At CANGAMES this year I ran a multiplayer DBA game, turned out to be a lot of fun and interesting at the same time. The game was actually run twice. And the results were the same both times. Here is a map of the terrain setup and starting positions.

The Roman legions (top of map) were made up of primarily blades with artillery in the centre and strong cavalry on the wings. The Ptolemaic centre had the bulk of the Macedonian pikemen, Elephant, artillery and Knights. On the left were Galatian warbands, pikemen, and Thracians. On the right were Libyan Heavy Chariots, Pikemen, and Aeotolian cavalry and auxiliaries. The large river could only be crossed at the bridge.

In the first game, the Roman objective vas to get across the bridge and destroy as much of the Ptoleaaic army as possible. The Roman player started off with a legion on the right and a legion in the centre. The third legion had to enter behind the centre legion on turn two.

The Ptolemaic player on the left managed to get some of his troops across the bridge and destroy the Roman artillery before it could be used, but lost 2 light horse units in the process. The Roman player then managed to destroy a psiloi unit and the Ptolemaic right was in trouble. The Roman player deployed his centre and left legions in one long line and moved them as one unit. This allowed the Ptolemaic players to pick at the ends without really engaging the bulk of the Roman forces.

The Romans on the left quickly lost 3 units and was in trouble. The legion on the Roman right was ordered to march to the bridge along the Roman edge of the map avoiding the Ptoleaaic forces. This allowed the Ptoleaaic: to concentrate their forces on the Roman centre and left. Disaster struck the Romans when in one turn the centre legion lost its commander and the legion on the left lost its fourth stand. Both Legions were forced to withdraw. This left the legion on the Right alone facing 3 Ptolemaic commands, only one of which was in any serious danger. The game ended with a complete victory for Mark Antony and Cleopatra.

In the second game, our troops couldn't skirmish under 7th. The fatigue rules will also allow for playable EHI, though SHI will still be scarce.

Well Tom and I test drove these rules. We only got 3 turns in but I will give you our first impressions:

1) We thought the impact of missile fire may be too restrictive on the ability of armies to get into contact.

2) We both were a little uneasy about rolling for movement, where an army can get out rolled and his opponent can run circles around him.

3) We liked the melee combat, it seemed well balanced.

4) We didn't like the getting into males restrictions, or rather the charge/response range problems. This may just be a matter of adjusting to the new system though.

I have already thought up 3 rules which could improve the system but I will not talk of them here, you guys can try them out first and see what you think.