OK, so this is where I am with my development of the rules. I will be giving these a playtest in the next few days. I've revised the draft several times, always seeking to simplify and stay in touch with the original rules style and intent. Some will notice that despite declaring the personality rules I used fine, I scaled them back a bit more after I did the math. Sorry the formatting of the bullets went haywire - I'll correct that later.
Any feedback welcomed!
DARK AGE WARGAME RULES
Units
There
are four types of Units in the Dark Ages rules, representing British types.
1. Infantry are
assumed to have some training and experience working as a Unit and adopting the
protective shieldwall formation quickly and at need. Due to this defensive posture, they move
slower and more deliberately than other Units.
They may have large shields and small spears such as Romanized British,
or small shields and long spears such as the Picts.
2. Warband are
aggressive individual warriors, attacking with speed and ferocity. Their lack of armor and wild, disorganized
fighting style leaves them vulnerable to casualties, however.
3. Cavalry
represent household soldiers on small unarmored horses who use their mobility
to hurl missiles with impunity until the enemy is weakened, then charge in to
finish them off. As professionals, some
may have armor and helmets and be eager to charge into melee.
4. Skirmishers are
hunters/raiders with bows & knives, or javelin-armed freemen with small
shields and long knives. They harass with
missiles, charging if they see an advantage.
Figures
& Basing
4-6
inch frontage per Unit with no prescribed depth, figure size or number per base. Mine are two adjacent 6cm bases of 2-6
figures [WRG standard], for a total of 12cm [<5 ”] or 5 bases of 2x1”
cavalry singles. The bases may follow
one another through gaps or along roads as needed.
Line of Sight
LoS
is measured from a Unit's front center point to closest visible part of target.
It is blocked by any intervening Units, hills, woods, buildings, etc.
that are scaled to figure height or higher.
·
Units
may see into and out of woods, but not through two sides of a wood.
·
Units
must have LoS to shoot or charge enemy Units at the time of the shooting or
charge.
Play Sequence
A
full turn has each player taking four phases:
Attacker [player
A]: 1) Movement, 2) Shooting, 3) Melee, 4) Eliminating Units
Defender [player
D]: 1) Movement, 2) Shooting, 3) Melee, 4) Eliminating Units
1) MOVEMENT
Playser
sequentially move their Units, with no corner exceeding the total distance rolled
in inches.
Class 1. Infantry move 1d6+1
Class 2. Warband & Skirmishers move 2d6+2
Class 3. Cavalry move 3d6+3
To
fit through a gap or move along a road, the two bases may be placed one behind
the other, or the cavalry bases may move sideways or in a column of bases for
appearances sake.
Moving
Shots
Instead
of waiting for the Shooting Phase, Units with javelins may perform a Moving
Shot in their Movement Phase, either before or at the end of their move. Bows may not shoot if they moved.
Terrain
There
are two terrain types, Linear and Area. Linear
are 6-12” long x 1-3” wide. Area are
6-12” per side or diameter. Building or
tree models are only decorative – move as needed to position Units.
·
Villages. Area. No effect on movement.
·
Woods.
Area. Only Skirmishers may enter.
·
Marsh,
Lakes. Area. Impassible.
·
Rivers. Linear. Any Unit may cross at a bridge, a
ford, or in shallows.
·
Roads.
Linear. Units get a 3” bonus moving entirely along a road and not Charging.
Turning
Units
Turn by pivoting on the center front, up to 180°. Units Turn as follows:
1. Warband & infantry may Turn once, at the
start or end of their move.
2. Skirmishers & Cavalry may
Turn twice, once at the start and once at the end of their move.
3. Any Unit in
melee contact with enemy Units that are not on its front facing may face one of
the Units. It turns a full 90° or 180° and
bases of enemy Units are adjusted to maintain contacts.
Charging
Charge
moves end with the Unit in Contact with an enemy Unit.
