Most of us who play miniatures and have computers have tried the computer games that compare themselves to miniatures rules. And most of these fall woefully short of a tabletop game. Some come close in their look, some in their rules, and some are just neat ideas. But they all have faults that leave you wishing for a face-to-face game. As in the "Great Battles" series of games by Interactive Magic, they are good games, but have no rules set to play face-to-face with.

The largest problem with most computer games is the AI (or artificial intelligence) that runs the computer opponent. It is either so simple that it makes the game easy to win, or the AI is so much better at the rules that it becomes almost impossible to beat. And if the game has a play by e-mail or Internet ability, it seems you have to be a computer whiz kid to get it to work.

The frustration is that no one to this point had brought together the computer and a set of rules that worked together. Well, for those of us who like De Bellis Antiquitatis (DBA) Ancient rules, it has finally happened. DBA OnLine (DBAOL) by Wargaming.net is the closest thing to playing a face-to-face game on a computer that I have ever found. I fell into the game during the beta testing period when the game was still full of problems or bugs. The designers listened and fixed all the major problems. It now stands to me as the first true miniatures game online.

It follows the DBA 1.2 rules, which can be a little problem for those of us that still use the 1.1 rules for face-to-face. And since Phil Barker, Richard Bodley Scott and Sue Laflin Barker had input to the game, these are the official 1.22 rules. Great Lakes member Bob Beattie, David Kuijt and Chris Brantley also had input into the game during beta testing, as did a group of about 30 others, who weathered the bugs to see this game through. Most of our input was explaining how the rules worked on the tabletop, so that way they work the same in the online game.

It includes all the DBA armies and options for those armies. Most of the popular armies have been "painted," that is, they have had miniature-like icons attached to their bases. If they aren't painted, they are plain base-sized units with the type marked. They plan to have all 170 armies painted in the future; those done so far do match their historical types. They ask for help in researching information about armies from time to time. So, gamers have had and do have input in several ways. The only draw back, so far, is that there are fewer than 30 boards to play on. They are working on ways to build a board as the rules state and plan to have it ready when they go to DBA 2.0.

DBAOL plays like a face-to-face game in all the important ways -- from challenging an opponent to a game, to playing in tournaments and campaigns against people from all over the world. Players from two different sides of the world can play games against each other, without the cost of a plane ticket! Right now, I am playing people in England, Australia, and Russia. I have played against people in Hong Kong, Japan, Belarus, and New Zealand. It brings the DBA world together, I feel.

There are 95 members of the DBAOL Club and 288 players who aren't. Being a Club member allows you to play the full game as the rules state. If a non-member, you play only to the first three kills. The cost is $9.95 a month, and while that seems high to some people, it is a bargain to me! In the last month, I have played 54 games (more than I've played since I began playing face-to-face) and figure that the cost per game is 18 cents a game (with an average of 17 bounds, or turns, per game). That's pretty cheap entertainment when a movie without food can cost $8!

If you are interested in DBA, I suggest you look up the "DBA Resource Page" by Chris Brantley. The page has links to players, to the DBA bulletin board and to DBAOL. The site is http://fanaticus.jiffynet.net/DBA/.