"DBN with 1 Base = 1 Battalion?" Topic

I see a few references to people doing this online, but does anyone care to share more info on it?

Do you change ranges or movement rates at all? Anything else with combat factors? Or just play it as is?

I assume DBN uses the DBA style "pace" measurements, which means getting realistic ranges and movement shouldn't be too hard

Thanks!

It has been over a decade since I read DBN. I think bass may have been multiple battalion regiments or brigades.
If you go into detail about ranges then you are complicating the system and hurting the fast play or flow.
Play balance is another factor that can be affected by adding or changing rules.

I would imagine you would change the ground scale so a battalion frontage became the standard instead of the division, brigade, or whatever it currently is. I haven't played DBN so can't comment more, other than to say that it should be pretty obvious pretty quickly what tweaks need to be made.

If a battalion is the base tactical unit though, wouldn't you be getting close to wanting formation changes start to matter?

Cheers,
John

A base is nominally 2-3000 infantry.

I had DBN armies in 6mm. I based them to look like a battalion on each 40x20mm base. The rules are daily abstract from what I recall, so I just played them as if they were battalions and don't recall any issues.

From rule book: Infantry – 2,000 to 2,500, Cavalry – 1,200 to 1,500, skirmish units – 600 to 800, Artillery – the larger reserve formations of 18 guns (give or take). The divisional guns are factored into the infantry numbers. Very abstract.

We do play these as battalions and squadrons instead. Also, we haven't made other scale adjustments and it seems to work, but we only double the number of points used to 24. That involves increasing the playing area to 3' X 3'. We have talked about moving to 36 points and a 4' X 4' board, but haven't tried it.

We play the attrition game option and allow commanders to rally off "casualties" from units with them representing loss of combat effectiveness.
I don't want to get too wordy, so, we just adjust the presented rules a little. It works for us.

Good luck on your search and happy gaming.

@op- you can take Mike's tips and make it work, really don't see why DBN isn't scalable with minimal tweaks or ignoring rules that don't fit your intended scale/simulation. Wish one of the authors lurked on here.

It sounds like a base is more a regiment. Ground scales should be close enough you can play as is for a game or two and see what you consider broken. You may end up fine with it as is like Prince ALbert.

The biggest thing off would be if the game has musketry I would imagine. Frontage vs range. It may not at that level.

I would be inclined to just play it as is and see how it goes.