Caesar's Challenge '99

Caesar’s Challenge 1999 was run over the weekend 27/28 March. For the fourth and final year, Napoleons Bookshop has sponsored and organised the event with many thanks to Andrew Russell for his tireless efforts. He doesn’t play DBM himself but gives up his weekend anyway.

The tournament format was 400 points, the period for army selection was set between 650BC to 500AD. Four rounds were played over two days on boards with preset terrain. The tournament was umpired by the unconventional John Wouters with a total of 25 competitors attending over both days.

The winner for the weekend was Robert Zamykal with Sargonid Assyrian, followed by Geoff Frost using Later Hebrew and Doug Melville playing Marian Romans. Jared Lynn and his Sassanian Persians walked away with a well deserved "Best Presented Army" award.

Click here for the Results


Rogues gallery: (left) Geoff Frost - Second Place,
(middle) Robert Zamykal - First Place,
(right) Doug Melville - Third Place.
Donald Strong (left) with Thracian against the Patrician Roman's of Paul Bertram.

Bram Jankins taking refuge behind terrain with his Patrician Romans while waiting for his flank march to arrive against Martin Ossa's Chin Chinese.
The game that one the tournamnet for Robert Zamykal with his Sargonids, against the hairy barbarian Franks of Martin Morgan (Cancon National Champion).

Nick Wade had less success this comp running Ostrogoths. His opponent Richard Stubbs running the popularl Patrician Romans with a fortified centre.
Peter Zimmerman with Marian Romans pondering his options.

Click here to enlarge

All the above photos were taken on day 2, round 4

Results

Placing Name Score Army
1 Zamykal, Robert 36 Sargonid Assyrian
2 Frost, Geoff 29 Later Hebrew
3 Melville, Doug 27 Marian Roman
4 Ossa, Martin 27 Warring States Chinese
5 Django, Upton 26 Later Carthaginian
6 Tolhurst, Hugh 26 Later Carthaginian
7 C.Watson, S.Nicholas 26 Later Imperial Roman
8 Morgan, Martin 25 Early Frankish
9 Stubbs, Richard 24 Patrician Roman
10 Jakins, Bram 23 Patrician Roman
11 Wade, Nick 22 Ostrogothic *score corrected
12 Daymond, Lyle 21 Later Hebrew
13 Lynn, Jared 20 Sassanid
14 Thatcher, Peter 20 Patrician Roman
15 Gibson, John 19 Souhtern Dynasties Chinese
16 Meliak, Paul 17 Parthian
17 Macaulay, Jason 15 Early Imperial Roman
18 Gillies, Keith 14 Early Achaemenid Persian
19 Knowles, Simon 13 Seleucid
20 Bertram, Paul 12 Patrician Roman
21 Smith, Geoff 10 Bactrian Greek
22 Strong, Donald 10 Thracian
23 Walters, Mark 7 Hunnic
24 Zimmerman, Peter 2 Marian Roman

The Countback method for separating competitors on equal scores was judged on accumulated enemy generals killed, EE losses and possibly looted baggage? This method does prove to be highly prejudicial against large irregular armies that characteristically take heavy losses as a matter of course.

John Wouters attracted alot of flak for his conduct in umpiring the event. His lack of any set format for assigning tables was evident. Terrain layout was inconsistent. The preset tables varied between extremes from open billiard tables to jungles of bad terrain, excessive use of rivers (11 out of 15 boards) and a complete lack of Waterways & Rough Going.. In general, the event did not present a level playing field for competitors.

Another strange departure from previous years was the inclusion of later period chariot armies from Book 1. The start date was reduced to 650BC and most likely aimed at including later Assyrian/Sargonid armies. These forces were very much out of place in what is essentially a Book 2 tournament. The presence of Reg Kn chariot armies did have a dominating effect on the closing results.