INTRODUCTION Board & card game for 2 players. Battle between ancient armies. Each figure represents a general, camp or unit of troops. VICTORY You win if you destroy your opponents general or 8 of his units. A Camp counts as 2 units. THE MAP Use an 8x8 chessboard. THE MEN Use chits or miniatures to represent units. ARMY COMPOSITION Every army has 1 General, 1 Camp, and 11 other units. You may designate 2 of your units as “Elite”. CHOOSING ARMY COMPOSITION Besides the obligatory General and Camp pick any 11 units from the Unit list. DBA ARMIES For DBA army lists please consult the following site: DBA Online Disclaimer Note: DBA is a licensed copyrighted product. This is merely a fan site. UNITS TABLE NOTATION Move = Move Limit. Range = Unit may attack enemy units within this range. Below is a listing of all possible unit types. UNIT TYPE TABLE Unit Move Range Notes Camp 0 1 General 3 1 Auxilia 3 1 Warband 2 1 Blades 2 1 Spears 2 1 Pikes 1 1 Cavalry 4 1 Heavy Chariots Knights 3 1 Psiloi 3 2 Light Horse 5 2 Light Chariots Bows 2 2 Elephants 3 1 Artillery 1 4 War Wagons 2 2 Scythed Chariots 4 1 SPECIAL ABILITY CARD EFFECTS TABLE Unit Type Special Ability Notes General D Rally Rally any adjacent unit Auxilia A/D Open Formation Either if in Rough ground Warband A Berserker Frenzy Attack Blades D Shield Wall Defend Spears A Throw Spears Attack at range = 2 Pikes A/D Receive Charge Either vs non-missile unit Cavalry A Bows Attack at range = 2 Knights X Dismount Becomes a Blades unit Psiloi A/M Run Attack or Move = K Light Horse A/M Wheel About Attack or Move = K Bows A Indirect Fire Attack through units Artillery A Indirect Fire Attack through units Elephants M+A Trample Move = 1 and then Attack War Wagons D Strong Defense Defend Scythed Chariots A Open Ground Attack if on Clear ground A player may play (discard) a special ability card to activate one of the above effects. SETUP Each player places his units on his back two rows. Units may not stack. THE CARDS Players share a common deck. TURN SEQUENCE Players take turns. Each turn has 3 phases: Orders Phase Move Phase Battle Phase ORDERS PHASE Draw 3 cards. If the deck runs out, shuffle the discard and draw from it. Max hand size = 5 cards. Discard excess cards. MOVE PHASE Play (discard) a Move card to move one of your units. Units cannot move through other units except for Psiloi who may move through their own troops. The move card has a number. This is the number of spaces the unit moves. A Unit cannot use a Move card with a value higher than its move limit. Moves are diagonal or orthogonal. Instead of moving just one unit in any direction, you have the option of moving one or more units forward the indicated number of spaces using a single move card. BATTLE PHASE Each of your units can make up to one attack (kill) on your turn. If one of your units has an enemy unit in range that it can automatically kill, then that unit is destroyed. No card needs to be played. Instead of making an auto-kill you may play (discard) an Attack card to have a unit attack any enemy unit in its range. The target is destroyed unless it is immune to the attacking unit in which case it is recoiled. A recoiled unit must move back one space if possible. Attacks are diagonal or orthogonal. Units cannot attack through other units. The defender may play a Defense card to prevent the target card from being killed. If a Recoil card is played the defending unit must move back one space or the Card cannot be played. Artillery cannot move and attack in the same turn. To play a Supported Attack card the target must be in range of two of your units. To play a Reinforced Defense card the target must be next to a friendly unit. To play a Rally Defense card your general must be within 2 spaces of the unit. To play an Outflank attack card the attacking unit must be closer to the opponents edge of the board than the defending unit. To play a Rough Defense card the target must be on Rough Ground AUTOMATIC KILL TABLE Unit Automatic Kill: Auxilia Elephants, Bows, Psiloi Warband Blades, Pikes, Artillery, Bow, Spear Blades Bows, Auxilia Spears Bows, Auxilia, Pikes, Cavalry Pikes Blades, Auxilia, Cavalry Cavalry Psiloi, Blades, Bow, Light Horse, Artillery, Auxilia, Warband Knights Auxilia, Spear, Pike, Psiloi, Warband, Cavalry, Light Horse Psiloi Elephants, Psiloi Light Horse Elephants, Knights, Psiloi, Artillery Bows Knights, Cavalry, Light Horse, Psiloi, Pikes, Warband Artillery Elephants, War Wagons, Scythed Chariots War Wagons Cavalry, Knights, Light Horse, Scythed Chariots Scythed Chariots Knights, Blades, Warband, Light Horse, Auxilia Elephant Knights, War Wagons, Warband, Light Horse, Scythed Chariots IMMUNITY TABLLE Unit Immune to: Blades Bows, Artillery Spears Bows, Artillery Psiloi Everything that do not auto-kill Psiloi Light Horse Everything that do not auto-kill Light Horse Artillery Bows War Wagons Scythed Chariots CARD LIST NOTATION M = Movement A = Attack D = Defense X = Special Type = Purpose of card K = as a Knight would move in chess # = Number of that type of card in the deck CARD LIST Card Name: # Range Type Notes Trod 5 1 M March 5 2 M Fast Pace 5 3 M Gallop 5 4-5 M Quick 5 K M Any unit with a Move of 3+ Attack 5 - A Supported Attack 5 - A Outflank 5 - A Elite 5 - A/D Only by Elite units Push 5 - D Recoil 