Cold Wars Open Event, Game 1 - DBA AAR

Last week I traveled back to Lancaster to attend Cold Wars 2018. While I always enjoy seeing and participating in the wide variety of games available, this time my main goal was to take part in not one, but two DBA events - an Open Event on Friday morning, and an Early Byzantine Themed Event on Saturday morning.

This was a trial by fire, since my previous experience with DBA had been a single solo game I had played to try and get a rudimentary understanding of the rules before the convention. 

Since I was taking part in two events, I decided to bring along the army I had painted for the Themed Event - III/13b, the Avars. 

My first opponent in the Open Event was Mike D, who had brought along his Warring States Chinese. As I won the roll for Attacker, Mike set up the battlefield with two plough, a road, and a gentle hill.

Both our lines advanced towards each other.

Unfortunately, rather ignorant of DBA's combat factors, and coming from ADLG, I didn't realize just how much the fighting favored Mike's crossbows compared to my cavalry. While I managed to kill one unit, I lost a unit in return, and my own line was disrupted.

The game quickly ended as another round of shooting from Mike's crossbow was enough to kill two more units (one of which was my General) ending the game with a 4-1 victory to the Chinese.