Grizzled old readers of The Citadel may recall a printed exchange between Chris Leech and me about wargame rules for the ancients period. In and editorial I called "Decline and Fall" I lamented the state to which ancient wargaming had sunk, while Chris rose to defend the current state of the art. Well, my opinion has changed. Now, lest I eat too much crow, I have to say up front that my opinion of Armati and Tactica is still low. However, over the years, my liking for DBA, and latterly for DBM, has grown beyond fondness to positive enthusiasm.

OK, pick yourselves back up and take slow, deep breaths. I know it's shocking, but it's true. A game I once dismissed as simplistic and unsatisfying has worked its way into my heart. I suppose I owe it to-or can blame it on-Paul Hannah. His large, and growing, collection of DBA armies was always around for a handful of quick, pick-up games. It didn't take too many of these to seduce to me over to the dark side.

So, how do I love DBA? Let me count the ways:

Well-balanced system

I discovered to my delight that the system was subtle (or maybe just seemed subtle because it was written in indecipherable Barkerese). But really, no DBA match-up I've ever played could have its outcome predicted before the armies deployed. That's something that can't be said of Armati or Tactica, or even of my beloved WRG Ancients rules. If you play to an army's strengths, you have an even chance against any opponent. If you use troop types according to their historical model, you can achieve historical results.

Accessibility

(For want of a better word.) It's easy to get started with DBA. You can paint an army quickly since the number of figures required is relatively small. Painting two armies of historical opponents is far easier than painting a single army for most other rules systems. Many figure manufacturers sell ready-made armies. Essex has nearly 200 DBA ancients and medieval army packs for their 15mm ranges. Donnington and Museum Miniatures also sell DBA army packs.

No uber-troops

The rock-paperscissors aspect of the rules keeps any single troop type from being allpowerful. There's no Regular A, SHC, with Lance, Bow, Javelin, and Tommy-Gun to sweep all before it. Troop types that may be powerful against some opponents can fall woefully short against other opponents that, in other respects, are unimpressive.

Historical opponents

The small size of the armies (12 elements) makes it easy for DBA players to create armies in matching pairs or interrelated groups. For example, I've completed two of four armies for Dark Age Britain (Saxons and Picts, the SubRoman British and Scots-Irish are abuilding). Any of the four armies can fight the others, providing six possible historical match-ups and the framework for a nice campaign.

Variety

DBA 2.0 has 310 army lists, not counting variations, spread out over four historical periods. These correspond roughly to the four books of army lists for DBA's grown-up cousin DBM. This gives players a wide range of options when planning their first army-or their hundredth.

Artistic expression

For those painters who like to dote on their figures, DBA offers a great opportunity to get fussy. You're not required to paint hundreds of figures, so you can craft your armies rather than churn them out. DBA also offers opportunities for artistic expression in building things like army camps, built-up areas (BUAs), and other terrain.

Expandability

The mounting of figures for DBA 2.0 is now in line with DBM and W FIG. If you want to expand a DBA army, you don't need to remount your figures. Also, some other rules systems use these mounting as a standard as well. Even if you don't expand into DBM, you can always go into Big Battle DBA where you play with multiple commands of doubleand triple-sized armies. If big battles is what you want, DBA is a great starting point.

Where to play

If you're inspired, you have a great outlet in the Seattle area. The Northgate Ancients Garners DBA group meets every other Wednesday at Fire and Sword Hobbies in Seattle. For more information, go to the NAG Yahoo! Groups page: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ Northgate_Ancients_Gamers_DBA/

If you want a larger group to game with, go online. DBA Online is a a great way to play with DBA gamers from all over the world. Just go to http://www.dbaol.com and download and install the program. You can play for a while as a trial member and, if you're hooked like me, join up for a low annual fee. The system is based on DBA 1.1 and has beautiful representations of the armies and terrain.

Resources

OK, let's just call this section 'The Resource." THE exhaustive source of information about everything DBA is Fanaticus DBA Resource page: http://www.fanaticus.org/DBA

This place has it all: Lots of essays about the armies for both 1.1 and 2.0 rules Tips on choosing and building armies Historical resources Essays on gaming tactics Eye candy section of painted armies Army and rule variants, campaigns, and other aspects of the game. A link to an E-Bay search for "DBA" that will bring up all the available armies that someone, somewhere is trying to sell on E-Bay Links to every other online resource for DBA.