Saturday 2 August 2014

DBMM: The Die is cast

Following my recent DBMM AAR postings, with clear head and happy heart I can make the following announcement (to myself) ...

After countless sleepless nights lost in deep, deep thought (or should I say months/years stemming back to my first encounter with DBA in 1994) about the "DBx family of rules" I have come to a monumental, nay strategic decision. Well monumental for me at least and strategic because it means no rebasing but still allowing maximum enjoyment in the ancient period of the Wargaming hobby ;)

DBMM (version 2) is  now my official poison of choice. (With the caveat that the figures based for these rules can still be used "with the aid of sabots" for Impetus)

So DBM is dead for me but in all honesty has been for some time (the phrase cutting my losses seems apt here). It was only ever a competition orientated system (IMHO) and evolved slowly into a Byzantine geometry form of participation art rather than a vehicle for historical gaming.

DBA was and still is a seductive alternative (or rather was) but the pragmatics of both learning two 'similar but different' rule systems and remembering the rule differences when playing is just self-defeating. It also has the famous "rule of twelve" that artificially gives battles of "even sized" armies. The smaller DBMM 100, DBMM 200 allows an army to slowly grow in size :)

Please note the above is just a personal choice ;)


4 comments:

Dan said...

I started wargaming on DBM, I used to watch in horror as a medieval french knight army would smash through my Romans like a hot knife through butter, how different is DBMM?

Steve said...

DBMM is also my game of choice. It's the only game I've come across where you can use troop types as they were intended.
To answer Dan's question (sort of) my Romans made short work of 4 elements of Pyrrhic knights last week, isolate them and surround them and a bit of luck with the dice!
Cheers

Doug said...

Welcome to the dark side. Love the quirky nature of DBMM where nothing ever seems to quite go as you plan.

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Dan, I think that Steve63 answered it far better than I can, I am along the "committment curve" but need many more hours under the belt yet to give any sort of informative advice

At least it has given my ancient armies another least of life

'Dark side Doug', quirky is far better than competitive competition quibbles over billimetres