I dislike DBM (but at the moment it is the only game in town), though I feel that it is curable.
1) Adopt average 2,3,3,4,4,5 dice for PIPs. This seems to be a common theme among other folks though it seems an idea which is really liked or really hated in the field. The argument that this makes Irregular impetuous troops too cohesive is just plain b.s. What it means is that the barbarians can hold on as long as they are in one group per command or two in the C-in-C's, which does not seem unreasonable.
2} Weight overlaps and flank attacks differently than currently done. Flank attacks should probably receive full combat value (infantry should not cause death to recoiling mounted). Overlaps at a minimum should probably be +2 for mounted or faster or missile overlapping, +1 for others as currently is the case, with certain types immune .
3) Earlier Romans are treated badly and do not receive at least one of their historical advantages, i.e. the ability to easily replace beaten up troops with fresh. Therefore, Roman Reg Bd (O) (for God forbid that Legio should be a different troop type from Medieval halberdiers!) should be able to interpenetrate each other and either move backwards as a group or about face and move as a group.
4) Interpenetration in general really needs to be looked at (not only in DBM). Lots of mounted troops, from what I glean from my reading (much of your stuff, Terry, as well as others), seemed to be able to break off combat as large groups and even somehow get behind friendly supporting infantry without causing a disaster.
5) Points costs of troops need to be adjusted as rules change. Just one example: war wagons have become a lot more dangerous with each rules change, yet remain at 10 points.
6) As a competitive 'game', the impact of dice is really too heavy given the 1 through 6 spread of possibilities. Softening it in the PIPs with average dice is the most important. But it should also be looked at for combat. I think having at least Regulars, if not all, use average dice for combat would help. Of course, this would lead to a higher incidence of long, evenly matched lines slugging it out with little or no movement until something happens, but is that bad?
7) Movement of impetuous troops at the moment is time consuming and rarely done correctly, BO it should be changed to something like: Impetuous groups and elephants move straight ahead at maximum rate, changing direction only to line up with the closest enemy units except for those which they ignore. Impetuous groups expand two element widths per bound if depth exceeds that which gives legal rear support. Impetuous elements which are in overlap position may and must move into flank contact if they are otherwise legally able to.
Of course, the most likely changes in the 1.3 edition will have something to do with the abilities of camels and/or something to do with making suicide maneuvers even more suicidal, though oddly useful in some situations, along with of course a couple of good things.
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© Copyright 1996 by Terry Gore
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