PROPOSED CHANGES TO DBM 3.1
“House rules” for use in SW Doubles League and other
competitions in SW England and
Please email [email protected] with any comments and suggestions.
New suggestions shown
in italics.
The authors of DBM no longer maintain the rules, but any group of players can agree to use their own amendments as long as copyright is not infringed. One of the authors, Richard Bodley Scott, has commented that the changes look very reasonable, and that he may be willing to endorse them formally after they have been play-tested in SW competitions.
These changes have been discussed on line in the DBM Yahoo group at http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/dbmlist
A copy of the changes will be given to each entrant to a relevant competition.
1 Army Points
Reduce the cost of Reg Bd(I) to 4 AP, and Irr Bd(I) to 3 AP.
Bd(I) are now significantly worse than in previous versions of DBM – they cannot receive rear support from or give rear support to Bd and are still “quick-killed” by knights etc. Their cost should be the same as Sp(I).
Reduce the cost of Reg Bd(O) and (F) to 6 AP, and that of Reg Bd(S) to 8 AP.
This is specifically intended to make legionary-heavy Roman armies more viable; such armies have a long history of under-achievement in DBM. The change will be significant only for armies with large numbers of Reg Bd – those with only a few, such as some late medieval armies, will benefit marginally.
Suggested by Paul Apreda: reduce the cost of Reg Bd(X) to 7 AP.
Suggested by Mark Lewis: reduce the cost of all Reg Ax by 0.5 AP. Reg Ax(S) become 4.5 AP, Reg Ax(O) 3.5, Reg Ax(I) 2.5, Reg Ax(X) 3.5.
Reg Ax have no fighting advantage and only a small manoeuvre advantage over Irr Ax – worth less than a full AP which represents between half and a quarter of the Irr Ax cost.
2 Rear support factors
Suggested by Hammy Hamilton: rear support by 3rd and 4th ranks of Wb no longer adds tactical factors against mounted troops. Instead, Wb (S/O) supported by 3rd and 4th ranks recoil (instead of being destroyed) on less against knights, elephants or Cm(S). This treats deep Wb similarly to 2-deep Bd and Sp, and gives cavalry a chance against them.
Rationale: the change to 3 supporting ranks has made Wb very strong against Kn and immune to Cv. The proposed change will leave the Wb resilient but much less likely to destroy mounted troops.
Where the new (DBMM) army lists specifically allow rear support by a different grade, such as Pk(I) supporting Pk(O), this is allowed in DBM. Exception: Sp(O) may not support Sp(S) even if this is specified by the army list.
The exception,
suggested by several players, is to reflect historical practice (whereby the
best hoplites formed up and fought together) and to avoid Spartan armies
obtaining unhistorical benefits.
3 Army Lists
Suggested by Mark Lewis: all infantry shown in Army Lists as compulsorily mounted become optionally mounted. For example, French Ordonnance archers become Reg Bw(S) at 7 AP, with an option to make them mounted infantry at an additional 1 AP.
Most mounted infantry left their horses with the baggage. They did not usually ride on the battlefield.
Suggested by Peter Feinler: all cavalry elements required by Army Lists to be double-based with other cavalry are treated as optionally double-based. If they are double-based, both front and rear rank elements are treated and paid for as Cv(O), regardless of the grading specified by the list. The AP reduction for double-based rear rank elements applies. This applies to only five lists: Hsien-Pi, Early Byzantine, Maurikian Byzantine, Thematic Byzantine and Rshtuni Armenian.
4 Terrain
Suggested by Peter Feinler: a
compulsory road counts as 0 feature equivalents. This prevents the situation whereby a
defender with a compulsory road but no other compulsory features has only 2.5
5 PIP expenditure
Suggested by Peter Feinler: El, Exp, WWg and Hd expend 1 additional PIP for a third march move in a bound even when in single-element column. This puts clumsy troops on the same basis as Kn in this respect.
6 Elephant-mounted generals
Suggested by Peter Feinler: an elephant-mounted general is Regular where specified by the army list. Such a general counts as Irregular in all respects except for PIP allocation, but is paid for as Regular.
John Graham-Leigh
20 June 2009