1

Authors

• Aitor Jiménez Yañez: Writing, art and design.

• Jesús Guardia: Writing.

Miniatures

• Jesús Guardia: Spartans (Xyston, AB).

• Daniel Monreal: Medieval Navarrese (Legio Heroica).

• Javier Guinda: Gauls (Essex).

• Aitor Jiménez Yañez: Seleucids (Xyston, Forged in Battle), Clas-

sical Greeks (Xyston, AB), Parthians (Xyston), Late Medieval French
(Legio Heroica), Sengoku Samurai (Baccus).

Special Thanks

• La Historia en Guerra, Wargame group from Navarre, Spain.

• Phil Barker and the Wargames Resarch group, which created the
wonderful De Bellis Antiquitatis rules.

• Dieter Steffman, for his Cardinal and Olde English fonts which
decorate the titles, released under OFL.

• Frederic Goudy, who in 1913 designed the Cloister Initialen

fonts, from which the initials in this document are derived.

• Igino Marini, for his revival of the John Fell fonts designed in
XVIIth, released under OFL.

2
 INDEX

Introduction4
Preparation10
Playing16
Resolving Battles 24
Adapting The Rules 32
Peloponnesian War 36

Version: 1.0.1
2019/08/18

3
 INTRODUCTION

argaming is the winner. De Bellis An-

usually fo-
cused on
battles. Two
armies find
themselves on a proper bat-
tleground, they have bal-
anced numbers and know
their enemy. The players,
representing some kind of
Commander in Chief (CiC),
start giving orders with a
crude abstraction of a com-
mand system. Some kind of
morale or objective decide
tiquitatis (DBA) is no ex-
ception: It’s a surprisingly
simple ruleset in which both
players put two armies, each
of twelve units, and they
fight to the death on the
battlefield.
However, as far as real-
ity goes, this is a pretty poor
representation of how battles
exist, especially in ancient
warfare. Balanced battles are
rare in historical context, and

Purple dye was one of the foremost signs of wealth in antiquity: to extract a single gram
of tyrian purple, you need thousands of sea snails.

4
 The differences between terrain elements in the game can be massive.

two big armies don’t just ca- probably the kind of decisive
sually meet in the afternoon battles that DBA represents
after some tea. The terrain better. Both sides have a bal-
is neither a symmetric and anced army, both sides have
balanced setup nor a weird pros and cons, and neither
combination of mountains uses weird terrain setups.
and other terrain designed
to favour the defender while However, if we go with
the difference of troops,
the attacker strolls into the
trap (although that can hap-battles like Gaugamela or
pen in some ambushes). Cunaxa, even Carrhae, are
In DBA basically impossible to
however, represent fairly. Sure,
the opposite you can just say that
usually occurs. the units of one side
are bigger than oth-
First, by having ers, but there’s not
both players use ex- much support for
actly 12 units, there it in the rules, and
is not much room it wouldn’t be rep-
for representing bat- resented in the bat-
tles with unbalanced num- tlefield. Of course, for set
bers. Battles like Zama are battles, you can just decide a

