Post by Brian Ború on Aug 20, 2022 10:27:09 GMT
Movements In The Morning Mist
A DBA fun variant creating fog of war
by Brian Ború
Most of the times generals preparing for battle did not know exactly the strength or whereabouts of their enemies. And sometimes, maybe in bad weather or at night, they even got caught by surprise.
In order to offer an alternative to the usual "set piece" battles of DBA, I invented this small set of additional rules. The normal DBA rules apply as usual, save those concerning deployment.
In order to offer an alternative to the usual "set piece" battles of DBA, I invented this small set of additional rules. The normal DBA rules apply as usual, save those concerning deployment.
Scouting and phantom troops
Before deploying your army you roll 2 dice to see the quality of your scouting. The sum of the dice determines the number of enemy elements that are known to you, because your scouts spotted them. The player with more light units (LH, LCm, Ps) may reroll one of his dice, but must accept the result. Your enemy must deploy at least this number of units. All other elements may be deployed later.
These hidden units form the player's army pool or his phantom troops. They remain unknown in the morning mist, the darkness or the terrain, and may be used later to surprise the enemy.
These hidden units form the player's army pool or his phantom troops. They remain unknown in the morning mist, the darkness or the terrain, and may be used later to surprise the enemy.
Initial deployment
The attacker dices first for scouting, the defender now deploys at least as many elements (or more) according to the ususual rules. Then the defender dices for scouting and the attacker deploys as many elements as determined by the defender's scouting sum or more. The defender may now switch two of his visible elements or one visible element with a phantom element.
Where is the general?
It is not necessary to deploy the general's element at the start of the game. This can be done later. In the meantime we assume that the invisible general is always in perfect command range of all of his units and phantom troops, wherever they may be.
Manœuvers in the dark
Now when you diced for PIPs, before moving any units you may spend PIPs to deploy a single element out of your army pool or a whole group of them.
You do this at the cost of 1 PIP for each element or group. You simply place them anywhere along a waterway (obey the unit restrictions of littoral landings) or up to 3 BW ahead of your visible units along a parallel line to your camp's edge if fast (in any going), 2 BW ahead if slow and in GG, and 1 BW ahead if slow and in BG or RG.
You need no PIPs at all to place elements behind or in side edge contact to your own visible elements (certainly only those already deployed earlier in the game and not in CC).
If possible you may in this way even deploy some elements on the flanks of your enemy, but:
All these elements must always be placed at least 1 BW away from enemy elements.
All these elements must always be placed at least 1 BW away from enemy elements.
But there is one exception:
Surprise attacks
You may also perform surprise attacks and deploy your units entering the enemy's ZOC or even in front to side edge contact. This is only possible if you deploy them in BG or RG, or not more than 1½ BW ahead of BG, RG, or a crest line that blocked the enemy's line of sight. (Surely, this must conform with the rules above.)
Movement
After you have deployed some or all of your hidden elements you may now use your remaining PIPs to move all other elements.
Remember: all elements that are allowed to make a second move (e.g. via road, or if Ps or Cav) certainly may do this now.
Vanishing troops
When you have resolved all CC finally you may even take 1 or 2 fast or mounted units back into your army pool.
Well, that's all. Now go and try to surprise the enemy. But always remember: he certainly tries to do the same with you.
I'm getting more comfortable with that idea. By the end of Saturday I realized I've internalized a lot more of the rules than I had thought--I was calculating relative combat strengths like on Tony Aguilar's videos, I'm catching little unit nuances (e.g., "sorry, your blades don't get side support since we a partially in rough going 
", "the Psiloi aren't overlapped, we're just in corner-to-corner contact").