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Post by stevie on Mar 11, 2019 11:15:56 GMT
...and it looks like Jdesmond will take the gold medal with his 80 worded whopper!  I may have to just settle for silver with my own 76 words:- Crossing a River, page 9, paragraph 4:- “A score of 1 or 2 indicates that the river is paltry, too shallow and easy banked to aid defence and can be passed through as if good going, 3 or 4 that it slows crossing and its banks aid defence, 5 or 6 that it slows crossing, its banks aid defence and that only single elements or elements in or forming column can cross it during a game, wider groups stopping at the near bank.” Some Helpful Downloads can be found here: fanaticus-dba.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Reference_sheets_and_epitomes
And here is the latest Jan 2019 FAQ: fanaticus-dba.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ_2019_1st_Quarter
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Post by stevie on Mar 11, 2019 11:55:08 GMT
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE!... Stevie has taken the lead from Jdesmond with his 81 worded wonder!  Denizens, page 7, paragraph 3, very last sentence:- “If a city has surrendered during the game or was captured earlier in a campaign and there is no enemy troop garrison or this has been destroyed by shooting, the player that originally owned the city can pay 5 PIPs at the start of any of its sides’s bounds for its denizens to revolt and overthrow the puppet administration, resume their original loyalty and defend the city (treachery by an internal faction was the most common reason for a city’s fall).” Some Helpful Downloads can be found here: fanaticus-dba.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Reference_sheets_and_epitomes
And here is the latest Jan 2019 FAQ: fanaticus-dba.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ_2019_1st_Quarter
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Post by stevie on Mar 11, 2019 12:54:27 GMT
...and the particle accelerators in the UK are still finding even heavier and heavier sentences. Leaving out the abbreviations in brackets (i.e. 3Kn, 4Kn, and HCh), I have discovered the following... Knights, page 3, paragraph 5:- “Knights, representing all those horsemen that charged at first instance without shooting, with the intention of breaking through and destroying enemy as much by weight and impetus as by their weapons; such as Macedonian companions, Sarmatians, Gothic horse, Norman or medieval knights, with 3 figures to a base (3Kn), Parthian and similar cataphracts in full armour on fully armoured horses trotting in tight formation, with 4 figures to a base (4Kn), and also unscythed heavy chariots (HCh) with more than 2 animals (unless Libyans) or wheels or crew greater than 2 or armed with a lance.” ...and that’s 93 words! (or 96 if you add in the abbreviations in brackets). I call it "Babelonium", and it's much heavier than the 81 word "Stevieum". Any sentences longer than this would be so massive that they run the risk of collapsing into their own black-hole. (Now, where do I go to get my Nobel Prize?...)Some Helpful Downloads can be found here: fanaticus-dba.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Reference_sheets_and_epitomes
And here is the latest Jan 2019 FAQ: fanaticus-dba.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ_2019_1st_Quarter
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Post by greedo on Mar 11, 2019 17:34:30 GMT
It is an excellent book greedo. It was my first copy of the DBA rules, as the purple book was out of print at that time.
There is one chapter where two opponents play their first DBA game, and it is quite good.
Someone on the forum mentioned that you can purchase a digital version, and all the pics. are in colour, unlike the soft copy, which I have.
The full rules are there, (and in large font!), yet no diagrams.
So I bought Sue Barker's DBA 3.0 Book, even though I also have the Purple. I gotta say, it's great. Would certainly be a great intro the hobby via Ancients. Plastic 1/72 is EXACTLY how I got into things post Warhammer days. And the matched pairs in the reduced army lists at the back are fun too, to give you an idea of who hated who. |
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Post by jdesmond on Mar 11, 2019 17:38:39 GMT
Salutations again, gentlefolk,
This has no relevance to anything here, but...
A couple of decades ago, I was residing in the NW quadrant of downtown Philadelphia, near the Museum of Art and the old Eastern State Penitentiary. A block away from that sombre structure was a firm, Penitentiary Printing Co, which advertised
"We do justice
to your sentences"
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Post by Cromwell on Mar 11, 2019 19:29:33 GMT
Was it Harry Worth?