5
 scale and map it and having
a side with more bases than
the others, but for random
battles, is hard to decide how
to do this.
Furthermore, the amount
of terrain gets really crazy in
DBA 2.2. The defender has
absolute control of the bat-
tlefield, both the size of ter-
rain features and the amount,
with the rules being fairly
light on restrictions. On the
The heavily armored Parthian cata-
phracts proved to be a formidable enemy,
even for the Seleucids.
6
other hand, the attacker only
has a 50% chance of deciding
where to deploy. Couple this
with the aggresiveness rules
and this makes some armies
that essentially are, almost
always, defenders of a super
jungle forcing the enemies
to walk through hell. While
it’s fair that the attacker is
in a obvious disadvantage
(because, after all, it is in
the enemy’s territory) it can
also move in the campaign
and decide where to attack,
then present battle in a bet-
ter position and, if the ene-
my wants to press them, they
would become the attackers.
A good example is the bat-
tle of Hydaspes. Alexander
is invading India, and Porus
prepares to defend. When
Alexander finds the river, he
sees that the river is deep and
would suffer a huge amount
of casualties if he decides to
cross. The macedonian army
moves along the river, look-
ing for a better position, and
while the army of Porus fol-
lows them, they cannot do
much about it. Finally, Alex-
ander finds a crossing 30km
upwards from his camp. Part
of the main army was left
with Craterus for a pincer
attack which eventually re-
sulted in the famous victory.
Moving this to DBA we
find ourselves with Alexan-
der Imperial (4 Agressive-
ness), against Classical In-
dian (0 Aggresiveness). Most
of the time Alexander will
attack, therefore the Indian
player will prepare a massive
jungle, totally unsuitable for
The most important soldier of a Greek army was the hoplite. While their origins are still
debated, by the classical era they have earned a fearsome reputation.
the Companion cavalry and
the phalanx, and they will get
shot down by arrows contin-
uously. The problem is not
as much the balance (Alex-
ander was called “the Great”
because he won against all
odds), but the rather simplis-
tic representation.
Playing a campaign can al-
leviate some of those issues.
Campaigns are meant to
represent the elements that
are usually not represented
on wargame battles but are
usually key to war, like logis-
tics. Some campaign systems
can go further and delve into
7
 diplomacy, with multiple hard. No one wants to
players deciding al- be in a position of huge
liances, politics, technological dispar-
with internal em- ity with a lacking de-
pire management, mographic to boot.
etc. They can have Choosing the conflict
multiple games, they correctly is important,
deal with recovery and so is being some-
and they reward what flexible with the
players for think- numbers to ensure the
ing and preparing be- campaign can be both fun
fore the engangement. Of and engaging for the play-
course, they have limita- ers.
tions, especially campaigns
without umpires, and unless This is a campaign system
they are well balanced, it is which will allow to play sim-

Camps in DBA are a excellent way to make small dioramas or scenes that represent the
army. They don’t even have to be in the same scale, so you can be creative!

8
ple campaigns, in the spirit
of DBA: It’s abstact enough
to not require much prepa-
ration but you can customize
it in a way that every age or
geography is well defined;
it is possible to balance (or
unballance) it as much as you
want and, given a proper
mindset, can be enough to
add purpose and flavor to
the battles without having to
delve in simulations.

There’s many ways to play the campign, even if it was designed for DBA. For example,
you could use 12-people warbands in a small area, with villages and forest, and fight for
domination in skirmishes.

9
 PREPARATION

o play a cam- will soon discover that they

paign, you
need to think
first about the
era or setting
you want to represent, and
make a few decisions regard-
ing gameplay. Those deci-
sions are extremely impor-
tant and while you may be
tempted to say that they will
answered “on the road”, you
can carry the whole cam-
paign off the rails, by being
too long, too uninteresting,
too indecisive, or simply not
fun.
Those decisions come
from the following ques-
tions, and you should keep
your answers in mind while
reading the rest of the book.

Although the first maps appear in antiquity, they were not used as the military tool
it would later become. We can see Kleomenes struggling with the concept of map when
planning the fight against Persia, as told by Herodotos.

10
The Swiss resurrected the pike on european warfare, becoming one of the most feared
mercenaries on the continent. Their continuous victories, and the introduction of fire-
arms, started the pike&shot, the staple of reinassance warfare.

• How many players will solutely outplayed on the

participate? campaign?
• How long do we want • How much manage-
the campaign to be? ment do you want to have
on the campaign itself?
• What’s the amount of
DBA games that we can • Is there going to be
play per month? a designated umpire to
manage the campaign?
• How much should the
campaign affect the games • How detailed and pre-
themselves? Can you have cise to the setting must be
DBA games totally lop- the campaign?
sided because they got ab-
Those questions are in es-
sence the most important

11
 decisions when it comes for However, after the rules
preparing a campaign. The you will also find a small
following text references a chapter dedicated to altering
campaign for two players, the rules in order to adapt the
playing for a few months game to your decisions. Fur-
with 2-3 games per month, thermore, in the end of this
for a total of 10-15 games book you will find a example
before conclusion. There’s of a Peloponnese campaign.
no umpire, the management
is very light and the system
serves as an excuse for mostly
balanced matchups. Setting-
wise, it’s fairly abstract, and
each campaign should add
flavor with a couple of simple
rules.

Musicians are important both for morale and for relaying orders to troops.

12
 Creating a map
The first step is to create
the map. This is the most im-
portant element on the cam-
paign and is defined mostly
by the setting. However, it
will dictate which terrain
you must place in the battles,
how much it takes to have
battles, how easy it is to have
reinforcements, how irrepa-
rable is the damage in case of
a defeat... etc.
Each square has a terrain,
which is representative of
that general area. Troops
move between nodes and
when they are adjacent to
each other, they may fight.
Possible terrains for a map
are: Forest, Hills, Moun-
tains (or Steep Hills), Arid
or Rocky terrain, Swamps,
Dunes and Lakes. They can
also be empty, representing
plains.

