By David Kuijt
These rules are intended to allow larger battles than the small, 12-element affairs of standard DBA, without going to the additional complexity of DBM. In my gaming group we often have an odd number of players; we tend to prefer fighting two-on-one battles with one player playing two DBA armies facing two other players with a DBA army each.
Unless specifically altered by the variant rules below, rules are standard DBA 1.1.
Armies used in the Big Battle DBA Variant can be selected in any of the following ways:
The forces available may be split into various commands, so long as each command contains only forces available to one nationality. Commands may end up with more or less than 12 elements if desired, but both sides should have the same number of commands, based upon one command per 12 elements. Special scenarios may modify this and allow one side to have more or less commands than the other side, as mentioned in the optional rules
The standard DBA area is 24 inches square for 15mm figures. For Big Battle DBA, play with a mapboard that is 30" deep. Play with a width of 24" base but add 12 inches of width for every 12 elements extra after the first 12. For example, battles involving 24 elements aside would be played on a board 3 feet wide by 2.5 feet deep. Battles involving 36 elements per side would be played on a board 4 feet wide by 2.5 feet deep.
Fiddle with the size and amount of terrain until it feels right.
The deployment rules are modified as follows to reflect the increased number of players and the widening of the playing area (e.g. 36 or 48 inches wide for 15mm).
All players dice. The low scorer chooses and places terrain according to the normal rules. The players flip a coin for sides. The loser places one command first, then they alternate placing a single command until done. The player who placed the first command moves first.
Each command has its own camp. The camp from a command should start within the command radius of the general of that command, and should be deployed approximately behind that command on the field. Like all camps, it must be on the friendly baseline.
An alternative deployment system is described in the optional rules section.
A command corresponds in most ways to an army in DBA. One element in each command is designated as the general. 1d6 is rolled for pips for each command on the shared allied turn. Pips may not be used for any other commands; command radius is calculated from the single general of that command only. Units from different commands may not be moved as a group. Otherwise movement as in DBA.
Each command has a Demoralization Level, set at 1/3 of its elements (ignoring camp followers, if any, and treating the General's element as a single element) and rounding off. For example, a command with 13 elements would have a DL of 4.33, round down to 4. A command with 14 elements would have a DL of 4.67, which rounds up to 5. If it loses 4 elements, it is not demoralized. If it loses 5 elements, it is demoralized.
The loss of a General counts as 2 elements lost towards demoralization. While a camp is occupied by the enemy it counts as two additional elements towards demoralization. The loss of a "camp follower" element, if any, counts as a single element towards demoralization.
Demoralized troops suffer a -1 to all combat factors. The general's element of a demoralized command does not suffer this penalty.
Any element of a demoralized command will move towards the board edge in the fastest and safest way unless pips are spent on it. It takes +1 pip to move a demoralized unit or group into contact with enemy forces. 1 pip (per group) suffices to hold a group in contact with the enemy. Note that troops that are engaged in combat may not withdraw unless they are faster than their opponents. This is still true even if no pips are spent on the units in question.
Demoralized troops that suffer a recoil result in combat treat it as a flee result, regardless of their troop type.
Once a command has taken losses of at least 1/2 its elements (determined in the same way as for Demoralization Level) it is considered Routed. All elements of that command are removed from play at the end of that turn.
If a turn ends and all the commands of one army are Demoralized or Routed, that army is defeated.
As an interesting alternative to normal deployment, have players roll to determine who is attacking and who defending. The attacking player must write an entry location for each entering command on his edge of the board (giving a distance from one edge of the map, or any other easily verified, unique location). Each command must have a different entry point. Once the attacker has written down his entry points the defending player deploys all his forces as normal. The attacker takes the first turn, and must move each command onto the map in a single column entering at its entry point.
Any troops that do not enter in the first turn must enter in the second turn (in a column entering at the entry point) or are lost (and count against that commands demoralization threshold). After all attacking troops have entered, place a camp at the entry point of each column.
Big-battle DBA can start with forces quite far from each other; in some scenarios reinforcements may enter far from the enemy. To accelerate play when enemies are entirely out of contact, use the following optional rule for March Moves.
A march move represents the movement of forces out of contact with the enemy. To be eligible for a March Move, forces must meet the following criteria:
March moves allow a column out of contact with the enemy to move into engagement range much more quickly than normal, as follows:
A turn represents 30 minutes (both sides taking their bound in sequence). There are normally 12 hours of daylight, which works out to 24 turns. Battles rarely started on time, and numerous factors could delay things. At the end of the last turn the game is over -- night falls. If this is a campaign game with seasons, use 12 + 2d6 turns for length of the battle for Spring and Fall battles; 18 + 2d6 turns for Summer battles.
Historical armies varied in how much control their commanders had, and how well they responded to commands. Some armies were tremendously well-drilled, capable of feigned flights, of major redeployment in the face of the enemy, and similar controlled efforts. Other armies were hugely unwieldy, ungainly, and responded poorly to any attempt to redeploy troops before battle.
For players who wish to experiment with some variability in army size and controllability, here is a simple mechanism. Remove three elements from an army (in some systematic fashion, so proportions are still in accordance with those in a normal 12-element DBA army as far as possible) and allow it to designate one of its elements as an additional commander, the same in all ways as its other commanders. Allow the more controlled force to split its elements between its greater number of commanders as desired. Alternatively, allow a commander with an ungainly force to field one less commander than normal, but gain an additional three elements.
As an example, a force of Mongols is facing the Polish in a 24-element (per side) game. The Polish were not particularly known for being more or less unwieldy than other armies, so they choose to take two commands as normal for 24 elements. The Mongols, on the other hand, were tremendously well-organized and drilled, and capable of very complicated maneuvers in the face of battle. So the Mongol commander takes 21 elements instead of 24, and has three commands instead of the two the Polish get.
Another example: in a 36-element game between Early Imperial Romans and Early Germans. The German commander adds another 3 elements of Warband (39 elements total) and only has two commands.
August 24, 1998: Changed some wording in the "Commands" section and added the optional rule for variable number of commands. Also added the section on "Alternative Deployment" and clarified a number of inconsistencies spotted by Mike Messenger -- thanks, Mike!
August 10, 1998: Added optional rule for March Moves. and added "Rout Level" to remove totally shattered commands from play.
The author may be contacted at kuijt@umiacs.umd.edu Please do not use any pictures or text from this page without permission.