5 - D Move back 1 space Reinforced 5 - D Rally 5 - D Rough Ground 5 - D Special Ability 8 - X Scout 2 - X Look at opponents hand TERRAIN TYPES Distribute terrain as you see fit. Clear = no modifications Rough = All Units except Auxilia & Psiloi must stop upon entering Rough. War Wagons cannot enter Rough. Hills = Missile units get range +1 Impassable = No units may enter this space. GERMAN HOUSE RULES by Rudi Hofrichter --On Battlefield Size of the table is not 8x8 but 12x12 for more historical setup. --On Generals General is always the nominated element analog the DBA list General is never a LK or a Pl --On Terrain Terrain setup is analog DBA 2.2. BUAs must be in range of 5 squares of two sides --On Different types of terrain Terrain covers 6 squares (Wood or hills) Wood blocks line of sight and and ranged attacks (exemption indirect fire) BUA (Build up area) covers 1 squared Units in fortified BUA neglect autokills small Rivers runs between squares small rivers block movement and like difficult terrain, on both riverbanks Difficult terrain card can be used if defence is across a river Units on hills can use difficult terrain cards against attacks from lower positions. stepp hills block movement like difficult terrain --Setup (as in DBA 2.2. ) Defender places the terrain and nominates the sides he want to set up analog DBA 2.2 set up is possible in the last 4 rows but the 2 column on the side must be vacant. Bias in an advanced position may be occupied Attacked places his units Defender swaps two units Attackers draws card and begins plays (attention defender has yet no cards on his hand) --On Follow up movement (pursue) Kn, SCh,Hd,Wb follow up immediately if they kill or force the enemy to retreat and occupy the enemies position. --On Movement you can play as many movement cards on one unit as you like you must move the exact range on the card (exemption 4-5) Retreats (as result of card or immunity) retreat must be done in a square nonadjacent to any enemy --Elephant Movement: 3 Range: 1 Special: A Range 2 --Horde Movement:2 Range: 1 No special but no one has an autokill against the horde --Multiplayer games as in DBA 2.2: --Battles 2 Main players rest of players are either continents of the attacker of the defender contingents draw 3 cards sequence is as following: Attacker, attacker's 1. contingent ...... 2.....3.... Defender, defender's 1. contingent ........ 2. contingent....etc.... Army or contigent disintegrates if general or 2/3 units lost --Post battle sequence half of the casualties come back. Owner nominates one unit which comes back, opponent nominates one unit as definite casualty and so on. In case of a dead general this unit must be nominated first. SCENARIOS Crusaders Conquest by Rudi Hofrichter LINKS Fanaticus War Gaming Club German BGG
REVIEW by Rudi Hofrichter We are one of the old tin figures collectors club in Germany and one of our members adapted in the thirties, forties and fifties our rules "Kriegsspiel" afters his experiences in the war. This follow up of the Kriegsspiel is called "Planspiel" and covers modern warfare of the period 1930-1960. It is played in our club today in Germany and Austria. Planspiel is very fast and deadly and not comparable with any existing actual rule set. It is a mix of chess, accounting's seminar for a brigade comander on a Military academy and real logistics. But it is played on squares and has autokill rules....as we found your game on the internet we realised that your game is exactly what we shearched for so long. A very fast ancient game which fits on our squares. So your ancient warfare has 2 very important things in common with the legendary Planspiel and was so very attractive to a lot of serious collectors and players in our club. The next point why we think you game is a diamond is because it uses the army list from DBA, with allows us to use our resources material and our armies. Your system creates very historical outcomes if played with historical armies and enemies. As it uses the DBA element types it is easy to explain it to other players and people with throurough historical knowledge. Another very important aspect is the speed we play our your game: with creation and placing of the terrain + deployment of the armies we need between 15 minutes up to 50 minutes for a game. It is possible to end the game within 1 turn and normally 3/4 of a deck are enough to finish of the opponent. Only multiplayer battles with 4-5 players which draw from one deck need more than 60min. This fastness, if played aggressively, makes it possible to end the game in one round with no discussion possible. No other ruleset is so cruel and leaves an opponent so chanceless as far as I know. This is actually biggest reason I like your system so much. Because the game is so fast it makes it possible to play the original DBA Campaigns in one day. This means we play on one day 8-15 battles with 4-6 people in a historical setting and political interaction between the battles. I also know no other system which enables the player to play completely so many battles on one day with a decisive result in the evening. We are able to play for example the first 2 crusades with all major battles (without stress) on one afternoon and evening! CARDSET AVAILABLE By Eric Sprague. Thanks!!! Click Here