The map itself is just a A map should be around

bunch of squares (or nodes). 20x20 nodes, but of course,
this will change
depending on
the campaign,
players, length,
etc.

Unless it’s
strictly nec-
essary for the
setting, there
Example of terrain surrounding Sparta. should not be
The city is shows the faction symbol for more than 2
legibility, and the different terrain types elements of the same
use a specific style to be easily differenti-
ated.
type in any area of 2x2 nodes.

13
 This ensures that when play- them (which, depending on
ing DBA games in those ar- the theme, may be fair!).
eas, there’s enough variety
and does not limit armies.
Selecting sides
Finally, draw rivers be-
tween the nodes, on the
Once you know the play-
ers factions, start putting
borders. Rivers will act as
cities. A city can only be put
a deterrent for attacking
in nodes that do not have
forces and may even limit
any kind of terrain, only in
movement of armies, so you
plains. They can of course,
should only put those who
border a river.
are significant enough. Too
many rivers can slow the
If you are not selecting
campaign to a crawl or en-
the cities using a stablished
courage entrenching behind
setting, the players should

The Argives find themselves surrounded! In this example, the Lakedemonian and the
Korinthian are joining forces, and they are expecting reinforcements from Elis. How-
ever, the Athenian fleet is approaching to help.

14
put the cities in alternating Finally, each
steps. It’s not recommended city must have
to have more than 5 cities un- an associated
less you are planning to have army, each of
a long campaign. After you them with 12
have finished putting cities, troops, as usual
name one as the capital. It’s using the DBA
the objective of the cam- army rules.
paign, so choose carefully!

Elephants were one of the great machines of war in antiquity. Seleucus I Nicator even
exchanged part of his territory for 500 indian elephants, which would later become a key
part in the Battle of Ipsus.

15
 PLAYING

he most im- change and years go by. Dur-

portant con- ing those turns the armies
cept for will move around, gathering
playing the troops if needed, battling
campaign is their enemies and conquer-
that the game is divided in ing enemy cities. The cam-
turns. Each turn represents paign is over once a capital
a predetermined amount of is under siege by its enemies.
time. As time passes, seasons This is not an easy task, and

The parthians, a tribe that ended up as a satrapy under the Persians, grew into a mas-
sive empire when the Persians were defeated by Alexander the Great and the Seleucids
started to wane from the fighting.

16
failing to do so may be the culation depends on how
end of the campaign, so be much time passes per turn
careful! in your campaign, but as an
example, let’s say that a turn
Each turn is divided in is 3 months, therefore, a sea-
multiple phases, which also son passes with each turn. If
have to be performed in or- the last turn was Winter, this
der. Note that the phases of turn will be Spring, and the
each turn are very short with next will be Summer.
the exception of the Order
phase, where the actual ac-
tion happens. Omens Phase
If
a year has passed be-
Seasons Phase tween the last turn and the
current one, roll a dice and
When starting a turn, you check the Omens table. Do
have to calculate the season, not roll on the first year of
which can have some effects the campaign.
on the campaign. This cal-

S eason E ffect
Winter Cannot pass through mountains. Cannot
start battles. Only a single Recruit order
can be given only once per army this season.
Spring Rivers cost all movement to cross.

Summer No effect

Autumn No effect
The season effects can provide natural defenses and can dictate the pace of a succesful
offsensive.

17
 R esult E ffect
1,2,3 Nothing happens

4,5 Mild winter: this year’s Winter and Spring have

no effect
6 Plague: Select a city randomly. The army cor-
responding to that citi will not be able to per-
form Raise or Recruit orders this year.
The Omens table will give each year a small but unpredictable effect, so the armies can-
not always have the safety of winter.

