Date: Fri, 22 Apr 1994 10:49:30 -0700 From: Edward Allen Subject: DBM Review DBM, De Bellis Multitudinous, is the most recent ancients miniatures system put out by Wargames Research Group (Phil Barker and associates) of Britain. In the U.S. it is distributed by Wargames, the Essex miniatures distributor in Tridelphia, Virginia. It is about $14 and will eventually have four army list books, each for $12 or $13, covering sequnetial historical periods. For simple, knockaraound play, you could just use the rulebook, but for competition, you will need at least one of the Army List books. They are in sequence by time period. Book 1 covers up to around 400 BC. Book 2 to about 450 AD Book 3 to about 1070 AD Book 4, due out this summer or fall, to about 1450-1500 AD Some armies continue using a list from one book in the following book's period. The basic combat and movement mechanics are drawn from the very simple ancients game De Bellis Antiquitatis, which brought in a lot of us to ancients who never really took it up with any serious interest before. I, for example, owned a couple of the previous WRG ancients rules sets, but only played a few ancients games before DBA and only bothered to rebase some old fantasy figures for the rules, never really built a historical ancients army prior to DBA. I've introduced a dozen plus people to DBA and DBM, and we have assembled about 30 DBA armies (very small, 12 stands is a standard game army, with a few more for replacement options from the list), from which we build DBM armies, which are comparable in size to traditional WRG ancients armies, 40 to 200 stands, depending on troop type and quality. The basic movement and command control mechanic is that a die is rolled for each general, with the number of points rolled being the number of ordrs points available to move individual elements (stands) or groups that are all facing the same way and in formation. The play is sequential. I roll the command dice and make my moves. We resolve any combat. You roll the command dice and make your moves. We resolve any combat. The moving player also decides the order of combat resolution after his moves, which gives him some subtle advantages in combat. Maybe you can force an element back to where it blocks another's retreat, or push one back and thus give you an overlap versus it's neighbor. You can try to pick the highest odds of winning fights first, or go for sequences with riskier chances of winning but bigger payoffs in terms of kills if you pull it off. The basic combat mechanic is based on the concept that elements that move into combat contact must align exactly face to face with an opposing element. All elements are the same width, though they may differ in depth. Each pair of opponents compares scores which are the total of the roll of one die for each, plus its factor versus the general class of opponent (mounted or foot), plus any tactical factors. If the totals tie, nothing happens and they remain fighting in the next combat round (there are some minor exceptions to this). If one score is lower it loses, and if it is doubled, it loses severely. Usually, a loss means the element is pushed back one base depth. Sometimes, depending on situations like being flanked or facing a troop type that is particularly lethal to it, it is destroyed. If doubled, most troops are destroyed by the opponent. A few types can flee some distance and come back to the fight later. Troops destroyed in melee take friends close behind them. Try to avoid having troops within a base width of the rear of the fighting line, unless they are immediately behind and count for tactical factors sufficient to offset the extra loss if the fighting element dies. If your opponent gives you the opportunity to kill somebody that takes elements behind with it, go for it. It only takes a few such double kills to demoralize a smaller command. The standard competition game is fought until one side has half of it's elements destroyed or demoralized. Armies are divided into commands, one for each of 1 to 4 generals. When a command loses one third of it's elements, the remainder are demoralized and suffer several penalties. Skirmisher elements only count as 1/2 elements towards this total, reducing the likelihood that your heavies will give up if their skirmish screen is run down by enemy horse, etc. In a typical fight between two armies of 3 commands each, demoralizing two commands or one plus high casualties in both of the others will be a win. There are draws once in awhile when both sides achieve the goal in the same combat phase. Generalship issues include: choosing a good battlefield - abstracted by the terrain set up rules the use of regulars versus irregulars, which are cheaper but less able to make fancy moves and more likely to go haring off out of control, though sometimes you can make use of this while spending the command points on other troops, an important skill to develop if you command irregulars choosing the number and organization of commands- having just one or two big ones means they will demoralize slower, but be less flexible because of fewer command dice and command radii. deciding whether to use strategems like ambushes or flank marches distributing the command dice among regualr generals (irregular generals each roll their own die, the Regular CinC rolls them all and then gives the best to whoever needs it most). I really like DBM. It's my miniatures game of choice right now. It has a few bugs in it, and is written in awkward Barkerese, but it plays very smoothly, give interesting tactical problems, and usually feels pretty good regarding authenticity. It's smaller sib, DBA, is one of the best introductory beer and pretzels wargames ever done. It is the most accessible miniatures game to newcomers other than skirmish games, because the armies are so small that they aren't too daunting to buy or paint. Any competition army can be fielded with 48 or fewer figures, though it may be up to 60 or so if all options for the army are included. It will really benefit from a second edition, in which it will incorporate the clarifications to some of its murkier rules that have already appeared in DBM. It's influence can be seen in the miniatures magazines, where in the past couple of years, variants for nearly every historical period have appeared. Ed Allen eda@netcom.com