I’ve always felt the 12 element army size of DBA doesn’t give balanced games. Some folks have come up with points systems to deal with this. I thought I’d tally the points total for a few armies to see how they compare under a couple of the points systems. I’ve focussed on the Macedonian and Punic Wars and not too surprisingly the Ancient Spanish are the poor relatives.
Rise of Rome
I divide the Rise of Rome into three sections: the Punic Wars, Macedonian Wars and Iberian Wars. There is quite a lot of overlap between these. From 264 Roman fought three bitter wars with Carthage over the western Mediterranean – the Punic Wars. Roman triumphed and as a side effect began its conquest of Iberia – modern Spain and Portugal. But Iberia was a tough nut to crack. It took 200 years for the Romans to conquer the peninsular. Meanwhile the Romans conquered the Mediterranean. In the east Roman defeated the Macedonians and the Successors during the Macedonian Wars.
Roman versus Carthaginian Big Base DBA
Andrew Coleby and I had a go at Big Base DBA. Andrew took Carthaginians and I took Polybian Roman. Andrew won – those pesky Gauls cut through my Legionnaires (again). Aside from being a good game it also proved the concept of Big Base DBA, i.e. big bases with lots of figures, big table, but using standard DBA.
Revised Pyrrhic DBA Army List
The official DBA II/27 Pyrrhic 300BC-272BC army list for DBA is okay but:
Revised Ancient Spanish DBA Army List
There are a few reasons I don’t like the official II/39 Ancient Spanish 240BC-20BC army list for DBA:
DBA II/39 Ancient Spanish 240BC-20BC
The II/39 Ancient Spanish army list for DBA represents those tribes of Spain and Portugal who fought the Romans and Carthaginians in the period 240BC-20BC, before, during and after the Punic Wars . This post is part of my series on Troop Identities in DBA Army Lists.
DBA II/18 Macedonian Early Successor 320BC-260BC
The II/18 Macedonian Early Successor DBA army list represents those Macedonians successor states based in Europe during in the Macedonian Wars. Just after Alexander died. This post is part of my series on Troop Identities in DBA Army Lists.
DBA II/32 Later Carthaginian 275BC-146BC
The Later Carthaginian army fought the Romans in the of the Punic Wars. Represented by DBA army list II/32 Later Carthaginian 275BC-146BC. This post is part of my series on Troop Identities in DBA Army Lists.
DBA II/33 Polybian Roman 275BC-105BC
The Roman army list for DBA during the Macedonian Wars, Punic Wars and Iberian Wars is II/33 Polybian Roman. This looks like a Consular army with two legions and two allied wings (ala). So roughly half of each troop type would be Roman and the other half Latin. This post is part of my series on Troop Identities in DBA Army Lists.
DBA II/19 Seleucid 320-83BC
I’ve got a Seleucid army for DBM but I don’t particularly like the DBA list (II/19). There are four variations (a to d) but the different DBA variants don’t align too well with the DBM lists. The first two variants (a and b) established the Seleucid empire. The latter two versions (c and d) fought the Romans in the Macedonian Wars. This post is part of my series on Troop Identities in DBA Army Lists.
DBA II/27 Pyrrhic 300BC-272BC
Pyrrhus, the King of Epiros, was the only Hellenistic general to defeat the Romans in battle. As far as I’m aware he is the only Hellenistic general to fight the Carthaginians. That means Pyrrhus is the point where the wars of Alexander successors met the Punic Wars. Pyrrhus campaigned in Epiros, Greece and Macedonia during 306-281 BC, in southern Italy against the Romans in 280-275 BC, against the Carthaginians in Sicily in 278-275 BC, against the Romans again in 275 BC, and back in Greece 275-272 BC. This post is part of my series on Troop Identities in DBA Army Lists.
DBA I/61 Early Carthaginian 550-275BC
The Early Carthaginian army conquered parts of north Africa, Spain, Sardinia, and western Sicily. It is represented by the DBA army list I/61 Early Carthaginian. This post is part of my series on Troop Identities in DBA Army Lists.
Troop Identities in DBA Army Lists
I play DBA quite a lot and with my current enthusiasm for Big Bases I’m rebasing my ancients and medieval armies for Big Base DBA. To help with that process I wanted to know what nationalities the DBA elements correspond to.
How Other People Recreate the Macedonian and Punics Wars with DBA
DBA is fun but pretty rubbish at simulating the Macedonian and Punic Wars so I wondered what other people are doing to deal with the issues.
DBA II/35 Later Macedonian 260BC-148BC
The II/35 Later Macedonian DBA army list represents those Macedonians who fought the Romans in Greece during in the Macedonian Wars. This post is part of my series on Troop Identities in DBA Army Lists.
DBA II/20 Ptolemaic 320BC-30BC
II/20 Ptolemaic DBA army list represents those Macedonians based in Egypt during in the Macedonian Wars. This post is part of my series on Troop Identities in DBA Army Lists.