Orders phase With 4 players, the rank-

Start by throwing a D6
dice. The player who obtains
the highest result has the
initiative. If there is more,
the number of the dice
stablishes a ranking or-
der. In case of a draw, it
goes to the player that
didn’t have the initia-
tive the last turn.
For example, with
two players, if both
obtain a 5, it will alter-
nate to the player who didn’t
have the alternative last turn.
ing is mantained to each oth-
er. Let´s say Aristophanes,
Basileios, Cassandra and
Demetrios, throw the dice
and obtain a 4, 2, 3, and 6 re-
spectively. The last play-
er, Demetrios, obtained
a 6, thereforeit will play
first. After Demetrios’
turn, Aristophanes will
play his turn, as he
rolled a 4. After
him, Cassandra
will play and fi-
nally Basileios, who
obtained the lowest result,
a 2. In summary, the or-
der is: Demtrios (6), Aris-

18
tophanes(4), Cassandra (3), er armies that have not yet
Basileios (2). received any order, and per-
forms the order. The process
In the next round, they is repeated until every army
get a 3, 5, 3, and 4. Aristo- of every player has received
phanes and Cassandra have an order.
obtained the same number.
Basileios has the highest re- The possible orders are:
sult, so it plays first. After Move, Hold, Recruit and
him comes Demetrios, with Raise. Each order is execut-
a 4. And finally, since Aristo- ed in the moment they are
phanes had the iniative over given, and all of their effects
Cassandra last turn, this time resolved before the next
she will play before him. So player gives his order.
the order is: Basileios (5),
Demetrios (4), Cassandra (3),
Aristophanes (3).

Once the initiative order

has been stablished, the play-
er with the biggest initiative
selects one of his armies and
gives it an order. Then the
next player will select one
of his armies, and then the
next player, until all players
have given an order to one of
their armies.

After that, the first player Properly using terrain will be key to any
chooses again one of his oth- victory.

19
 The Gauls managed to give a lot of trouble thanks to the clever use of terrain to perform
ambushes, and making sure the Roman logistics were under constant threat.

Move If after moving, it has an

The army moves to an ad-
jacent node. They can move
just to the 4 adjacent nodes
with a full border in be-
tween; diagonal nodes are
not an option for the move-
ment of an army. An army is
able to perform this order
only if it has a general (and
therefore, and for obvious
reasons, cannot be given to
destroyed armies).
enemy army in a node ad-
jacent to them, even diago-
nally, it can declare a battle
against that army. The com-
bat is resolved in that mo-
ment, as detailed in the Re-
solving battles section.
If there are no armies at 3
nodes distance, including di-
agonals, and the army is not
traversing mountains nor
forest nor rivers nor any kind
of difficult terrain, they can

20
do a forced march and move they move into a non-sea
one extra node with the same node, they disembark and
order. act as a normal army.

If when moving, it ends up

in a sea node, it transforms to Hold
a fleet at the end of the move-
ment. Fleets can move two
The army does nothing
this turn.
nodes instead of one. A fleet
can make a forced march in
the same way the armies do: Recruit
it can move one extra node.
Furthermore, fleets can sub- With this order, the gen-
stitute two of their move- eral requests reinforcements.
ment to move only once but You can recover up to two
in diagonal. However, once DBA bases. You don’t have

The Spartan army was the most feared army in the Greek world. Their society created
a militaristic-mind leisure class, and all their culture, laws and politics had always
war in mind.

21
 to recruit exactly the same it cannot be given if the city
bases as the ones you lost, this army belongs is under
but you should follow what- the effects of the Plague.
ever restriction your army
has. For example, if your
only casualty is a Bd, and Raise
your army rules say that you
can use a Bd or Kn, you will
If the army has been de-
stroyed, with this order it can
be able to recruit either a Bd
appear again, but with some
or a Kn, but not an El.
restrictions. This order can
only be given to destroyed
If the army has lost the
armies and only in the first
general, in addition to re-
turn of the year.
cover troops, the army can
make one of the troops a
They will appear on their
general. If possible, the
own city, if it’s controlled
new general must be of the
by their side. In that case,
same troop type as it was
it will only appear with
originally. That means if
half of the army, 6 troops,
the general was a 3Kn ini-
one of them being the
tially, and it died, the new
general. The next
general must be another 3Kn
turn, the army will
if there is one in the army.
be able to re-
The general can only change
ceive orders
once the original general has
normally.
died.
However,
This order cannot be giv-
if their city is
en to destroyed armies. In
controlled by
Winter, it can be given only
the enemy,
once per army. Furthermore,

22
the leftovers of the army and
all loyal troops will seek ref-
uge in the capital. The army
will spawn there with all 12
bases, but MUST remain
there. The only valid orders
for that army in the future are
Hold (note that they cannot
raise again, and all casualties
are definitive!). This is also
the only
way there
can be
more than
one army
in the same
node.
Victory phase
After all orders have been
resolved, before the turn
ends, check if any player has
their capital conquered. In
that case, he loses and the
game ends for him, until
there’s only one player left
(or more if they are allied).
A player can also decide to
surrender in this phase if he
sees that his position is com-
pletely lost (for example, if
most of their armies have
been defeated and cannot
muster enough troops to as-
sault the enemy capital).

