Ancient Rule Sets

Well, what rules to use, what rules to avoid?

They range from something as simple as DBA (ten infamous pages of simple rules later clarified with a unofficial guide of only seventy four pages [yes that is sarcasm], or even BBDBA), then to as "mind boggling" a set of rules as DBM (for more, ahem, er competition orientated gamers), to what I consider as a cry for sanity and call for good gaming in DBMM (played in good spirit but still suffering from the rules lawyer issue, and its DBMM100, DBM200 variants - there is hope here) or to the still serious but strangely fun rules of Impetus to the novel simulation orientated rules of Strategos II (aka Lost Battles) and a few more in between (such as Armati) I could have mentioned.

I guess it all depends who is going to play them. For me my next task is to entertain an intelligent set of jovial beginners who want to play in a competitive but historically realistic fashion, win or lose. So ,,, Strategos II/Lost Battles gets the call (see below):

A grid based system that avoids most of the common or cunning wargaming wibbles. It is from the academic stable of Prof Phil Sabin from King's College and has playability and historical simulation at its core. Should be fun ;)

The battle I intend to play is The First Battle of Mantinea (418BC) in the Peloponnesian War.

Persian 28mm Spara Bara

Danger! Danger! Threat of "scale duplication" and a "shiny project" appearing from out of NOWHERE!

Literally "given to me as a present" as the leftover 'spares' from a small Impetus Army from "another wargamer" (with a cunning 'evil master plan' to get me hooked) these SparaBara are a tempting lure to get me disinterested in my 15mm metal Ancients collection and start 'scale spanning' into 25mm plastics.

Naturally I am treating it as a pure academic painting exercise. We will see how long before my resistance breaks and I start planning an "order of battle" (see below):

I took them on a recent family holiday to Norfolk, my night times were pleasantly passed comsuming a nice cold lager or brandy and lemonade, while assembling the Sparabara (see below):

Enough for two units of twelve figures each in Impetus or five double based and a single base in DBMM ;)

The good thing that I like about Impetus armies in 28mm is that it allows each unit to be a diorama exercise in its own right and if far less figure intensive than a DBM or DBMM equivalent army.

So there I have my dilemma, go the scenic Impetus route or the more standard and pragmatic DBMM 

DBMM: The Die is cast

Following my recent DBMM AAR postings, with clear head and happy heart I can make the following announcement (to myself) ...

After countless sleepless nights lost in deep, deep thought (or should I say months/years stemming back to my first encounter with DBA in 1994) about the "DBx family of rules" I have come to a monumental, nay strategic decision. Well monumental for me at least and strategic because it means no rebasing but still allowing maximum enjoyment in the ancient period of the Wargaming hobby ;)

DBMM (version 2) is  now my official poison of choice. (With the caveat that the figures based for these rules can still be used "with the aid of sabots" for Impetus)

So DBM is dead for me but in all honesty has been for some time (the phrase cutting my losses seems apt here). It was only ever a competition orientated system (IMHO) and evolved slowly into a Byzantine geometry form of participation art rather than a vehicle for historical gaming.

DBA was and still is a seductive alternative (or rather was) but the pragmatics of both learning two 'similar but different' rule systems and remembering the rule differences when playing is just self-defeating. It also has the famous "rule of twelve" that artificially gives battles of "even sized" armies. The smaller DBMM 100, DBMM 200 allows an army to slowly grow in size :)

Please note the above is just a personal choice ;)

DBMM v2 Battle (3): Rome versus Three Kingdoms Chinese (again)

The broken Roman Barbarians were herded like sheep to their slaughter, in their defense they fought on making sure it was not a bloodless victory (see below):

The long sought after clash of Legion Blade(O) and Blade(S) versus Chinese Blade(O) at last came about (see below):

Two long lines formed. Losses accrued on both sides. To the horror of the Roman Commander he lost Blades(S) which his army morale to half a point of cracking. To be fair the Chinese losses were approaching breaking point too (see below)

A final breakthrough seemed to seal it for the Chinese. A break through next move should surely see victory in their grasp as the mounted Chinese General could be positioned in the Roman rear (See below):

Alas the Roman Knights had caught up with the Chinese cavalry command (that had been falling back but "ran out of room"). The sum total of two small commands AND losses from the larger command broke the Chinese Army morale. Rome was triumphant (again).

One thing had happened though, over the last two games I had been converted to DBMM. It played better than any game of DBM I had experienced to date and allowed progression from small armies using DBMM 100 point, DBMM 200 point up to larger games of full DBMM. This IMHO was superior to playing DBA for smaller games and DBM/DBMM for larger games as the same core rules could be used. So good I went out and ordered a set of rules "to study". As it was clear that despite the "enjoyment" we still didn't know the rules and there was too much potentially bitter misunderstanding and "rule creation" (dangerously falling back to defunct DBM concepts) during the game.    

DBMM 200 v2 Battle (2): Rome versus Three Kingdoms Chinese (again)

Still trying to perform a "miracle maneuver" my inner cavalry formed a column to get them away from fighting an infantry battle (would that have been so bad?) and I retreated my Bows(I) away from the hungry looking Roman Blades(O). Still lacking a plan though (see below):

Meanwhile the main infantry command of the Chinese was looking in good form to set into Roman Barbarian allies. Infavt th eRoman Commander was starting to worry about the fate of his Auxilla (see below, Chinese bottom, Rome top):

The battle started was initiated by the Chinese Blade. Rather than letting the Warbands come at him the Chinese Commander (me) decided to take advantage of the Blade "quick kill" [in its turn] against Warband (rather than visa versa). It started to work (see below):

Meanwhile I won where I least expected it (a single Bow(I) against a Knight) and ended up fighting infantry with cavalry after all. In the process my outer command was clearly going to get "bust" which was a sad sight (see below):

The middle changed my mood as the Roman Barbarian Allies and Auxilla were savaged by my rampant Blade, so much so additional Auxilla and sacred Blades (The Legion) were hurried across to help out (see below):

The battle seemed to be in the balance!

DBMM 200 v2 Battle (1): Rome versus Three Kingdoms Chinese (again)

Time passed and there was another chance to fight Middle Imperial Rome in DBMM. My Three Kingdom Chinese army once again lined up but this time I matched Regular Blades to Regular Blades instead of bulking out with "cheaper" (I). My main command set up to the left hand side of the battlefield utilising the defensive terrain feature of a hill and wood (see below):

This peculiar arrangement was caused by the "open" right hand side flank attracting my two wing commands of cavalry and bow (see below):

The Romans copied my cavalry arrangement so the battle started with my Chinese infantry line attempting to envelope his (see below):

I was less sure at how to deploy my cavalry and attempted to perform a clever retreat, but like all clever ideas it seemed to come unstuck in execution. I was unsure of how the bows would do against the Knights that faced them (Agincourt?)  and the ghastly specter of them being run down by Blades as his infantry line lapped into the cavalry sector caused a knee-jerk reaction (see below):

What I was trying to do clearly was not going to pull off and I needed to invent a quick "Plan B" which is always 'not a good sign' (see below):

My mistake seemed to stem from wanting to fight a cavalry action (against Knights, I was informed of their "quick kill potential" against cavalry during the game (my steep DBMM learning curve should be apparent here) and not giving myself sufficient deployment space. I had a lovely piece of rough ground behind me I should have used (in hindsight).

More "chaos" to follow ...