DARK
AGE WARGAME RULES
Grey Areas.
Any situation not explicitly covered in the rules, or a measurement that
is “too close to call”, should be defined in “either/or” terms and resolved
with a friendly roll off.
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 together and adopting a protective shieldwall formation at
need. Due to this defensive posture,
they move slower than other Units. They
may have large shields/short spears or small shields/long spears.
2.
Warband are wild fighters who attack with
speed and ferocity. Their lack of armor
and individual style leaves them vulnerable to casualties. Some are Raiders
who use terrain to advantage. Others are Warriors
prepared to stand together on open ground fighting with great determination.
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 usually hunters/raiders w’bows &
knives, or javelin-armed freemen w’small shields & short swirds. They harass with missiles, preferably from
difficult terrain, charging if they see an opportunity. Some are aggressive household warriors with
better weapons.
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 25mm figures
[WRG standard], for a total of 12cm [47/8”] or 5 bases of 2x1”
cavalry singles. This makes all my Units
about 5” wide, and 1.5-2” deep.
Dice. For more averaged results, I use a d5, which
is the UK “average dice”, having pips of 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, eliminating 1 &
6. If you want more extreme swings,
switch to a d6.
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 over figure
height.
·
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) Routs
and Rallies
Defender
[player D]: 1)
Movement, 2) Shooting, 3) Melee, 4) Routs and Rallies
1) MOVEMENT
Playser sequentially move their Units,
with no corner exceeding the total distance rolled in inches.
1.
Class
1. Infantry move 1d5+2
2.
Class
2. Warband, Skirmishers move 2d5+2
3.
Class
3. Cavalry move
3d5+2
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. There’s no game difference for a “column” as
the warriors are just flowing through a gap or along a road.
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 movement effect. Defensive
bonus when inside.
·
Hills. Area.
No movement effect. “Uphill” must
be defined by center point, crest or plateau.
Defensive bonus when fighting from
uphill.
·
Woods, Marsh. Area. Only Skirmishers and Raiders may enter. Defensive bonus when inside.
·
Lakes.
Area, impassible.
·
Rivers.
Linear, impassible. Any Unit may cross at a bridge, a ford, or if
shallow.
·
Walls, Gullies. Linear. No movement effect but
defensive bonus.
·
Roads. Linear. Units get a 3” bonus moving
entirely on a road, neither Charging nor Turning.
Interpenetration
Only by Skirmishers and any Unit, and
vice-versa.
Turning
Units Turn by rotating on their center
or center front up to 180°. Turns are not movement and not
measured.
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 Unit(s)
that are not on its front facing may face one of the Unit(s) with its front. 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 Flank or Rear Facing 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’s Front Facing to the center of any 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 fully
aligned 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!
Moving Shots
Units with javelins may perform a
Moving Shot in their Movement Phase, either before or after their move. Skirmish bows may not shoot if they move but
may if they only Turn [which is not considered movement].
2) SHOOTING
Skirmishers and javelin
Units may shoot at a single Target within range and within 45° off their front facing.
·
They must have a clear Line of Sight to an entire Facing.
·
Bows may not shoot if they moved during the Movement Phase – Turns are not
movement.
·
Javelins may not shoot if they performed a Moving Shot in the Movement
Phase.
·
Fulfilling the above restrictions, they may shoot into a melee.
·
Range is 12” for bows and 6” for javelins measured from the closest
points of the Units.
·
Bows and javelins have three shots.
Roll 1D5 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 defending woods, villages or
walls halve Hits [round up].
o Shieldwall. Infantry Units 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.
o Stacked Modifiers. The max defensive benefit any Unit may receive is ¼ Hits [1/2x1/2].
3) MELEE
One-Sided Melee.
Units only inflict casualties during their own player turn.
Roll 1D5 for the Unit,
only modifying with +1 for Warriors, -1 for javelin Skirmishers / javelin Cavalry,
and -2 for bow Skirmishers. The final
result is the Hits against the Target Unit, modified as follows:
·
Terrain. Units uphill or defending woods / river
bank / gully / wall 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.
·
Stacked Modifiers. The max defensive benefit any Unit may
receive is ¼ Hits [1/2x1/2].
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, for four total Units]. Units only fight melee
combats to their Front, attacking a single enemy Unit 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)
ROUTS AND RALLIES
·
Any Unit with 15 or more
Hits is removed from the table.
·
Any Unit eligible to rally
off Hits due to an Optional Rule does so now.
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 d5 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 d5 roll, rounding up, then add 1]
since he has a suitable holy relic, standard, great exhortations, etc.
·
RALLY VARIATION: Once a
Unit has taken 5 or more Hits, it may not rally to below 5 Hits. This
represents fatigue, fleeing, injuries and deaths unrecoverable during a short
battle.
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 players
dice rolls 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 d5 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 a three or four Unit army, roll a d5 halved [round
up]. As this shortens the game a lot,
you can roll TWO d5 and keep fighting if EITHER roll beats the number of Units
lost. You could also get a +1 to your
roll if your opponent has lost more Units, emboldening your force to greater
efforts
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.
IDEAS FOR UNIT TYPES
This is just to show how well the game mechanics can
represent historical types [or myths!].
The internal mechanics are more nuanced than they appear. Relative
values between fighting Units are very important.
Roman
Militia.
These are Infantry who melee at d5-1.
