ANALYSIS
- "Brother Maynard, consult the Book of Armaments."
We finished all games of MW and DoB in about 3-4 hours, start to finish, which also included delays due to looking up rules and jotting down notes/positions/maps of troops. Once you've run through the rules a few times, and take into account rules clarifications, a game of this size should take about 2 hours, not including terrain and troop set up time.
MW is closer in organization and style to traditional rules sets than DoB, and harkens to the WRG style emphasis on weapons and other tactical factors. Indeed, this is a very thoughtful game, where matchups between different troop types take on considerable importance. Or, put another way, if you don't know what you're doing and toss in troops helter skelter, you will pay the price in dead and routing units. Whatever luck you may think you can conjure up in morale rolls won't mean much if your tactical acumen, or lack thereof, forces you to continuously roll for morale—sooner or later, you're going to blow a roll badly, and then you can watch the disintegration of your army occur. Gore's research into his book on medieval leadership and how tactical battles progressed comes through loud and clear.
DoB breaks tradition to a certain extent, for it places considerable emphasis on leadership, command, and control. At the risk of heresy, inserting this "role-playing" (don't get carried away — we mean it with a small "r" and small "p") style background into commanders means you can duplicate the personal leadership of a Henry V or Bernard de Gueslin or any other able (or not-so-able) commander in the middle of a large battle. And with the different "motivations" tied to battlefield rewards of honor and notoriety, this isn't just good, it's great. It is the strongest part of the rules and very, VERY applicable to other campaigns. That you can have inept or brilliant leaders reflected in troop activity is also good.
Some aspects may be a little much, like the faithful sergeant (or squire or page etc) who steps in front of the lethal lance thrust to save his C-n-C AFTER the C-n-C failed a saving roll. A wise commander will keep one or two of them around for insurance.
Kudos for DoB's use of Command Points to carry through on the leadership emphasis. Like DBA/M pips, there's never enough points to go 'round. Same for MW's orders. Much depends on how many troops a leader commands. The more troops, the more dilemmas you'll face as leader.
DoB can be a more fluid game than MW. The ability for a morale check to goad a unit into charging adds a dimension of instability. And since both sets reward being in compact, mutually supporting bodies, this can swing the fortunes of battle quickly—as shown in the test game when the Welsh Longbowmen peppered the Scottish Spear with enough arrows to force them charge out of their battleline, where they were shafted again, and then broken by a Knight charge (a nifty combined arms attack).
That said, MW's morale rolls cause their own series of unit flux. Although tempered by positional and situational factors, MW has bigger swings than DoB, made even more severe because routing troops have more impact on other units in MW than DoB. Each battle saw the final disintegration of the army due to morale loss.
We found Longbow and Crossbow missile fire to be more telling in DoB than MW. We don't even want to think about replaying Agincourt. Neither had fatigue penalties, although getting rid of that WRG mechanism seems just fine.
Combat is clean for both sets. The missile fire system in MW is particularly smooth. MW's melee system, however, is quite different in feel and not quite as smooth as the missile system — and takes a bit to get used to. DoB limits casualties no matter what the situation, much like Knight Hack, while MW allows you to pile on casualties if you have significant advantages.
Victory for both sets use the 1/3 loss/rout test. DoB counts individual stands rule like DBA/M, while MW forces morale tests for every remaining unit—possible to fight on, but unlikely.
Of note is the rules organization and readability. MW is easier than DoB—it's organized as we've come to expect rules to be and generally written clearly. However, we still flipped through the booklet (and through previous questions and answers printed in Saga) during initial playtesting. We posted 20-25 rules questions and interpretations to Gore via e-mail. All came back promptly, though one or two needed a follow-up.
DoB is visually stunning but commmits the sin of separating information. We flipped and flipped through the rules, but when you have to look in multiple places—including those visually impressive sidebars—for information, it gets old fast. For example, under Charge and Melee Procedure on page 17, it doesn't say how far a charge move is, nor does it say on page 13 under F: Charge Movement. On page 15 under Crossing Distance Bands, it mentions that charging units ignore Proximity Movement. Only in the Glossary on page 2 does it say 3x a normal move. We posted 20-25 questions as well (and a couple follow-ups), and Parker also answered quickly. E-mail support from both is excellent!
CONCLUSION
- "Go away or I shall taunt you a second time."
How well you enjoy both sets depends on what you are looking for in a rules set. We agreed that both sets could use a re-write to make the rules clearer (note that MW is in its 2nd edition), but also find the "customer support" aspect very responsive in the respective publications and via e-mail.
We favored MW in the combat resolution — we liked the idea of being able to pound an enemy unit to a pulp if we were smart enough to gain an advantage, and thought bowfire in DoB was too deadly.
For command and control, we split. Lockwood enjoyed the CPs of DoB, while Pichnarczyk liked MW's orders. We agreed that for large multiplayer battles, MW would be easier to stage because of its structure.
We were very impressed with the personality aspect of DoB—social rank, honor and such. It adds pizzazz to a game (and especially a campaign), and highlights the unique attributes of medieval motivations. You can lift out the section and apply it to any medieval rules set.
Interestingly enough, Gore and Parker must recognize the benefits of combining their genius, for they are teaming up for a web site devoted to medieval history and gaming.
And that's how we look at MW and DoB: complementary and complimentary.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Medieval Warfare ($25): Terry Gore, 890 James Rd., Rochester, NY 14612, tlgore@frontiernet.net
Day of Battle ($12): Chris Parker/All About Games, 23 Kirriemuir Rd, Stratham, NH 03885, dayofbattle@mediaone.net
More Medieval Comparison
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Long Bows and Short Knights: Introduction
Long Bows and Short Knights: Medieval Warfare
Long Bows and Short Knights: Day of Battle
Long Bows and Short Knights: Analysis and Conclusion
Other Medieval Rule Sets
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