Sunday, July 5, 2009

DBA Tournament - Before Columbus

I will be hosting a DBA tournament at Pacificon this year, with the theme, New World Armies and Old World Invaders Before Columbus.

The tournament will be round robin, with 45 minute rounds. Scoring will be explained at the tournament. (i.e. I haven't decided on the exact scoring system yet.)

The scale is 15mm.

Feel free to bring any New World army. If you don't have any, loaners will be available. If you want to use an Old World army, feel free to bring one, with the following restrictions:
  • Any dismounting element must be deployed as foot.
  • Any list allowing an option of mounted or foot elements must be deployed as foot.
  • One (only) remaining LH element may be deployed as LH.
  • Any remaining Kn elements (including HCh) must be deployed as Bd or Sp.
  • Any remaining Cv or Cm elements (including LCh) must be deployed as Bd, Sp, or Bw.
  • Any remaining El elements must be deployed as Bd, Sp, or Ps.
  • Any remaining LH, Art, SCh, or WWg (other than Litter) elements must be deployed as Ps.
Players are expected to provide the appropriate replacement foot figures.

In addition to the above rules, the following will apply to players using Old World armies:
  • Any player with a New World army facing an Old World army does not need to dice for aggression, but may decide whether to be attacker or defender, and always uses the New World army's home terrain type.
  • The player with the Old World army must provide a supporting theory (crackpot or otherwise) as to how and why they made it across the ocean.
I will provide some Old World armies as well, including:

Hawaiian (IV/12c): Polynesians may very well have reached the American mainland at times.
Portuguese (IV/68b): Portuguese ships were certainly capable of reaching America before Columbus, though there is little evidence they did.
English (IV/83a): Some English claims to have reached "Brasil Isle" before Columbus are unsubstantiated.
Malian (III/68): The expedition of Mansa Abu Bakr II in 1311 is claimed to have left Africa to sail west, and never returned.
Ming (IV/73): If 1421 wasn't enough to demonstrate that Gavin Menzies is a bull-goose loony, then 1434 should clinch it. Still, the Ming certainly had the know-how to cross the Pacific had they wanted to.
Hebrew (I/34c): Apart from the Book of Mormon, there's also the Bat Creek inscription for those looking for a justification to play this army.

2 comments:

Michael Warde said...

At Pacificon, I'm assuming that your tournament will be in 15mm?

Is an Italian Condotta army crossing the sea, hoping to beat "Spain's" Columbus a legitimate contender?

Eric Lindberg said...

Ah yes! It will be in 15mm. At the last moment, I mentioned it somewhere in the Pacificon description, but forgot to post it here. I'll fix that now.

A Condotta army would be great, though the knights will all have to be dismounted. (If you like, I could even provide appropriate stands for the dismounts, if you need them.)

And for the reason they got there, you could refer to Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's "Ariosto". I'm just not going to allow griffon-riders. We'll leave that for Hordes of the Things.