Rules War – Three Years On

This time last year I analysed the player registrations for the Northern DBM Double league and the three main competitions in the UK; Warfare, Roll Call & Britcon.  I’ve had the time to repeat the exercise for 2009 and the results are interesting:

Before commenting I’d like to point out that the figures for 2008 differ slightly from those published last year as I double checked all the data. The figures cover both 15 & 25 mm competitions and are all from singles competitions. 

So what do the figures for these three competitions show:

• Competition registrations were down 3.4% in 2009 vs. 2008.
• FOG continues to grow whilst DBMM registrations were static.
• DBM’s decline is nearly complete; the 8 players were all at Britcon.
• FOG has reached a dominant position.
• DBMM has retained its niche position.

The final round of the Northern Doubles League is ten days away so I will hold off commenting on the situation in “the North” until everything is over.  It’ll be interesting to see how they compare with the “national” picture.

Isn’t the internet wonderful?  After first posting, certain people on certain Yahoo! groups suggested that excluding Challenge was skewing the overall picture.  It doesn’t really as these figures for all four competitions show:

The only change is that DBMM’s share now looks less in 2008 giving a small increase in 2009 but I don’t think this is significant.

An Empire Building Campaign System

My last post “A Campaign For The Balkans 1370 AD” has been well received and to a couple of people asking if I’d publish their campaign systems.  One such request came from Peter Barrett of Canberra Games Society.

His system is based on Roman expansion in the 1st century BC but is equally applicable to any expanding empire, including mid 4th century BC Macedonia, the Byzantine Empire of Justinian I, the early days of the Arab Caliphate, the Seljuk Empire, the Mongol Empire or the Empire of Timur.

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A Campaign For The Balkans 1370 AD

Last Sunday I was due to play in a one day, six player campaign devised by John Davies.  Needless to say it didn’t happen.  A week before we had seven players and by the the time I turned up at the club we had three.  Flu had accounted for two of the seven leaving us with an odd number and so a couple more dropped out. 

The scenario and system is really rather elegant and applicable to more than just DBMM as you can see from John’s original design:

• Original player briefing (pdf).

With John’s permission, I’ve hacked it around a bit to fit better as a web page and posted it below together with a print version:

• Alternative player briefing (web).

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Review – Best Of Battle

This is yet another trip down memory lane and a real blast from the late 1970s.  288 pages of great artwork and stories all currently available from Amazon for £6.38 with free postage!

I waited over nine months for my copy but I wasn’t disappointed. The soft cover format means the book is easy to read and the quality paper means the artwork is really vibrant.  The artwork really does stand up even 30 years later but I admit to having a penchant for black and white line work.

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The Dice Man Cometh

I hadn’t realised it’s been nearly a month since my last post.  As always real life gets in the way every once in a while.  Today’s post is about two related things: an online resource for wargamers and a look at the different ways players estimate the chance of success during games.

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