Armies that are mostly cavalry can move extremely quickly, as long as the terrain can
support them.

23
 RESOLVING
BATTLES

Army selection There is an additional rule

for selecting armies: If both
The first step in a battle sides have the additional
is determining which troops support of 2 or more armies,
are going to participate. To the battle will instead be a
do so, the defender chooses Big DBA, with 3 armies of
a 4-node square, in which each side, plus additional re-
the attacker army must be inforcement if existing.
contained, and at least one
enemy army, which will be
the defender. There may be
more than one valid square!
The defender may use to his
advantage.

Even if a side has two or

even three armies in the
square, those will count as
reinforcement. Addition-
ally, armies that are adjacent
to the square, and not in the In DBA, there is no enemy as terrifying
sea, may also support. as the dreaded 1-6, which has crushed
many overconfident generals!

24
 When fighting, the army
uses all it’s troops (initially,
12), plus 2 additional ones
from each supporting army,
up to a total of 4. This means
a maximum of 16 troops on a
standard DBA battle, and up
to 40 in a Big DBA. The re-
inforcements troops may be
any troop in the army that is
reinforcing, except the gen-
eral.
However, the reinforce-
ments will not deploy like
the army as usual, but in-
stead, will appear using the
disembark rules starting
from turn 6. From that turn
onwards, throw a die and add
the current turn number. If
the result is 10 or more, they
will deploy. If the reinforce-
ments are actually disem-
barking, that is, they come
from a fleet or have disem-
barked this turn, they will
deploy in the coast as usual.
However, on any other case,
they will appear on the edge
corresponding with their
side on the campaign map.
If before starting the bat-
tle one of the sides has 4 or
more troops than the oppo-
nent, that side wins automat-
ically. The loser will suffer

Parthians used camels carrying arrows when fighting against the Romans in Carrhae.
The Parthian light cavalry could keep shooting the Romans that were stuck in a square
formation, and if they ran out of ammo, they could use the camels instead of going back
to a supply point.

25
 The Macedonian pikes were the dawn of a new era in Greek warfare, and the new
phalanxes conquered Hellas without much opposition. They would become the staples of
western warfare until the Romans started using more flexible formations.

4 automatic casualties (the 1D6, and +1 if their side has

loser chooses which ones)
and the winner 1 (the win-
ner chooses). Loses assigned
this way must always priorize
the main army, not the rein-
forcements.
more troops (note that only
fleets support fleets). The
winner loses 2 troops (the
winner chooses which ones)
and the loser 4 troops (the
loser chooses which ones).

However if the battle hap- Finally, if the battle in-

pens on the sea, unless you volves attacking the enemy
are planning to use a naval capital, the defender may
rulebook, each side throws a choose to hide inside, and

26
only if there’s at least 3 at-
tacker armies the combat
may happen.
Te r r a i n
The four nodes of the
square chosen for the battle
are a general representation
of the terrain of the area.
Therefore, when the de-
fender chooses ele-
ments, each quadrant
must have one of the
terrain elements rep-
resented on the map
(and not others). Fur-
thermore, the follow-
ing rules also define
the possible terrain:
• Waterway: If
one of the 8 lateral
elements is in contact
with the sea, or if one
of the 4 quadrants is
sea, the battle must
contain a coast. The coast
must be placed in the cor-
responding quadrant (if
more than one is relevant,
the defender chooses).
Note that there can not be
more than one waterway.
• Roads: If the battle
square contains 3 or 4 bad
going or impassable ter-
rain element, there will
not be a road. If there’s 2,
the defender may choose
to include a road. If there
are 1 or no bad going or
impassable terrain, there
must be a road.
• River: If there’s a riv-
er crossing the battle
square, or if the
attacker has just
crossed a river
to attack, the
defender must
add a river.
After deploy-
ment, throw a
dice, with 1,2,3
the river is shal-
low, and is consid-
ered bad going just as a
steep hill (therefore, no
penalties for light troops),
27
 offering no defense aid, deploy on the North. How-
and with 4,5,6 it is consid- ever, if the defender has the
ered slow going, and adds edges Sotuh and East, the
the defense bonus. attacker can choose between
North and West. On that
• BUA: If any of the
case, he selects a preferred
battle nodes involves a
side and throws a 1D6. With
city, throw a dice. With a
a 3+, he will deploy there,
4+, the defender may put a
with a 1-2, he will deploy on
BUA in the corresponding
the other edge.
quadrant, if he desires.
Note that defender choos- Fleets that disembarked
es the exact position in this battle are considered
and size of the ter- to be littoral, and thus,
rain elements. can reserve elements.
This does not apply
When the at- to reinforcements.
tacker wants to
choose his edge,
first he calculates the Retreat
edges of his army After the battle
relative to the is finished,
campaign map. each side
For example, annotates
North and which loses
West. Then, he it had. Those
removes any edge that troops will not
belongs for the defender. be available for future bat-
For example, if the defend- tles, unless the army recovers
er has the edges West and troops.
South, the attacker can only

