Dux Italica Test Game 2

Yesterday, Osprey and ‘Comitatus’ rules author Simon MacDowall and I met up to run a second playtest of my ‘Dux Italica’ adaptation of Too Fat Lardies’ Dux Britanniarum rules, designed for the Roman conquest of Italy in the 4^thCentury BCE.

We played the ‘Raid a Fortification’ scenario, which entailed the Etruscans ambushing a small Roman scouting column to capture the character leading the detachment as it made its way back to a small fortified outpost on the border of Etruscan territory. 

The Etruscans rolled well for deployment, coming in way too close to where my column of Warrior Antepilani (Principes) led by Centurion Qunitus Licinius entered the table. 

I hurriedly advanced the remainder of my force out from the vicinity of the camp to try to negate the Etruscan threat, my Antepilani Warriors withdrawing up a nearby hill to try to gain some protection from a small copse of trees at the top. However, fast-moving Etruscan cavalry were attempting to outflank them and their small volleys of javelins caused a smattering of lucky casualties. This obviously reduced my fighting power as the Etruscan 2^nd Class Hoplite Warriors advanced up the hill to do battle.

Meanwhile, the Roman Antepilani Levy (Hastati) were hurriedly advancing to prevent the Etruscan 3^rd and 4^th Class Levy from outflanking the withdrawing Antepilani Warriors, a task they managed to do, both sides then launching volley after volley of javelins on each other. This resulted in rapid build-up of Shock, which prevented forward movement and hampered shooting (and, potentially, fighting power.)

While this was going on, the two Warlords and their elite Hoplites faced off on the flank. The Romans charged in, but came up short, surrendering advantage to the Etruscans, who caused heavy Shock. At this point I played the ‘disengage’ card, enabling my elite Pilani to withdraw and hopefully rally off some Shock. 

At this point, the Etruscan 2^nd Class Hoplites finally broke the Roman Antepilani Warriors and captured Quintus Licinius. However, the fight had been so desperately bloody that the Etruscans were severely mauled, one Group down to one figure (accompanying the prisoner) and the other with Excess Shock which forced them to withdraw.

The Etruscan cavalry attempted to plug the gap whereupon the Roman cavalry launched a devastating charge that killed two of the Etruscans, wounded their character and piled on enough Shock to break them completely. 

Sadly, at that point, the Etruscan Prince once again got the drop on the Roman Tribune and in the ensuing combat, the Roman Pilani were broken, fleeing back to their camp. 

This pushed my Force Morale to 0 and gave the Etruscans the win. However, it was still a pretty close call, as Etruscan Force Morale was also teetering.

Once again, Dux Italica gave us a truly excellent game. The two phalanxes of elite hoplites ground away inconsequentially until the Etruscans got the drop with a good hand of Fate cards. This felt exactly right, as did the two lots of Levy javelining each other to exhaustion – both Simon and myself wanted to advance our Levy to combat, but there was too much Shock on the Levy to get them moving. Again, this felt exactly right for my vision of the warfare in this exciting period. 

After the game I tweaked a few sections of the rules, mostly just clarifying intent or altering wording, and I altered a couple of Fate Cards that I felt were previously just a bit too good, but that aside the rule adaptations once again worked very well. I’m especially pleased with the rules allowing formed but open-order infantry to use javelins, as this is key part of warfare in the 4^th Century BCE Western Mediterranean.

More to come as soon as we can arrange playtest number three, plus Simon is well under way with a Gallic warband and I have started my Samnites