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Post by greedo on May 1, 2018 5:26:55 GMT
Been reading some other rules sets, To The Strongest, Sword & Spear, ADLG, DBA 3.0, Command & Colors etc. Despite the fact that I think of kinds of house-rules for DBA, I wanted to take a bit to highlight what I love about DBA: - No book keeping. You move, recoil, fight, flank, die. No crappy chits ruining a perfectly good wargame table. No casualties, slowly weakening units, rallying phases, or defensive fire...
- Army lists all in one book. TTS has easy to download army lists, but still. Really nice that it's all there
- Wargame table that looks like a battle map from the books that I've read. Blocks of troops supporting each other, instead of just running around like we're playing Warhammer Fantasy Battle...
- Easy to modify. Easy to figure out new troops, modifications. etc.
- Easy to scale. DBA = 12 elements, and BBDBA = 36 elements. Love it!
Anyway, been re-inspired again, and wanted to chip this in, since I've been thinking about it all week.
Chris
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Post by Cromwell on May 1, 2018 7:21:29 GMT
It was the discovery of DBA that brought me back to wargaming after a break of about 20 years.
All my wargames are now DBA with one exception. For my English Civil War gaming I have used DB-RRR, I then adapted them to my ideas but now mainly use "Regiment of Foote" or for small skirmishes "The Pikemans Lament.
But for medieval and ancient DBA all the way!
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Post by stevie on May 1, 2018 11:10:46 GMT
I’d just like to add a few more things to your list Greedo:- 6. Cheap - no need to spend a fortune on a pile of figure, many of which never get painted! 7. Quick to Play - I’m old enough to remember WRG 7th edition, where we rarely finished a game. 8. Relatively Realistic - I say ‘relatively’, because no wargames rules are completely realistic. (They are all abstractions...even rolling a dice for combat is an abstraction of what happens in the real world)Of course, DBA is not perfect, but I think it’s the best on the market at the moment. And each new version is better and an improvement over the previous version. No doubt the next version (because it’s unlikely that DBA 3.0 in its present form will still be in use a hundred years from now) will be even better... Some potentially useful player aids can be found here, such as the “Quick Reference Sheets” from the Society of Ancients,
and the new “Army List Corrections” file: fanaticus-dba.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Reference_sheets_and_epitomes
And this is the latest January 2018 FAQ: fanaticus-dba.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ_2018
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Post by jim1973 on May 1, 2018 23:52:17 GMT
I'd like to add:
9. Encourages historical study - Building matched pairs is affordable, encouraging historical battles and scenarios
10. Time efficient - Small armies allow for that extra time to add a little bit to the painting, bases and terrain building
11. Campaign friendly - Campaigns done and dusted in a weekend
12. Allows for breadth of interests - "Butterflies" like me can skip around the historical timelines with ease, particularly with the later adaptations.
13. Teachable - Basic competence with the rules can be taught in an afternoon (my six year old beat me in his second game...)
and last but not least...
14. Fanaticus - this is a fun forum!
Jim
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Post by nangwaya on May 2, 2018 1:30:26 GMT
jim1973, you hit it on the head!
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Post by greedo on May 2, 2018 4:56:17 GMT
Oooh, I thought of another one! It's the same reason I got into FOW for WW2 years back...
15. When you build a 15mm BBDBA army, you can use it for many many other ancient/medieval rules sets, because DBx basing is used in like EVERY ancients ruleset out there. DBA was the OG.
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Post by Piyan Glupak on May 2, 2018 5:57:44 GMT
Another one: The small armies make it relatively easy to paint suitable opponents, or even to paint an army specifically for a themed competition.
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Post by Cromwell on May 2, 2018 7:26:21 GMT
How about, the armies are easy to store and move about. Even at 28mm scale.
Newcomers can learn the rules quickly
The rules system is forgiving of mistakes. If an error is made in rule interpretation it rarely if ever ruins a game. I put it down to fog of war!
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Post by edonaldson on May 2, 2018 14:42:28 GMT
I'll add another one. Easy to shrug off disappointing/boring games. Just set up another and move on! How many times with other rules did we play a clunker of a game that took all night/afternoon to play.
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Post by greedo on May 2, 2018 15:14:04 GMT
I'll add another one. Easy to shrug off disappointing/boring games. Just set up another and move on! How many times with other rules did we play a clunker of a game that took all night/afternoon to play. Clunker long games can kill a whole rule set for our group. "Never again!" |
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Post by trikak on May 3, 2018 16:28:31 GMT
Hello .......yes you have my vote to DBA is the best ,I was playing " Bolt Action" last night and it was like going back in time for me getting shot to pieces and unable to reply rolling tons of dice and markers all about the place ,give me the great uncluttered
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Post by greedo on May 3, 2018 16:41:50 GMT
Hello .......yes you have my vote to DBA is the best ,I was playing " Bolt Action" last night and it was like going back in time for me getting shot to pieces and unable to reply rolling tons of dice and markers all about the place ,give me the great uncluttered Trikak, it sounds like you're paraphrasing the Statue of Liberty  "Give me your chits, your measuring tapes, Your unpainted masses yearning to play free on the great uncluttered" |
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Post by Baldie on May 3, 2018 17:28:14 GMT
I like the fact that at DBA I can get beaten so quickly I get to look round tourneys.
At FOW, BA or WFB it can take at least twenty mins or so for my enemies to cripple my forces.
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Post by medievalthomas on May 3, 2018 21:18:28 GMT
Good points though I don't think matched pairs produce very historical battles - battles are almost never fought with equal numbers using balanced element types. Its an OK starting point to put together an historical battle.
It is a far better historical game than Bolt Action, Flames of War or Warhammer Battles - but these are extremely low bars. Comical in their inaccuracies. They are nevertheless vastly more popular due to marketing and presentation.
TomT
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Post by twrnz on May 3, 2018 23:18:34 GMT
For me the ability to have games between historical opponents, with limited figures, is one of the strengths of DBA. Games between Old Kingdom Egyptians and Wars of the Roses just don’t interest me, using any rules system.
There are of course several compromises with any rule system. However, DBA provides very plausible results when recreating Ancient warfare, while also providing an excellent game, and all within the constraints of 12 elements.
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