"Yeah, I'm thinking I'm back!"

OK, so I'm not exactly John Wick, but after a two-and-a-half-year-long absence from this blog I thought my return required a little drama. No promises going forward; we'll just see how regularly I am motivated to post.

Since my last post referenced Phil Barker, the author of the DBX rules system, it seemed appropriate to focus this post on the most recently published addition to the DBX family: De Bellis Fantasiae. 

De Bellis Fantasiae (DBF) is the result of the continued development work of the authors of D3H2, which was itself the attempt, with Phil Barker's approval, to bring the Hordes of the Things 2.0 (HOTT) fantasy elements into line with the then-new DBA 3.0 revised mechanics. You may see my previous posts on D3H2 for a fuller explanation, but the big changes to HOTT included measurement in base-widths instead of "paces," the ability to apply "Fast" and "Solid" characteristics to HOTT's fantasy elements and an amended points system to determine element (unit) cost. DBF has furthered this evolution. After "publishing" D3H2, the authors continued to make "improvements" to the DBX system in regards to ease of play, plausibility of historical results and even presentation.

Presentation has been overhauled. Since the book is a Lulu print page-count is less of an issue, so full-color has been used throughout, type is bigger and diagrams have been placed alongside the relevant text. Extra words were used to help better explain rules in an attempt to reduce the "Barkerese" that some people have complained about over the years. FYI, I never had a problem with the writing style.

The element point system has been completely revamped, ranging from the expensive Aerial Hero at 17 points down to Skirmishers, Hordes and Light Mounted at 3 points. Making an element a General costs an additional 10 points. Mages (Magicians) are purchased at Levels from 1 to 5, and a new Magic system allows for some varied spells at escalating PIP costs.

The new point system lets you play small DBA-style games at around 75 to 100 points as well as larger "Big Battle-style" games with multiple commands/generals in the 200-300 point range.

Combat resolution is basically unchanged, but there are some new tactical factors and some "Special Rules" (traits related to training or specific weapon use) that change some interactions. Some of these are tied to specific fantasy army lists - 60 different lists from literature and mythology are included in the book - but all could be applied to other fantasy, or even historical armies as the user sees fit. Indeed, using DBA and/or DBMM army lists as reference these rules can be used to build and play with historical armies as well as fantasy. I consider DBF a great new "toolbox," and really like all the changes.

Oh, and there are new campaign rules, too. If you like the DBX system (I do!), you should check out DBF.

 
 

Sixty-Two Special leads to The Big Move

 

Here are our boys all saddled up for The Big Move.  

My last post in June suggested there were some game reports coming. What happened? Well, the Summer of COVID 2020 for us was followed by this most recent Summer of The Big Move 2021.

Big Move. . . what happened? 2 days after my last post I found myself unexpectedly and ostensibly “retired.” Yeah. What would our response Move be? After some hard deliberation, we decided our best Move might be to take advantage of the red-hot real estate market in the Twin Cities and sell our house in preparation for a Move back "home" to Kansas City. It's what we intended for the end of our current Five-Year Plan to Retirement. . . we would just Move up the date, without the actual retirement part.

 

So, between mid-June and late August, we prepped our home in the Twin Cities for sale, sold it

 

. . . bought a new home, then packed our entire household and put it on a truck for Overland Park, Kansas

 

 . . . and finally, moved into that new home - with our boys, of course.  

 

It was truly a Big Move, and despite the reason for it I am profoundly grateful that it worked out as well as it did. 

Because this is primarily a blog about gaming, I have intentionally understated the intensity and trauma of the overall experience. I'll just acknowledge and thank my wife, family and friends for their help and support and do my best to continue to cultivate a grateful spirit. 

 

"Moving in" turns into "settling in," and while that is happening there may not be much personal gaming news to post. All my stuff is still in boxes. However, I am back in the home town of The Baron, Wiley Games and the Basement Generals, so will be doing some gaming. For instance, I've already participated in this Star Wars bounty-hunting game of Fistful of Lead: Galactic Heroes. And if you want to hear me "drone on and on until I start foaming at the mouth and falling over backward" about terrain, you can check out this episode of BS-ingwith the Baron, which I did just before leaving Minnesota, from a room that was mostly filled with packed boxes awaiting loading.