28
 If after accounting for the
loses, the army has 6 bases or
less, that army is destroyed.
Otherwise, the army must
move to any node, adjacent
to battle square, away from
the battle. It cannot retreat
to a sea node unless it was
already a fleet, or if it was a
fleet disembarking in this
battle. Furthermore, it can-
not retreat to a node that is
occupied by an enemy, or a
Greek architecture featured polychromy since the Archaic period, but was lost with the
pass of time.
node adjacent to one occu-
pied by an enemy. If it can-
not retreat, it will be consid-
ered destroyed.
Additionally, if one of the
armies involved has lost the
camp, in the next turn the
only order it can receive is
Hold, because the troops
are busy foraging new sup-
plies and getting everything
ready again.
29
 Complete example of a Move order resulting in a battle. First, the
Lakedemonian league player decides to give the Move order to the
Spartan army, from C3 to C2, traversing mountains of Achaea.
Seeing that he is adjacent to the Athenian army in C1, he decides to
declare battle.
The Athenian player, acting as the defender, must choose a 4-node
square in which the battle will take place. He has two options, the
red one and the blue one: both contain the fighting armies. If the
Athenian army was located in D1, there would be no options, and
they would fight in the blue square. The Athenian decides for the
blue option: in it, the Spartan army will have the support of the
Korinthian army. However, if the Athenian had decided to use the
red square, the Spartan would had both the Elis and the Korin-
thian army providing reinforcements!
Before the battle preparations begin, both players calculate their
armies and decide reinforcements. The Athenian army contains 12
units, the Spartan 11, and Korinth decides to provide a cavalry and
a psiloi unit as reinforcements. He will have up to 13 units on the
battlefield, but two of them will appear later on.

30
The battle starts with the terrain setup. The defender, using the
blue square as reference, he must place a forest on the northeast
quadrant, and a steep hill/mountain on the southwestern. Further-
more, since there’s only 2 bad going terrain elements, he may choose
to place a road. He decides not to, since it will help the lakedemo-
nian reinforcements from Korinth.
When all terrain is ready, the Spartan army decides its approach
on the battlefield. It cannot attack neither from the north or the
west, since those sides are covered by the defending Athenians. He
prefers having the mountains on his left, therefore, he assigns 1-2
to the east, and 3+ to the south. He throws a dice and obtains a 2.
Therefore, the Athenian army will begin deploying on the west, and
then the Spartans on the east.
After the game starts, and the Spartan player is on his 6th turn,
he throws a dice and adds 6. He gets a 2, for a total of 8. The re-
inforcements from Korinth haven’t arrived yet. Another turn goes.
He gets a 3, and since the Spartan is now on his 7th turn, the re-
inforcements from Korinth deploy on the eastern side, just like in a
disembarkment.

The Korinthian cavalry rush from behind the Spartan to help secure the flank.

