TRANSFYXIA! The DBM Campaign

This campaign has finished, but it might be of interest to people.

INTRODUCTION

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 as 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, there are more DBM players in the Hutt than you think!

Here is a thumbnail of the map of Transfyxia, you can click on it to make it full size, but I warn you that it is VERY large (212Kb), it was last updated on 13 July 98:

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.

The campaign will begin on Tuesday 16 June, but players can refuse to accept a declaration of war in the first week if they haven't had a chance to prepare.

A list of players and their contact details, and a map are 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.

Rules are DBM 2.0, upgrading to 2.1 when this is released.

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 any 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 it will be handed out at meetings or posted out. Here are links to the online editions of this newspaper:

The TRANSFYXIAN TIMES - Part 1, 20 June 98.

The TRANSFYXIAN TIMES - Part 2, 25 June 98.

The TRANSFYXIAN TIMES - Part 3, 1 July 98.

The TRANSFYXIAN TIMES - Part 4, 9 July 98.

The TRANSFYXIAN TIMES - Part 5, 17 July 98.

The TRANSFYXIAN TIMES - Part 6, 23 July 98.

The TRANSFYXIAN TIMES - Part 7, 30 July 98.

The TRANSFYXIAN TIMES - Part 8, 7 August 98.

The TRANSFYXIAN TIMES - Part 9, 14 August 98.

The TRANSFYXIAN TIMES - Part 10, 11 September 98.

All the campaign guff 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 done once a week, they can be sent to the umpire by email by or phone by 7pm each Tuesday. 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. If two or more players are declaring war on another player they must state if they are doing so in alliance, 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 Tuesday to call in any alliances or favours, 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 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.

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".

FIRST ORDERS

Your first orders need to include an army list, the base province for each command (this is 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 any time, these can be public or secret, they are not binding and are taken 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.

Any other agreements that players enter into are OK.

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 each winning player can expect a province each provided that provinces without large towns are taken first.

The second time he can for the losing player to become his vassal if this would reduce his size of his country to less than half that of the victors.

A player never loses his capital unless he decides to quit the campaign.

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

After peace is declared neither player may declare war on the other 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 peace time 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 his countries economic value, 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, 500-600 it can have 3-6, 600-700 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.

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 command(s).

Troops can be re-allocated between commands during a peacetime turn if two or more commands are in the same province.

COMMAND MOVEMENT

Armies may move to any adjacent province each turn (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:

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 one sea area, 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.

The Navy is never destroyed unless it's base is ceded to another player.

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.

• He can place a BUA in the central sector plus a Road.
• A terrain type is available in some provinces, Os; Open space, good going that can be placed by an attacker to prevent the enemy placing terrain there, three of these can be placed by an attacker if desired instead of using one of the options in the terrain rules.

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.

The Terrain types and their codes are as follows (compulsories are in Bold):

P = Populated: BUA, Rd, Rv, E, O, V

C = Cultivated: BUA, Rd, Rv, E, O, V, Hg, Rgo

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.

H = Hilly: Hs, Hg, Rd, Rgo, Rv, Wd

W = Wooded: Wd, Rv, Rd, Hs

O = Open: Os, Rgo, Hg, Rv

M = Marshland: M, Rv, Rd, Wd

R = Rough: Rgo, Rd, Hg

D = Desert: D, Rgo, Os

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.

Small BUA's, 2-10" are available anywhere.

WEATHER AND 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:

• Desert Provinces on, or south of, the centreline are dry.
• Marshland Provinces, south of the centreline are Tropical.
• Hilly Provinces which do not have a coastline are Cold

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;

• a command has an unopposed enemy command sitting in it's base province, or
• more than 600 points (whether belonging to one or more players) occupies one province.

  Losses will be deducted at a rate of 10% per turn.

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 a percentage (rounded up) of it's losses based on the type of move performed each turn as follows;

• Stationary, and not involved in a battle, and in it's base province: 40%
• Stationary, or Peacetime stance, and not involved in a battle: 30%
• Retreat and not pursued: 20%
• All others: 10%

These are recovered each turn after 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 may receive an answer, no answer, or a misleading answer.

THE UMPIRE

The umpire also controls a province, he does so with the following restrictions;

• All of his alliances must be public
• He cannot declare war except where one of these alliances comes into effect
• If he gets involved in a war another neutral party is co-opted in to act as umpire for that particular war.

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 peace time.

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