"...As the Byzantine soldiers waded ashore in North Africa, Emperor Justinian's long-held dream of reconquering the West was underway. His favorite general, Belisarius, was at their head, and a fleet of almost 600 ships behind them. Somewhere, in the arid and hilly interior in front of them, King Gelimer and the Vandal army awaited..."

This was the scenario for a De Bellis Antiquitatis (DBA) game I ran at Origins (as part of the HOT2K project). Each year, I put on a historical refight using "big battle" DBA rules (more than 12 elements per side) at Origins, and the Battle of Ad Decimum, 533 A.D., was this year's scenario. I feel DBA is an excellent Ancients rules set for a convention game. The actual movement, combat, etc., rules take up only three pages, so explanation time lasts about 20 minutes. Players pick up the mechanics quickly and are soon maneuvering their armies to contact.

In the battle, the Vandals of North Africa to tried to ambush the invading Byzantines. It is a wilder affair than most of my scenarios. Both armies are entirely mounted (Belisarius put his infantry into camp before the battle and the Vandals were mounted nearly to a man). About 2/3 of each army are "Cavalry" and 1/3 "Light Horse" troop types in DBA.

Two of the Byzantine commands march onto the the table in a one-element wide column, one behind the other, along a road that runs from their left center to the far right corner on the Vandal baseline. A third command, which includes a substantial force of Hun mercenaries, deploys more normally to guard the army's left. The Vandals begin with a small, blocking command on the road, which leads to their capital, Carthage, 10 miles away. The other commands arrive on the second and fourth turns of the game in two or three element wide columns, respectively, galloping around or over hills, hoping to surprise the Byzantines.

The players are immediately put into the minds of Belisarius and Gelimer -- having to make crucial choices early. Each command contains a minimum of six stands of troops. The players decide how to divide the remaining forces (each side totals 30 elements). For example, if Gelimer makes his blocking force too weak (commanded by his younger brother, Ammatas), it will quickly be ridden down. If he strengthens it too much, his flanking forces may lack punch. On the other side, Belisarius must decide how many troops are needed to augment the Huns. Historically, the Huns needed no help, slaughtering a force several times their size. However, on the tabletop, the Vandal warlord Gibamund may prove a stouter foe, and swamp a too-small force. Give the Hun chieftain too many troops, though, and Belisarius may not have enough to fight off Gelimer or punch through Ammatas' blocking force.

SCenario Changes

I made several changes to the DBA rules for the scenario. I changed the Vandal heavy horsemen from the Knight class DBA recommends, to something I call "Impetuous Cavalry." This is basically the same Cavalry class the Byzantine heavy horse are, but one that retains the Knight's pursuit of beaten or destroyed foes. The net effects are reducing their combat factor by one, but protecting them from quick kill (a feature of the rules where Knights are destroyed by Light Horse, rather than simply recoiling from them). I had invented the Impetuous Cavalry class for my "Justinian's Wars" campaign, was pleased with its results, so applied it here.

Another scenario change was command and control. As normal, each player rolled 1d6 for his "pips" -- the number of stands or groups of stands that he could move. However, I modified this roll by his command's losses. For example, if a command began with 12 stands, it would become Hesitant and subtract one from his roll after 1/3 losses. At one half losses (6 stands), it became Shaken. Stands of Shaken commands paid an extra pip to move into contact with enemy. If he lost 2/3's of his command (9 stands), it would become Demoralized. Demoralized commands paid the penalties above (-1 to pips, extra pip to contact enemy), plus all stands for whom their were insufficient pips to move would flee 6" towards their table edge.

The entire army broke at one half losses (15 stands), rather than the DBA recommended one third. I'd played enough DBA to know an all Cavalry and Light Horse battle would be quick, furious and deadly. The players would feel unsatisfied if it ended at 1/3 losses.

Historically, Ammatas' blocking force on the road to Carthage was poorly handled. It dribbled out of the gates of Carthage in troops and small companies, rather than arriving on the field together. When Ammatas and his advance guard were routed, these small groups were ridden down and slaughtered piecemeal. To give this effect, Ammatas began the battle with three stands of troops near the juncture of the board edge and road. Beginning turn two, the player controlling Ammatas picked an opponent, each rolling 1d6. If Ammatas' roll was higher, one more of the stands allotted to him showed up. If not, they remained off table. This mechanic, adapted from my friend Tim Donovan, injected a random element along with a little uncertainty into the minds of the players.

Hun "Fear"

Although the days of Attila's Hun empire were long past, they were still feared and respected warriors during this period. At Ad Decimum, 500 Huns routed more than 2000 Vandals, prying open one of the jaws of Gelimer's trap. To give the player controlling Sinnion the Hun chieftain a chance to repeat this, I added a rule making the Vandals "fear" the Huns. I represented this by giving Hun stands a +1 in combat at the beginning of the game. Once any Vandal elements had fought any Hun elements, the Vandal player would have a chance to end this fear. Beginning on the next turn, the Hun player picked an opponent and each rolled 1d6. If the Vandal outscored the Hun, the fear was gone, and the Huns lost their +1 thereafter.

I also gave the Byzantines two stands of "Guard" Cavalry. Belisarius was a careful general and knew the Vandal army was nearby. So, he concentrated his Scholae into the vanguard. I represented this by making two stands of Cavalry in John the Armenian's command (the van) +1 in combat for the game.

With all the variable elements in this scenario, I hoped it would prove exciting and different each time. At Origins, the Huns repeated their historical success. Great Lakes member Steve Smith bottled up his opponent, then slaughtered his impetuous troopers at leisure. In our final playtest prior to the con, the opposite was true. As Gibamund, I drove through the Huns, scattering or destroying their forces. Interestingly enough, in both games the Vandal fear of the Huns lasted only one turn.

At Origins, Ammatas' cavalry, run by new Great Lakes recruit Greg Crane, was unable to roll well enough to get his troops ontable. Still, he scored most of the Vandal successes for that battle. While in our final playtest, they arrived before contact was made. It was Ammatas' losses, though, that dragged the Vandal down to defeat in that game (we were SO close to beating them, though!).

As such, I think "Ad Decimum" is a keeper. I will likely run this again at cons in the future. I may tweak the troops lists (which I've included below) or special rules a little, but I am happy with the speed and flow of the game. So, perhaps Justinian will have to wait awhile longer to reconquer the rest of the West, as North Africa seems to be quite enjoyable.

Byzantine Forces
John the Armenian	Belisarius	Sinnion the Hun
2 Guard Cavalry	4 Cavalry	3 Hun Cavalry
2 Cavalry	2 Light Horse	3 Hun Light Horse
2 Light Horse	-	-
Other troops (allocated in batches of three as listed)
3 Cavalry 3 Herul Cavalry (impetuous, as Vandals) 3 Light Horse 3 Light Horse

Vandal Forces
Ammatas	Gibamund	Gelimer
3 Impetuous Cavalry*	3 Impetuous Cavalry*	3 Impetuous Cavalry*
Other troops (allocated in batches of three as listed)
4 batches of 2 Impetuous Cavalry, 1 Light Horse 3 batches of 1 Impetuous Cavalry, 2 Light Horse
* Each command must be assigned a minimum of six elements