Sunday 27th August 2017 - Gt Houghton
I think that I had previously played 2 games of DBA v3.0 at WDW but remember very little about them. As a consequence I started as a 'virtual' novice on Sunday.
In preparation I had read the rules but they are written in Barkerese with the 'Battlefield Terrain' page being a masterpiece in gobbledegook. I later did manage to find a visual aid on the net. [Don Harting's DBA 3.0 Setup Guides - look in Files section of Yahoo DBA group (also in the Files section on Facebook).]
Ian had been watching videos put up by some Americans and from that he obtained insights into game play.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPbrwPKb2QU
This helped a lot.
Game One: Latins v Polybian Roman (4-3 loss)
Wonderful movement dice but awful when fighting.
Note: Putting down a road restricts starting point to 2 sides of the board (long sides).
Game Two: Picts v Mid Imperial Roman (2-4 win)
I should have lost this one as Ian had a number of chances to kill off two of my fast pikes (but the dice gods said No). I finally managed to chew through his frontage to take a fourth elelment.
It was a fun afternoon.
In the evening I re-read the rules (pp 4-7) and it brought up a number of points:
p5, para 6 (Bows) - "....longbows (Lb) or crossbows (Cb), are differentiated by effect."
p5, para 8 (Hordes) - a new troop type but not the same as that in HotT (no replacements).
p6, para 5 (Double elements) - "A double element is 1 element of the army's 12, but may count as 2 elements when lost."
p7, para 4 (Placing Features) - "There must be a gap of at least 1 BW between area features and between an area feature OTHER THAN A BUA and any battlefield edge."
p7, para 7 (Area Terrain Feature) - "...BAD GOING, which slows the movement of, and is an adverse close combat tactical factor for...and may hinder shooting..."
"...ROUGH GOING, which reduces move distances but is not a tactical factor and does not affect shooting."
"All hills slope up to a centre line crest and give a close combat advantage IF PART OF AN ELEMENT'S FRONT EDGE IS UPSLOPE OF ALL OF ITS OPPONENT." - in DBM I am used to requiring ALL of the front edge of an element to be upslope.
p7, para 10 (Roads) - "Movement by an element or group in column entirely along a road is in GOOD GOING and counts as straight ahead even when the road curves. Combat on it is in the going it is passing through."
My impressions:
(a) This is not a simple set of rules. Version 1 was simple - you could take it to a convention, put on a game and get kids and adults alike playing within minutes. Versions 2.0, 2.1 and 2.2 added further complication but this could either be ignored (BUA rules for example) or simplified. Version 3.0 is a complex set of small-scale rules.
(b) There are masses of changes from previous versions. Having v2 in your head is not much of an advantage - yes you have the 'framework' in your head but the devil is in the detail.
Monday 28th August 2017 - WDW
Another busy session at the homestead:
Lion Rampant - 'Hammer & Anvil' scenario (25mm) - I had a pacifist group of crossbowmen and some fierce foot who were very reluctant to wild charge.
Baroque - Spanish v Dutch (6mm) - Tim threw some awful dice
Sci-Fi - ground battle
DBM - Philistines v Makkan (guess who won) - Jim was the fourth player
Samurai - Test of Honour (card driven skirmish game)
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