De Bellis Velitum

 DVB is a set of skirmish rules based on DBA system and written in 1991 by the same author, Phil Barker. The rules were never published and are unfinished but as I was idle, I translated them for my own amusement into Spanish which is my mother tongue, and also added some ideas of my own to fill missed bits from the rules.

Below you can see three games I played in a row yesterday together with some thoughts, but there is a better review of DBV in this guy's blog than I could possibly write and that I mostly agree with so I won't bother to poorly repeat what he wrote.

Anyway, Phil recommends to play with 25mm miniatures mounted on individual bases but I only have 1/72 scale models on round bases, but the game can be played equally as well.

First game was with a band of Saxons with one blade, three spears, one bow, two peltasts and one skirmisher on the left versus a bad of Vikings on the right with three blades, three peltasts and one bowman. All groups with 24 army points each. 

I deployed them in two columns with the heavy infantry on the road and the fast shooters on one side next to forest and difficult hill.

The first game went slow as I had to check the charts a lot, and also the blades and spears moved very slow and took them four turns to clash.

While they were struggling forward, shooters exchanged a few shots and the Saxon skirmisher on the hill was the first blood in the encounter.

Then the Saxons disabled one Viking peltast and also forced their archer in the woods to move back.

Finally, the Vikings charged and the melee was fast and bloody. The result of the fight was quite random and anything could habe happened. After the clash, the Saxons were decimated and demoralized and the game was over.

So far I did not like the rules and I saw them a bit clunky and slow. Then I played a second game with the same Vikings versus a Norman band in which I included some cavalry. They were two knights, three spears and one crossbow for a 24 army points. 

Vikings chose the left side to deploy, hoping to defend the bank of the waterway with their blades while their peltasts and bowman shoot from the forest.

Norman cavalry marched to the opposite flank to avoid shooting and also to try to cross an undefended side of the stream. Norman spears again slowly crawled forward while a few shots were exchanged from both sides as bows have 48 paces range.

Norman knights didn't wait for the rest of his group and charged through the creek. Vikings defended the bank (+1 to combat) but one of the blades was disabled by a knight just because of the dice rolls.

Later, the Viking archer put down the Norman one and then I sent the three peltasts to help against the Norman knights as their spearmen will never get to reach them.

In the end, luck was on Norman side and they killed all the Viking blades including their leader, plus one peltast. 

Knowing the rules better, this game the game was much smoother, faster and fun.

In the third and last game I introduced more cavalry and also made two subunits on each side to give them more flexibility and try new concepts as well. This time were Normans facing cavalry from the Lord of the Rings, but let's pretend they were Bretons or something like that. They had a unit consisting of two knights and another one with three cavalrymen equipped with bows. Here, one of the rules I amended is that shooters on horse can shoot 360º and not only forward, just like war wagons in DBA.

Normans deployed on the right to defend from the fence (house rule +1 in combat) between the forest and the house. Both sides faced each other and exchanged shots without any effect for a couple of turns. Then the "Bretons" used a high roll to charge with the knights supported by one of the archers on horse while the other two tried to outflank and distract the Norman infantry. They could shot down the Norman crossbowman but their knights were stopped on their tracks.

Norman knights disabled one of the Breton knights and then their spears closed down and trapped the Breton archers on horse against the buildings.

Then, they killed the last Breton knight, who was their leader, plus the supporting archer on horse. Combat again was total random madness and Normans were luckier. Their spearmen also killed another horse archer and the last one bolted away.

The second game was better than the first, and the third even better than the second one. I think this ruleset can be played as it is and that it can be fun. However, I also think that nowadays are better and faster skirmish games than this one. I think it might be fun to play a multiplayer general melee with four players, each one with a group starting from one of the sides of the board, but I don't see the game suitable for campaigns or connected scenarios, just for an occasional beer and pretzel game with some friends.