King of Kings
Peter Clarke's Chariot Age Campaign for DBA
Campaigns form the context in which a battle is fought. The campaign - from the outset to the point of decision - determines exactly who did manage to get there fastest with the mostest.
The progress of the campaign up to the battle will affect how many troops are on the field and when they arrive, while the campaign's aims will determine the battlefield objectives. This eliminates the artificial confrontation of armies of (supposedly) equal fighting value, and provides tabletop generals with new challenges. Is it more important to cause enemy casualties, or to ensure that your own army remains intact? Sacrificing units - an all to common gaming tactic - can have long term effects. At the very least, players who have an eye on the campaign have a greater investment in the result of a campaign battle than a one-off affair. Keeping control of a river crossing becomes much more nerve wracking if you know that you really do have a supply train which needs to pass over it. In addition, of course, much enjoyment can be had from the campaign itself.
I would like to suggest that the topic of wargames campaigns is one that receives too little attention when compared to other aspects of our hobby. Much more work needs to be put into developing a campaign than a single battle but the rewards are much greater. Of course, many campaigns get started, and few are finished, and I suspect that this comes down to planning. It is relatively easy to design an empire building campaign that covers a whole continent, but once the armies outgrow those of their players, it often becomes impractical to carry on.
Campaigns come in many flavours, from the highly abstract to the extremely detailed; from a few days maneuvering prior to a decisive battle to wars between entire empires. Sometimes historical campaigns are refought; others are hypothetical and yet others use fictional countries. They can be fought on a restricted timescale, or over an indefinite period. Right at the outset, decisions need to be made about the objectives of the campaign: how much effort are players prepared to put into the campaign? The more input, the more detail can be included. Will there be a neutral umpire, allowing a greater or lesser degree of 'fog of war' to be included, or will all participants be players? And how long is the campaign to continue?
Enough burbling: down to some details.
King of Kings
A Chariot Age Campaign for DBA
This campaign represents the struggle between the Egyptian, Assyrian and Hittite Empires for domination of the Near East. Campaign moves will be regulated by card play, whilst battles will be moderated using DBA 1.1 (although in the examples, army lists are taken from the original version).
Campaign Rules
The map is divided into twenty-four areas. All areas are either neutral, or controlled to a greater or lesser extent by one of the competing Empires. There are three levels of control: an area can either be an Ally, a Client or a Province of the Empire. Place one control marker on each Allied area, two on each Client and three on each Province. The winner is the first empire to control twelve or more provinces.
Each of the three players begins with an empire of four provinces under their control. In addition, each player is dealt four cards from a standard pack of playing cards - no jokers. The playing sequence is first the Assyrian, the second the Hittite, and finally the Egyptian.
In a turn, a player may play one card, or a single card PLUS any number of additional Diamonds. Spades may also be played immediately before a battle to help determine the terrain. Other players may then play cards to assist in the defence of an area being attacked. In addition, any card that has been played may be 'trumped' by playing a higher card of the same suit. This has the effect of canceling the action, unless the new card can be trumped by the original player.
N.B. Two players may NOT combine to contest the active player's move: once one player has either attempted to trump the active player's card, or played cards in an area's defence, the third player may not intervene until that action has been resolved. If the area under attack is friendly to one Empire only the attacker and defender may play cards. The third empire may not intervene
At the end of a turn, the player may discard any number of cards, and then take one or two cards from the deck. They may not increase their hand beyond the number of Provinces in their empire. It is possible to increase a hand over this maximum, by winning battles (see below). However, until the hand is reduced below the number of provinces, no new cards may be drawn.
Effect of Cards
- Clubs allow an army to attack another area. The target area must be a neutral or enemy area adjacent to a friendly area. The army will be 15 bases strong, unless modified by playing Diamonds in support.
- Hearts are used to make and consolidate alliances. Playing a Heart will make a neutral area which is adjacent to another friendly area into an Ally; if the area is already an Ally then it will become a Client; and if the area is a Client, and adjacent to a friendly Province, it will become a Province itself. Hearts may NOT be played against areas which are already friendly to another Empire.
- Spades are used to oppose enemy moves, or tactically, to help determine the battlefield. A Spade may be played on an enemy Ally to make it revert to neutrality, or to increase a neutral army by three bases for a single attack or defence; or it may be used to direct a neutral area's army of twelve bases to attack any other area. See below for the effects of Spades played on a battlefield.
