"Day of Battle 4 Progress Update" Topic

dayofbattle.com

Greetings fellow Knights and Damsels

I am happy to announce that Day of Battle 4th edition is being edited for the final time and for the will be ready for Fall In 2011.

I know – I know you are just besides yourselves with excitement:) I have posted an insight tf the rules on the website with the hopes that many of you will answer my summons and have a look. I welcome your thoughts and feedback.

I have a lot of new mechanisms in 4th that are IMHO ground breaking. Two of which are the new Battle Line Morale System and the Domain and Army Creation rules. Like 3rd edition I have kept and expanded the personality rules and Honor Points system so you can play your Warlord from one battle to another.

If you have further interest you can find the full pdf version on my Yahoo site.

VR: Chris Parker

Wow tough crowd, isn't there any room for other Medieval rule sets?

Maybe if you made a spelling mistake, or gave people a chance to show their superior knowledge by pointing out previous posts that have already suggested its all been done before in 1963 ………../jk

It looks well thought out and a clean looking game well done.

Hmm not sure how to respond to this reply but any reply is better than no reply :)

Sounds interesting to me. Do you have a link to your site?

Ah. It might have been the blue text at the top of your post…. Unfortunately blocked for me at work. :(

It is the link above but it is dayofbattle.com.

Thank you for the comments, always fuel for an authors fier :)

Chris

"It looks well thought out and a clean looking game well done."

I Missed this from Agincourt so thank you for the kind words. I'm trying to lay the rules out in the same sequence as the game turn sequence. I find that helps when looking for rules during play. This time I intend to have a much better TOC and key word definition section as well.

Another note here, I have pretty much done away with abbreviations and short labels, such as CL representing close order, or MG for morale grade. I'd say except on the Quick Reference Sheet I have written out everything as its full word. I have had a lot of comments on that from gamers who are sick of having to go back and look up what the short word means.

I'm glad to hear about the revisions. Back in the day I bought the first edition rules, and while the fact that the campaign system was written directly into the rules was utterly entrancing, the rest of the rules were such an incomprehensible mess that I defaced the rulebook by scrawling 'UTTER GIBBERISH!' across two especially arcane pages. I picked up the third edition a few years ago, and while there were some improvements it still read like the overly complex set of rules that work just fine when the designer and his friends play them, as opposed to human beings ;)

There always is room for another rules set. The question is, how much room do you want?

Informations that I would find helpful:
What is basing like?
How many figures and units are needed?
How long does it take? (realistically and without assuming one has memorized most of the rule book…)

To iron Mike

All I can say is sorry :)

To Hwaranf

Basing is the same as Impetus which is to say the same as any DBx/WRG style game. A unit has a footprint and the number of figures on that foot print is up to the player. If you have DBx units now then 4 such stands deployed 2x2 make up a unit in Day of Battle.

A 6 player game with players who have played one or two games can run in about 2 hours. My convention games are done in about 3 hours. I have designed the mechanics so they can be memorized fairly easily. I usually only use the QRS when I doubt my memory.

I must admit that most games (not just mine) will run faster if the author is there.

You can find more indepth informatiopn at the website. Link is on the first page here.

Chris

Hmm.. the fact that it is Impetus basing raises my interest a lot. My new armies are all based on Impetus bases, not on DBx anymore. I have a two full 100ys war armies. Might give it a try…

I wanted to mention that anybody would like a beta version in pdf form just go to the website dayofbattle.com and click on the e-mail prompt and I will gladly send one out. They are also available on my Yahoo Group but I don't like being asked to join a group just to look over a set of rules.

Speaking of Impetus I plan on using their model of a free basic game download when the printed version is released.

On bases as I wrote I use the block approach ala Impetus but to me I recall Napoleons Battles from Avalon Hill along with others doing this years ago. I personally base my units on two (half) stands. Mostly because it makes transporting them to conventions in baseball card boxes easier and it allows for column formations but it is just a matter of taste.

