Day of Battle

Medieval Rules 1100 to 1310 A.D.

Reviewed by Terry L. Gore


Rules by Chris Parker

This attractive 8 1/2" by 11" 28 page rulebook covers Medieval warfare from the 12th to early 14th centuries. The text is printed on glossy paper in double columns with a third column running alongside containing pictures, tables, explanations and examples of play augmenting the main text. Though the figure and ground scale are not given, the rules are tactically based with a heavy emphasis on role-playing the generals. Chris makes it a point of aiming these rules at the fantasy role-players. The leaders are all rated according to social rank, esteem, motivation and skills. Shades of Warhammer!

Identifying with your player character, the gamer strives to gain honor points over his opponent (being with a unit which defeats an enemy unit in melee; being in command of a victorious 'Battle'; actually winning the battle; killing or better yet, capturing an enemy leader; even being killed "gloriously" all garner you these honor points). You win by being chivalrous as well as a by being a good general.

As your leader-player-character advances, battle by battle, he can rise from an unknown (1,000 pts.) to an extraordinary quality (12,000+ points!) His rise brings him greater battlefield prowess as well as social rank. The leader not only influences the units under his command, but he also must check periodically to see if he has been wounded or killed! I think that Chris has a good idea here, and appealing to the Warhammer gamers as well as the D&D role players is a great way to go.

Armies are organized by drawing from a deck of cards and adding the cards drawn to give a numerical value equal to available Army Points. From this he chooses an army from standard Medieval types: knights, sergeants, spearmen, archers, etc. Terrain generation is also done by card draw.

Command and movement are straight forward with diagrams and explanations. The ambiguities are few and the use of diagrams to elaborate on the movement segment clearly helps in the understanding of the mechanics of play. I'm uncomfortable with the ease in which units may interpenetrate and change frontage - most Medieval armies were much too rigid for these maneuvers, but for playability's sake, the thing works okay. I like the proximity table, allowing double movement when 15-30 inches away from the nearest enemy and triple movement when further still.

Missile Fire and Combat are fairly simple, with units comparing their Combat Values, adding charge bonuses, uphill, spear vrs. cavalry, and deducting for disorder and other modifiers. The formulas take a bit of getting used to with various abbreviations (TN, ROF, CV, FC) to learn and deal with. The results seem to give fairly elaborate results and units are retreated or they break. Casualties are removed as a result of morale failure as well as combat. The rules booklet finishes up with a half dozen army lists, advanced combat rules and campaign optional rules.

The only major problem is the way the rules are laid out. They have a "chatty" feel to them, which is okay, but they could use a bit of restructuring in order to enhance the understanding of them. I had to read them through a few times before I could figure out what the author could have explained in the very beginning. This criticism aside, the rules look very worthwhile and should be a winner when Chris demonstrates them at HISTORICON this July.

Frankly, I don't see how Chris can sell them so cheaply. For $10.00, I would not hesitate to pick up a copy. Aimed more at the role-player, hopefully they will convert a number of fantasy players to the world of historical miniatures. Available from All About Games Publishing, 6B Ledge Rd., Windham, NH, 03087. Price given is $10.00.

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