|
|
Post by Vic on Feb 6, 2019 11:02:23 GMT
Hi all, In the last few months I've been playing DBA again after some years of no wargaming at all. I play exclusively with my partner, so we have a growing collection of armies at home. In this context, a "protocol" for friendly (i.e., non-competitive) games has been slowly taking shape that I think can be useful in a club or small group. The key is that there's a shared collection of a number of armies available on-site, so you can choose the lists you're going to play right before starting the game; it isn't well suited for situations in which you have to pick the armies in advance (for instance, because you have to take them with you) or for situations in which you have agreed to play a specific pair that you want to test out.
1. Both players roll dice, ties are re-rolled. The player who rolls higher wins. 2. The winner of the roll decides either a) to pick an available army list for themself, or b) to ask the other player to pick a matched pair. 3a. If the winner chose an army list directly, the other player must now pick for themself an available historical enemy of that list. 3b. Otherwise, the other player has to choose a historically matched pair amongst the available lists. Once done, the winner of the roll decides which of the matched pair lists will they play; the other player will use the other list of the pair. 4. Now that both players know what list will they play, they decide on a valid composition according to their list. It is written down and kept hidden for now. 5. Both players roll for aggression to determine the attacker & defender. 6. If different board sizes are available, the attacker decides it. 7. The defender chooses terrain normally and the game proceeds as per the rulebook.
After the game we record who played what lists, the composition, the score, what elements were destroyed and whether either camp was sacked (but that's just because the boffin in me loves playing with data).
We have also written a document containing all the lists that can be fielded with the armies in the collection and listing their aggression, historical enemies (within the available armies), composition and terrain, a sort of "army lists book redux" that removes all the information about armies that are not available and saves us having to navigate the Purple Book to decide what to play - but that's just convenient, not necessary.
Hope you find it useful.
|
|
|
|
Post by bob on Feb 7, 2019 0:21:30 GMT
This all sounds very useful, thanks for the suggestions. Could some of this be put into a database to make the information easier.
|
|
|
|
Post by jim1973 on Feb 7, 2019 10:56:56 GMT
4. Now that both players know what list will they play, they decide on a valid composition according to their list. It is written down and kept hidden for now. This has always been a point of interest. When do you need to declare your army's composition? If you follow the Deployment section as written then you only see the army at deployment, which would give the invader too much flexibility. I like your solution. It makes sense. Historical generals gathered what they could to do the job and then met on the field of battle. Cheers Jim |
|
|
|
Post by nangwaya on Feb 7, 2019 12:48:08 GMT
Yeah, thanks for this.
I am in the process of painting up every single enemy (there are many!), for the Later Sargonid Assyrians (I/51), and your protocol will be a nice way of finding out which army will go up against the Assyrians, from battle to battle.
|
|
|
|
Post by davidjconstable on Feb 7, 2019 13:39:57 GMT
There were a couple of neat tricks that could have been incorporated into DBA2.2 and latter.
1. The swopping of elements in DBA2.2 was good.
2a. Littoral - It would have been nice if at deployment the littoral player deployed all 12 elements, but wrote down on a piece of paper which if any were going to make the littoral landing, writing none three times would work as well as anything else.
2b. Littoral - Have two types of littoral armies, those that can only land from a waterway, and raiding types (Vikings) who can land from a river that starts at the waterway. I would stop the river landing at the edge of a BUA across the river. Vikings and Paris spring to mind, but I would also add the Thames and Trent.
David Constable
|
|
|
|
Post by nangwaya on Feb 7, 2019 14:28:14 GMT
There were a couple of neat tricks that could have been incorporated into DBA2.2 and latter. 1. The swopping of elements in DBA2.2 was good. 2a. Littoral - It would have been nice if at deployment the littoral player deployed all 12 elements, but wrote down on a piece of paper which if any were going to make the littoral landing, writing none three times would work as well as anything else. 2b. Littoral - Have two types of littoral armies, those that can only land from a waterway, and raiding types (Vikings) who can land from a river that starts at the waterway. I would stop the river landing at the edge of a BUA across the river. Vikings and Paris spring to mind, but I would also add the Thames and Trent. David Constable I love option 2a.
What an excellent idea!
|
|
|
|
Post by stevie on Feb 7, 2019 15:20:34 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by Tony Aguilar on Feb 7, 2019 15:39:04 GMT
I have never liked option 1 David...always struck me as toooo artificial and 'gamey'.
Me neither and it was easy to "abuse." The defender already has an advantage IMO in DBA 2.2. |
|
|
|
Post by davidjconstable on Feb 7, 2019 16:23:14 GMT
The option in DBA2.2 of swopping comes in handy if you are a defender - yes, but it does allow a swop of a Ps for an LC etc, allowing a semi-ambush, or incorrect intelligence.
As an infantryman I found it a great help, but I can understand a cavalryman not liking it, especially if your knights suddenly find themselves in the bad situation of facing elephants (but I have been shot down in flames over that).
The Littoral landing is bland, it needs something to spice it up, give it meaning.
David Constable
|
|
|
|
Post by bob on Feb 7, 2019 19:08:16 GMT
Ditto to Stevie. A little bit of subterfuge is always fun.
Keep in mind that Phil is expecting most games are played in a tournament situation. So it’s only in the first game that the defender is surprised by the invader. In all subsequent games the army is the same. In friendly games don’t most players know what their opponent will be using?
|
|
|
|
Post by medievalthomas on Feb 11, 2019 22:49:59 GMT
Happy to see the weird element swap gone for good.
Suprise much better achieved by using historical methods - best is to borrow from HOTT approach and allow Lights (Ps/LH) to deploy in terrain or from flank respectively by using a PIP (maybe 2 PIPS?). Can't move on turn they deploy but thereafter move normally.
TomT
|
|