When basing armies that could use the wedge I glue the figures on each half bas as to be in half of the wedge formation then if I want to show the wege place them side by side in such a way that each half base looks like a wedge. When the unit isn not in wedge I swithc the stands. Looks quite nice but a marker is just as easy.

I also leave a number of my troops based ala DBx which I can use for attached units in the rear of a unit or mixed units of missile and foot. This helps deal abit with unit depth distortion.

All of my units now have a small magnetic strip either glued at the rear of the stand facing up or vertically along the black edge. I then use small colored washers to help indicate the the stats for the unit. For heavy units that aren't obviously heavy I place a gold marker. For morale grades I do the following. No marker means poor, a red marker is average, a white marker veteran and a blue marker is elite. If you are American it is easy to memorize, red, white and blue. I like this system because in thie era troop armor and morale is all over the place. Finally I use green markers to mark hits on the unit (units take 2-4 hits). Much nicer looking than casualty rings and the unused markers can just sit on the table and blend in with my game cloth cover. this system really adds the fog of war to the game as well.

Chris

I really like these rules, plus the Impetus-type basing system works for me as that's what my ancients are based for and what I am basing my medieval and dark age minis to.

Not only that, but the new rules are well laid out, easy to follow and nicely presented. All in all Chris has done a great job with these. I look forward to playing them in the near future.

V/R

Many Thanks Tim

I have the previous version of Day of Battle – I recommend it. It's designed for smaller conflicts, say one baron against another, rather than huge pitched battles but its not a skirmish game. The game plays pretty quick with a level of detail that's a step up from DBA but its not a complex game. Uses Dbx basing and has some neat mechanics. The game revolves around a sort of RPG element in each players primary command figure has a number of stats and gains advancement over time but not always for doing the same things – there are different motivations to take into account. For club campaigns this is a great touch, it really gives each player an investment in the game.

Alex thanks for the comments. Yes the game is more focused on the indvidual player or Warlord and his success on the battlefield and armies of say 1000 to 2000 men. It is a mini-campain system really. After each battle each Warlord (player or commander in cheif if you will) tallies up his points referred to as honor points. As he reaches different scores his social rank will rise and along with that his ablilty to raise larger and better armies. Along the way the addition of these honor points allow him to increase his different personal skills. There are 4 such skills. Initiative, morale, combat and personal combat. These skills help him fight, win and survive each battle. He gains honor points for performing actions on the battlefield that match his motivation. There are three such motivations, raider, mercenary and chivalric. As a chivalric leader he gains the most points by beating up other enemy units. Preferrably knights and heavy cavalry. The raider on the hand gets the most points for capturing his enemies camp or outscouting or out maneuvering his enemy during the preliminary setup. Finally Warlords can change their motivations when their social rank changes.

Well that's all for now.

Chris

I posted a full demo game in the game reports section here in the Medieval boards. A full game starting with creating the Warlord, then his army than a blow by blow of a 5 turn game.

Chris

When I had the opportunity to play these rules this past summer, these seemed to work well during use as a multiplayer, one session game as well. In a way, it was like having allies that showed up on the field with different forces working by themselves, yet needing to co-operate, too. Overall, the experience seemed very flavorful for how the system works, and what its recreating.

That's exactly how they feel, and very much in keeping with the political dynamics in play during the period.

These rules are very well suited for a campaign where each player represents a lord of some particular rank. Warlords indeed!

And the game GamesPoet mentioned actually went so fast that we played it twice and had pizza in a 5 hour session.

Chris P.

I played DoB 10 or more years ago at historicon and enjoyed it enough to buy the rules, but they were confusing and I never did anything with them. I liked the rolling up (with cards) of a character though.

WEll I am doing my best not to let that confusion happen again. CP

I played at Cold Wars and had a Great Time. Best game of the weekend!

DOB lends itself quite well to multi-player games. We routinely play with 2-3 players on a side. A 2/per side game is reported on kingstonirregulars.blogspot.com Loook for "the Battle of Breen's Farm".
Dick Bryant

Dick and I and two others had a great partner type game at Havoc this last weekend. I played against Dick and he killed my Warlord, bingo game over.

Nice job Dick.

CP