Thursday 21 February 2019

New Project 6mm DBA (Version 3) Biblical Armies for Kadesh

First yea seek inspiration (see below, Osprey Kadesh [Qadesh] Campaign book and The Penguin Atlas of Ancient History - Hittite v Egyptian):


Find yea a source of synergy, the 'new' DBA Version 3.0 rule-set (see below, something I have already played with - following the lineage of Version 1 [a great new idea in wargaming], Version 2 [expansion and the increasing sad rules lawyer interpretation of cheesy whims and wins (competition wargamers)] to Version 3 [which seems to be a strong shot of antibiotics killing most of the "cheese culture" that formed around DBA] IMHO - and I can be as wrong as much as the next man):


Use the unintentionally(?) acquired 'new' [for me at least] 6mm Ancient Biblical [again a new buzz] armies. These were sensibly bought as a 'pair' of antagonists from Rapier Miniatures. These small 'army pack' were densely packed into a (re-utilised) Business Card container fot for a small Warmaster OoB which is more than adequate for the required DBA armies (see below, historical "pairs" come highly recommended in the preface and notes in the body of the rules):


In addition, seeing as this was my second "comprehensive read" through of the rules I tried a first stab at XCON'ing (aka .. expert content - Att/Def v Foot/Mounted, Move Good=Rough/Bad and 'Specials' such as any 'quick kill' situations) for each troop's characteristics on its base. This is the basis for a specific Hittite QRS [Quick Reference Sheet] (see below, note I used the larger 60mm base width usually associated with 25/28mm figures so I could put more representative quantity on each base, Psiloi will look thin while 'solid' bodies of troops had more depth to them):


The secret key to success is to keep doing a little bit at a time and before you know it your first 6mm DBA Army has been painted (see below, in haste I chose to glue the small figures to a base and paint around them. The up side of this it made the terrain basing easier [PVA-Glue, Sand, base wash in Anita's Acrylic Artist paint watered down then highlighted using Games Workshop's special gel dry-brushing (white) paint]):


I seemed to get away with this as the Hittite army (apart from one base of Hoard [7Hd] is a "fast" army in that the Pike [3Pk] and Auxilia [3Ax] are 'gappy'. In short I got away with it, the New Kingdom Egyptian on the other hand are more "dense" (in the formation sense of the word - aka in DBA 3 language are "solid"). Basing wise I decided to (roughly) use the following formula: 15mm or 28mm number of figures [as per the rulebook] "times by four" (barring the Chariots where "what would fit on the base" dictated the number). For the Imperial Hittites this gave me:

  • 2Ps: Psiloi = 8 Figures
  • 3Ax: Fast Auxilia = 12 Figures
  • 3Pk: Fast Pike = 12 Figures
  • 7Hd: Solid Hoard = 28 Figures
  • LCh: Light Chariot = 2 Chariots [2 Men in Each]
  • HCh: Heavy Chariot = 3 Chariots [3 Men in Each] 
  • Cmp: Camp = 8 Figures
  • Gar: Garrison = 8 Figures

The hope was to be much more suggestive of what the troops were capable of. It therefore comes as no surprise that Psiloi "look weak" and would be likely to run away from the likes of 'Spear' and 'Pike' - who in turn would could not catch them, being slower moving all their "mass". The plan is to keep this consistent with the New Kingdom Egyptians barring a few officers marshalling their serried ranks if "bows".

Notes: Interesting Links -
http://www.camrea.org/tag/kadesh/

5 comments:

Trebian said...

I have Baccus 6mm Egyptians and Hittite armies, although they're in need of some TLC as they got plundered to make some game parts.

You should (must?) add the Society of Ancients "Call it Qids" to your list of reading materials. In addition to being a spiffing game the supporting article, illustrations and maps are the best you can get on the battle and the campaign (for example the maps include ALL the named places in the articles). It was written by Ian Lowell, Hittite expert par excellence. Seriously, it is really good, marred only by the printer stapling the middle page spread in the wrong way round (which is easily corrected).

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Cheers Trebian I will have to check that out
Much Appreciated

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Couldn't resist it
It is on the way ;)

L'Empereur said...

DBA in 6mm is great!
:-)

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Cheers Zoom13
I hope to have my first battle soon ;)

I like the look and feel of the number of figures on the bases