The following rules were designed to be used in association with the DBA based campaign rules. The aim of these rules is to automate those countries that do not have a human player. While written with respect to DBA mechanics they could with only a little work be developed for use with DBM. 

The original concept was based on an article in Wargame Illustrated printed several years ago now. However, after our first game I heavily modified them to what is defined here. The resulting campaign produced both an interesting campaign as well as good tabletop games. 

However, be careful of Ambitious Tyrants on your borders! 

Kings Queens and Generals

Roll a die for each country without a player to determine the character of the countries leader.

• 1 = A "Feeble Coward"
• 2 or 3 = An "Incompetent"
• 4 or 5 = A "Veteran Campaigner"
• 6 = An Ambitious "Tyrant".

All programmed armies start the campaign in their capital and return to the capital after every campaign year. Feeble and Incompetent leaders only move one map route per seasonal turn. Feeble Cowards only move within their own borders.

Movement Direction

Feeble Cowards will only move within their own borders. Unless into battle (forced upon him by popular opinion) it must be away from the nearest foreign army. An Incompetent will move to invade the nearest weakest opponent and will cross sea or mountain routes regardless of season. Veterans will move to invade the nearest opponents but will only cross sea or mountain routes in the summer season. An Ambitious Tyrant will move to invade the nearest enemy regardless of strength and will cross sea and mountain routes in any season.

In cases where bordering nations are of equal size or the direction is in dispute:

• 1-3 clockwise movement around the map or player order
• 4-6 anti clockwise.

Declaration of War

Roll after all other players have declared war. Any non player countries that had war declared on them do not roll. The country they declare war on is determined from above, If the score denotes "Tributary" this means the country offers to become a tributary of the largest invader if any present, otherwise ignored.

Subtract one from die score for each element less than 12 elements.

Once a "Declaration of War" has been decided roll a die each season to determine if an attack will commence. Use the table above but take no notice of "Tributary" results. A second "Declare War" result means the invasion starts.

Invasion of a Programmed Nation

When a Programmed Nation is invaded roll a dice to determine the reaction:

Feeble Coward: 1 to 4 stands siege and removes his army if inside the city away from the invader. 5 or 6 roll another die, and consult above table. A declare war result means give battle. A tributary result means the leader is assinated and replaced by a Veteran Campaigner (1 or 2), or by a Tyrant (3,4,5 or 6).

An Incompetent: 1 or 2 stands siege, removing the army away if inside. 3, 4 or 5 stands siege leaving the army inside. 6 gives battle regardless of odds.

Veteran Campaigner: 1 to 3 stands siege, removing his field army from the city if inside. 4 to 6 gives battle with his army unless outnumbered by 4 or more elements, in which case he stands siege removing his field army.

An Ambitious Tyrant: 1 to 2 stands siege, leaving his field army in the city if already there, otherwise does nothing. 3 to 6 Gives battle with his field army, regardless of odds.

Giving Battle

When programmed leaders take the field their armies must be controlled by human players. This can be decided by a simple dice throw. Ideally however it should be by the player who has least to gain by the programmed leader's defeat. In addition the following effects the battle.

A Feeble Coward: -1 on the movement die and a -1 for the general's element in combat or if shot at.

An Incompetent: -1 on the movement die, no +1 for general's element in combat.

A Veteran campaigner: +1 on movement die, and normal in combat or if shot at.

An Ambitious Tyrant: +1 on movement, -1 on combat, normal if shot at, except for the year following an assassination of a Feeble Coward during which count +1 in combat or if shot at.

Allied Contingents

Human players may ally themselves to programmed nations at anytime. Programmed leaders must dice to solicit allies from other programmed nations. Human players must also dice to gain allies from programmed nations.

• A Feeble Coward provides a contingent if a 6 is rolled.
• An Incompetent provides a contingent if a 5 or 6 is rolled.
• A Veteran Campaigner 4, 5 or 6
• A Tyrant 3,4,5 or 6.

Tributary Rules

At the end of any campaign year, any programmed leader who has lost one or more cities may be bullied into becoming a tributary. Any programmed or human player may dice to try and subjugate a programmed leader's nation, but may only make one attempt at any one programmed nation at the end of the campaign year. If he fails he will have to wait until the end of the next year before trying again. Players may dice in the order of movement for the yearly turn just completed. Players may only dice for one nation per campaign year. If any nation is successful he becomes the nation's overlord. Score required to subjugate a programmed leader's nation are:

• Feeble Coward: 4 to 6
• Incompetent: 5 to 6
• Veteran Campaigner: 6
• Tyrant: not possible!

Additional Rules

An additional modification to the DBA Campaign rules we have adopted was to resolve all campaign movement before any combat is completed.

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