Trevor Pearless DBA Tournament 2019

Dave Sime reports on the recent DBA tournament (with statistical and photographic input from Andy).

We have a new DBA champion for 2019 – Paul Lymath – well done. However commiserations to Paul French who only just lost out, a very close finish.

A special thank you to Andy for bringing his PC and his Excel Tournament Package, relieved me from manually managing the scoring. Many thanks to the eight members who took part and enjoyed themselves. Special mention for Jack, who as a first time player acquitted himself very well, coming joint 4th.

Interestingly 6 of the 8 armies were Knight orientated or at least had a significant knight contingent. However the winning army (Paul L – Polybian Roman) and my army which came third (Chinese Southern Dynasties) are not Knight based armies. Knights, like Elephants, can be beaten !

Armies

David Si – Chinese Southern Dynasties (II 79b)
Paul L – Polybian Roman (II 33)
Jack – Medieval French (IV 64b)
Colin – Qara-Khitan (IV/15)
Mike – Free Company (IV 74)
Paul F – 100 Year War English (IV 62)
Andy – Norman (Italy) (III 51)
John La – Free Company (IV 74)

Round 1
David S 6-2 John La
Paul L 4-0 Andy
Jack 1-5 Paul F
Colin 1-5 Mike L

Round 2
John La 5-0 Mike L
Paul F 4-8 Colin
Andy 4-5 Jack
David S 0-5 Paul L

Round 3
Paul L 6-2 John La
Jack 1-5 David S
Colin 5-2 Andy
Mike L 1-6 Paul F

Round 4
John La 4-6 Paul F
Andy 0-5 Mike L
David S 4-2 Colin
Paul L 2-6 Jack

Round 5
Colin 2-6 John La
Mike L 2-6 Jack
Paul F 1-5 Paul L
Andy 1-5 David S

Final Table
1= Paul L – 22pts*
1= Paul F – 22*
3 David S – 20
4= John La – 19
4= Jack – 19
6 Colin – 18
7 Mike L – 13
8 Andy – 7

*Paul L declared winner as he beat Paul F in their game.

The Ruins Of Saint Solange

Stephen previews his game for the next meeting

The year is 1355 and you are invited join The Black Prince on his grand chevauchee throughout France.
At the next meeting we’ll be having a game of Lion Rampant set during the Hundreds Year War.

Whether you see yourself as the flower of French chivalry astride your mighty warhorse, or an English yeoman armed with longbow and a quiver of arrows, you’re welcome to join our game.

Laissez aller!

Air War Germany 1944 – Session 2

We played out our second session of the campaign in April 2019 and as we have our third session at Next Saturday’s meeting it was high time to write it up!

The British were approaching their target and had been benefited by fog that had hampered the take-off of nightfighters from 1.Jagddivision, but the British umpire now played a weather change card as the main raid neared its target, which luckily cleared the ground in just the right area and replaced it with heavy cloud cover for the attacking bombers!

Me 110G-4s scramble – planes used in the campaign are all 1/600 Tumbling Dice with Dom’s Decals, from the Umpire’s collection

The first action resulted from a straggler interception of the main raid by the commander of 2.Jagddivision, Steve, which allowed him to vector in the Me110G-4s of III.NJG3 as the raid passed Rostock in a ‘Tame Boar’ attack.  In this type of attack each nightfighter followed the bomber stream using on-board radar to detect and close on targets.  The targets proved hard to find, but Dave detected and successfully shot down 1 straggling Lancaster, K for King.

Another night-fighter unit from 1.Jagddivision, commanded by Dave, now made the first successful infiltration of the main bomber stream.  The attacking unit was 2.NJG5, also equipped with Me110-G-4s, but it’s impact was reduced by having been scattered on take-off in foggy weather.  Not only did it fail to inflict any damage but one of the attacking fighters piloted by Andy was shot down by defensive fire when if homed in on it’s target, B for Baker.

ME 109G-6s scramble

The raid move on and the target was now revealed as the raid stream turned south and began bombing its target, Berlin.  Dave was able to vector in the Me109G-6s of 1.JG302 to attack the the head of the bomber stream as it passed over the target in a ‘Wild Boar’ attack, closely followed by the Me110F-4s and G-4s of 3.NJG5, which were directed in from the radar beacon north-west of Berlin where they had been orbiting.  This type of attack was made by visually intercepting bombers lit up by searchlights.  The cloud cover reduced the searchlight effect, but bombers could still be attacked against the illuminated clouds.  The defending fighters had to take their chances with defending flak fire.

The first attack by the Me-109s resulted in heavy losses for the attackers.  Steve made a spectacular high score, shooting down four attacking Lancasters – G for George, F for Fox, M for Mike and P for Peter.  Dave added to his score with two more bombers, D for Dog and J for Jig.  John L opened his score with E2 for Easy Squared.  Chairman John pursued another bomber, J2 for Jig Squared, but only managed to damage her before she exited the illuminated zone.  The British scored back as Andy homed in on D2 for Dog Squared, damaging the bomber with his first burst, only to be damaged in turn and driven off by defensive fire from the bombers gunners.

The air picture around Berlin at the end of the second session, with the position of the bomber stream in the previous move shown as a tracked target

The resolution of the attack by 3.NJG5 was postponed until the next session, as time was up for the day….

