House Rule for Amphibious Beach Assaults | Fanaticus

House Rule for Amphibious Beach Assaults Nov 13, 2019 13:24:38 GMT

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Post by stevie on Nov 13, 2019 13:24:38 GMT

As we all know, DBA 3.0 has rules for “Littoral Landings”, where presumably the Littoral forces
are suffering from a shortage of shipping, which why they are limited to just 3 elements.
But DBA 3.0 has no rules for entire armies making a beach assault, such as Caesar’s landing
in Briton, the Roman invasion of Mona (Anglesey), Hannibal’s crossing of the wide River
Rhone, and many other amphibious invasions.

Then there is the issue of what happens if the invader chooses a Waterway as his deployment
area, but this Waterway is 4 BW deep, and there is not enough room in which to deploy?

Lastly, what happens when then there is a BUA with a road on a Waterway edge? Invaders
are supposed to choose one end of the road as their deployment area, but cannot choose
an edge directly opposite a Waterway.
Are they forced to take the Waterway edge, or can they instead ignore the Road, which
then serves no purpose and is just a waste of a terrain pick?

Now wouldn’t it be nice to have a simple elegant rule that addressed all of the above issues.
Well, I like simple solutions that fix multiple problems rather than separate individual fixes.
So here is that simple solution...

Allow Invaders to deploy in Waterways
BUT, any element still even partiality in a Waterway after the invaders first bound is removed.
They’re not lost, they are just not available for that battle, and victory conditions are unchanged.
(Consider them as too frightened to disembark, or there is a lack of transport ships for all the army,
or winds and currents have caused confusion and they have become separated from the main body)
From then on the battle plays out as normal.

Details
* Movement out of shallow water is the same as moving across a shallow river (i.e. a ‘3’ or ‘4’ river).
So providing all the front-edge is out of the water, troops can move at full speed as a single group,
but only 1 BW if the front edge-edge is in water, representing disembarkation from flat bottomed
transport barges and hastily build rafts.
* Shooting troops that are removed cannot claim to be shooting from the ships, as they are either
dismantled for transport or there is too much clutter on board the ships to allow effective shooting.
* If the invader ever has less than 4 elements on the table, they are classed as being defeated.
(This is to prevent invaders from only landing a few troops so that can’t be beaten...an invasion
that fails to invade is a defeat and a definite win for the defenders!)
* If there is insufficient room to place a Camp, then the invaders do not have a Camp. Again, it is not
lost, it’s just not present, representing that the baggage is still aboard the ships or has been left on
the far distant off-table shoreline.
(Note that some players think that camps can be 2 BW from a table side-edge. If so they will never
have situations where a camp is unplaceable, unless their camp is at at least 2 BW wide...and it will
be a bit odd to have a camp already built when the invaders haven’t even landed yet!
Having camps 4 BW from a table-side will sometimes mean they can’t be placed, and is an advantage
to the invaders as well as being more realistic and look better)

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

House Rule for Amphibious Beach Assaults Nov 13, 2019 13:30:59 GMT

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Post by stevie on Nov 13, 2019 13:30:59 GMT

And here are some historical examples showing the concept in action.

Caesar’s invasion of Briton in 55 and 54 BC, and the Roman invasion of Mona (Anglesey) in 60 AD:-

Aggression Roll: the Romans have the highest score, so they are the invaders. The Britons choose
a BUA (an Edifice ‘Sacred Wood’ or a ‘Henge’), a Waterway (½ of which is 4 BW deep), and a Road.
Terrain Placement: the Waterways is placed first (let’s call the Waterway edge “the south”), with
the deep part in the centre, then the BUA, and lastly the Road. The placement roll was lucky for
the Britons, and the Edifice is touching the Waterway with the Road placed North-to-South and
terminating at the BUA.
Base Edge Selection: the Romans must choose one end of the Road, but cannot pick the edge
opposite the Waterway, so they have no choice but to choose the Waterway as their base edge.
(The Britons have forced the Romans to make an amphibious beach assault. Had the Road not
terminated at the BUA, then it would have to go East-to-West parallel to the Waterway, and
the Romans would be free to choose one end of it, representing that the Romans had landed
further up or down the coastline and marched parallel to the Waterway to reach the battlefield)
Camp Placement: the Britons place their Camp opposite the Waterway. The Romans however
have no room for their Camp, as the Waterway is 4 BW deep in their deployment area. So they
don’t have a camp (representing the baggage has been left on the ships or on the distant shore).
Army Deployment: the Britons deploy as far forward as they can, 3 BW from the table centre.
The Romans also deploy as far forwards as they can, 3 BW from the table centre-line, with the
rear of their elements/columns actually in the shallow water.
Players First Move: the Britons charge forward. Their Ps and LH can make subsequent moves
if they have the PIPs, but can’t go within 1 BW of the enemy (leaving the Romans with at least
1 BW to move out of the shallow water in their first bound. Any Roman element even partially
still in the water at the end of the Roman first bound is removed and takes no part in the battle)
Following Bounds: the battle now plays out as normal, with the Waterway as an impassible
piece of terrain that neither side may enter.

Hannibal’s crossing of the Rhone River in 218 BC:-
(See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Rhone_Crossing )

Aggression Roll: the Carthaginians have the highest score, so they are the invaders. The Gauls
choose two Plough, a Waterway (one end of which is 4 BW deep), and some bad going.
Terrain Placement: the Waterways is placed first (let’s call the Waterway edge “the west”), with
the deepest part in the South, then the Plough, and lastly the bad going terrain.
Base Edge Selection: the Carthaginians cannot pick the edge opposite the Waterway, but decide
to deliberately choose the Waterway as their base edge (Hannibal has a plan...).
Camp Placement: the Gauls place their Camp opposite the Waterway. As the Waterway is 4 BW
deep in the South, the Carthaginians have to place their Camp on the North edge of the Waterway.
(If the Northern part of the Waterway were 3 BW deep, and their Camp large enough, then the
Carthaginians wouldn’t have a Camp)
Army Deployment: the Gauls deploy as far forward as they can, 3 BW from the table centre.
The Carthaginians also deploy their main force as far forwards as they can, 3 BW from the table
centre-line, with the rear of their elements/columns actually in the shallow water. But Hannibal
also has a second small force of Cv/LH/Ps deployed on the dry land in the North, where the
Waterway is not so deep (this represents Hannibal’s ‘wide-outflanking-manoeuvre’ that will
threaten the Gallic flank and rear).
Players First Move: the Gauls charge forward. Their Ps could make a subsequent move if they
have the PIPs, but can’t go within 1 BW of the enemy (leaving the Carthaginians with at least
1 BW to move out of the shallow water in their first bound. Any element even partially still in
the water at the end of the Carthaginian first bound is removed and takes no part in the battle)
Following Bounds: the battle now plays out as normal, with the Waterway as an impassible
piece of terrain that neither side may enter.

There are some armies, such as Pike armies, that don’t seem to have performed beach assaults.
But perhaps they did, and Demetrius’ Siege of Rhodes 305 BC, and the Greek invasions of islands
(such as the initial landing in the Sicilian campaign in 415 BC), could be considered as ‘amphibious
beach assaults’.
Certainly Gaiseric’s African Vandals, conducting their many pirate raids all over the Mediterranean
in the late 5th century and early 6th century AD, must have had to face the occasional ‘amphibious
beach assault’ at one time or another.