Welcome to our campaign rules for the period 1350 – 1400. These rules are to be used in addition to the excellent campaign rules to be found in version 2.2 of De Bellis Antiquitatis. The campaign is set to begin in August 2015 and I very much hope you enjoy taking part or reading of the progress. From the very outset let me say that the campaign is designed for ‘gentlemen players’ not the uber- competitive so feel free to stop reading now……
The aim is to complete one campaign season in one calendar month. That does require players to make decisions in quite a short time. Please don’t take offence if a decision is made for you if time passes and no reply/ excuse/ special pleading is received. I will publish a monthly campaign report on the blog and RobJ is helping me set up a forum for players to use for intrigue and double-dealing. Please use our forum for contact with other players and remember to let myself know what has been agreed so that can be incorporated into the narrative. Each season, the players will be given the order of play. There is advantage to having fought and conquered in the previous season so fence sitters beware! And so the extra rules……
Resources
Each player commands a kingdom made of a number of provinces. You will get one field army and one more for every three provinces that you control at the start of each year. All field armies are brought up to full strength in the winter of each year and will be of the standard D.B.A. Army composition of twelve elements. If you have either gained or lost provinces then you may of course either increased or decreased the number of field armies.
The Campaign Year
Before the Spring turn, the players will tell me where their armies are located. Those who have spies may also be given information on troop deployments which may or may not be wholly accurate! Also before Spring, players are required to declare war on any competing nations. Each turn players will send me the instructions for their armies. These will be used by me to set up the battles and sieges. If two armies cross the same province then a meeting engagement will be fought if the nations are at war.
Movement
Armies may move up to two provinces in their turn by land. You can also load your army onto ships from a province with a coastline and move to another coastal province in the same ‘sea area’. Moving from one sea area to another takes a season. The sea areas are marked on the base map e.g. North Sea, Eastern Mediterranean and so on.. You cannot pass through an area controlled by another player without their agreement. It is to your conscience how you get that agreement. Before you enter the province of a nation that you at war with, you can ask for allies to join you on your invasion. The allies must be able to move by land or sea into the disputed province. Once you have moved, the defender can also ask for allies before battle is joined.
Supply
A player’s field army is in supply if it is either in or next to a province that he controls. Control is marked on the base map. Control is determined by being the last army to enter the province, with the exclusion of troops passing through with agreement. An out of supply army will suffer as per the DBA campaign rules in the Winter turn.
Players may launch a ‘chevalanche’ through an opponent’s provinces. This stops the enemy player gaining resources from a single province that the chevalanche passed through that year. You will not be able to raise revenue from this province for D6 years. Those peasants have long memories!
Giving battle
Battles between multiple armies will be handled by big battle DBA. If you are unable to actually fight the conflict we can either arrange another (hopefully reliable and competent) player to play the game. Alternatively, the outcome will be decided by the table below;
Ratio attacker to defender/ D6 roll
Ratio : One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six
1:1 AL. AL. AR. DR. DL. DL
2:1. AL. AR. DR. DR. DL. DE
3:1 or greater. AR. DR. DR. DL. DE. DE
A= Attacker. D= Defender, L= lost battle, R= retreat, E= eliminated
Loss = four elements destroyed Eliminated= oh dear!
The defender can also opt not to face the invader on the field of battle but to withdraw into one of the province’s strongholds. We assume that each province would have at least one. If only the attacker has artillery then the stronghold will fall on a five or a six as per DBA campaign.
Prestige
Prestige points are the aim of the game. The points are;
each enemy element killed +1
each camp or artillery element destroyed +2
each enemy general killed or city captured +3
At the end of the game, players will also receive five points for every province or sea area that they exclusively control in the last turn of the last year.
Thank you for taking the time to read all this. As always comments and suggestions welcomed..
Updated 26th July…thanks to Hourofwolves.com for great ideas from Cry Havoc campaign!
Despertaferres 
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