...go medieval on Donnybrook...

The other day I told my friend Sören that I would go medieval on Donnybrook...or with Donnybook I suppose are better expressed. As you know I can´t help trying to adopt all wargaming rules to my favorite period, The Kamlar Union War i.e. Swedish civil war during the 15th century...so now the Donnybrook rules have meet the same fate...in my search for the wargaming worlds holy grale, the perfect rules set for my specific period;)

Sorry for abuse your cover art Clarence...

As I realy liked our first games using the Donnybrook rules for our Scanian War project and the rules are very easy to adopt to other settings and I like the use of "Characters" to add periodic flavour to  the game and bonuses to unit or fraction... so I decided to have a go for a medieval variation of the Donnybrook rules...

As you already know Donnybrook are a set of Skirmish rules using single based minis but my Kalmar Union War collection are multibased minis at 40x40mm bases...been there, done that...using the Dux Britanniarum rules and that addaption workend fine then so it will probably work now to...

As usual I try not to alter to much off the original rules... The card activation you already know I have changed:

Each points of troops and each Hero fielded generates one activation card. (In a Basic 4 point game each side have 5 activation cards 4 for the troops + 1 for the Hero). In some games if using a Special Hero like Sten Sture (you all know him by know I suppouse...) you would add 2 activation cards for him. 

In the same way you might not add any card for a hero known to be a poor commander or not liked by the troops he command , for example Ivar Axelsson Tott at the Battle of Kolbäcksån 1467 that in the end didn’t have the support of the Allmoge after all… 

Put all the generated activation cards and the Reload and Turn Ends card in the pile and draw them as usual. The difference is that the activation cards are not for a designated unit just decide the Faction activated, it´s up to the players which unit/hero he will activate, still each unit may only be activated once in each turn. If a hero is removed from play remove any activation card they generated before a new turn begins.

This kind of activation, with a limited number of activation cards and a Turn Ends card, forces the player to realy decide whats important to do during a turn, as most often not all units will act. It also forces the comander to think about how many units he want to field, several small units...might not get to activate each turn, or a few larger units will activate more often but mayde not be as flexible as the smaller units. I hope it will simulate some of the decisions medieval comanders had to take and reflect the use to divide the force in a few "battles".

Other things added was Crossbows (need them if you should field Swedish Allmoge...) and also some different armour classes/saves. As my medieval collection are multibased minis I decided not to use some of the more "skirmish" rules like to allow the parry of attacks in close combat, I included that parameter in the Armor saves instead. I also made a point cost for each mini to get more flexible force builds.

First AAR from my and Sörens game the other night in a day or so...

While you waiting you below have the background and Fraction OOB that we used and also the Characters that we added in this first test game.