"Zama battle report using DBA" Topic

I am going to refight Zama using a few different rulesets. First up is DBA. The result (Roman win) can be found here:

link

Couple of points.

At Zama, Carthage outnumbered Rome by 4-3. They had a big disadvantage in cavalry but a big advantage in infantry. Your scenario has each army even at 19 units.

Hordes was a nice touch for the unaccounted Numidian infantry.

Punic Citizens were garbage infantry at Zama and should have been rated as Auxilia.

Similarly, the front line was made of Celts and Ligurians and could be made up at least in part (if not all) by Warbands.

The Veterans should probably have at least some blades, again if not all.

I would definitly increase the number of infantry stands for the Carthaginians.

Finally, in DBA it is pointless to deploy in more than 2 lines. It can be useful to deploy some reserves in a 2nd line to prevent a breakthrough.

Enjoyed the report!

John,

You are right on the second line. I was thinking more of Spear(I) and that became Spear in DBA. Auxilia would be the best option under DBA. For the next refight (Rally Round the King) I don't have them so good!

I was tempted to make some of the first line Warband but I went with the 'more disciplined by now' interpretation of the Celts/Ligurians and so made them all non-Warband. There is just a good a case(possibly even better) to make them all Warband, or some Warband. In DBA, it gives them a chance against Blade so possibly a better choice.

In hindsight, the Vets should be 1/2 blade, 1/2 spear.

re: numbers: For other rules, the morale and staying power of the units can be tweaked but not in DBA. If I was doing it again, I might add an extra element or two to the first and second line to give them a chance. For rules such as Irreg Minis Ancients rules, each line is going to be a unit, and the Carthaginians would have more elements per unit.

Thanks for the comments. It will help with the next refights.

I'll be doing Zama in a few weeks with DBA on the larger (20BW) playing area. I'll be simulating the larger Carthaginian army by using solid hordes

Romans: 36 bases
Generals: Sp CinC, 4Bd, Cv
3 Cv
6 LH
6 Ps (Velites)
6 4Bd (Hastati)
6 4Bd (Principes)
6 Sp (Triarii)

arthaginians: 36 bases
Generals: Sp CinC, Cv, Sp
2 Cv
2 LH
4 El
5 Ps
4 4Ax
4 4Wb
6 7Hd
6 Sp

Thanks for the report, I'll be looking this over for ideas. I'm gearing up to run monthly big battle DBA scenario games at the FLGS this year, along with our regular DBA days.

For big battle scenarios, I often tweak morale and command for scenario rules. Historical battles that make for good scenarios often have one side with a larger army and the other with better command.

To represent this in the games, the larger side gets 13 stands per army and a break point of 5; each army rolls its own pip die. The side with better command gets 12 stands per army; but rolls the pip dice in a pool and the CiC assigns the dice to each command. This has played very well in numerous games.

Fragile commands could be given 11 stands and a break point of 3.

For Zama, I might do bigger commands for the Carthaginian side, but not increase their break points.