Schwabe (Rome – Caesar)

FINAL STANDINGS:

Marty Schmidt – Numidian (BROWN) 23 points IND.

Musashi Miyamoto (YELLOW) 18 points

Rich Gause – Sarmatians (WHITE) 18 points

Tony Aguilar – Armenians (PINK) 10 points IND.

Dave Blackmon – Ancient British (BLUE) 8 points

Jim Riley – Dacians (BLACK) 7 points IND.

Jason Schmidt – Crassus (PURPLE) 6 points IND.

Kevin Schwabe – Caesar (RED) 6 points

Bill Melendez – Gaul (GREEN) 5 points

Devin Gause – Pompey (BLUE) -1 point

Afterwards, I ran an Open DBA Tourney. Luckly all of the 10 players stayed on for more bloodshed…err gaming.

Bill Melendez (L) and the Ancient British fight Jim Riley (R) and his new Sparticus army.

Jason Schmidt (L) plays Later Swiss against Rich Gause (R) and his Bosporans.

Two eastern armies fighting each other… Devin Gause (L) and his Samurai vs. Kevin Schwabe (R) and his Kaya Koreans.

Marty’s Early Carthage army fights my Song Chinese.

Musashi’s Seleucids fight the Eastern Franks.

My Song Chinese were victorious going 3-0, inching out Rich Gause’s Bosporans 4-3 in the final game.

Thanks all for attending and especially to Ed Baldridge of The Battlezone for providing the gaming space.

We only had  a total of 4 players as it seems like the turn out of gamers was very light.

The DBA-RRR Champion plaque depicting Polish Winged Hussars.

Kyle Burley commanding his French Huguenot force against my Samurai. Kyle told me that he painted his troops specifically for this event!

My Samurai prepare to receive the Huguenot charge.

Ron Giampapa (L) fight Rich Gause (R) and his 30YW Swedes.

It must have been the coffee, because I know Ron had a good time.

Ron and I fight to see who was “The Last Samurai.”

Congrats to Kyle Burley winning with his French Huguenots.

Jon Bostwick played Ancient British. I borrowed Rich Gause’s Galatians with 8 Wb and a Sch. They were a hoot to play. I won my first two games and then lost to Alex Bostwick – avenging his father, who won the event going 3-0 with Ancient British.

The DBN game run by Tom McKinney on Thursday morning and was fun to play. The beauty of it was that it used the same mechanics as DBA, so after a few turns I felt like I knew what I was doing.

A couple of pictures of the “Splendour of Persia” Theme Tourney.

Rich and I used Ptriple Ptolemaics and went 2-1 losing the third game to a Scythed chariot attack on the C-in-C.

Pictures from the “Cruel Tyrants” Themed Tourney. Eligible armies had to be either Neo-Assyrians/Later Sargonids or any their enemies. Rich Gause won the event with his Medes.

The Baltic Crusades DBA Campaign was the big extravaganza of DBA at Historicon. The Two Davids ran this large event where all 24 slots were filled.

Chris Brantley defends against my Swedish invasion with his Teutonic Knights.

Rob Torres, who somehow I had never fought before, with Medieval Germans battled it out successfully with my Swedes.

The final outcome was that Rich Gause’s Danes were overlords to 14 other players. He had conquered so much that he commented that he even had “buffer bitches.”

The pinnacle the DBA competition at Historicon is of course the NICT (National Invitational Championship Tourney.)

I played my Southern Dynasties Chinese in the first game against Spencer Ginder (L) and his Mithriadic army. The second game was against Jon Bostwick (not pictured) and the Tamil Indians. The third game was against Jason Bostwick (R) (going all in with his Kn general and winning the game 3-5) and the Anglo-Normans. I was able to win my division and go on to the semi-final round against Dave Schlanger.

I played Dave Schlanger in the semi-final round against his Early Crusader and won in a hard fought game as the “Diceman” looks on.

David Kuijt and I sat down for the final match on Saturday night. David, who is a very tough opponent to say the least, was playing the Classical Indians and we had a hard drawn out game that ended in my favor 6-4.

After the final match, which resulted in me being the 2010 NICT champ.