As you can see by reviewing my fabulous record in the Reiter championship last year, I am something of an expert in losing DBR games. Consequently, I have decided to offer you guys the chance to profit from my mistakes. Actually, I'm not all that bad a general, and some of my losses have actually been close. With a little luck they could have been victories. (Loren and I actually finished last in a tournament last year even though we never lost a game and caused more KIA's than we suffered in all the games. Go figure.) Anyway, here are my observations.

1. Draft an army to fit your opponents. Most armies allow a variety of troop types. Take advantage of this to exploit your opponents weaknesses and try to set up the chance to kill the enemy by simply beating them without having to double them. If you are fighting Sipahis try to load up on Lancers. If you are fighting War Wagons load up on Artillery.
2. Masked Cannons - wasted army points. If you have Artillery you need to set them up in such a way so that your advancing troops don't mask their fire after the first couple of turns. If this is unavoidable, you'd be better off spending the points on other troop types.
3. Employ baggage guards when facing a mobile enemy. This is particularly true when fighting Steve Lee (At least when he fights me!). He's got all this Light Cavalry racing all over the board just itching for the chance to loot your baggage. If you can't match the speed you to have guards.
4. Use of Skirmishers. Skirmishers are very useful troops when it comes to protecting the slow moving Pike blocks from fire as they are advancing to contact. However, you ought to keep a couple of things in mind. First, keep them several base depths (at least) in front of the Pikes. This way, even if they have to recoil, they can still protect the pikes. Additionally, you can save pips as they only have to move once for every two Pike moves. Second, once the Pikes have made contact the Skirmishers should move off to the side of the Pike to stop enemy shot from blasting away the 2nd and 3rd ranks of Pike before you close.
5. Try not to attack at a disadvantage. In a recent game against Russ T., I made the mistake of attacking enemy Pistols with Pikes. Oops, a simple loss killed two Pike elements - one of which was a General. If at all possible, avoid attacking where a simple loss kills ya dead.
6. Avoid unnecessary risks to General. In another recent game with Russ I got a General killed of when he recoiled into bad terrain (oops). The worst part was that he was a supporting element, so he didn't even get a chance to use his bonus factor. If it can be avoided, don't put a General in the position where a simple loss or recoil will kill him.
7. Don't attack where the enemy wants you to. As Napoleon said: "...The fact that he wants you to is reason enough not to do it." In an early game with Steve Lee he did a good job of psyching me our with his terrain selection. He had his primary striking force on his left flank (my right) and refused his right (my left), which was strengthened with Artillery. Like a dummy, I attacked his refused flank with vigor only to have the cohesion broken up by the Artillery before I got there. In the mean time, he won the game on he right flank before I even got engaged on the refused flank.
8. Keep a mobile reserve. Reserves need to be able to move fast enough to quickly respond to a breach anywhere on the battlefield. Additionally, it is equally important to be able to exploit an enemy breach quickly. Superior Blades may be great troops for attacking but if they can't move fast enough they won't be much help.
9. Don't waste time killing the "dead". A recent game against Clif and Loren was lost because I spent too much time killing the steadied elements of a beaten command. Once a command is beaten all of its elements count as lost already (whether KIA, routed or steadied) so it doesn't profit you anything to go after the steadied units. Go after the other commands instead.

   Lastly, and most importantly:

10. Don't roll ones!! The dice is mightier than the sword!