TRANSFYXIA: THE DBM CAMPAIGN

This campaign is set in a fictional world, using DBM Rules to fight battles and DBM lists to create fictional armies. It is fairly abstract the main intention is for it to be a game generator to provide a variety of DBM table-top games. It won't impact much on your time because you don't have to fight a battle until you are available. There will be 18 countries on the map.

This is the second edition of these rules and hopefully it will force players into more of the 'spirit' of this campaign. It is intended to be fast moving, with short decisive wars but allowing defeated players to easily recover and fight again, players are never knocked out so there should be no reason to be upset by small setbacks.

The turn structure confuses a lot of people. Think of a peacetime turn as being a 'season', during that season not a lot happens most of the time, but a war might happen. A war turn is a day or a few days, during a war there will be a lot of preparation and mucking around time, then the fighting will all happen pretty quickly. If the war drags on into another season there is a possibility that it will escalate.

It should not be too much work in umpiring and there is no reason why someone else can't have a turn umpiring later on, provided the rules don't change.

A list of players and their contact details is attached, and a map is attached, please check your details and send any amendments to the umpire.

Anything not specifically defined in these rules will be decided by the umpire 'Kriegspiel' style, i.e. the umpire will consider the likelihood of various outcomes and roll a dice makes the final decision.

TRANSFYXIAN TIMES

Players are expected to provide a news or propaganda report on their battles or wars each week, the umpire hopefully won't need to write much material. These should be sent in by email, or floppy disk. Since the majority have email it will be circulated this way, for those who don't have email they will be expected to get a 'Hotmail' account, and use Cafes or a friends PC.

All the campaign information will also be regularly posted onto this web site. If you don't want your personal details published in cyberspace let me know.

Game Turns

Peacetime orders can be lodged with the umpire once a week by any player not currently at war, they can be sent to the umpire by email by or phone by 7pm each Monday. They can include; movement within your borders or at sea, the declaration of war, asking an intelligence question, or the declaration or cancellation of alliances. Up to three players may declare war on another player in alliance, but they must state if they are doing so otherwise the first received has precedence.

All orders to move commands must include a stance, these are; Aggressive, Cautious, Scouting, Defensive, Peacetime, Retreat. Peace time moves always have a Peacetime stance. Even if not moving a stance must be declared for each command during a war turn, otherwise Defensive is the default. You cannot move into the territory of another player unless you declare war either against him or in alliance with him.

Once a war is declared the player attacked has until 9pm Monday to call in any alliances or favours from up to two other players, the players involved are then deemed to be at war, nobody else can declare war on any of them until after the first battle is fought.

Players then decide when they will fight the first battle, then organise with the umpire how and when to submit orders for the war moves that will result in the first battle. Often the easiest way will be for the umpire to do so at the beginning of the meeting in which the battle is to be fought, if not by telephone or email during the week to the schedule set by the umpire. Orders lodged before the results of the previous moves are reported by the umpire will be ignored, unless previously agreed.

Players are then expected to report back to the umpire with a typed soft copy of a report or propaganda to be included in the 'Transfyxian Times'.

At the next peacetime turn after the first battle is fought each side can have one other player join the war by declaring war during his peacetime turn, and again after the second and so on.

First Orders

Your first orders need to include an army list, the base province for each command (this is also it's starting position) there may be only one command based in each province (the CinC's command must be based in the capital). The Navy must also have a base, but may share it's base with a land command. The capital and both major towns must have a command based in them before any of the other provinces can.

Alliances

Players can form defensive or offensive alliances at peacetime move, these can be public or secret, they are not binding and are taken between players on trust.

A defensive alliance means that if your ally is attacked you are expected to aid him, an offensive alliance means that if your ally gets involved in any war you are expected to aid him.

Secret alliances are just that, public alliances are announced to the umpire, he will publish them in the Transfyxian Times, and will also notify the ally if you get involved in a war and ask if you intend to honour your agreement.

Winning a War

Once both players agree that a war has been won it is time to negotiate the spoils. The first time that one player defeats another the most he can ask for is to annex one province, preferably one that has a border with his country, in an alliance up to two winning players can expect a province each provided that provinces without large towns are taken first.

The second time a player defeats another player in a war he can ask for the losing player to become his vassal if the loser starts with half or less the number of provinces of the victor.

In a war if a players army is defeated twice if the umpire considers it is unlikely he'll win he can force a settlement on the losers, there will be no guerrilla wars.

Provinces should change hands pretty quickly, I mean what's the big deal? under these rules it's easy to make a comeback.

Any other mutual agreements players wish to come to are OK, the umpire may be asked to adjudicate if necessary.

After peace is declared the winning player may not declare another war on the loser until after one or the other has been involved in another war that has ended.

Once peace is declared each players army is increased, restored, or reduced to the sum total of his economic value. If increased, or restored, each command can only be increased by a maximum of 30 points per peacetime turn until it reaches the correct level if stationed in the home base, 15 points if not.

Provinces

Each player controls one country, each country starts with 6 provinces, the colour on the map indicates which country it belongs to.

The terrain in the province is defined on the map and will indicate what is available in a province when fighting a battle, terrain items listed in Bold are compulsory.

The economic value of a province is also indicated on the map, a large "O" contains the capital city it's economic value is 140, a small "o" contains a large town it's economic value is 70, other provinces have an economic value of 40.

Army Construction

Each player has an army of a points value determined by the sum of the economic value of his country, it is up to the player to determine how many commands and how each command is to be structured.

