Newbie trying to find my way into Historicals

Hi and welcome to the forum!

I will take a crack at answering your questions, however, I am sure there will be others who have more informed answers for you.

1) FoG is a rules system called Field of Glory, as far as I know. I do not know what the "AM" stands for, though. ADLG is for Art De La Guerre, which is another rule system, and I think is somewhat similar to DBA. I think both FoG and ADLG cover the same periods as DBA, in that they are both quite expansive.

2) For DBA, the army lists are divided up into four big chunks of history called Books, with each Book focusing on a different time period:

Book I - 3,000 BC to 500 BC
Book II - 500 BC to 476 AD
Book III - 476 AD to 1071 AD
Book IV - 1071 AD to 1570 AD

And they have armies from all over the World.

I think it is more important to have a common base width to have the miniatures on between competing armies than having the same scale of miniatures between competing armies, however, the most common scale seems to be 15mm and then followed by 25/28 mm.

I think the most popular armies come from Books II and IV, but any army from any book can go against any army from any Book, as they all use the same rule set, etc..

One of the main reasons why I started playing DBA was the relatively low miniature count needed to make an army... just 12 stands!

3) I did not check your profile to see where you are located, but I hope people chime in and reply with an affirmative, that there are players and/or clubs near you.

You also found a great forum here... really friendly people here and there are tons of resources available for you as well.

I will suggest checking out the wiki page for DBA too, and if you want to see some excellent game play, check out one of the fellow member's (Tony Aguilar), youtube videos, which you can find a link to in the "Rants and Raves" section... the same section you posted your first of perhaps many messages

Hope you have a great time on this forurm!

My words of wisdom are to do with basing.

I use 15mm on DBX basing standard

So 40mm frontage for stuff and pretty much based for DBA, blades for eg I have solid on 40x15mm, fast blades on 40x20mm etc

I play DBA, Lart, Hail Caesar all with same bases though some like Hail Caesar we use multiple stands grouped together to make a unit.

I came from a fantasy background and though i still love it I now do much more historical than owt else.

DBA of course has another big advantage, relatively low model count means you can do two opposing forces to entice your chums into the game.

Welcome to the cult "All hail Barker"

Just to complete nagawaya's response FOGAM, is Field of Glory Ancient & Medieval (to differentiate it from FOG(R) - Field of Glory Renaissance).

The basing is the same as for DBA, but you need a heck of a lot more bases.  (Roughly three times as many, which is another consideration if you are using public transport.)

Pick one that you find interesting! There's plenty to choose from.

Even better is if you can pick a pair of armies that are historical opponents - that way you'll be able to lend one to a friend.

Go with a classic matchup that doesn’t have too many different elements- Carthage or Gaul v Polybian Roman is always a good starter…

P

As all have said before - get the purple book then pick a pair of armies that you like and you feel happy with.

My favourites:
I started with Alex vs Porus. Can’t argue with Alex!
I love Polybian vs Carthaginian - but Carthage isn’t for newbies.
I like Rome vs Gauls = good games! You can’t go wrong with Romans!
Teutons vs Poles is my go to match up for a fun battle.
HYW or WOTR are both classics that need playing.

Other thoughts:
Book 1 Biblical armies give good even fights. The troops might not be colourful but the fighting is! Try NKE, Sea People or Neo-Assyrians! I like the Arab armies as they are easy to paint and have camels. Some of these armies have less than 36 figures and so are quick to paint.
Book 2 are classics! It’s where ancients are at their best! If you get only one DBA army make it Polybian Roman! If you want lots of armies with a few figures look at the Successors. Don’t forget that you get elephants in many of them! You’ll never regret a Book 2 army!
Book 3 - a bit of an acquired taste but plenty of gems to be found there! I like the Arab armies as well as the Feudal armies. If you want to get started quickly then I’ve painted an Islamic Berber army in 10 hours - and it’s no slouch on the table!
Book 4 - High Medieval and is fantastic stuff. If you want a Book 4 army that has good utility and lots of enemies look at Medieval Germans. I also like the colourful armies like Low Countries or Burgundy but think the Crusaders are really nice armies and good to paint.

Anyway - that’s just my 2p! Other people’s views will differ!