Started way back at the beginning of the year the DBMM Ancients Campaign has been officially wound up. The Spanish Ulcer proudly taking its place for regular weekly entertainment. Announcement of the end was forestalled as we were planning or rather thinking about one big last battle (in a winner take all sense) to decide the top civilisation.
After the last post/battle-report of Greek v Roman intrigue the campaign settled sown to more board game style than table top wargaming action, as fighting a battle purely for the sake of one would have been very counter productive for most (if not all) players. The economic negatives of losing your seat of power crippled Rome and she was barely left with enough men under arms to defend herself against Carthaginian probes.The former would-be masters of the known world were hunted to near extinction in the backwoods of Gaul and Germany.
Greece too suffered from economic pressure of the eastern Hellenes (aka the Seleucid) losing cities more by influence and cultural invasion that direct military action. So the ancient world started to crumble from centre, becoming a hollow vacuum exploited by two superpowers (the Seleucid and Carthaginian) with "safe" borders. In hindsight the mutual mistrust and opportunism of Rome and Greece was their own undoing, hubris being a rank cake to eat cold, but it did have a splendid intensity to it. The game in a sense continues with two players down and one to go but would take an age to conclude in a "last one standing fashion" and mediocre fun just doing a points count exercise.
As it has long since stopped being the battle generator it has to make way for the Spanish Ulcer. Perhaps we shall return to a big Carthage v Seleucid DBMM battle to put a name on the trophy as peaceful cohabitation seemed unlikely.
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