F&I War recomendations.

[mbrien]

I have been playing DBA for a few months and I have Quebec 1759 by Columbia games. I was thinking of using DBA for the battles and Quebec 1759 for a campaign engine. I would like suggestions on what variation of DBA I should use and if anyone has used Quebec 1759 to generate battles?

Thanks

Mark

[Paul Potter]

You've come to the right place. There are all kinds of varient rules floating around out there. Here is a link to some of them that might be of use to you: http://www.fanaticus.org/DBA/periodadaptations/index.html

[Dale Hurtt]

I would suggest using HOTT as the basis for the variant. The Lurker concept fits well with ambushes and such that you would find the the F&IW. You don't need to go back very far in the messages to find others using HOTT for this period.

The main thing is: what scale do you want to game at? Given that most F&IW will be in the 100's to the low 1000's for most fights, DBA scale is really stretching it. So that means having to recognize that musket fire is probably longer than close combat.

Let's break out my AWI based for DBA and give a game a try and you can see some of the issues that need to be worked out.

[Tim in Saskatoon]

We've been using the DBA Extension 1500-1900 (http://ermtony.pbworks.com/DBA+Extension+1500-1900AD) by Tony Barr.

We've played a couple battles in the last couple weeks:

French Attack Fort Ofwego (http://saskminigamer.blogspot.com/2010/02/french-attack-fort-ofwego.html)

French Attack For Harilon (http://saskminigamer.blogspot.com/2010/02/french-attack-fort-harilon.html)

After the second game we were discussing the possibility of some sort of campaign and my friend Gary suggested for a small campaign we could use Quebec 1759 as a scenario generator. I've never played the game and we obviously haven't tried it just yet as a campaign system... But the fact someone else was thinking along the same lines I would assume mean it can't be a terrible idea.

If you get to trying it out before we do let us know how it works out!

[Terry37]

My plan is to also use DBA-HX for gaming this period, but with a few modifications in troop types that I feel make it play better - Indians and Rangers as Jagers, and LI as Auxilia basically. Barry Scarlett in Australia has played them and advises that he likes how they work.

To me the issue is, that being usually such small engagements do you have each element represent a battalion/regiment or do you have several elements represent them? And if the latter do you then require that all elements of a battalion/regiment must be kept together? My thinking is that if you go with this latter point, then you have defeated the concept of DBA mechanics and so I tend to lean toward the first option.

It is also adaptable to doing HotT armies allowing for some Hero elements easily.

Regardless, a great period to do and some very cool uniforms (as Barry and Tim have well shown)!

Terry

[mbrien]

Dale,
I would like to try it out, I would like to be able to do both small engagements and the large one, Quebec. I have a set of rules called General de Brigade that I might try to modify to fight big battles but I still think DBA will be the way to go. I have not used HOTT so I will need to get with you and see what I can figure out.

Tom,
I have played Quebec 1759 a number of times and it is fun, and I think it would be easy to convert to a battle generator for F&I war. Each "unit" is a wood block and has a strength of 1-4, I was thinking that the unit strength would equal one stand of the appropriate unit, Militia, Regular, etc.. I am not sure which route to go yet but I will get with Dale and see how HOTT works.

Thanks any more recommendations would be great!

Mark:up

[lewchips]

I originally started out basing my troops for DBX but I now use a set designed by Terry and must say that I've really enjoyed the games I've played. With regards to rules as long as the outcomes seem reasonable for the period being gamed, I having fun and get an opportunity to push my toys around, then I am pretty happy. These work on both accounts :2up
Here is a report and some photos from the games I've played: http://leadbear.webs.com/fiwbattlereports.htm

Another thing I should add is that I'm not overly concerned about the scale of the armies in my F&IW games so don't pay too much attention to the composition of my armies. For what it's worth I started painting a couple of elements per regiment and just stuck with that out of convenience and I kind of like the aesthetics :D

I also plan to play a few games using HotT and have started to create a few elements for this.

I'd also recommend visiting Mr Farrow's DBA page for a great report of a F&IW game:
http://mrfarrow2udba1519k.blogspot.com/2008/10/dba-15-19k-fiw-british-vs-french.html

[mbrien]

Hi this is Mark again,
Any more suggestions for the French and Indian War?

Thanks

Mark