1. The
target Unit must be within 45° of the charging Unit’s front and in its LoS to
be charged.
2.
Contacting
the flank or rear is only possible if the entire charging Unit is past an imaginary line
drawn along the Target Unit’s side or rear respectively.
3. Contact may
be made by only one attacking Unit per facing; front, rear and either flank.
4.
Contact is made by moving
along the shortest line from the Charging Unit center to the center of a facing
that is not already in a contact, maximizing the amount
of edge to edge Contact, if any, and minimizing any gap using all available
movement to do so. It then stops moving.
There is no additional
free movement to achieve full edge to edge contact [the so-called “closing the
door” of DBA and other rules]. Any
gaps are assumed to be filled with fighting men!
2)
SHOOTING
·
Skirmishers and Cavalry may shoot at a single Target within 45° of their front
facing, to which they have a clear Line of Sight of an entire Facing.
·
Bows may not shoot if they moved during the Movement Phase.
·
Javelins may not shoot if they performed a Moving Shot in the Movement Phase.
·
Fulfilling the above restrictions, they may even shoot into a melee.
·
The range is 12” for bows and 6” for javelins.
·
Roll 1D6 and subtract 2 if the Unit is armed with bows, or 1 if armed
with javelins. This gives the number of
Hits against the Target Unit, modified as follows:
o Terrain.
Units in Woods or villages halve Hits [round up].
o Shieldwall.
Infantry Units are assumed to assume a Shieldwall formation against any
threat, so they halve Hits [round up] from shooting at their front or flank
facings.
o Unshielded or unprepared. Double Hits from
Units shooting at the rear Facing.
·
Both bows and javelins are limited to three shots.
3)
MELEE
One-Sided Melee. Units only inflict casualties during their
own player turn.
Roll 1D6 for the Unit, giving +2 for Warband, -2 for bow Skirmishers, -1
for javelin Skirmishers and -1 for Cavalry.
The final result is the Hits against the Target Unit, modified as
follows:
·
Terrain. Units defending
woods, uphill, or a river crossing, halve Hits [round up].
·
Shieldwall. Infantry Units halve
Hits [rounded up].
·
Unshielded
or Unprepared. Double Hits by Units attacking on
the flank or rear facing.
There is no dividing of
the Hits a Unit inflicts upon multiple Units attacking it [one enemy Unit may
attack each facing; front, rear and either flank, so four total Units]. So, Units
only fight melee combats to their Front, attacking a single enemy Unit if in
contact with their Front Facing. Melee concludes with the elimination of
one of the sides, but Units in melee may turn to face attackers [see movement].
4) ELIMINATING UNITS
Any Unit with 15 or more
Hits is removed from the table.
OPTIONAL RULES
PERSONALITIES
These come in several types to give an army some more “personality”. For every three Units in a force, a player may pick a
suitable personality figure. All
personalities function as a Unit upgrade that may transfer to another Unit
within 6” at the start of the friendly Movement Phase. If in a Unit that is in melee they may not
leave it, sharing its fate if destroyed.
·
Hero. This is a warrior with
personal fighting skill, or frenzied pagan shaman. Inspiring others with their skill and
eagerness, Heroes give a +1 bonus in shooting or melee combat.
·
Leader. This is a campaign veteran,
such as a Roman Centurion. He knows that
maneuver will win the battle more often than personal valor, and demands
discipline from his men. A Leader gives
a Unit one additional Turn that may be used at any time during its movement.
o
Banner. This is an upgrade to
either personality above. The Banner is
a prestigious symbol of the personality and his people. It allows a Unit that is not in Melee, and
has not moved or shot, to rally off 1-3 Hits [halve a d6 roll, rounding up]. A Banner counts as one of the permitted
Personalities for the side.
·
A Christian Priest rallies off 2-4 Hits [halve a
d6 roll, rounding up, then add 1] since he has a suitable holy relic, standard,
great exhortations, etc.
