PAWS Autumn DBA and 2020 English DBA Open cancelled

We have waited as long as practical to make a decision but we can now confirm that the PAWS Autumn DBA planned for September 2020 and the English DBA Open 2020 planned for October will not take place.

Although our room at Fort Cumberland is theoretically available again, its size is not practical for more than one or two socially distanced games.

We will wait a bit longer before making a decision on December’s planned Winter DBA.

PAWS Summer DBA 2020 cancelled

Regrettably, this year’s PAWS Summer DBA (planned for 27 June 2020) is now confirmed as cancelled.

The theme (Armies and Enemies of the Hittite Empire, 13th century BC) will again carry forward to the next PAWS themed tournament, whenever we can hold that. The next planned tournament is supposed to be the Autumn DBA, which was originally planned for 26 September 2020.

PAWS Spring DBA 2020 Cancelled

Bowing to the inevitable, we have now taken the decision to cancel the PAWS Spring DBA 2020.

The planned theme of Armies and Enemies of the Hittite Empire, 13th century BC (1300-1201 BC) will now be used at the PAWS Summer DBA 2020, planned for 27 June.

PAWS shutdown

In view of the latest government advice we have decided to cancel all PAWS meetings up to and including Easter Saturday April 11th.

The next scheduled meeting after that would be the Spring DBA on April 18th. We will decide on whether that will go ahead in the coming weeks.

PAWS Spring DBA & Coronavirus

Due to his wife’s health (and to a lesser extent his own) Lindon has decided that attending DBA tournaments (including our own) would not be wise in the current Coronavirus situation. The immediate affect of this is that he won’t be able to provide lifts from the station for people planning to arrive by train etc.

Added to this, the current news about impending isolation for the over 70s may mean I won’t be able to attend and run our tournaments.

If we do decide to cancel, we’ll use the same theme for the next scheduled PAWS tournament.

PAWS Spring DBA 2020

The 2020 PAWS Spring DBA will be held on April 18th at Fort Cumberland, Portsmouth.

The theme is Armies and Enemies of the Hittite Empire, 13th century BC (1300-1201 BC)
Allowed armies:
I/4 c Hurrian or Nairi Army
I/4 d Gasgan Army
I/6 b Midianite or Amalekite Army
I/18 Minoan or Early Mycenaean Army
I/19 Mitanni Army
I/20 a Ugarit Army
I/20 b Other Syro-Canaanite Army
I/21 a Kassite Babylonian Army
I/22 a New Kingdom Egyptian Army
I/24 a Early Hittite Empire Army
I/24 b Later Hittite Empire Army
I/25 a Middle Assyrian Army
I/26 a Achaian Army
I/26 b Trojan Army
I/28 Sea-Peoples Army
Allies must be chosen from the same selection of armies.

We will be using a new format for the PAWS Afternoon DBA tournaments in 2020. We will still divide players into 2 groups with a random draw, but there will only be 4 rounds within the groups. These games will be increased to 50 minutes playing time plus 10 minutes turn-around time. Scoring will be as before.

Everyone will then play the fifth “play-off” round (so everyone will get 5 games). These games will be played to a conclusion rather than being scored.

In this final round, first place from each group will play The Final to determine the tournament winner and runner-up. Second place in each group will play-off for tournament third and four positions, third place in each group will play-off for tournament fifth and sixth positions and so on.

We also plan to start an hour earlier, with booking in from 12:00 to 12:20 so that the draw can be held and everyone ready to start by 12:30.

Meeting dates for early 2020

Our planned meeting dates for the start of 2020 are as follows.

January 18th
February 8th & 22nd
March 7th 21st & 28th
April 11th, 18th & 25th

Note that April 11th is Easter Saturday so we can see if there is enough interest for a meeting that weekend nearer the time.

Provisionally, we will plan to have the AGM on January 18th. The number, format and dates of PAWS DBA tournaments will be decided then.

PAWS Winter DBA

The date for the 2019 PAWS Winter DBA has now been confirmed as 14th December 2019.

The theme is the Later Crusades in the Eastern Mediterranean 1201-1300 AD

For a list of the allowed armies, please go here.

SOA UK DBA League Update

The 2018-19 SOA UK DBA League scores have been updated ahead of the final qualifying tournament, The English DBA Open on October 27th 2019. The scores of the top 25 players are shown at 2018-19 Scores.

This year’s league is very open, with the possibility of any of the top 5 players being able to take the title in just over a week’s time.

Winter DBA Theme

Matthew Bennett (winner of the Autumn PAWS DBA) has come up with a theme for the 2019 PAWS Winter DBA. It is…

Later Crusades in the Eastern Mediterranean 1201-1300

for the full list of allowed armies, see the Winter 2019 theme page.

As usual, this will be held at Fort Cumberland, Portsmouth UK. Start time 1PM GMT.

The only thing to be decided now is the date, as Pompey’s football team will be playing (creating heavy traffic in the area) on our original proposed date of 7 December. The options are now 30 November or 14 December. If you are intending to come, please indicate which date(s) you could make it in the Fanaticus poll at http://fanaticus.boards.net/thread/2249/paws-winter-dba-2019