Roman
Cavalry.
These better-equipped cavalry on bigger horses shoot & melee at d5.
Arthur’s
Cavalry.
As above, but are d5+1. If “Roundtable
Knights”, let them fight d5+2.
Mounted
Servants. These fight with javelin but at
d5-2. If Arthur’s cavalry is in play,
they may also be upgraded. In this case,
a second Unit must be downgraded.
Irish
Nobles. These javelin Skirmishers fight
at d5.
Scots
Nobles.
These Determined Warband fight at d5+1 with 18 Hits.
Viking
Veterans.
After deployment choose to fight as Infantry OR Warriors.
Generally speaking, even a small change is bit in
this game. Give a single Unit a couple
of upgraded abilities and you will quickly find yourself with the super-unit
problem that plagues fantasy rules – so less is more!
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
Any shooting roll of a
natural ‘5’ results in the Unit having used the last of their missiles with
that shot. This replaces the three-shot
limit. Statistically, this will result in more shots by a Unit.
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.
ARMY
LISTS
Army lists - people love them,
people hate them. Bottom line is that they are as useful and beneficial
as gamers and game masters let them be. They certainly help newbies get
started with a game, a benefit that cannot be underestimated in a fast-play set
that will likely attract newer players. The trick is to not let building
killer lists become the game’s main strategy. Altho optimizing a list is
OK, the list needs to typify the warriors of the time, not be some strange
amalgamation of fantasy and competitiveness.
Historical context is somewhat
absent from the force matrix on p. 64 of Neil Thomas "One - Hour
Wargames". It's worth noting that he has d6+2 Warband as 0, 1 or 2 Units
max in a force based upon random rolling [you can’t pick the force] and an Infantry
norm of 3-4 Units out of six. In my blog
posts, I have been invading Strathclyde with a force of five Warband and a
Skirmisher, which probably explains some of the problems I've had fending them
off! Ergo, here's some lists that are closer to the RAW for those who
want to try them out for pickup or historical match-ups, but with a bit more
historicity.
Points and Unit values are not a part of the
matrix as they are unnecessary. I did
design a cost matrix of Unit abilities, and basically found that they are all
about the same in value, strengths and weaknesses. Certainly in some scenarios certain Units are
more valuable than others. Over the
course of a small campaign or series of battles, it should even out.
Design notes for these
lists. I've toned down
Warband from +2 attack to +1. Overall, they were a bit overpowered usually
overcoming even the solid Infantry Units in a straight fight. This is
balanced by allowing any list to have a Unit upgraded by +1 and allowing
Personalities. Thus the NT result is obtained, but we’ve some historical troop
types that can be deployed in larger numbers. Using their speed, Warband
can still often get onto a flank, especially if they pick good Skirmishers as
options – Skirmish Units are essential. Preventing
super-units nor super-armies, a sin to which most gamers are prone.
Also, I've switched the
definitions to d5 average dice from the original NT d6, as the swing of results
was a bit too extreme - it was often more important than good tactical play. All Units above the underline are
required. All shooting has a 3-shot limit or optional ammo supply rule in
effect - part of the Dark Ages supply and organization problem. If you
want unlimited ammo, go get yourself civilized!
Unit Definitions
Warriors are Warband who
attack at d5+1 and have same terrain limits as Infantry
Raiders are Warband who attack
at d5 and can enter terrain like Skirmishers
Cavalry and Infantry
attack at d5
Cavalry, javelins and
Skirmish, javelins attack at d5-1
Skirmishers, bows attack
at d5-2
Late Dark Age / Early
Medieval Britain Armies
There are six Units in
every army list. Most start with 3 -4 of the six being Infantry.
Then they can round off their force with additional required Units and at
least one choice. They are directly based upon the force matrix on p.64 of the
1HW book that I've fit into likely historical counterparts. However, you
can always use Allies or rename a list if you feel it represents your
understanding of the history better!
As the scale of the game
is approximately 1/10, most of these little "nations" and their
warlords would be hard-pressed to raise more than a few hundred specialty
warrior types on their own, altho all would have some sort of full-time followers
- the richer and more famous the patron, the more warriors he'd have in his
personal household. These lists are meant to represent a "typical"
force for this sort of common, small-scale fight of 400-700 men on a side.
This is big enough to really make trouble and steal a lot of stuff, but
small enough to move quickly and live off the land. Probably this would be 95% of the fighting a
warrior would do in his life. A large
battle with several thousand men was an event a typical warrior might only see
once or twice!
Variations for All
Armies
o Upgrades. One Unit made Household [+1 to D5 attack] OR Determined [18 Hits
before routing], AND,
o Downgrades. One Unit made Levy [-1 to D5 attack], OR Reluctant [12 Hits then
routing]
Units may only get one change,
and cannot be upgraded past +2, or downgraded past -2. Units in italics may not be
changed. Each list may select ONE upgrade
and MUST then select a downgrade, also.
Allied Forces
You may field 1-3 Units as
an Allied force from another list’s required Units.
- If 1-2
Units, then if a natural '2' is rolled for Movement it will
not move while the leaders debate what's in their best interest.
- If 3
Units, a Personality may be taken for the Allies, in which
case they will not need to roll as in #2 above. This Personality
counts against any total Personality limit chosen by the players for the
battle.
- Personalities
may only affect or attach to Units of their own list, Host or Allied.
