Day of Battle 2nd Edition

Medieval Rules

review by Terry Gore

Day of Battle 2nd Edition (DoB II) by Christopher E. Parker with Alex Aimette is a set of miniature rules specifically aimed at the period from 1050-1275 A.D. The rules fill the gap left between skirmish sets and the ‘big battle’ rules sets. The rulebook itself is loose-leaf, allowing supplements and replacement pages to be inserted as they are made available. Though the booklet is 56 pages, the actual rules take up 40 of these, with the remainder being historical essays, a ‘quick start’ page, QRS charts, army lists and some handy markers to use in place of miniature figures.

The basic themes in DoB II is to have each player take the part of a Medieval warlord, trying to advance his social standing and esteem through victory on the battlefield. Thus, there are actually two types of playing pieces in the game; the fighting men, making up the bulk of the forces, and the personality figures, representing the warlord and lesser leaders/heroes. These rules will allow players to join wargaming with role-playing, a real benefit. The warlord player has several personal attributes that may increase as he wins in battle and gains ‘honor points’. A deck of 54 playing cards are used (including jokers) to randomize and represent the vagaries of Medieval command. Dice are 20-sided, with 1 being the best and 20 being the worst. Basing is standard WRG with stands of figures organized into units, like MW and unlike DBM. There are two levels of game, a Basic Game and an Advanced Game.

As the warlord, you start out by picking a ‘domain’ or army to use (8 are included with the rules and more are up on the DoB II website). The domain you pick determines your available choices for your army. Once you have determined your domain, you get to pick your army. The size of your army is to a large degree dependent on your ‘Social Rank’ with a king obviously attracting a larger army than a lesser noble. A randomized card draw adds additional forces to your army.

Once you have seen what size army you can ‘buy’, you build your units. Foot units are from 1-12 stands in size while cavalry units are from 1-6 stands each. In the Basic Game, all stands within a unit have the same weapons, morale and number of figures, but mixed units are allowed in the Advanced Game, along with specialized formations such as wedges.

After you have your army, you then decide on what type of campaign you wish to fight. This is largely dependent on the size of your army. A small army (14-20 Army Points) will pick a Raid. A Probe is for larger armies (21-40 Army Points) while a still larger force (40 or more Army Points) can opt for Invade.

Battles are fought on a 4’ x 4’ table. Terrain is determined by the draw of cards, with the defender getting the first piece, then alternating. If you are using Probe or Invade, you can try to send units on an off-board flank march, but it may not arrive! Ambushes are also available to use.

When a battle begins, you may challenge your opponent to personal combat or just start fighting. Cards are again drawn to determine who has the initiative to go first. There is no ‘Command Radius’, but you are limited in the number of commands (orders) you can give each turn. Units may attempt to maneuver (move, change formation, etc.), fire or rally. Missile fire is adjudicated by the number of stands shooting and is not simultaneous. The unit with a higher rate of fire (longbows have a higher rate of fire than crossbows) get to fire first, the enemy removes casualties and takes his disorder/morale penalty then gets to shoot back. There are standard modifiers to determine the effectiveness of fire. The 20-sided dice are rolled, one per stand firing to determine hits.

Close combat is also done on a stand basis, with a number of modifiers applied. There are modifiers for knights, uphill, better quality troops, etc. One thing in DoB II is the desire to capture the enemy leaders. There is a big plus for advancing oneself in honor and social standing if enemy leaders are captured and not just killed. Morale is pretty straight forward as well, with the battle continuing until an army has lost all of its personalities, it has lost 1/3 of its army points, no unit is within 15” of an enemy unit for three turns, or no combat or missile fire has taken place for five turns. Once the battle concludes, the warlord determines how much he advances in rank.

This rules set is a good, solid effort. The mechanisms are clean and quick to learn and the combats are decisive. For anyone looking to get a feel of the Feudal period with all of its underlying politics as well as experience of battle, DoB II fills the bill.

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