- Diamonds are used to increase the size of a friendly army. A single card can EITHER increase the number of bases by three, OR allow the army to attack a second area, provided that the army wins the first battle, and that the second area is adjacent to the first. The army must carry over any casualties from the first battle to the subsequent attack, and the card must be played BEFORE the first battle is fought. In addition, a diamond card must be played if any army is making a sea crossing to or from Alashiya.
- Aces may be played as normal cards, or with the following specific results:
- Ace of Diamonds: Allows player to continue playing cards until his hand is empty. At the end of the move, the hand may be filled to its maximum number.
- Ace of Hearts: EITHER makes any neutral area or Ally into a Province if adjacent to an existing province OR makes a enemy Ally or Client into a Client of the player who played the card, providing it is adjacent to a friendly Client or Province.
- Ace of Clubs: allows an army of Eighteen bases to campaign for as long as it wishes until it is defeated or the general killed: the first area attacked must be adjacent to a friendly Client or Province, and each succeeding area must be adjacent to the area previously conquered. The army may be increased in size by playing diamonds before the first battle, but not later; and any casualties suffered in earlier battles must be carried over to subsequent ones.
- Ace of Spades: Played on any other player's province: the province immediately becomes neutral. Played on a battlefield, any one piece of terrain may be added or removed after all other terrain has been placed and the defender chosen sides.
Resolving Battles
Determining Armies
An attacking Imperial army will have 15 bases, plus three bases for each additional Diamond played for that purpose; an attacking Neutral army will be 12 bases strong. The defending force will be 12 bases if the area is neutral, Allied or Client, and 15 if it is a Province. Other players may play Spades onto a neutral area to increase the size of the army by 3 bases per card; if the area is friendly to a player he may play diamonds in the same way as the attacker. The maximum size of any army will be 24 bases.
The first 12 bases of an attacking army is made up of a standard DBA list of the appropriate type. Any additional bases are made up of any combination of the relevant number of bases taken from the same list. Neutral defending armies are made up in the same way, using the list for that area. However, defending armies in an empire are slightly more complex. The first 12 bases of a Client or Ally state should be made up from the native army list: the remaining bases from the Imperial list. A Province will be defended by 12 bases of the Imperial list, supported by extra bases from the native list. The actual composition of armies should be written down secretly, but revealed before the terrain is determined.
Whatever the size and composition of an army, it only ever has one general, with 1D6 Command points.
Determining the Battlefield
The table is 3' by 3', giving plenty of scope for on table flanking manoeuvres, although if limited command PIPS are available, these may not arrive before the battle has been decided.
The number of pieces of terrain is dependent on the area in which the battle takes place. Before the terrain is laid out, the defender may choose to add or remove one piece of terrain. At the defender's option, up to half the areas may be large, and up to half may be rough terrain. Once these decisions have been made, either player can play Spades to alter the effects as follows: one card may change a large terrain piece to a small one, or vice versa; add or remove a small low hill or a river; change a piece of rough terrain to a low hill or vice versa.
The terrain is then randomly distributed on the table. Split the table into a grid of squares 6 by 6, and roll two dice to determine in which square the terrain piece will sit. For a river, roll dice to determine the sides which it enters and exits the table, then roll a die to determine exactly where it crosses each table edge. After all pieces have been located, the defender chooses which side he will defend; then either player may play additional cards - a single spade will allow ONE location die for a particular piece of terrain to be re-rolled.
The defender sets up first, and the attacker moves first. Both sides may set up within 9" of their respective friendly table edge.
Victory and Defeat
Victory is determined as normal under the rules. If an attacking Empire wins, the area will become a Client of that empire. If the attacker is a neutral, and wins, the area will become neutral. In battles between two empires, the winner will take one card from the loser (selected at random). If an empire is fighting a neutral, he will take a card from the pack if he wins, and discard a card at random if he loses.
If the winner inflicts at least twice as many casualties as he suffers, or if he defeats a larger army, he has won a major victory, and may take an additional card, either from the pack or from his opponent as appropriate. A Phyrric victory is won if the victor suffers casualties equal to one third of the opponent's original number of bases, or loses a general. No cards are gained by the player who gains such a victory.
