I think I agree.
Back in 2007 I asked a similar sort of question on the DBMM email list. I asked:
How much of the baggage must be fortified in order to be able to use the Delay Battle stratagem? All? Any? All that's on table? My Late Imperial Roman army (with Inert Constantius II as C-in-C) has fortified baggage. But his Armenian ally has unfortified baggage. Can I use the Delay Battle stratagem if I'm not the invader?
Barker himself replied:
You want the benefit of the stratagem while evading the cost? Not very moral. I can see the lists will have to specify that you need a full sized camp to use the stratagem. Don't think I won't do this.
So Barker certainly seemed to think at the time that you needed to max your baggage as well as fortify it to be able to use the stratagem. But that was the end of the discussion - I made a few comments in return, changed my list, and nothing more was heard (to my knowledge). Certainly the rules were never changed.
I can see the logic - having a fortified camp is what allows you to delay the battle, but without the preconditions being spelled out it's hard for the rest of us to be sure what he's aiming at.
It's worth pointing out that in the early DBMM days there was a guy at our club who had a deadly Early German list in four commands which he used to great effect in a club comp we called Republicon (armies and enemies of Republican Rome). He used four commands, deployed one on table (usually in terrain which made it hard to reach him), sent a double flank march, and had the fourth command delayed. He took only one or two pieces of baggage, which he placed in a tiny fortified BUA, and the rules appeared to suggest this was all he needed to do to use the Delay Battle stratagem when defending. By using the Delay Battle stratagem, he usually had all four commands on table within three bounds. And because most of the armies in the comp were infantry based (I was using Pyrrhic), it was hard to delay any one or two threats while dealing with the others. As I remember he did extremely well in the comp.
