Rightyo my hearties, here are the Rules of Engagement for the Renaissance wargames
competition at NICon 2013

Nicon 2012 DBR Competition Details

Summary

1. DBR 2.0, normal scale

2. 450AP, book 1,2 or 3 open competition, “Kiwi” AP;

3. Table size TBC, but likely 8x5 or 8x6 depending on availability;

4. Two lists may be submitted. Which list you use is chosen after it is

determined who is the defender. This is to allow the selection of troops

that can only be used as the defender. Lists must be of the same

year/general/tribe etc.

5. Lists are to be submitted to John Way (johneway@hotmail.com)

after 15 May and before midnight on 22 May. I will deposit mine with

one of the non-DBR players before the 15th for the avoidance of

unpleasantness.

6. Two four hour rounds each day- 09:00 to 13:00 and 13:30 to 17:30.

If it is the defender’s bound when time is called the defender will carry

on to complete his bound. If it is the attacker’s bound the game finishes

immediately and any score-influencing outcome of the partial bound

is ignored.

7. Scoring is 10-0 as per DBR 2.0 plus 100 if you break your opponent’s

army without your own being broken. This is to discourage draws;

8. The draw for the first round will be historical opponents, opponents

closest to each other in time and then random for the remainder if any.

Following draws will be modified Swiss Chess;

9. Deployment by alternating commands, see below

10. Alternative troop types for Shot, see below

Detail:

Deployment

As per the DBR 2.0 but with the following changes.
Deployment is in the following order:
(1) First the defender and then the invader place all fortifications and 

Baggage not embarked on naval elements or in a BUA;

(2) Both sides record the relative positions of their commands from 

left-to-right and from front-to-rear and the exact position and direction 

faced of troops in ambush;
(3) Each side alternately deploys one command, starting with the 

defender. 

Each side must first deploy its command with the greatest number of 

ME, including Baggage. Its remaining commads can be deployed in 

any order. Deployment includes all land & naval elements and fixed 

obstacles except any in ambush;
(4) The defender places the concealed command (if any), less any 

ambushers it includes.

Shot

At the time of list-writing, Shot(I) described as armed with Arquebus 

or Caliver may be upgraded to Arquebus (O) for 5AP. These have all 

the characteristics of Sh(I) except that they are graded (O) for combat 

outcomes. If any such are upgraded, all of that description (eg all 

Italian Arquebus or all Militia) must be upgraded. You must tell your 

opponent if you have done this.

Shot(I) described as armed with Musket may be upgraded to 

Musket (I) for 5AP. These have all the characteristics of Sh(O) except 

that they are graded (I) for combat outcomes. If any such are upgraded, 

all of that description must be upgraded. You must tell your opponent 

if you have done this.

Shot (F) fight in the same number of ranks as other Shot.

“Kiwi” Army Points to be used, which are

	(S)	(O)	(I)	(F)	(X)
Lancers	12	10	7	10
Pistols	12	10	8	10
Sipahis	10	7	5	7
Light Horse	7	4	4	4
Camelry	9	6		7
Dragoons	8	7	6
Pikes	5	4	3	4
Shot	8	6	4	5
Musket			5
Arquebus		5
Blades	5	4	3	6
Bows	7	5	3
Skirmishers	4	3	2		4
Warband	5	4	3
Hordes	2	1		1
Artillery	15	10	6	10	10
Pontooneers		5
Warwagons		10	3
Elephants	24	20	16
Baggage		5	5
Ships	6	5	3	4	4
Galleys	5	4	2	3
Boats	3	2	1	2	3

Notes

Deduct 1 AP for troops that are restricted to defending BUA. Such 

troops count as lost if there is no BUA to defend.

No adjustment for Artillery if without draught teams.

25mm DBR at NICon 2013

Good afternoon gentles

I am pleased to announce that I have assumed the role of player-umpire for the
Renaissance competition at the North Island Convention for 2013.

This year's NICon is hosted by the Wine Country Generals.
Venue: Napier Boys High School
Date: 1st  – 2nd  June 2013
Organiser – Kevin Foxall - dkbfoxall@clear.net.nz    - Mobile – 021 366 304
The registration fee is:
Registrations received  prior to 31 March 2013    - $30.00 01
April – 30 April 2013   - $40.00   
After 01 May 2013  (at umpires discretion)  - $50.00

Please contact Kevin or me for a registration form.

I will publish a player pack here in the next day or so. If you have an opinion on
format, now is good!

Wargaming for the Small 2: bring on the gun-men

So part of the appeal to me of the boys playing agin each other with four arrow-men a side was that they could set-to and leave me in peace to paint my own toys. Peace is a relative term of course- they were only 3 metres away and it did not take long for voices to be raised and violence offered.

The main project I had on the bench was a regiment of foote for my 28mm ECW Royalists, or at least the musketeers thereof. Now the lads started to suggest that these fellows, now called "gun-men"(do not try to alter nominative destiny as assigned by a 6 year old- "they are called musketeers" "why?" "because they have muskets" "no, they have guns" "these guns are called muskets" "why?" and so on to madness...)  should join in the fighting. The appeal of this course of action increased as the gun-men moved from their uniform covering of brown undercoat to flesh, uniforms and detailing - like butterflies emerging from cocoons.