Examples
It is near the start of the game: Assyria has made Babylon a Province, and Egypt has made a Province of Megiddo. The Hittites have made Aleppo into a Client.
1) The Assyrian player plays 4 Hearts on Amurru: no-one attempts to trump it, so it becomes an Assyrian Ally
2)The Egyptian now plays 10 Clubs supported by 6 Diamonds, and declares an 18 base attack on Byblos. The Assyrian player plays 6 Spades to increase the defending force to 15 bases. A battle is fought, which the Egyptian player wins, and so picks an extra card from the pack, and Byblos becomes an Egyptian Client.
3)The Hittite player plays 6 Hearts on Aleppo, intending to make it a Province, but the Assyrian player trumps him with the King, so Aleppo remains a Hittite Client.
4)The Assyrian now plays the 3 Clubs supported by the 8 Diamonds to send an 18 base army to Carchemish. Aggrieved by the previous move, the Hittite plays 9 Diamonds to trump the Assyrian card (reducing the force to fifteen bases) and also plays the 6 and Queen of Spades to increase the size of the defending army to eighteen; the Assyrian plays the 7 Spades to trump the 6 Spades and so the end result is that each army has 15 bases. Assyria wins the hard fought battle, and Carchemish becomes an Assyrian Client, and Assyria picks up an extra card for winning the battle.
5)The Egyptian player now plays 2 Hearts to convert Byblos to a Province. When Assyria trumps this with the 4 Hearts, Egypt trumps that with the King, and so Byblos does indeed become Egypt's fifth province.
6)The Hittite, continuing the battle against Assyria, plays the Jack of Spades on the neutral Qadesh province, sending the 12 base army of Qadesh to attack Carchemish. Since no other cards are played, the Assyrian must defend with 12 bases (Carchemish is a Client). Losing this battle, Carchemish becomes neutral, and Assyria must discard a card.
7) Egypt (now with a maximum hand of six cards, as he has six provinces) decides to conquer Alashiya, so plays the Jack of Clubs, supported by the Queen of Diamonds (as the army is crossing the sea). 15 Egyptian bases now attack 12 in Alashiya...
8) Determining armies: it is later in the game. Byblos, a Hittite Client, is defending with 15 bases against an 18 base Egyptian army. Pharaoh takes the standard list (4 LCh, 2 Bw, 4 Sp, 1 Bd, 1 Ps). Knowing they face a warband based army, they choose to increase it with another 4 LCh, 1 Bd and 1 Ps. The Hittites are defending a Client, so take a standard army of the appropriate type: in this case, Sea People (1 HCh, 2 WW, 8 Wb, 1 Ps) but get to supplement it with three bases from the Hittite list. This is where it gets difficult: do you choose heavy chariots to counter the Egyptian mounted arm, or hope to neutralize it with terrain, and take auxiliaries? Whatever the choice, a variety of different armies can be constructed with this method, giving varied games.
Conclusion
This game has given an interesting and long-lasting campaign, as well as very many games of DBA using a variety of armies. The battles have proved to be varied, and the armies well matched. The Assyrians have the most flexible army, being able to choose between light and heavy chariots and having a variety of foot, while the Egyptians have the best heavy infantry. The Hittites are strong in light infantry and chariots, but they have almost no heay infantry, and their chariots are vulnerable to bows. No one army has proved a killer, and my main concern - that a marginally larger army would have a disproportionately better chance of winning a battle - proved to be unfounded. Because large and small armies have the same command points, it is often difficult to concentrate a larger army in time to crush a smaller opponent. It may reflect our generalship (bad as well as good) but it seems at least as likely for the underdog to win in a battle of 21 against 15, as for the favourite.
Slightly to my surprise, DBA has stood the test of well over two dozen games using a limited set of armies, and I do not feel very inclined to move up to DBM. Yes DBA is (even more) abstract than DBM, but in most cases I can happily argue 'historical' explanations for apparently unlikely results. In particular, games with more than 12 bases take that much longer to reach a conclusion, so that the differences between two sides' command PIP rolls are likely to even out in the long run. As for choosing to limit command to 1D6, even when doubling the number of bases: this discourages (while not forbidding) over-complex battle plans, and as described above, tends to even out battles between armies of different sizes.
p.clarke@tinyworld.co.uk