100 Years' War Campaign

A twist on the standard DBA campaign, for 4-8 players.

Overview

This is a modification of the standard DBA mini-campaign rules, for 4-8 players.

Use the standard book DBA campaign rules, except as modified below. Changes to the book rules are listed by section.

Each player represents a powerful noble house in France. Most players will always be tributary to one political body (France, Burgundy, or England), but independant of action to some extent.

The game is over when time runs out.

Setup

At the start of the game, players should be assigned the below roles:

The King of France	Ile de France, Berry, Picardy, Champagne
The English (King, Regent, or Marshall, pick a title)	London (capital), Guienne, Gascony
The Duke of Burgundy	Burgundy (capital), Luxembourg, Lorriane
The Duke of Normandy (tributary to England)	Normandy (capital), Brittany, Maine
The Duke of Bourbon (tributary to France)	Bourbon (capital), La Marche, Saintonge
The Count of Flanders (tributary to Burgundy)	Flanders (capital), Liege, Artois
The Count of Poitou (tributary to France)	Poitou, Anjou, Touraine
The Duke of Auvergne (tributary to France)	Auvergne (capital), Languedoc, Toulouse

Assign each role in order, until there are no more roles or no more players. If there are fewer than 8 players, split each demesne dropped from the list as follows:

Duchy of Auvergne

• Remove all territories from game

  Duchy of Poitou

• Touraine - King of France
• Anjou - Duke of Normandy
• Poitou - Duke of Bourbon

  County of Flanders

• Flanders - Duke of Burgundy
• Liege - King of France
• Artois - English

  Duchy of Bourbon

• The Duke of Normandy becomes tributary to France
• Bourbon - remove from game
• La Marche - remove from game
• Saintonge - English
• Poitou - Duke of Normandy

England and France begin the game at war.

Resources

Each player has one army of 12 elements. There are only 5 types of armies in the game:

• Royal French (#170 Medieval French)
• Baronial French (#172 Free Company)
• Burgundian (#173 Early Burgundian)
• English (#168 100 Years War English)
• Flemish (#163 Low Countries)

The King of France gets a Royal French army.

The Duke of Burgundy gets a Burgundian army.

The English player gets an English army.

The Count of Flanders gets a Flemish army if he is independant or in rebellion, and a Baronial French army otherwise.

All other players have Baronial French armies.

If a player with a Baronial French army is not tributary to England, change some of his troop types:

• replace the English Bd with lesser men-at-arms (Cv)
• replace the English Lb with mercenary and peasent rabble (Ax)
• replace other Lb with Cb.

These troops revert back if the player becomes tributary to the English.

The Campaign Year

The game is played in 4 seasonal rounds: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter.

Before the Spring round, all territories ravaged by chevauchee (see Invasion, below) automatically recover.

At the end of the Autumn round, each player regains 1 extra element from his reserve for each unravaged territory owned.

Movement

An army may pass a city it does not control, without permission of the owner, if there is no enemy army present and the territory has been ravaged by a previous chevauchee.

Sea Moves

Only the English may move by sea. Movement by sea may be between any two territories connected by blue. All sea moves take the entire turn, and no movement by land is possible in the same turn. If the origin and destination territories are on different dark blue water areas (the Atlantic coast or the Channel coast), the sea move counts as two legs of movement. The second leg of sea movement must be rolled for in all seasons.

Disbanding Armies

A player may deliberately disband his army when it is his turn to move. In any future turn, his army may be reformed when it his turn to move (but it may not then move until the next turn). Armies that are disbanded still get replacements.

When a player's army is disbanded, all of his territories defend against siege as if there is an army present. For each city he loses, he must move one Kn element and two other elements from his standing army to his reserve.

Burgundian Special Moves

The movement paths traced in blue and yellow between Flanders, Luxembourg, Lorraine and Burgundy are usable only by the Burgundian player or his tributaries. These represent free passage through lands of the Holy Roman Empire, of which Burgundy is also technically a part. Alsace cannot be owned by any player, but Burgundian armies or armies tributary to Burgundy and given permission by the Duke of Burgundy may move there.

English Special Moves

Since the English own Calais, the English player may always move through Artois as if he owns it (even if he does not). If there is an army there belonging to a player that does not want the English to pass, the English must first fight them before moving out. However, an English army in Artois may never be besieged, and only has to fight if the English player wants to.

Invasion

Every player may chevauchee against another player who is not his overlord or tributary, by moving an army into an enemy's territory and declaring "chevauchee". If the army on chevauchee is not forced out by battle or caused to retreat, that territory is ravaged and may no longer provide supply. Mark that territory with smoke or ruins to indicate it has been ravaged.

