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Post by Cromwell on Mar 21, 2021 9:53:28 GMT
Whilst in lock down I have fought a number of simple campaigns.
I use the ladder idea. Five boxes, armies fight the first battle in the middle box and the loser retreats back one box towards their base edge. The loser of the campaign is the army forced off their edge. I wanted to bring in a simple element of logistics and economics.
Casualties from battle are placed behind the armies respective base line. Before the start of the next battle each side rolls a D6 for each casualty element 4,5,6 the element rejoins the army, otherwise it stays at the depot.
Each side each has five units of money. I used pennies. Cost me 10 pence so family had to go without but sacrifices have to be made.
Once an army has rolled for recruitment and fails the General can decide whether to boost the dice roll by spending a coin (Nearly said spend a penny, glad I didn't) So if a 3 was rolled, spending 1 coin will boost it to 4 so the element can rejoin the army, if roll was 2 then 2 coins can be spent.
Problem is you can run out of coins very quickly so you have to prioritise which elements to spend coins on.
The treasury of coins can be refilled however.
But only if the army voluntarily retreats back towards it's own base line. It can earn one coin for each box retreated back.
This tries to depict less cost of shorter supply lines, less garrisons to be paid and plus raising of taxes to boost homeland defense.
An army can never hold more than 5 coins.
If the armies Generals element falls it requires a dice roll of 5,6 to recruit a new one. The roll can still be boosted by coins.
If you are unable to recruit a general the army still fights with another element nominated as General. However all PIP rolls are reduced by 1. So it is possible a bound could have no PIP's to spend! Hopefully the powers that be can forward another General to you for the next battle!
I tried it out in a campaign between Early Imperial Romans lead by Bigus Dickus and the Parthian Army controlled by Mustapha Leek.
It seemed to work well and I enjoyed the campaign.
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Post by martin on Mar 21, 2021 10:17:22 GMT
Whilst in lock down I have fought a number of simple campaigns. I use the ladder idea. Five boxes, armies fight the first battle in the middle box and the loser retreats back one box towards their base edge. The loser of the campaign is the army forced off their edge. I wanted to bring in a simple element of logistics and economics. Casualties from battle are placed behind the armies respective base line. Before the start of the next battle each side rolls a D6 for each casualty element 4,5,6 the element rejoins the army, otherwise it stays at the depot. Each side each has five units of money. I used pennies. Cost me 10 pence so family had to go without but sacrifices have to be made. Once an army has rolled for recruitment and fails the General can decide whether to boost the dice roll by spending a coin (Nearly said spend a penny, glad I didn't) So if a 3 was rolled, spending 1 coin will boost it to 4 so the element can rejoin the army, if roll was 2 then 2 coins can be spent. Problem is you can run out of coins very quickly so you have to prioritise which elements to spend coins on. The treasury of coins can be refilled however. But only if the army voluntarily retreats back towards it's own base line. It can earn one coin for each box retreated back. This tries to depict less cost of shorter supply lines, less garrisons to be paid and plus raising of taxes to boost homeland defense. An army can never hold more than 5 coins. If the armies Generals element falls it requires a dice roll of 5,6 to recruit a new one. The roll can still be boosted by coins. If you are unable to recruit a general the army still fights with another element nominated as General. However all PIP rolls are reduced by 1. So it is possible a bound could have no PIP's to spend! Hopefully the powers that be can forward another General to you for the next battle! I tried it out in a campaign between Early Imperial Romans lead by Bigus Dickus and the Parthian Army controlled by Mustapha Leek. It seemed to work well and I enjoyed the campaign. Sounds excellent! Must give it a go. |
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Post by Cromwell on Mar 21, 2021 15:54:13 GMT
I forgot to say that if an army has to fight with a reduced number of elements, the break point is still one third of the army lost rounding up any fractions.
I do not label the five boxes with terrain. However I do not use army aggression except for the first battle in the middle box. From then on the losing army sets up terrain as per the Army list and DBA rules.
I can see no reason for this not to work for the rest of my favourite conflicts. Romans V Ancient British, Norman Invasion 1066, Hundred Years War, and Italian Wars.
Only problem with the Wars of the Roses is it would be a little unrealistic as those wars were not about territory.So for WotR I have adapted the rules.
Still fought on the 5 step ladder system. Each side also still has five coins for recruitment and all the recruitment and coin rules apply except for Generals.
Then each side is given 5 nobles. These can be actual nobles from the House of Lancaster and York.I used cards from the "Kingmaker" game.
Every battle is headed by a noble (General), if you lose the Noble is removed from play.
The campaign is won by the first army to push their opponent off the board as before. Or kill (defeat) all the other sides Nobles.
To add a bit of intrigue an optional rule could be that an army can try to recruit a defeated enemy noble to their side. This is hard to do and costs coins. Decide how many coins to use to attempt to bride the Noble. Then roll a D6 if the score is equal or lower than the coins offered the Noble joins. Whether or not the Noble is bribed the coins are still spent.
An advantage of recruiting a noble is that he brings his retinue with him so when recruited you can select any 2 elements of your choice from your casualty pool and put it back into your army. If you only have 1 element that is all that can be brought back. If you have no casualties tough luck you only get the treacherous Noble.
