DBN by Alex Testo

Alex Testo has developed a set of rules inspired by the DBx stable of rules, specifically covering the Napoleonic period.

They are well written and presented, with some nice detail. At its heart, the basic game engine is delightfully smooth and so play runs easily off a simple Quick Reference Sheet.

Having read the rules twice, I am left with an impression that most game queries are going to be likely answered in the rules. 

One of the important elements that Alex has brought is the concept of attrition. Combat is by opposed die rolls plus modifiers. If you score higher than the enemy then a hit is applied, score double or more and you inflict 2 hits or something more serious!

The first hit is just a hit, two hits make the unit shaken and on the third hit, a unit is removed from play. Units do not get a chance to recover from hits.

I am presently collecting two napoleonic armies, my 28mm French / Austrian and my new project of Epic scale French / Prussian. The former are well established on 80mm bases, the later are on 55mm bases, but the project is so new that now would be the time to change basing without any real disruption.

In wanting to get these rules to the table as soon as possible, I face three initial possibilities on scale and basing;

The rule set prescribes base sizes of 40mm frontage for 15mm and smaller and 60mm for 25 / 28mm. A single musket base is representing something like a brigade.

Firstly I could re-base specifically to the measurements prescribed in the rules.

OR

My Epic can be placed on 55mm frontages. I’m not a big fan of the 55mm infantry strips sitting on the supplied 60mm bases, because you end up with a small gap at the end of the line, that can look a bit odd when placed next to a similar base, so I snip the rounded ends of the strips and attach them to a 55mm base, a nice tight fit.

Click on me!

For my new Pocket Army project, I have the infantry currently on 35mm deep bases, which allows for 3 ranks. That makes for a musket unit with 3 ranks of 10 men, so 30 heads to the base, which has a nice density to it. 

I will refit the cavalry to the same frontage (4 mounted for my dragoons shown above), but wanting 2 ranks (8 mounted) to make them look right next to the infantry, with a little bit of mass about them, they need to go on a 55 x 60 bases.

The artillery can happily could have a frontage of 2 guns with crew on a 55 x 40, though looking at conversions in the rules setting them at 60 deep would be fine.

If I went with this, then in moving from a 40mm to 55mm frontage per unit, I should increase all measurements by a factor of 1.375, so on the measuring ruler, 100 Paces should be raised from 25mm to 35mm. So for example, muskets fire at 200 Paces, so with this change, would fire at 70mm instead of 50mm.

I have asked Alex for a bit of advice on the subject of base size and he has said that the infantry and cavalry should really be on the same depth of base, so I may need to visually enjoy them as per above, but if forced to recoil etc, I might need to ‘imagine’ that the infantry have the same base depth as the cavalry. He also suggested that the 28mm artillery should have a 80 x 80 base placed underneath it, to keep everything true.

OR

If using my 28's, then they could stay on their 80mm bases and a similar process would see a doubling of the basic measurement, with 100 Paces being represented by 50mm instead of 25mm (exactly doubled), so my home made ruler would be marked up in 50mm (2") increments with musket bases as an example, firing at 200 Paces (100mm).

For the basic 12 element game, which in the rulebook uses a 2’ x 2’ battlefield in 15mm on 40mm frontages, I would need to grow the table to a 3’ x 3’ or just slightly less for the Epic and to 4’ x 4’ for the 28’s. In each case, you are really looking at the concept of a Pocket Army playing in a small space, which I like.

Alex describes the 12 element army as a corps sized formation and the rules have scope to increase the number of ‘corps’ used per side to give a bigger game, much like ‘big army DBA’ does. 

In this case, the battlefield would widen by 1 foot (300mm) per additional formation (corps). These bigger armies also accommodate multi-player games and can reflect some of the bigger historical multi corps battles. There are videos on Alex’s YouTube channel that have AAR’s on Eylau, Leipzig, Borodino, Ligny and Waterloo as examples.

Anyway, for now, I will do some knock-about games with my 28’s as that gives me fully painted forces, but as a project, I will chip away at the Epic scale as I need something that gets me away from the table where I stand, to the table where I can sit.

Every now and then, something comes along to re-enthuse and I am seeing DBN in that light. There will be more to come on this here, while over at over at the Commanders site I may set up a specific DBN page and put updates there.

Edit - I have made my ruler at 40mm per 100 paces and will try that with both the Epic and the 28's and see whether it works and if not why.

Resources;

My Commanders site is just some extra webspace that I use to do the more snippet based type of posts and project discussion. It is paid for and advert free. LINK

https://commanders.simdif.com/dear_diary.html

The DBN site (for a copy of the rules, go to DOWNLOAD or if you want a hard copy, go to MORE and click on the CONTACT page to make your request) LINK

https://dbnwargaming.weebly.com/

For a video AAR of Quatre Bras LINK

 

https://youtu.be/hXJy05JOmU4?si=VI_20tLbej4upVAn

1471 Campaign Concludes

The final act of the 1471 Campaign has just concluded and I was pleased that the campaign pulled me in directions that continued to surprise me.

There is a full write up over on my Commanders page of the campaign in chronological order (link below), if you are familiar with the opening bits,  just scroll straight down to Turn 3 (use the above photo as a visual marker in that text).

Above - Queen Margaret of Anjou inspects and inspires her troops.

LINK

https://commanders.simdif.com/campaigning_1471.html

1471 Campaign Turn 1

Note - the last blog post set out a campaign engine for running a 1471 Wars of the Roses game. The ongoing delays in Blogger resulted in the post not being published for 27 hours, by which time, the posts likely slipped out of view on many readers lists. 