Supply

An army is always in supply in territories of its overlord or a tributary.

Ravaged territories cannot provide supply. An army which just ravaged a territory is in supply no matter where it is.

Results of a Battle

Players receive extra prestige points as follows:

+1	for each element he destroyed using Kn
+1	for each subgeneral he destroyed

Participation by Allied Contingents

Allied contingents must be 3-6 elements, at the discretion of the allied player.

Tributary Rulers

Tributary players may wage war against any other players without permission of their overlord. Players may only be tributary to the King of France, the Duke of Burgundy, or the English, except that the King of France and the English may never be tributary to anyone else.

All players except the King of France have a capital. The King may only be conquered by losing his last directly held territory. What happens then depends on who defeats him:

• If the conqueror is the English player or an independant Count of Flanders, the tributary to the King with the most territories and prestige points becomes the new King of France (it being assumed the King has fled to his most powerful noble's protection and set up court with a new favorite); the former King of France becomes a Duke or Count tributary to the conqueror. If the King has no tributaries, the conqueror becomes the King of France.
• If the conqueror is the Duke of Burgundy or is tributary to Burgundy, that player must renounce all tributary status and become the new King of France. The former King of France becomes a French noble tributary to him.
• If the conqueror is tributary to the English, he may choose either of the above.

Players who lose the French Crown count their sole remaining territory as their capital from that point forward, and begin with a 6-element Baronial French army (which must be rebuilt before it can give battle; see below).

Rebellion

A tributary player may declare a rebellion at any time. If the rebellion is not crushed before the same season (Summer, Spring, Autumn) of the next year, he may declare a new overlord. The Count of Flanders and the Duke of Burgundy may opt to become independant instead.

To crush a rebellion, an overlord must defeat the rebel army in battle or siege. If the rebellion is crushed, the rebel player loses his entire army, and must cede one of his remaining territories (except his capital) to his overlord as penance (the overlord may choose which one). The overlord also keeps all territories captured in the course of crushing the rebellion.

Conquest

Players count prestige points differently:

+	all prestige points gained in battle
+1	for each territory under his personal control
+1	for each vassal tributary to the player
+3	for being King of France

Optional: Battle Rules Modifications

Below are some optional modifications to the battle rules to make the game feel more appropriate to the period:

• Bw elements do not suffer a -2 for being in bad going.
  This is just to make English longbowmen able to fight in bad terrain, as they did at Agincourt. I notice that the new DBA releases (1.2 and up) are already incorporating this change.

• Bw or Art may not shoot through any amount of blocking terrain (buildings, trees, hillcrests, etc.) between its front edge and the target.
  Just a fix to the shooting rules that should have been there all along, but which no one really thinks about until shooting elements are a dominant type. Note that this makes the type of bad going important, so make sure this gets declared when setting up battle fields.

• 15mm figures only: redefine 100p to be 40mm instead of 1 inch, and play on a 36" square table instead of a 24" square table.
  One problem with DBA is that Medieval units are all slow, and Medieval battles are really not much fun because maneuvering is so slow and plodding. Since Medieval units are also smaller than their ancient equivalents, increasing the ratio of ground scale to unit size makes some logical sense. Mostly, though, this modification should make the game move faster and feel more fun and exciting.

• Count an extra overlap against Cb shot at by English Lb.
  This is so that English Lb really can outshoot those ubiquitous French Cb units.

• DBA version 1.22 or later: Kn which moved into contact with a Lb front edge or front corner this bound are destroyed if beaten.
  Version 1.22 introduces the ability for Kn to quick-kill Bd, making the English 100YW army extremely vulnerable. In real life, English Lb were interspersed with the Bd and rained arrows on anyone trying to get into contact. In DBA, however, Kn can move farther than Bw can shoot, allowing a French army to charge Kn into the Bd without ever being shot. This rule mitigates this problem, as long as the English stay formed up and aren't attacked in the rear.

Optional: Fleets

If you want to paint and base fleets, you can play with these DBA naval rules.

Armies may only move at sea if accompanied by a fleet.

The English player gets 1 fleet of 12 Wr, which starts at Dover. There is 1 French fleet of 8 Wr and 4 Lib; it begins in either Rouen or Normandy, at the King's bidding. It belongs to the French player who owns the base (who then has the title Royal Admiral of France).

In combat, a fleet which is transporting an army will also have 1 Tr element for each mounted element accompanying it. Each of these Tr elements which is lost in battle dooms one mounted element (of the owning player's choice) to being a foot element. Such elements may be remounted when the army receives replacements, but remounting an element counts as a 1/2 element replacement.