To give the DBN rules their initial outing, the napoleonic 28mm French and Austrians were ordered to the table. These figures are based on 80mm bases and here, 1 base represents 1 unit.
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| The view from the Austrian commanders position |
For the starter game, I went for the standard 12 points army per side, which roughly equates to 12 units per side and used the scale of 40mm equalling 100 Paces.
A table 4' by just over 3' was easily enough to allow the armies to breathe.
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| From the Austrian perspective |
The French army included a Cuirassier unit and one of their artillery batteries was horse artillery. The Austrians had jägers that can operate in 'bad going', plus they got 2 hussar units that count as Superior.
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| The French left, cuirassiers up front |
French columns advance over the bridge, crashing into the Austrian muskets on the other side, pushing them back, but there was a nuanced problem in the French getting off the bridge.
There were Austrian hussars in the immediate area and the first unit off the bridge couldn't turn to face that threat, because they were operating in the Zone of Control of enemy muskets and they couldn't just attack the muskets, because they would then expose their flank to the hussars .... so, they pulled back to within the confines of the bridge!
A shooting match started there, which just started to rack up casualties on both sides. The bridge had become a stalemate.
In the centre, the French slowly advanced, inconvenienced by the fordable river. They did manage to engage the Austrians on the other side, but not in time for anything to be resolved there.
It was on the French left that the drama unfolded. French Horse Artillery engaged the enemy jäger, while the cavalry, led by the Cuirassiers, struck at the Austrian Grenzers.
It was close, but both the jäger and one unit of Grenzers were seen off, bringing the total Austrian losses to 4, which brought the game to an end with a French victory (the French had only suffered 1 loss).
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| Austrian Hussars |
Actually, over on the Austrian left, their hussars had positioned themselves ready to strike the French right flank. For fun, I played this part of the action out, just to see whether another turn would have helped the Austrians ..... it didn't, the hussars charged and were (just about) seen off by determined French line!
Overall that was an enjoyable first game with DBN. I will take the rules away for a re-read, helped by this playing.
The 28's looked magnificent on this compact table and the randomised number of Command Points generated each turn for each side, helped keep things fluent. This small game that would end when one side had inflicted 1/3 losses on the other (4 units) took 6 turns to play, probably taking no more than a couple of hours for a first game.
RESOURCES;
With Blogger having some technical problems, the reader may want to check out my Commanders site, which is snippet based and updated more frequently than here. LINK
https://commanders.simdif.com/dear_diary.html
Really great battle sir!
ReplyDeleteBlogger... uh.
Hi Michal, thanks, a good way to spend a few hours ...... and Blogger has been kind to me today!
ReplyDeleteInteresting report. prompted by your blogging I have bought a copy as I am wondering about their suitability for short games with my 54mm or even historical refights in a smaller space.
ReplyDeleteHope to try them out sometime soon.
Hi Mike, I have watched so much stuff, I can't remember where I saw it, but there was a comment somewhere about doing 54's, so it is a thing. it might be worth contacting Alex through his site and discussing.
DeleteGlad you enjoyed your game - it sounds like fun. I am beginning to think that I am better off not subscribing to any blogs as I seem to find the posts with no problem.
ReplyDeleteHi Jim, it was just nice getting the figures to the table. The blog thing seems to change from day to day. Today it all appears to be working, but I haven't done anything that I wasn't doing a few days ago, so who knows!
DeleteJim, sounds like blogs are offering up too much temptation!
DeleteIndeed
DeleteSounds and looks a good un 👍 I have resorted to going through the blogs on my feed to find new posts. The patch Jonathan suggested didn’t work for me so I won’t bother posting anything in the near future.
ReplyDeleteHi Phil, I fully get that, I almost nuked my site a couple of evenings ago is frustration! I kept this post fairly brief, with just a few pics ... just in case :-).
DeleteSounds like fun was had and the rules ran smoothly. More encoragement to dig into DBA.
ReplyDeleteHi Richard, I was in the rulebook quite a bit and I need to get a few more game in to better understand all the fringe bits, but the central mechanisms themselves are quite straight forward. Doing opposed die rolls in solo play is my new 'Brain Train' regime :-)
DeleteSounds like a good game, the troops look great of course! Im sticking to Valour and Fortitude although my last game, an introductory Napoleonic game with a 40k/Necromunda gamer, I stuck with the previous edition which I know but I will update at some point!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Hi Iain, the V&F rules are now very tight, but it has taken a while to get there, also nice to see them expanding into other periods .... learn once and then play lots :-) Having played one game of DBN, I am certainly up for more. I did wonder whether to reset the game and have a go with my own rules ..... I am playing with the thought that most of the time, different rules probably deliver a relatively small range of outcomes (i.e. games are more similar than dissimilar) and that rather, it is the actual experience we have handling the rules that determine most whether we like them or not.