INITIATIVE
Battles often began with
one side as the aggressor, making a series of attacks until fatigue or enemy
resistance caused them to lose momentum.
To simulate this, the scenario attacker has Initiative and goes first
each Turn [if no clear Attacker, roll off].
But at the start of Turn 2 - and every Turn after - roll off adding +3
for the Initiative Side. If the Initiative side loses the roll,
Initiative changes to the other side and they start going first each Turn.
Note this allows the side seizing Initiative to go twice in a row as
the turn order changes, which could be a critical moment in a game. While
it is possible for Initiative to switch a couple of times, it is likely to only
change once. Additional options:
·
For
more likelihood to change use +2 for the side holding Initiative, for less go
with +4.
·
Subtract '1' from the Initiative
player’s dice roll for each of their Units that have routed.
VARIABLE QUALITY
For each army of six Units, allow one Unit to be Elite, but one must be
Levy to balance things out!
Elite / Stubborn troops = 18 Casualties before
routing.
Levy /Nervous troops etc = 12 Casualties then
routing.
FORCE
MORALE
The 1HW scenarios have 6
Units per side as the norm. This conveniently comes to rolling a d6 each
time a friendly Unit is destroyed, attempting to roll higher than the total
number of friendly Units destroyed to keeping fighting - if you roll equal or
less your force routs and the game ends. With three Units, roll a d3,
with four d3+1. As this shortens the
game a lot, you can roll TWO d6 and keep fighting if EITHER roll beats the
number of Units lost or even 3d6 for desperate or stubborn forces. You could also get a +1 to your roll if your
opponent has lots more Units, emboldening your force.
In a campaign game,
allow the opposing side to get one last free attack as they rout. For more
"period flavor", consider fun ways to gain a bonus point or two on
the die roll, like winning a pre-game challenge, praying to God [or 'the
gods'], fatigue from force marching to an objective, etc.
ADDITIONAL
UNIT TYPES
Roman Militia. These are Infantry who melee at d6-1.
Roman Cavalry. These better equipped cavalry on bigger
horses shoot & melee at d6.
Arthur’s Cavalry. As above, but are Elite. If “the Knights”, let them fight d6+1.
Mounted Servants. These
fight with javelin but at d6-2. If there
is an Elite cavalry Unit in play,
they may
also be Elite. In this case, a second
Levy Unit must be taken.
Irish Nobles. These
javelin Skirmishers fight at d6. One
Unit may be Elite.
Scots Nobles. These stubborn Warband fight at d6+1 but are
Elite.
Viking Veterans. After deployment choose to fight as
Infantry OR Warband. One Unit may be
Elite.
FALL BACK!
Skirmishers and cavalry may make a
full move directly back out of melee to Fall Back [FB]:
·
IF they are from a higher movement
class than all enemy Units in the melee
·
AND no enemy are in contact with
their rear facing.
If an enemy Unit is in frontal
Contact with the FB Unit, dice-off their movement distances – if it wins the
enemy Unit makes a free attack before the Skirmish or Cavalry Unit moves the
amount it rolled.
MISSILE
SUPPLY
Starting with the second shot, any roll of unmodified 5 or 6 results in
the Unit having used the last of their missiles with that shot. This replaces the three-shot limit.
DECLARED
MOVEMENT
The
player indicates a Unit, states the intent of its move, rolls the dice and then
fulfills the intent as much as possible.
Units move the full distance rolled even if farther than desired. They may however stop alongside a Unit with a
banner, at a terrain feature that gives a movement or combat bonus [e.g. road,
hill], and must stop at any Unit they may not interpenetrate, Contacting for
Melee if an enemy Unit. Warband must
contact an enemy Unit if they roll enough distance.
Note, this section is the one most open
to disagreements, so use with caution! A
Personality with a Banner suddenly becomes essential if you use this rule.f the movement rolled permits them to do so.