At the end of session 2 the points scored were as follows:

Dave (1JD)                        +6             +3 for Lancasters shot down, +1 for Tame Boar attack, +2 for Wild Boar attacks

Steve (2JD)                       +5            +4 for Lancasters shot down, +1 for Tame Boar attack

John L (7JD)                      +1             +1 for Lancaster shot down

Chairman John (3JD)    +0.5       +.5 for Lancaster damaged

Andy (4JD)                         -2.5      +.5 for Lancaster damaged, -2 for Me110 shot down, -1 for Me109 damaged

That leaves the individual League table so far as follows (with 2JD the leading team so far with 8 points):

Dave (1JD)                        +6         2 sessions played

Steve (2JD)                       +5         1 session played

Mike (2JD)                       +3           1 session played

Chairman John (3JD)  +2.5        2 sessions played

John L (7JD)                      +1           1 session played

Chris (7JD)                       -1.5           1 session played

Bob (4JD)                          -2             1 session played

Andy (4JD)                        -2.5       1 session played

GASCAR ’19 Tri-Series Event 2

John Lambert updates us on an exciting second round on the Gaslands series.

Gascar 19 returned to the track for Event 2 in the Tri Series Cup following the sensational Death Race in Event 1. Event 2 would be bigger and better featuring two arenas and the addition of an extra team. Both arenas would be covered by Warner Duovision ensuring pay per view customers would not miss any of the action. The action would kick off with not one but two simultaneous Death Races! As tension ratcheted up, a protest was received from S. Vettel concerning Event 1. Following a VAR review, the protest was upheld and the second and third places were reversed. Arenas were allocated to drivers and it was time to rev up those engines!

Death Race A
Teams sponsored by Warden, Idris and Rutherford would take part in this race with a clean start being made by Idris and Warden. Suspected substance abuse by the drivers of the Rutherford team saw them fall away at the back of the pack.

The Warden car of Lefty o’Tool had a good line to gate 1 but was beaten to it by the Idris car driven by Black Stalin which passed through the gate using a classic slide turn, helped by a great dice roll.

Lefty O’Tool followed shortly afterwards and the race was well and truly joined! As these two cars drove neck and neck along the back straight, the second Idris car Chalkdust was catching them.

Lefty O’Tool was able to score hits on Black Stalin as they passed through Gate 3. These hits accumulated and in a final deadly blast, Black Stalin was destroyed. For the second race in succession, a Trini Scorpion car had been eliminated in touching distance of the winning line. It looked as though Lefty O’Tool would win but coming from behind a carefully judged power surge by Chalkdust saw this car shoot over the line first. The Rutherford team had won event 1 and had been the bookies favourite but today the bookies cleaned up! It had been a stitch up, there could be no other explanation.

Death Race B
This saw a tight packed field of 8 cars struggle to get away from the start line with only the Idris sponsored Ghost of the South able to make a clean break away from the pack, multiple collisions causing CARNAGE in it’s wake.

One of the Miyazaki buggies set off in pursuit of Ghost of the South and Razor from the Idris team was making good progress until a wipeout just before Gate 1. As Ghost of the South approached Gate 2, the Miyazaki buggy passed through gate 1 and Razor from the Idris team had almost reversed through gate 1. At that point with TV audiences plummeting, the Race Controller was instructed to stop the race and award points based on track position.

Arena of Death
This saw 8 cars pitted against each other and 10 turreted machine guns where the last car standing wins. On one side of the arena cars from Idris (Trini Scorpions) and Slime were making short work of turrets in their zone but tellingly, the Idris cars in particular were taking punishment back. On the other side of the Arena the Miyazaki Buggies were using careful tactics to eliminate turrets in their area so that they could clear a path to attack the Idris sponsored Chain Reaction and Queen of the South.
SMASH!

Slime Car Evangaline rammed Chalkdust causing critical damage.
SMASH!

Chalkdust and the second Slime car Riley hit each other head on in a mutually destructive death charge. The Idris sponsored Black Stalin narrowly avoided a collision with a fuel tanker and managed to get a shot into Queen of the South.
SMASH!

With everything to lose and nothing to gain Queen of the South rammed Black Stalin head on. The resulting explosion took out Chain Reaction and now both Idris teams were out of the running. The Miyazaki buggies had played a shrewd hand and had a clear run with no machine gun turrets as they cornered the last Slime car Evangaline, the Coup de Grace being delivered by a flame thrower.

WHOOSH!

It was canny driving by the Miyazaki team who scored maximum points and it lived up to its name of Arena of Death!!

Saturday Night Live
Whilst the Arena of Death was taking place, close by a Saturday Night Live event was taking place. Due to the exclusive broadcasting rights, no photography was allowed at the event. The rules had proved to be confusing and many VAR challenges were registered. The Warden car Constance Sin made a good start in this event, giving the Rutherford car Rocketman the slip, whilst the second Warden car Lefty O’Tool was unable to amass any audience vote. The Rutherford cars were fighting back and at the end the result was a tie between the two teams. It had been a close run thing!

LEADER BOARD
After two events the Leadership standings are:-
Jack (Miyazaki) – 11
Bob (Warden) – 9
Dave (Rutherford) – 9
Andy (Idris) – 8
John (Idris) – 5
Chris (Idris) – 2
Eric (Slime) – 1

There’s one Event day left and everything to play for!