Who's playing what - Part II

Thanks to Denis Grey, I now have comprehensive stats for player numbers in the UK DBA circuit to add to those for other rulesets.

Looking at attendance across the 15 or so annual tournaments in the UK, participation in DBA has been steadily rising over the past 3 years and looks set to carry on that upward trend into 2018 (if numbers at the first 2 events of the year are anything to go by).

Numbers of players have been:

• 2016:  48 players
• 2017:  56 players
• 2018:  64 players 

86 people in total have played at least one DBA event in the last 3 years. 

Adding these more accurate numbers into the mix gives the following popularity table for numbers of people entering at least one UK ancients competitions during 2017.

1. L'Art de la Guerre : 163
2. FoG AM : 89  
3. DBMM : 84
4. DBA : 64
5. MeG : 52
6. DBM : 40
7. Swordpoint : around 40

One interesting thing to consider from these numbers is the popularity of "DBx"-based, "one base = one unit" format games - almost exactly 2/3 of all UK competition ancients players are playing systems in which one stand = a unit. Barkers legacy is still going strong! 

I'm sure there must be some 6th and 7th edition numbers out there too, and maybe also Armati or War & Conquest ?

 

A Samurai Town for L'Art de la Guerre

With my first-ever "I paid someone to paint it for me" army of Samurai currently on the basing table with Simon from Lurkio, I've been preparing some suitable terrain to go with the army for use at Badcon in a few weeks time.

First up is a small town, which has an extension to it;s base to make it a maximum sized piece for a 300 point game as well as the core 200 point version.

All of the buildings are from Oshiro Model Terrain, painted by me with a black undercoat and then drybrushed Army Painter Leather Brown for the wood, and white for the panels. The trees come from Model Tree Shop - a little more expensive than usual, but they do need to be as good as the houses.

Look carefully and you may see that the pond has some Koi carp painted in it.

 The terrain cloth is from Tiny Wargames

All of the buildings are just placed on the mdf baseplate, which has had some sand glued to it, a spray coat of ArmyPainter Desert Yellow followed by a dusting coat of Skeleton Bone.

 And, of course, the trees are also held in place with rare earth magnets. Because, well, why not go the whole hog eh?

The smaller section turns the main 200 point baseplate into a 300 point sized terrain piece, and with all of the pieces able to be taken off, it now works for the game as well as aesthetically.

I did need to drybrush the cherry blossom tree as it was a bit violently pink when I got it originally.

And, here are the men who will defend it...