So the gun-men were added to the order of battle while they were being painted but before basing on multi-figure 'element' bases for DBR/FoGR.

The rules for gun-men are as follows. Gun-men move and shoot like arrow-men, except that they
cannot shoot if they moved this turn and when they do shoot, they add +1 to the total number of figures shooting. IE four gun-men shooting have a final score of 5 plus the die roll.

I also introduced the idea of an objective, typically the top of the hill. The winner is the player whose troops occupy the objective.

Well this went down a treat, and as intended the boys had some hard lessons to learn about timing their attacks, massing firepower and seizing objectives.

Next installment- Pirates!

Push of Pike 2013!

I am pleased to announce that the details for PoP2013 have been (mostly) decided. And here they are (drum roll)...

 After extensive polling and wide ranging consultation with stakeholders and a bottle of cheap but agreeable Merlot, I am pleased to advise the following Rules of Engagement for PoP2013

Dates: Saturday 7 and Sunday 9 September 2013AD
Locale: Forrest Hill Scout Hall, Becroft Park on Becroft Drive, Forrest Hill on Auckland's sunny North Shore

Rules: DBR 2.0, with a possibility of 2.1 beta.

Scale: 15mm, Normal scale

Points: 450AP, Kiwi AP

 

	(S)	(O)	(I)	(F)	(X)
Lancers	12	10	7	10
Pistols	12	10	8	10
Sipahis	10	7	5	7
Light Horse	7	4	4	4
Camelry	9	6		7
Dragoons	8	7	6
Pikes	5	4	3	4
Shot	8	6	4	5
Blades	5	4	3	6
Bows	7	5	3
Skirmishers	4	3	2		4
Warband	5	4	3
Hordes	2	1		1
Artillery	15	10	6	10	10
Pontooneers		5
Warwagons		10	3
Elephants	24	20	16
Baggage		5	5
Ships	6	5	3	4	4
Galleys	5	4	2	3
Boats	3	2	1	2	3

Deduct 1 AP for troops that are restricted to defending BUA.

Draw: Random, but tweaked so no one from outside of the Auckland/Waikato area has to fight a homeboy

Rounds: 4 rounds of 4 hours- 09:00-13:00, 13:30-17:30. A warning will be given approx 30 minutes before time, after which no Invader may start another bound. If the game is still running at full time, the defender may finish his bound.

Theme: Armies 1540-1600AD

Lists: one or two lists. The second list must be the same year/general/tribe/location/allies (or no ally). List to be used is chosen just before season is declared.

Scoring: 10-0, as per the Book.

If 2.1 beta is not used, then the following rule changes will apply:

• deployment in alternate commands;
• in any list with Sh(I) described as arquebus or caliver, ALL may be exchanged for Arq(O) @ 5AP;
• in any list in which Shot are expressed as equal proportions of Sh(I) and Sh(O), ALL maybe exchanged for Musket (I) at 5AP;
• Sh(F) fight in the same number of ranks as other Shot.

Entry fee $30 Lists and fee to me by the 25th August please. I may not check them all but they will be published on the day and transgressors will be mocked.  Trusting that meets with you universal approbation I remain, your humble and obedient servant John

 

Wargaming for the Small, 1: Old Soldiers arrow-men

How to use wargaming to teach maths to the young'uns!

My two oldest sons, Benjamin 6 and Alex 4 (almost every wargamer has a son called Alexander), are fairly fascinated by my wargames figures and by the games they see played at home or Down at the Club. This is only natural.

And of course they are mad keen to have some of their own and play wargames of their own. So to amuse them I based up some old Airfix Robin Hood and Ancient Briton HO scale archers on big multi-figure bases, gave them a D6 each and taught them a very simple set of rules so they could amuse themselves fighting on the spare bed while I paint. We decided to call these rules Old Soldiers.

Each player has one stand of archers (or "arrow-men" as they are apparently called). Throw a D6 to see how many base depths your stand can move. If at the end of the move you are in range (the distance from the tip of your thumb to that of your outstretched pinky) of an enemy you both shoot by throwing a D6. If the loser's score is less than the winner's but more than half, the loser goes back one base. If the score is half or less, curtains!

After a while I felt a bit guilty about fobbing them off with the manky old (like, 30+ year old) Airfix, so I did a quick paint job on some GW Brettonian longbowmen I had lying around.

These were single-based, so I modified the rules. Throw a D6 to determine how many men you can move. Movement was initially set at one handstretch as above, then modified to the short edge of a piece of A4. When you have moved all the men you can, check to see who is in range. Add up the number of men shooting and add the throw of  a D6. If the loser's score is less than the winner's but more than half, one of the loser's men (the closest to the shooters) runs away one move-distance. If the score is half or less, curtains for the nearest man!

When you have lost half your men, you have lost the game.

It was instructive to see how many times a small party of men was sent to their deaths because a player was unwilling to wait for the rest of the force to catch up, and to watch the slowly dawning realisation. It was also interesting to see how quickly Benjamin can now calculate halves and doubles....