Losses and reinforcements are determined in points value, so an under strength command will be composed of a proportion of its original elements according to the available points. It is at the players discretion to choose what troop types are left out, provided that compulsories are included or in an off table command. Commands that are increased in strength can have anything available in the army list added to the original set-up. This is taken on trust, the umpire will not be policing what players bring onto the table, and shouldn't have to.

New commands can be added as follows; if the armies total strength is up to 400pts it must be divided into 2-4 commands, 401-600 it can have 3-6, 601-700 it has 4-7 and so on.

Once a player has taken over another players province he can, if he wishes, raise an allied command from that players army list to be based in that province, or he can use the extra economic value to boost the rest of his army, or raise anther command from his own list.

If a province is lost to another player the command that is based in that province is disbanded, any points left over once the army strength is compared with the country's economic value is transferred to other commands. If a province that does not have a command based in it is lost the loss in points value can be taken off any of the command(s).

Command Movement

Armies may each turn move to any adjacent province (whether in peacetime or war), the speed that a command is capable of does not affect this. The speed with which a command arrives on a battlefield will depend on it's type and the stance the commander chooses. Mountain or desert provinces can cause delay, as can being transported by the Navy.

The types of command are:
Light: Light Horse only, the Generals element can be Cv or Kn (F).
Cavalry: Cv (with supporting Ps), LH, Kn (F), and Cm only.
Normal: Any other command.

The speed with which an command arrives on the battlefield is determined as follows:

	Aggressive	Cautious	Scouting	Defensive	Peacetime	Retreat
Light	Fast	Medium	Fast	Medium	Fast	Fast
Cavalry	Fast	Slow	Medium	Slow	Medium	Fast
Normal	Medium	Slow	Slow	Slow	Medium	Medium

Where more than one allied command is to converge on a battlefield the relative speeds will determine the bound each arrives.

Naval Movement

Each player has one Navy which is large enough to transport up to 400pts worth of land troops, it can be moved in any sea area or coastal province. It can move from one sea area or coastal province to another, it cannot co-exist in the same area as an enemy Navy, but can co-exist with neutral navies.

A Navy gets two movement points per turn, it costs one movement point to embark or disembark (between a coastal province and a sea area) land troops, and one movement point per space moved.

In peacetime or wartime it can be ordered to transport an army from one place to another across sea areas, and providing it is not attacked by an enemy Navy in the same or adjacent area it is usually successful. There is a chance that bad weather will cause delays or losses, the more sea areas the navy moves through the higher the risk involved.

If a battle is fought with a players Navy also being in the same province he may deploy as many Naval elements as his army list allows, free of charge.

Terrain Selection

Terrain for a battle is selected from the terrain in that province shown on the map as terrain type codes (in black boxes on the map), types are noted below. The default terrain system that is used is as per the rules except that an attacker can have two additional options depending on the terrain in available in a province.

Ambushes and Flank Marches are only allowed where indicated on the Stance table.

WW can be placed in any province that has a coastline so is not included in any of the terrain types, attackers can only place one if they attacked by sea, or it is compulsory, or his Navy is in the province.

There are special rules regarding Rv's the reason for this is that in the previous campaign run Rv's were almost always placed when a player thought he wasn't likely to win, not much fun. Only a player using Defensive stance may place a river across the front of his army, he must declare his intention to do that when giving his orders. If the other player chooses not to attack the Defensive player cannot try to hide behind a river two turns in a row.

The following can also have BUA's except that they can only use small BUA's unless they are a province with a large town.

Large battles will need to be fought on larger tables so the number of pieces will be scaled up proportionately.

The capital city is only available in the capital province, it is a large BUA 15-20" in diameter with a perimeter PF wall around it, and a gap of 4cm between the wall and the BUA. If either player wishes to to place this he must tell his opponant before the battle so that he can purchase seige equipment if desired.

A large town is a medium BUA 10-15", it is only available in provinces containing a large town.

Weather Time of Day

Time of day is diced for as per the rules, except that in some scenarios one player can determine the time of day, this is marked on the stance table.

The climate of most of Transfyxia is Warm, areas which aren't Warm are as follows:

The campaign starts in Spring, the umpire will change the season when he feels like it.

Stance Table

Attrition

Attrition, ie losses of points, is suffered for each bound after the first, that;

Counting Losses From Battle

Losses are counted at the end of a battle as per the rules except all losers additional losses are taken from the "elephants and other foot" column (this is because the rules as is highly favour cavalry armies, which may be historical but is not accounted for in points costings), the remaining points value of each command is then recorded and given to the umpire.

Recovering Losses During a War

If the war doesn't end after the first battle each command regains points based on a percentage (rounded up) of it's establishment based on the type of move performed each turn as follows;

These are recovered in each turn after that in which the battle was fought at the end of that turn.

Intelligence

Each player is entitled to ask one intelligence question per week, the umpire will decide how difficult it would be for your spies to find the answer, and then roll a dice. You might receive an answer, no answer, or a misleading answer.

The Umpire

Vassals

A vassal automatically has a public offensive alliance with his overlord, he automatically declares war when this alliance comes into effect. He may not declare war on any player without his overlords consent. He is expected to co-operate with his overlord in all things, but cannot be forced to. Both players may enter each others territory during peacetime.

A vassal my declare himself an unreliable ally at the start of any battle, he chooses to take 1 PIP for each of his commands, he then can join the battle as per the rules.

Neither player may declare war on the other unless the overlord loses two battles in a row.