31
 ADAPTING
THE RULES
ost of the
rules so far
are about a
specific type
of campaign,
with two players fighting
for a capital. However, some
eras or players may want to
explore some other options.
To account for this, this
manual contains several ideas
for common issues that may
arise.
Multiplayer games
If all the players can be
divided in two factions, no
further changes are needed,
as long as the number of
armies is more or less bal-
anced. Most wars can in-
deed be represented this
32
way. However, if you want
to introduce the possibility
of more than two sides, you
only need one change:
- After an army has an or-
der to move and declares an
attack on a specific army,
the rest of the players de-
cide which side they want to
reinforce in order of initia-
tive. The reinforcing player
is the one that decides which
troops will be sent as rein-
forcement.
To t h e d e a t h
Normally, if a player sieg-
es the enemy capital but fails
two times, the game ends in
a draw. This represent the
troops losing heart in the
 The Sengoku Jidai is a excellent setting for a campaign. With multiple clans fighting a
total war for the control of Japan, there’s plenty of options for a multiplayer game too,
especially the Sekigahara campaign, with evenly matched forces divided in two sepa-
rated groups and several big clans that could represent the different armies.
long siege, and even with are usually limited to Hold
all their power they cannot order, can now move freely
break the enemy. This means and are considered now reg-
that the game ends up in a ular armies.
draw. However, if the players
want a very long campaign, This essentially means that
they can ignore this rule, and the campaign is “resetted”.
the game will last until the The defender still has a dis-
enemy capital is conquered. advantage in position, but if
they can consistently defeat
When someone loses two the enemy they can push him
times against the capital, the back and siege them, includ-
defenders can choose to sally ing retaking the cities.
out. All dead armies, which

33
 Domination tier wars, where both sides
are fighting for the control
Instead of playing until of a region, but no side is
the conquest of the capital, commiting to fully conquer
each player adds a +1 for each the other. It’s also great if
city they have conquered. players do not have enough
When a player reaches cer- troops for a BigDBA.
tain number, he wins. This
represent campaigns where
stablishing dominance is
more important than a de-
cisive battle, and is specially
suited for multiplayer games.
Furthermore, it can ensure
that games do not drag too
much, even when a player has
a clear advantage.

Complete conquest
In this variation, the ob-
jective is simply to conquer
everything. However, in this
case, dead armies do not ap-
pear in the capital. Further-
more, the capital doesn’t
have any special role, and
there is no requirement for
a Big DBA to conquer them.
This would represent fron-
Agriculture was the most important
part of the Greek economy, and the
main activity for most citizens. This
also meant that razing became one of the
most important parts of Greek warfare.
When on campaign, the armies would
loot everything to sustain themselves
and to ensure the opposing polis had eco-
nomic troubles, not sustaining their own
military efforts.

34
 More random
events
The Omens phase is very
simple, but it can also be ex-
panded with many events
that can add variety to the
game.
• Bad supply: A random
army cannot use Raise this
turn.
• Treacherous paths: A
random army cannot move
this turn.
• Harsh winter: No army
can move this winter, and
Horsemen were not regarded highly in the Greek world early on, but they still featured
a key role. The legendary Xenophon used them to great effect during his march through
the Persian empire, and wrote two books about horsemanship and cavalry tactics during
his retirement.
armies outside cities can-
not recruit troops either.
• Stormy winds: Fleets
that move this turn lose
1D3 of their troops.
• Good winds: All fleets
can move one extra node.
• New recruits: A ran-
dom army that uses Raise
this turn will recover 1 ad-
ditional unit.
• Foreign mercenaries:
An army of each player
can use Raise this turn to
recruit a unit ignoring the
composition rules (swap-
ping if needed).
35
 PELOPPONESIAN
WAR

here’s no better troops and Athens the

other conflict better navy, they are both
that defined using hoplite warfare, so the
Greece on differences are much smaller
the Classical than cross continental wars,
era more than the Pelopon- like the Mongol invasions.
nesian War. After the minor Furthermore, it was a long
infighting in the Archaic war over the same land. All
age, and the wars against the of the conquest of Alexan-
much larger Persian empire, der happened over a smaller
the Greek states were more
prepared for war than ever,
and during nearly 30 years the
whole Greek world fought
in a war with continuous alli-
ance changes and large scale
military operations.

One of the reasons

this campaign is good for
wargaming is the relative
balance between both sides.
While Sparta obviously had

36
Map of the campign, showing the respective polis of each army, and their initial
strength. It’s easy to see that the Athenian player has a lot of easy access to the sea, and
that can be very useful if attempting to land on the peloponnese peninsula. However,
the lakedaimonians have their city very close together, and they can easily choke Argos if
they are fast. The control for the isthmus of Korinth is crucial for both players.

timeframe, over a much, exander is still in Syria? No

much larger land, and would such problems here.
be difficult to justify multiple
factions. What would be the Finally, and one of the
role of the indians, while Al- most important points, is

37
 that it’s a turning point on • Thessaly, with city La-
history, with the democratic rissa.
Athens falling from a hege-
• Argos, with city Argos.
monic position against the
martial-minded Spartans, • Acarniana, with city
and it’s filled with important Stratos.
figures like Perikles, Alkibi-
ades, Brasidas, and Lysander. The peloponnesian league
• Sparta, with city Sparta
Belligerents (capital).
The delian league • Elis, with city Elis.

