Round to Chris K’s for an afternoon of DBA in his loose China campaign. There were six of us, and we were scheduled to play three games each. I got in a couple, as my first game overran a bit, and the others had finished so they swapped round and played a second game whilst we were rounding things off.

My first game was against Richard M. It featured my Khmer against his Tang Chinese. I got in a bit of tangle, but was unlucky to lose two psiloi bases on first contact, one to a 1:6 dice roll. I also struggled to move anything with a run of low PIP rolls. made worse because of the elephant premium on movement.

In the end I pulled it back to 3:2 losses in my favour, but then lost a +5 to +3 match up with my elephant general to some scruffy infantry where I’d been flanked. I’d come unstuck by pushing my luck without enough PIPs, so I lost the game 3:4. My first loss in quite a while.

Second game was against Peter D. Peter plays a lot of DBA and hosts tournaments. I took my Burmese for this game and he had Nan Chao Chinese. 

I was defending and had to set up first, so Peter had a clear plan, and matched his army up to get the maximum advantage. I had an idea of going wide and encircling flanks whilst making a big hole with my elephants.

I had a few issues with not understanding the mechanics perfectly (got pinned in a ZOC behind my own troops for example), but rode my luck as well as my elephants and fluked a 4:0 victory. Tactical genius, see? Peter could justifiably be miffed, although once we’d started I don’t think I made any further mistakes.

Anyhow, it passed the afternoon pleasantly enough.