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Post by martin on Jan 8, 2022 14:59:11 GMT
> > An army can never hold more than 5 coins. If the armies Generals element falls it requires a dice roll of 5,6 to recruit a new one. The roll can still be boosted by coins. If you are unable to recruit a general the army still fights with another element nominated as General. However all PIP rolls are reduced by 1. So it is possible a bound could have no PIP's to spend! Hopefully the powers that be can forward another General to you for the next battle! Hi Cromwell Love your simple campaign system! Question:- When trying to replace a lost general, is the die roll of 5,6 required IN ADDITION to the 4,5,6 to replace that particular element, or is it a separate roll?? eg if the only casualty the army had suffered in battle #1 was a dead Kn general, do I roll 4,5,6 to return the Kn to the army, and then a 5,6 to return the general from A and E?? Or is it a single roll of 5,6....get lucky and a Kn general arrives, get unlucky with 1,2,3,4 there's neither a Kn nor a Kn gen ?? |
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Post by vodnik on Jan 8, 2022 15:41:05 GMT
...so you use To the Strongest rules for your campagne? I did order the rules too. But the army lists there are a bit simple os completely nonsense...
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Post by timurilank on Jan 8, 2022 15:53:35 GMT
...so you use To the Strongest rules for your campagne? I did order the rules too. But the army lists there are a bit simple os completely nonsense... Ouch!  |
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Post by vodnik on Jan 8, 2022 18:05:44 GMT
...no problem... this was just a simple question...
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Post by mthrguth on Jan 8, 2022 20:16:49 GMT
DBA is fairly dependent on having equal elements per side, lest someone get a guaranteed overlap and then start flanking the enemy line.
Two ways I like to deal with the, in fact, the defeated army could be given a choice.
1. Losses are not replaced until perhaps at the end of a campaign period.
2. After a battle, determine the element differential. For example, if I win 5-4, then one 'permanent loss' accrues to the losing army.
3. An army with less than 11 elements may recruit hordes to build back up to 12 for the next battle. These represent emergency recruitment of local milita and ill trained troops.
4. Alternatively, an army may 'extend the front,'. The accrued 'permanent' lost element(s) return to the army,but fight at a minus one modifier in the next battle.
5. Third alternative. Each army is given a 13-24 element budget. When elements are lost in a battle, they can be bought back at a cost of 1 point per element. The campaign can last several games then until one runs out of money and disasterous mismatches begin to occur.
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Post by jeffreythancock on Jan 9, 2022 3:18:59 GMT
Sue Laflin Barker never published campaign rules after removing them from DBA in version x.x?
I suppose we may never see an "official" set from WRG?
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Post by Cromwell on Jan 10, 2022 8:45:01 GMT
> > An army can never hold more than 5 coins. If the armies Generals element falls it requires a dice roll of 5,6 to recruit a new one. The roll can still be boosted by coins. If you are unable to recruit a general the army still fights with another element nominated as General. However all PIP rolls are reduced by 1. So it is possible a bound could have no PIP's to spend! Hopefully the powers that be can forward another General to you for the next battle! Hi Cromwell Love your simple campaign system! Question:- When trying to replace a lost general, is the die roll of 5,6 required IN ADDITION to the 4,5,6 to replace that particular element, or is it a separate roll?? eg if the only casualty the army had suffered in battle #1 was a dead Kn general, do I roll 4,5,6 to return the Kn to the army, and then a 5,6 to return the general from A and E?? Or is it a single roll of 5,6....get lucky and a Kn general arrives, get unlucky with 1,2,3,4 there's neither a Kn nor a Kn gen ?? No a single 5.6 role will bring him back! No need to roll the 4,5,6 first. |
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Post by Cromwell on Jan 10, 2022 20:29:23 GMT
I have adapted this campaign system a little for fighting the Italian was between City states using the Condetorri army from the lists.
Use the five step ladder system as before starting in the middle segment. Issue each side 14 coins. This is their treasury.
Fight the first battle and move the marker on the ladder.
Each army must now pay 1 coin for each element lost so as to bring their army up to full strength. Pay 2 coins if your General bit the dust. Then each side pays one more coin to fight the next battle. Before fighting count the number of steps behind you army not including the step you are on. Roll that number of D6 a score of 4,5,6 results in a coin going into your treasury. So if there are 3 steps roll 3 D6 any dice that comes up a 4,5,6 gets a coin. Obviously the further your army is pushed back the less chance their is to earn coins. For the disputed step each side rolls one D6 if either roll a 5 or 6 another coin is gained.
If after any battle one side cannot afford to recruit enough elements to field a full army or pay to fight the next battle they have lost the campaign. If forced back off their side of the ladder, again they have lost. It is possible for both sides to not be able to recruit a full army. In that case the side furthest along the ladder is the winner. If in the middle step it is a stalemate.
The idea is to try to recreate the importance of finance and mercenaries to the city states. The armies in the field are dependent on enough money being available to carry on recruiting and fighting. No Money the army goes home (or on the rampage)!
I have tried this and it gives, in my opinion a fun campaign with a bit of renaissance flavour.
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