• Athens, with city Ath- • Corinth, with city

ens (capital). Corinth.

• Euboea, with city Cal- • Boetia, with city The-

cis. bes.

The Aspis is the most important weapon in Greek warfare, and the Greeks treated is as
such. Plenty of archaeological evidence show intricate design on the shields, with many
different themes, the most famous being the lambda in Spartan shields.

38
 • Etolia, with city Ther- In spartan tradition, one
mas. of the kings (in this case, Ar-
chidamus II) leads the army
Special rules personally and from the
front. Additionally, he was
Each turn is a month, accompanied by the hippeis,
with each season being three the spartan royal guard. This
months. is great for morale, therefore
he can add a +1 modifier to
The army of Athens and a combat in which he’s in-
Euboea have a +1 modifier to volved once per battle, just
naval combat, to represent like in a Big DBA. He can do
the much better crews and so twice in a Big DBA.
naval expertise on the sea.

Peltasts and psiloi are the main light infantry troops found in Greece. Capable of mov-
ing quickly in the rocky terrain, they were excellent explorers, could harash the enemy out
of battle and they could easily move out of danger from the slow and inflexible hoplite
phalanx.
The general Iphikrates, of the Athenian army, saw their potential and used them to
great effect in the battle of Lechaion, where a force of peltasts managed to break a Spar-
tan hoplite force.

39
 Before moving to the enemy, the hoplites sang the paean, a battle hymn, and just after
cont, they would shout war cries (alalagmos). Sometimes that was all needed to break
the enemy, as morale was the most important part of hoplite warfare.

Armies no limit on light infantry

troops. Also, the general
The armies must be com- can be an Ax or Ps, but they
posed by 1x4Sp*, are still limited by up to 2
7x4Sp, and a re- mounted troops.
mainder of 2LH,
3Cv, 3/4Ax, 2Ps and The Thessalian army
more 4Sp. There’s a does not have mounted re-
limit of a maximum strictions, and they can
of two cavalry and 2 change their 1x4Sp* for
of each of light in- a 1x3Cv* or a 2LH*.
fantry type.

Instead of Notes on the

7x4Sp, the Eto- adaptation
lian and Arcanian
troops are forced Despite that
to have 4x4Sp and, plenty of reasons
while they can get to play this cam-
more Sp, there is paign have been

40
outlined, this conflict campaign: in a year they
also presents multiple can manage 24 squares,
problems to represent which is almost all of
the conflict. Greece if they were
able to go on foot,
First, it’s long. on straight line and
Very, very long. This without opposition.
can be an advan- On the sea however,
tage, as seasons are they can manage,
a good way to add but considering the
variety to the game, speed on which
but it also means the Athenians at-
it’s difficult to prop- tacked Pylos and
erly scale the game: Sphacteria, it’s
Greece is not that big. still reduced. You
In fact, during the war, can increase the turns for
armies could march very far, each month, for example,
like the Brasidas expedition. with 2 turns per month, 24
This has been reduced in the turns per year. However this

Greek light infantry sometimes was attached to cavalry, running alongside them or even
grabbing the horse tail.

41
 While the phalanx combat is the center of the Greek battles, it’s often decided in the
flanks with avalry, or with light infantry supporting in key moments.
makes seasons overly long, Furthermore, and related
and you would need more to the naval problem, there
rules to represent the logis- are the expeditions. Both
tics, keeping the army fed, the Sicilian expedition and
etc. the battle for Amphipolis in
the north mean stretching a
There’s also the naval lot the map, and for one-off
problem, which is fairly ob- events.
vious. Naval battles played
a important part of Greek For these reasons, the
warfare, especially when campaign is mostly oriented
the Athenians realized they on the first part of the war,
could not match the Spartans before the Peace of Nicias,
on land. During a good por- although the game can of
tion of the war, the role was course change or drag on.
mostly about transportation, Playing normally, this cam-
but in the end, the last battle paign will last around 4 to 6
of the war was a naval one, years, depending on the ag-
Aegospotami. gresiveness of the players.

42
43