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grover
Munifex
War gaming since the late 20th Century.
Posts: 12
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Post by grover on Mar 12, 2019 4:21:59 GMT
The hallmark of good technical writing is not 81 word sentences with little or no punctuation. From Google: Qualities of Good Technical Writing: Accuracy. Clarity. Conciseness. Readability. Usability. Correctness. greedo: My opponent has the "Starting Ancients" book that does have an editor! Hahaha! I am borrowing it currently. There is a dialog between a Roman and German player from start to finish in there that really gives a good idea of game flow too. Complete with pictures. I recommend the book. @tony: I have watched several of your videos. They are very helpful. I am very much looking forward to my first game... and second, third and fourth armies ;o) |
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Post by paddy649 on Mar 12, 2019 8:31:39 GMT
Stevie,
I’m afaraid your nuclear physics analogy breaks down. Sadly the really heavy sentences such as "Babelonium", "Stevieum", or even the now commonplace “Jdesmondium” should be highly unstable and radioactivly decay (with a very short half-life) into other smaller elements like “Queensium” or “Englishium.”
However, in the same way that some Elements in DBA3.0 have acquired more mass, such as 6Kn, 8BW etc. the sentences are only destined to get bigger and more complex (with less punctuation) if the tenets of Barkerine Dynamics hold true. Indeed one can predict a state in about 75 years when elements of 48Sp slug it out with 128Pk governed by rules well over 1,000 words long. Pleasingly though - this will still take place on the smallest of scales (24” x 24”), be recorded in a purple book and (now we know Einstein was wrong and God does play dice) be governed by the throw of two simple six-sided dice.
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Post by primuspilus on Mar 13, 2019 13:31:05 GMT
Trouble is, many people find clarity, accuracy, and correctness is to be found in the eyes of the reader. not the pen of the writer!
Google is good at what it does. It's grammar is g_dawful!
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Post by zendor on Mar 13, 2019 14:06:20 GMT
Just my two cents.
IMO one of the charms of these rules is the style in which they are written and designed. DBA 3 rulebook still keep this oldschool look, and for me it's very attractive, I really like this.
Because english is not my native language sometimes it was quite complex for me to make clear some sentences and their meanings, so I had some issues to wade through Phil's writings. But finally, when I overcame all the obstacles I've discovered the harmony this text was written by.
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Post by bob on Mar 13, 2019 18:57:25 GMT
What worries me is that except for the one sentence about phantom overlaps, I understand perfectly each of those long sentences. Am I beginning to fully understand Barkereese? It’s strange, isn’t it, that even with those long sentences, such great rules are contained within just a few pages. I have rules to run into hundreds of pages with short sentences that I can barely understand it all, and never play.
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Post by greedo on Mar 13, 2019 20:25:20 GMT
What worries me is that except for the one sentence about phantom overlaps, I understand perfectly each of those long sentences. Am I beginning to fully understand Barkereese? It’s strange, isn’t it, that even with those long sentences, such great rules are contained within just a few pages. I have rules to run into hundreds of pages with short sentences that I can barely understand it all, and never play. True Facts Bob! I won't buy rules that are hard cover, glossy photos, 100s of pages anymore. I just don't have time, and they require just as much questioning, and testing/playing as DBA ever did, and at least you get through DBA in just a handful of pages.... + hundreds of armies! |
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Post by paddy649 on Mar 13, 2019 22:50:40 GMT
For all it’s many faults with editing, language and structure - DBA 3.0 is a very good, quick and playable set of rules that gives us good games. The debate about Barkerese, troop classification and whether 3Bd are too powerful or 4Ax are too weak is actually all just part of the fun. Let’s always remember we are just grown men playing with toy soldiers and get on with it! If we didn’t love the rules we wouldn’t comment on them with such passion!
Vive la difference!
Paddy
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