Day of Battle:Middle Ages review/overview

[Anatoli]

Day of Battle is a wargame designed for medieval battles made up of unit blocks of 28 or 15mm scale miniatures and uses a mix of D6 dice and regular playing cards for the core gameplay mechanics as well as the classic (although initiative based) IGOUGO framework which is divided into several sub phases for each players turn. It also features a heavy emphasis on the personalities leading armies and mimics the medieval difficulties of raising armies which adds a lot of flavor to the rules. It should also be noted that this game, just like By Fire & Sword which I have reviewed previously on this blog, has fleeting army lists that vary in size between players. It’s not a “point by point” approach, instead players are playing as commanders during a period where mustering troops was hard and where you maybe didn’t always know who would heed your call to arms.

And while I personally like this approach, it may not be to the liking of “tournament minded” players that want perfectly matched army lists.

Let me start by focusing on what I thought made the rules interesting, the personalities leading your army. And this part of the rules is also fairly big and detailed. There  is a list of social ranks, ranging from Knight to King/Emperor, each players start out as a “Baron”. Each personality has beside their social rank also an esteem and honor value. All three combined affect various aspects of your commander, from his ability to efficiently raise troops prior to battle, to how big his retinue of core troops and body guards is and how many sub commanders he will have in his army.

This whole aspects creates an organic growth of your army size during a campaign where victories and great deeds on the battlefield advance your status.

Check the full review/overview over at my blog:
http://anatolisgameroom.blogspot.se/2013/03/day-of-battle-middle-ages-review.html

[Atheling]

Sounds interesting!

Need to hear more about these rules.

[Anatoli]

You can see a few of gameplay tutorial videos on the selling the rules, it shows many of the aspects that I was unable to delve to deep into myself 

[Gibby]

Sounds very interesting! Though as shallow as this sounds I have to say I don't like that cover! Bit HBO if you get what I mean.

[Atheling]

You can see a few of gameplay tutorial videos on the selling the rules, it shows many of the aspects that I was unable to delve to deep into myself 

If I can find the time I'll take a peek. Thanks.

Darrell

[Argonor]

So, in some respect this is really a campaign-system without the 'normal' option for one-off games?

Of course there's nothing to stop you from just picking 2 armies and duke it out using the fighting rules, but the intention seems to keep players to the more restraining campaign format?

[Anatoli]

So, in some respect this is really a campaign-system without the 'normal' option for one-off games?

Of course there's nothing to stop you from just picking 2 armies and duke it out using the fighting rules, but the intention seems to keep players to the more restraining campaign format?

One off games are very much so possible, you would then have to choose what social status level your commanders start at if you don't want to start as Baron (basic level) and you could naturally pick what units you want to include in your army as well if you want (though within the troop ratio limits of your domain). Though I feel taking away the randomness of troop mustering also  takes a way a bit of the charm and intention of the army building aspect.

[Argonor]

I think it's a concept we should see more. Especially a lot of sci-fi and fantasy games could benefit a lot from a more twisted/random approach to force-picking, instead of the tournament-style of two (theoretically) balanced forces.

Whereas it is fine for, well tournaments, my best gaming experiences have always been with heavily unbalanced odds, like hit-and-run scenarios where, for instance, a small group of saboteurs have to place an explosive charge at the core of a heavily guarded power plant.

Forcing a commander to make the best of what's currently available is so much closer to reality.