 

Bruce and I did get that game of DBA 3.0 Big Battle in before the Move. Bruce brought 2 armies that looked terribly mismatched on initial review: II/33 Polybian Roman and I/36b Italian Hill Tribes/Sardinian. The Sardinians are all Psiloi and Auxilia except for a possible Chariot General; I "won" the Sardinians and prayed to the terrain gods. Terrain can be the great equalizer in DBA if your opponent cooperates.

 

I defended (of course) and chose Difficult Hills and Woods, which mostly ended up on the right side of the table, so that is where I set up to fight. Bruce wanted to fight in 3 neat Roman lines, but I wanted a messy scrum in the terrain so maneuvered to set up good positions with a refused line on the left to hold the flank.

The Roman Cavalry general took the bait and led his Auxilia into the woods and was killed after some initial success. His Auxilia had a little more success, but not enough, and the command was eventually demoralized.

At which point the Romans withdrew to form a defensive "square" and the Sardinians solidified their terrain wall. The Romans weren't going to fight in the woods and the Sardinians were not coming out, so we had a draw, advantage Sardinians because of the demoralized Roman command. A very interesting positional battle from my point of view. Thanks, Bruce, and stay well!

Commands & Colors

I received my copy of Commands & Colors: Samurai Battles a week ago as part of the GMT PS500 program. Got Bayonets & Tomahawks, too!

I've been a fan of the game system since the Ancients version was released. It's card-driven, but it feels like DBA to me (remember I consider that high praise), in scale and unit treatments, with the addition of rules for attrition. I have all of the Ancients supplements, plus Medieval and Red Alert (the "space combat" variant).

Of course I am converting the games to miniatures. My plan has been to use 4" hexes and 15mm miniatures mounted on 40mm wide bases for Ancients, and that may still continue to happen, but I am also now considering using 54/60mm models for at least my "favorite historical conflict," the Punic Wars. Not intuitive, I know; we lose the "mass effect" with fewer, bigger models representing each unit. I can still use 4" hexes, like I have been doing for 15mm figures, and use one model to represent each "block" in the game, so most Ancients units will consist of 3 or 4 models. Might even be able to use some of the same hex terrain for both scales with some careful planning.

Why go this route? The main driver is I have never been totally satisfied with any of the 15mm or 28mm Republican Roman models I've encountered. I really like the John Jenkins Designs models for both accuracy (I know, right?) and drama. The Gauls are stunning.

Then, one must determine in what "world" the models will live and fight, and playability is key. These models tend to be top-heavy, so either they need wider bases for added stability on uneven terrain, or the terrain needs to be very flat and even. My French & Indian War terrain and basing is a good example of the former.

Since I am more interested in playing large battles than skirmishes, terrain can be less detailed and more abstract. . . and flat. That means the bases of the models won't need to be enlarged. One thing I do want is magnetic bases, so the models will stay put in their traveling boxes. After a bit of experimentation, I found a self-adhesive magnetic tape that can be cut to the silhouette of the base edge of the model. The tape is only 1mm thick, so with a bit of paint and flocking after the fact, it won't even be noticed, and the base will visually blend with the terrain. How strong is the magnetic effect? I applied to a "left-over" French Regular as a test and he can crawl right up a metal cabinet like Spider-Man!

Basing potentially solved; on to the terrain. How flat is flat? Can't be boring. . . and we still need to represent hills. Can't have slopes, though, for the above-mentioned reasons, and for the same reasons the "tops" of the hills have to be flat.

Years ago I purchased a quantity of GHQ Terrain Maker foam hexes; I hauled some out and started making terrain. The goal was a "scrubby" Mediterranean look. I started with a sandy brown latex house paint; literally sandy as I mixed sand into the paint. This texture hides the surface look of the foam itself. I then followed that up with 3 different colors of fine green flock, held in place with sprayed coatings of diluted white glue. Multiple, soaking coats is key. The foam hexes come in 4 different "heights," providing instant flat hills.

Some other special, easily recognized terrains are needed, too. Woods, for example. I can do Woods. Again, playability is important, so I opted for a single large tree in the center of the hex that would leave enough room for the models. For the hex base I started with the same dark brown latex house paint color I use for the French & Indian War bases and layered on some brighter green flocks and "leaf litter." Here are some Woods and Clear hexes next to each other - and not every Woods hex has to have a tree.

Can't forget about the Rough/Rocky ground. I mixed a little paper mache into the latex paint and layered on some fine gravel with a little less green flock. Goal is still as flat as possible, but the look should be "rocky." A helpful feature of the foam hex is that you can actually press any high spots down into the foam after the glue dries and spray on another layer of glue.

I haven't attempted any water features yet but have a pretty good idea of how I will handle them. Here's how the terrain looks with Roman legionaries on the advance.

A little paint and flock and the bases of the models will blend right in to the terrain. I'm sure it won't surprise you to learn I have a "house rule" or two in playtest mode. And I will still be able to skirmish since the models are individually based. "Short" distance for SAGA at this scale just happens to be the width of a 4" hex. . .

See ya!

Call Out the Militia!

I completed 3 units of 10 British Colonial Militia this July Fourth weekend. I hope my fellow Americans practiced "Safe Celebrating," and perhaps even took a little time to contemplate what could be the real moment for meaningful societal change that we may be. . . yeah. Sigh. So, as I was saying, three new units of Militia are ready to defend the Colonies. The first unit is shown above.

Here's Militia Unit #2:

The third unit is the most desperately called-out, including even women and children!

"I ain't your scout. And we sure ain't no damn militia."

Ahhhh. . . makes we want to watch the movie AGAIN!

Switching genres, Too Fat Lardies released their new Ancient-era small-unit skirmish rules, Infamy, Infamy! which uses their Sharp Practice 2 engine. Infamy! focuses on Late Republican and Early Imperial Roman conflicts with their "barbarian" neighbors: Gauls, Britons and Germans, etc. The Lardies are promising a Punic Wars-era supplement soon, so of course I have to check it out. I'm reading the advance PDF now. . .

See ya. . . sometime.

The 47th Regiment of Foot arrives!

The hatmen of the 47th are ready for action, joining the Grenadiers from last post. They've been patiently awaiting the completion of their bases for a couple years and it feels good to have them done at long last!

 

Benjamin Martin, fictional Revolutionary War pacifist but French and Indian War "hero" is ready to take on the French, supported by various family members.

Finally, here's a teasing glimpse into another project slowly "collecting". . .
 

Be safe!

Corona quashed my DBA. . .

In the grand scheme of things, this can't even be considered a hardship, but it is one more example of the change in daily life that response to the virus requires. My regular DBA 3.0 opponent (and friend) is 70+ years of age and took himself out of group/face-to-face gaming a couple weeks before the country started to embrace "social distancing." I was totally supportive; you may remember that I lost my mother to the "regular flu" a couple years ago. Just not worth taking any chances. . .

So what to do until we get "back to normal?" I might play around with De Bellis Solitarius, but I'm more likely to use the home time to catch up on completing the bases on some of the 54mm French and Indian War units I based over the last 2 years. . . like the French La Sarre troops I just finished.

One great aspect of the Muskets and Mohawks rules I play with is that they are designed to be played solitaire. It is not just an afterthought, but an integral part of the rules!

Last month's DBA 3.0 game was a Big Battle pike-fest, pitting two triple-sized II/16 Asiatic Early Successor armies against each other: II/16a Antigonus (me) and II/16d Eumenes (Bruce). Historical enemies, to boot. Both pike-heavy forces, the main difference was that Bruce/Eumenes had more elephants, and I/Antigonus had some light horse and 3 Pike Generals (Eumenes' Generals were Knights). Terrain ended up on the flanks with little impact on the game.

 Eumenes:

 Antigonos:

As the Pike blocks advanced, I sent my right-flank Light Horse out to skirmish, and fed Elephants and Pike toward my left flank to defend against Eumenes mounted push.

When the Pikes embraced the Antigonid Pike Generals provided a slight edge in the initial combats. Turned out Bruce had also PIP-starved the Elephants on Eumenes left flank by assigning them the low PIP dice, depriving it of a potent weapon. These two factors kept the Antigonids ahead of the attrition race and eventually led to the Antigonid victory.

 

Eumenes "himself" fought off the Antigonid PIkes for a couple of bounds before being finally overwhelmed.
 

Be safe!