ReplyDeleteThis looks like a useful first outing and a good first impression for you. I was going to ask a similar question about rules' choice. What did DBN offer that you found lacking in V&F or even your own rules?
DeleteHi Jon, I quite liked the idea of one base = 1 unit (brigade) and the top down view that gives of the bigger battle. Up until the present, I have tended to see figures as tactical and the boardgames to everything bigger, your Eylau, Quatre Bras and the like, so I wanted to explore DBN as that sort of crossover of 'responsibilities' between figures games (as I play them) and boardgame systems and higher level of fighting.,
DeleteFair enough! Thank you for following up.
DeleteWell that looked fun Norm and I look forward to seeing more of the same, as you get more au fait with the rules. The small unit size is tempting, but I think to myself I could do the same with BPII or Rebels & Patriots, which means no new rules to learn!
ReplyDeleteBTW, still no joy on the Reading List updating on my Blog, with some appearing randomly, but others not at all or days, even weeks later. Apparently some big update has caused the problem at Google's end, but no info on when or if it might get fixed...
Hi Steve, yes, very enjoyable and agree on the point about rules ..... but I can't help myself :-) I will though compare the set-up with my own Eagles at Quatre Bras, just for interests sake.
ReplyDeleteThe blog thing is weird, I thought I was up and running with this post, but I have clearly not popped up on plenty of other feeders, a sort of hit and miss, which I don't understand. I doubt there is a way out of this until Google do there stuff, but good that the problem has been identified, even if only in a general way - first steps and all that!
Great looking armies and set up, the river, riverbanks and bridges work well together. Did you get any pictures of the melees?
ReplyDeleteHi, Thanks, no pictures I'm afraid, as I played into the evening, I lost all of my natural light. You can see the effects of having to resort to dampened down flash on the photo that shows the French centre and that took several attempts.
DeleteThe figures and table are great Norm which I find always helps my enjoyment of a game. It seems like it ran reasonably smoothly and gave a fair result is a decent amount of time.
ReplyDeleteYour post came up on my blog roll quite quickly once I had followed Jonathan's instructions. Weirdly Ray's blog "don't throw a 1" does not even after the fix. All very odd and I hope Google sorts itself out soonish or we will need to stage a revolt, sack management and realign the company's objectives! 😂
Hi Ben, I find that the joy of the spectacle is not captured quite as adequately by the camera, the game seems so much better in the raw. Also I have changed my camera to a fixed 35mm lens and I miss the 28mm capability that I used to have.
ReplyDeleteThe game did run smoothly and the maths seems to allow things to hang around on the battlefield for say two to three engagements. I think the system would quite suit ACW, where brigades are used to the point of 'burn out' in action, and then replaced by fresh troops.
The Blogger thing certainly has its mysteries. I have noted that I am on your feed and not on say Ray's and so I wonder whether it is not so much about the ability at my end to push a post out, but the ability at the other end of a blogger's feeder to draw it in and so the fact that Jon's 'fix' is working in some instances and not others, must (he says with no technical knowledge) be a settings / software thing for each of us individually, with regards to that particular fix.
It is probably helpful that the blogger situation is discussed in the comments section of those blogs that have made some penetration, so that the wider blogger community knows of what is going on and where progress is up to. Steve J has picked up something to the effect that the problems are linked to a big recent update.
It is does put us on notice of how delicate the glue of our community is.
That looked like it worked very well Norm and the scale of one large representing a unit has a lot to recommend it. When you get your Epic figures done, that "economy of scale" will be even more evident (and beneficial) in playing games in confined spaces!
ReplyDeleteHi Keith, yes I think so, the Epic certainly give more scope to either increase force into the same area or keep the same force and shrink the gaming space.
DeleteGlad you got a game in and 28s looked very nice. I guess I'm used to one base = one unit type rules, but I'm glad you enjoyed it. With each element being a brigade it gives a different perspective. Sadly I had to find this post the hard way by navigating to it, it didn't show in my feed I'm afraid.
ReplyDeleteHi Martin, I think you would find the 1 base equals one unit instantly comfortable and I was surprised how quickly I settled in to that, I think mainly because the units tend to remain grouped, so visually look like what I am used to.
ReplyDeleteThanks for tracking this down, unfortunately blogger is still being blogger. Odd how you saw the first post and not the second. On Ben’s site it has been the other way around. Trying to work it out is above our pay grade😀