Adapted from comments by James "Hammy" Hamilton, IWF 2007 DBM World Champion on the dbmlist yahoo group

Key concepts in army lists are along the following lines:

Try for either three equal commands (33%/33%/33%) or three large and one

small (30/30/30/10) or one very large and three small (40/20/20/20).

These are the more resilient army structures.

Next make each command a multiple of 3 EE's plus half an EE so 18.5,

21.5, 36.5 etc.

Try to get two of your commands to have the same number of elements to

give you a choice at deployment

Design each command with a primary role but bear in mind that if the

primary function is not required you still need the command to be of

some use. An example here is when I use Wb with my Welsh, I have a

command with 16 Wb(F) (the primary component) plus 6 Bw(O) and 3 Ps (the

part of the command that gets used when Wb are pointless).

Following the above guidelines will get you a half decent army that can

then be adapted.

Regular Vs Irregular

When designing commands you also need to take some account of whether your generals will be regular or irregular. If you are irregular you want all of your commands to be able to be able to take an aggresive role as your PIPS will be distributed out randomly. When you have regular commands having one that can afford to sit around and take the low score every time can be valuable. Such commands are often referred to as "PIP dumps" and are often found in armies with 4 regular commands.

Agression (Nik Gaukroger)

An often overlooked consideration but make sure that the agression level of the army is appropriate. For example a high agression (3 or 4) army which relies on troops that need rough or difficult terrain can end up in trouble as they will be the invader more often than not which means they have less control over what terrain is placed. Similarly for an army with relatively slow moving troops (basically 100p move heavy infantry) a high agression can be useful in order to get the first move and maximise the chance of getting into contact quickly.

It is often useful to initially avoid Agression 2 armies as they are neither one nor the other and so you need to plan on both invading and defending which can get a bit confusing. For the beginner being more certain about whether you are to be the invader can help you get going.

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