Post by dpd on Oct 9, 2022 12:39:03 GMT
As an adjunct to Brian Boru's insightful look at DBA mechanics, I'd like to note certain patterns in DBA units types.
Broadly speaking, DBA units fall into one of six categories:
Spear - foot units armed with shock weapons (spears, pikes, lance)
Blade - foot units armed with melee weapons (sword, axe, polearm)
Missile - foot units armed with missile weapons (sling, javelin, bow, longbow, crossbow)
Knight - mounted unites armed with shock weapons
Horsemen - mounted units armed with missile weapons
Other - horse drawn weapons (artillery, war wagons), camps, litters, etc.
Using the 3.0 designations of "fast" aka light (more lightly armed/armored and looser formation than standard units), and "exceptional" aka heavy (more heavily armed/armored and closer formation than standard).
(Yes, I am stretching the definitions a bit here)
Each unit category can contain 6 different unit types
Spear
Light - 4AX and 3SP (If you assume that light spear, like true Roman Auxilia should be grouped with light/fast spear.
Standard - 4SP and 8SP (Standard phalanx spear units)
Heavy - 3PK and 4PK (Assuming you use 3PK to designate medieval/renaissance pike which were more lightly armored - lacking shields and often body armor, more mobile and offensive oriented than their Hellenic counterparts)
Blade
Light - 3WB and 4WB (Barbarians being in more fluid formations and able to move through forests and mountains while engaging in melee combat)
Standard - 3BD and 4BD (Standard sword units)
Heavy - 4BD and 6BD (Separating out axe troops from sword and grouping them with polearms)
Missile
Light - 2PS and 3AX (If you assume that 3AX armed with javelins should be grouped together with slingers and other skirmishers)
Standard - 3BW/4BW and 3LB/4LB (Bow and long bow)
Heavy - 3CB/4CB and 8BW (Crossbows and any other missile units protected by pavise shields)
Knight
Light - CAM and 3KN (With camelry moving faster through bad desert terrain)
Standard - HCH and 4KN (Standard knights and their bronze age chariot equivalents
Heavy - 6KN (Very heavy plate armored knights)
Special - ELE (Super mounted shock units)
Horsemen
Light - 2LH (I would also create another category 3LH to represent horse archers leaving 2LH for horsemen armed with javelins that fought and moved better in bad going - Irish bogs, North African mountains, etc.)
Standard - LCH and 3CV (Standard cavalry and their bronze age chariot equivalents)
Heavy - 6CV (Heaviest horsemen, cataphracts armed with bow and lance)
Special - SCH (Expendable horsemen)
Other
Light - LIT and CMP (Semi-mobile elements of the army train)
Standard - ART- field, and ART siege (Both siege and field artillery)
Heavy - WWG (Heavily defended war wagons and associated artillery pieces)
Special - HRD (Still don't understand why the game differentiates between different types of mobs)
Note that each of six categories contains 6 separate unit types.
Therefor you could model any DBA army with a dozen pairs of dice.
Thoughts or comments?
Broadly speaking, DBA units fall into one of six categories:
Spear - foot units armed with shock weapons (spears, pikes, lance)
Blade - foot units armed with melee weapons (sword, axe, polearm)
Missile - foot units armed with missile weapons (sling, javelin, bow, longbow, crossbow)
Knight - mounted unites armed with shock weapons
Horsemen - mounted units armed with missile weapons
Other - horse drawn weapons (artillery, war wagons), camps, litters, etc.
Using the 3.0 designations of "fast" aka light (more lightly armed/armored and looser formation than standard units), and "exceptional" aka heavy (more heavily armed/armored and closer formation than standard).
(Yes, I am stretching the definitions a bit here)
Each unit category can contain 6 different unit types
Spear
Light - 4AX and 3SP (If you assume that light spear, like true Roman Auxilia should be grouped with light/fast spear.
Standard - 4SP and 8SP (Standard phalanx spear units)
Heavy - 3PK and 4PK (Assuming you use 3PK to designate medieval/renaissance pike which were more lightly armored - lacking shields and often body armor, more mobile and offensive oriented than their Hellenic counterparts)
Blade
Light - 3WB and 4WB (Barbarians being in more fluid formations and able to move through forests and mountains while engaging in melee combat)
Standard - 3BD and 4BD (Standard sword units)
Heavy - 4BD and 6BD (Separating out axe troops from sword and grouping them with polearms)
Missile
Light - 2PS and 3AX (If you assume that 3AX armed with javelins should be grouped together with slingers and other skirmishers)
Standard - 3BW/4BW and 3LB/4LB (Bow and long bow)
Heavy - 3CB/4CB and 8BW (Crossbows and any other missile units protected by pavise shields)
Knight
Light - CAM and 3KN (With camelry moving faster through bad desert terrain)
Standard - HCH and 4KN (Standard knights and their bronze age chariot equivalents
Heavy - 6KN (Very heavy plate armored knights)
Special - ELE (Super mounted shock units)
Horsemen
Light - 2LH (I would also create another category 3LH to represent horse archers leaving 2LH for horsemen armed with javelins that fought and moved better in bad going - Irish bogs, North African mountains, etc.)
Standard - LCH and 3CV (Standard cavalry and their bronze age chariot equivalents)
Heavy - 6CV (Heaviest horsemen, cataphracts armed with bow and lance)
Special - SCH (Expendable horsemen)
Other
Light - LIT and CMP (Semi-mobile elements of the army train)
Standard - ART- field, and ART siege (Both siege and field artillery)
Heavy - WWG (Heavily defended war wagons and associated artillery pieces)
Special - HRD (Still don't understand why the game differentiates between different types of mobs)
Note that each of six categories contains 6 separate unit types.
Therefor you could model any DBA army with a dozen pairs of dice.
Thoughts or comments?