A lot of work went into the post and it is now clear to me that the efforts of posting big pieces of work here are no longer worthwhile until such time as Blogger gets itself sorted out. 

For now, I am resolved to stop posting on Blogger and just update my COMMANDERS site instead.

HOWEVER, having played the first turn of the 1471 campaign, I am posting the result here, in the hope that Blogger publishes it reasonably quickly, giving readers another chance to see the last post that delivers the campaign engine (link below), …. I am not holding my breath and now care little as my own (paid for) Commanders site can better be relied upon for promptness etc and this stuff will be posted there today anyway.

Anyway, for one last time, here we go!

1471 Campaign Turn 1.

Having set down the game engine, in the last blog post, for running a themed campaign for Wars of the Roses 1471, the campaign is now up and running and the first turn has been played. [link to the game engine post below].

One of the key elements of the campaign is that instructions are written for the forces in each area of the map, folded and put into a draw cup and then one at a time they are drawn and acted upon, so the order that they are drawn becomes central to driving the campaign narrative and it proves to be a very solo friendly way of running a campaign.

First though we roll on the event table ...... Queen Margaret of Anjou can arrive at either Southampton, Devon or Kent, though the location must be either Lancastrian controlled or neutral. She brings foreign forces to support the Lancastrian cause. 1 x Pike, 1 x Melee, 1 x Handgunner.

Next, orders are written for all locations that contain a force. This, including Margaret, turns out to be 6 locations, so 6 sets of orders. 

Now we go on to drawing those orders. This is going to be interesting because Warwick wants to strike at Howard before the main army under Edward arrives at Nottingham.

Above map - at start positions, red is Lancastrian, white is Yorkist. Yellow is independent and garrisoned (Durham). All the black dots are neutral.

Drawing from the cup

1st Order - KENT. Fauconberg marches to Southampton, where he is to meet with Margaret and combine their forces. Southampton’s allegiance changes from neutral to Lancastrian.

2nd Order - LONDON. Suddley continues to garrison the city, protecting King Henry VI.

3rd Order - YORK. Edward is here with the main Yorkist army. Hastings sends 1 x militia and 1 x artillery up north to besiege Durham. He sends 1 x melee to Shrewsbury to Garrison it. The attack at Durham fails, but Shrewsbury’s allegiance turns Yorkist and now has a Yorkist garrison force.

Edward takes the rest of the army and marches south to join Howard at Nottingham.

4th Order - COVENTRY. Warwick, with the main Lancastrian army, attacks Nottingham. Though Hastings in Edward’s army has sent some units to Durham and Shrewsbury, Howard's forces, already waiting at Nottingham, make up for that. 

A significant battle results (detailed below).

5th Order - OVERSEAS. Queen Margaret of Anjou lands at Southampton with her reinforcements. Her forces combine with Lord Fauconberg. Southampton's allegiance becomes Lancastrian.

6th Order - NOTTINGHAM. Howard was to start preparing defensive positions, but Warwick’s arrival (order 4) has pre-empted him now being able to do that.

The Battle at Nottingham (rules used are Test of Resolve).

While Warwick deployed under the typical three battle formations of vanward, mainward and rearward (Clarence, Warwick and Oxford), Edward deployed into four battles.

Hastings, who had sent detachments to Durham and Shrewsbury took the reserve position behind Edward in the centre, while Edward's left was held by Howard, who had fewer melee troops. Gloucester was on the right.

Seeing fewer flags on Edwards left, Warwick’s plan was to advance his army quickly and hope to unhinge Howard before the Yorkist reserve could move over to support him.

Edward was content to make maximum use of his archers before any contact was made and he sought a more defensive stance.

Edward’s and Warwick’s battles in the centre were the first to clash, but Warwick quickly got the upper hand. Disastrously, during the initial fighting, Edwards Men-at-Arms turned tail and retreated, pursued by Warwick’s men, who caught them and continued to inflict heavy losses.

Along the Yorkist line, contingents started to rout, first archers running in panic, followed by the guns being overrun. There was significant pressure from the Lancastrians everywhere.

Losing his Men-at-Arms to rout was the last straw for Edward. he decided the army needed to retreat now to save itself, but disengaging was difficult and more losses followed. Edward stayed on the field until the last possible moment, to see the last of his archers and billmen escape (In consequence, in future actions, Edward will be rated as an inspirational leader).

Gloucester’s entire wing had routed (dispersed in Test of Resolve terms) and he (side note - the future King Richard III) just about escaped with his life (rolling on the post game loss table).  

The remnants of the Yorkist army retreated back up the road towards York. This had been a terrible opening of the campaign for Edward, his shattered army would not withstand another head-to-head with Warwick.

Above - this is what the campaign map looks like at the end of Turn 1 (you can click on it). Edward is getting squeezed. If we add the Victory Points of allegiance at this stage, the Lancastrians are leading with 7 points to 3. Can Edward hold on?

Warwick has the initiative and what happens next will be of his making! His prime objective is to put Clarence on the Throne, so does he turn south, take London and capture Henry VI or does he drive north to deal with the much weakened Edward .... or something else altogether? 

Turn 2 is already under way.

EDIT - for anyone now reading this, the campaign has been concluded and is presented in chronological order at my Commanders site at this link;

https://commanders.simdif.com/campaigning_1471.html

 

Resources;

The blog post that delivers the campaign engine is at this link -

https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2026/08/practical-campaigning-1471.html

COMMANDERS is my other bit of webspace. It is a bit more snippet based than here, more updated more often - LINK

https://commanders.simdif.com/dear_diary.html