DBA: Early Imperial Romans

[Maniac]

I play with a great group of guys (https://www.wfhgs.com/) and with our regular gaming on the fritz due to the plague (close enough) we decided to give DBA a try when we come out of lock down.  One of our members plays DBA with a different group at a local shop and convinced us to try this madness.  Generally speaking I am up for some quicker play rules that don't require painting hundreds of figures so I offered to help contribute by painting up some Corvus Belli EIRs I'd had languishing for years.  I had to flesh out the army a bit with some ESSEX and some Khurasan figures, and was pleasantly surprised by the Essex figs.  They aren't amazing, but certainly better than what I expected by far.  Khurasan stuff is a little fiddly, but otherwise also gorgeous models.  I did replace the auxilia's pewter spears with brass, and did some minor putty work on some of the cav and infantry to give them more of a northern european feel.

At any rate, the men of the Legio II Augusta during their time in Britain, with some Batavian and Ala Britanica in support.



The camp is made with a bamboo place mat and a skewer with sewing pins for the barricade.  One of the users on here used it for a fort, and I stole their idea.  It works great, and only required a little added thread to reinforce the existing ties.



Ala Britanica and a bolt thrower:



Some local levies and some Batavians:



Overall this gives me a couple options when setting up, based on our first games.  I have a mounted general I will need to finish at some point, but he's not necessary for a first game.

I have some Germans coming to paint up as an op-for as the Britons or picts aren't super appealing for me.  So, slightly wrong location, but it will work out okay in terms of a well matched force for the Romans.  Here's hoping it's an enjoyable system, as I can certainly see painting up a 2nd players worth of Romans and doubling up the Germans as well.

[levied troop]

They look the business.

I played DBA when it first came out and was amazed I could get three games in during a club evening. Be warned, the campaign system is addictive and soon has you adding ‘just one more army’

[jambo1]

Lovely!! They look superb, DBA is something i am going to get into.

[Phil Portway]

They look great, nice touch on the camp

[has.been]

I was introduced to DBA (when it first out) by a fellow club member.
He introduced us to it with a wonderful 'marketing' ploy.
several armies were already cut out of thick card. What each base
consisted of already written on the base. We played several games,
quickly picked up the basics of the rules, AND he let us take away
an 'army' each. All we had to do was stick some (often already painted)
figures onto the bases & we were ready to play. Within a couple of
weeks the club could boast over twenty DBA armies.
yes the temptation to add, 'Just one more' army is great. It took me less than
a year to get up to over 40!!!!  It did greatly reduce my Ancient lead pile.
Most have now gone to (better ?) homes, but still kept a few.
As with most rules they benefit greatly from playing them with friends &
not 'Rules lawyers'.
I have seen people use the 25/28mm bases but with 6mm or 3mm figures,
as they like the 'more like an army' look.

[Macunaima]

You also might want to take a look at the Triumph! rules by Washington Grand Company. They are basically a cleaned up DBA with better deployment rules and space for army-specific special rules.

[Cat]

Those look great, and that's a really fun army to play in DBA!

You might want to reconsider Britons, with a heavy combo of mounted and warband, they make for a great game against Romans.  That's a super pair of opponents, and I'm always happy to play either side with them.

[Maniac]

Thanks all.  It is fun doing something a little different.

In general we've tended to play Warmaster for clumps of guys at small scale, and are looking at Hail Caesar! for larger scale (it's a slog getting through Hoplites, ugh!).  So something like this is light and fun.

Personally I could easily see doubling up a given faction to make a suitable Hail Caesar! game in 15mm (two blocks or four instead of one to make a standard sized unit).  So that appeals at some level, even if never actually realized.

[Cat]

Doubling (or more) for Big Battle DBA games is great, the system really shines for big battle.  We often play 2-3 armies per side at the club, sometimes up to 4-5.

Here are triple army Greeks v. Gauls: