DBM 24

About This Document

Some of the rules in this document are not entirely necessary to facilitate the change in scale, but are rather my attempts to fix little things that bother me about DBM (such as the invincibility of Bd when shot at, or the inability of Pk to form square). All of these rules are marked Optional, and will show up in red if your browser understands my tagging.

Army List Building

Options should be in the spirit of DBA, allowing options only in groups or packages that change the composition of the army to match some historical OOB, or at least a probable one. Camps should consist of 4 Bg elements if the army has less than 24 elements, otherwise camps should be 6 Bg elements. Any army which historically fortified its camp should automatically have enough TF to surround all its own Bg elements.

Terrain

• Battles are played on a 2400px2400p area.
• Optional: Terrain choices. Choose one, whichever you like. They should all work with the rest of the system outlined in this document.
1. Provide each battlefield (or set of battlefields) with a set of pre-made terrain pieces that will give an appropriate feel for the region they represent, but also prevent gimmicky terrain placement or unfair clogging or emptying of the field. No non-linear piece should be over 1200p in any dimension, and only a few should be over 600p or under 200p. Change the distribution of sizes to reflect generally what sort of open:clogged ratio you want the battlefield to exhibit.
2. Provide a common pool of pre-made terrain pieces for all players to choose from, and enforce the following rules during placement:
   1. Only one non-linear piece (i.e., non-road, non-river, non-WW, etc.) may be more than 1200p in any dimension.
   2. Only three non-linear pieces on the table may be more than 600p in any dimension.
   3. Only one non-linear piece may be less than 200p in any dimension.
   4. No non-linear piece may exceed proportions of 4:1.
   5. Linear pieces should be long enough to stretch from table edge to table edge, and have a width reasonable for the piece (i.e., roads should be roughly half an element width, rivers should be 1-2 element widths, etc.).
3. Exactly as above, but allow players to provide the terrain for their own battles, and also allow them to pull pieces from each other's terrain pools.
• Each player chooses 4 terrain pieces from those available. The attacker must choose either a river or a road as one of his pieces.
• The attacker places the first piece, which must be either a river or a road. The defender places the next piece, and the players alternate until all terrain is placed.
• There may not be more than 1 river on the table. No part of a river may be farther than 600p from some edge or corner of the table. Rivers have to flow between two different table edges and must leave the table at least 2000p from where they enter.
• There may not be more than 2 roads on the table. The second road placed must intersect or join the first road placed. If a river is present, a second road is free (does not count as a terrain piece), and the player who placed it must pick another terrain piece to lay down.
• There may only be one BUA, and it must intersect or touch a road or a river already placed.
• Each of the first four terrain pieces placed must be mostly contained within one quarter of the table (this is best accomplished by identifying a center point and making sure it is clearly within one quadrant of the table). Each terrain piece placed after the first must be placed in some quarter of the board that does not yet contain the majority of some previously placed terrain piece, if there are any such quarters.
• If a terrain piece becomes illegal before the player gets to place it, that player must choose a legal replacement before placing it. Obviously, players can't be allowed to deliberately choose illegal terrain pieces before the placement even begins (like choosing 4 roads, or multiple rivers, etc.)

Deployment

• The defender places his camp first. It must be 400p to 800p from the 2 nearest table edges (no closer, no farther), and at least 1200p from the farthest edge.
• The attacker places his camp next, between 1000p and 1500p from the defender's camp, and at least 2 element widths from all table edges.
• Camps may be placed entirely (but not partially) within a fortified BUA, but not within other kinds of rough or difficult going.
• Baggage elements must be arranged so that all elements can be contacted during the game (i.e., no gimmicks using terrain or configuration to make a Bg element unapproachable). Baggage elements must be in corner-to-corner and edge-to-edge contact, and may only deviate from a rectangular layout if conforming to terrain.
• Off-table flank marches are not allowed.
• All deployed elements (whether in the open or in ambush) must be placed within 1000p of the army's camp, but may not be closer to the enemy camp than 600p, nor in any spot the enemy can also occupy.
• The defender deploys the first command. At least half of it must be visible (i.e., not in ambush). It must be contain the largest number of visible elements of any command in his army.
• The attacker deploys the second command. At least half of it must be visible (i.e., not in ambush). It must be contain the largest number of visible elements of any command in his army.
• Players alternate deploying commands until they are all on table or declared in ambush.

Battle Rules

1. Each general gets a d3 instead of the normal d6.
2. Ally generals are unreliable on an initial PIP roll of 1.
3. No command may have fewer than 4 elements.
4. Pk get a +3 for having a second rank, and no bonus for further ranks, as in DBA. Pk(X) get only a +1 for a second rank.
5. Ranges of all shooting elements are cut in half:
• 50p for Art(X).
• 100p for Bw, Wwg, Gal, Shp, Art(I).
• 250p for Art(O,S)
6. Art(S) do not turn to face enemy, but do fight as if the first edge contacted is their front edge until close combat is over.
7. Bg elements have no front edge and no zone of control (any element can pass freely across any edge within any distance of the Bg element).
8. A friendly foot element may occupy the same space as an immobile Bg element, and must be recoiled or destroyed out of contact before the Bg element may be fought. This is so that camps may be defended by combat troops. The ground scale is too large to comfortably allow camp outlines much larger than the Bg they surround.
9. Kn are +3 vs. shooting.
10. Optional: Skirmisher definitions. Ps of any grade armed with bows or slings may support other Ps. This is to make up for my regrading of many DBM Ps in the DBM24 army lists. I've found that the rulebook guidelines for grading Ps don't necessarily result in proper historical behavior.
11. Optional: Shooting resistance. Bd and Sp are +3 vs. shooting.
12. Optional: Dismounting. Elements which dismount during the game may not remount.
13. Optional: Hedgehogs/schiltrons. 2 elements of Pk allowed by their army list to form a hedgehog or schiltron may line up back-to-back and get the following benefits:
    • they do not recoil;
    • they do not turn to face;
    • they count as the front edge the first edge contacted during movement;
    • they count rank bonuses toward their front edge as if they were lined up and facing the right way.
    Obviously a hedgehog or schiltron can't legally move as a group without first lining up facing the same direction. Recommended only for Scots, Swiss, and various Hellenistic armies. May also be applied to Ax(X) and Sp if appropriate to the army.