First Game of Dux Britanniarum

Well, on Monday evening, I headed off to the wargames club to try out the Too Fat Lardies' super-looking new Arthurian rules, Dux Britanniarum.

Unfortunately, I had not had as thorough a read-through as I would have liked before the event and, as I am utterly pants at remembering any set of wargames rules I have played for years, let alone new ones with completely different systems, it was always going to be an 'interesting' evening!!

Mike, who is much better with such things, had been on hols, so hadn't even ordered the rules... This was not an auspicious start!!

So I picked a scenario I had the kit for (cattle raid) and off we went!!

We decided to roll up the characters, just to see what happened. In the event, not a lot, although I did gain 'Master of Arms' for my tribune, giving him an extra D6 in combat! Hurrah!!!

The scenario is played down a 6x4 table, short edge to short edge, with the Saxons getting D3 free moves with the cattle wot they had previously nicked from me before my advance guard arrived. Needless to say, Mike rolled high, maximising his free moves. My vanguard (D6 groups - I rolled a '4') and as many nobles as I wanted arrived in the centre section of the table on Mike's left, the remainder arriving on activation in turn 2. This meant I arrived roughly level with where Mike's thieving Saxons now were.

What followed was a comedy of errors as I tried desperately to get us through the game. I made numerous c*ck-ups, including misreading the severity of terrain, activating a noble twice in one turn and not activating another (doh!) and getting very confused over the Fate card deck and what happens when combats are won and lost, but despite this, Mike remained good-humoured and patient to the end...and still claimed he had fun!!!!! In the general mayhem, few pictures were taken (and the camera battery was getting low, to add insult to injury!) but we got through the game (somehow) and the Saxons won, despite taking a mauling along the way, getting 2 bases of cattle off the opposite short table edge by a masterstroke of tactical noble-activating (and a Saxon-friendly activation deck) at the end of the game.

So, how does it play?

Well, it's bloody great, that's what it is!!! I am a dyed-in-the-wool WABber and, apart from occasional games of Saga, Hail Caesar and Operation Squad, play little else, so this was VERY different! I love the card activation system! Basically, when your nobles' cards come up, they activate and can undertake as many activations as they have status points (so a warlord has 3, lesser mortals have 2) and they have a menu of 'stuff' to choose from as well as a command range (which is reduced when they are in combat.) This is great and is actually really easy to use. Troops not commanded by nobles get activated last. Seeemples!!!!

Movement is 3D6 (reduced by terrain, shieldwall, etc) and you MUST move what you roll unless you can give your troops a geographical reference point ("Move up in line with the Numeri...")

Combat is straightforward, although our movement trays being different meant that I made a slight error when leading this on Monday and morale is handled by troops receiving 'shock' when in combat or when moving through tricky terrain. Nobles can rally it off them as part of activation.

The real key to the game though is the Fate card deck. This is a set of special ability cards and I got this a LOT wrong on Monday. However, I now know where I went wrong and it is evident that this will lift the game to a whole new level as the cards can help you to REALLY kick ass in combat. Each noble can play a single card on any activation, or, if he holds a Carpe Diem card, can play multiple cards in one go...if in combat, he gains an extra D6 for every card he holds that corresponds to his 'suit' (Dragons for British; Boars for Saxons.) A player may play any unsuited card in response to the actibvating noble in any activation (e.g. when Mike played 'Aggressive Charge' to crush my shieldwall, I was able to play 'Shieldwall Braced' to cancel his advantage)
Deciding what to play when and what to hold back is going to be the Dux Brit equivalent of the battleboards in Saga, where choices of how to load and use the board are key to the game. I think this means that one could play each of the scenarios numerous times and never really get the same game twice!!!

So, overall, we liked it a lot and are playing again in two weeks (next week is ECW campaign week!) I can see this being one of my 'go to' games in future, I really can.

Pics below from the game:

First, evil, Pagan, thieving Saxons sneakin' off with good British beef and lamb!!! Not on my watch, Guvnor!!!

 Below, the result of an unfathomably good set of dice on my part!!! Considering you need 6s to kill Saxon Gedriht, I did well here! Shieldwalls negate the first kill on any group, so although Mike did kill a couple, these were in separate groups and the shieldwall saved them!!!

 Below, Saxons catch me out!! A unit of Numeri (levy) about to get mullared by the Saxon warriors. This was over in 2 turns...everybody dead bar the noble, who wisely legged it!! Lesson here: Levy wot ain't in shieldwall are sh*t!! Oh, and don't forget that groups can be activated more than once by different nobles...they can be a long way away and still get you!!!!

Keep an eye on the blog for more, as I'll keep writing up the games as we play them. Overall though, this game is a winner!!!

Starting Out With Dux Britanniarum

Well, I have my first game of Dux Britanniarum on Monday evening and I must say that I am really looking forward to it! It does look as though it's going to be a great system to play!!

Here are a few pictures of what I will be using for this first game.

Below is the starter warband that each Romano-Britsih player has for the beginning of a campaign. I must say it is great to be able to start with a new set of rules and have models already painted - a luxury that is all too alien to us here at Geetarhero Towerz!! Anyway, the models are obviously from my WAB armies. At the back we have, from left to right:

2 groups of 'warriors' or 'milites, as us Romano-Brits call 'em. These are the standard fighting warrior of the age. They are mostly unarmoured, but all have helmets. This differentiates them from the other models in the army. In the centre are the elite hearthguard, called 'commanipulares'. These are fuly armed and armoured and I have chosen to use, surprise surprise, models from my WAB commanipulares unit, the red and white shields making them stand out well and truly from all other fighters in my force. Sadly, us Romano-Brits only get one group of these kick-ass fighters in our starting force! At the back right we have 3 groups of Levy, who are basically pretty crap! The Saxons don't get any of these, obviously, having an additional group of each of warriors and elites compared to us Brits...Bloody barbarians...think they are all so bloomin' hard 'n that!!  In front of the levy is  a group of missile troops. In the front centre are the heroes.

Below, a close up of the heroes. These are a Tribune (chap in the posh purple cloak - clearly wants to be thought of as Imperator!), with his Champion behind his right shoulder. Next to them are two Decurios, minor nobles who'll lead the units into battle.

Below, a close up of the Commanipulares. You'll note that each group of formed troops consists of 6 models. The movement tray is by Warbases...they did them specially for me as their stock ones have round holes. Great service too...I highly recommend them to all of you.

 Below, the Milites...

 ...And the levy...

 ...And the archers. Missile troops onl;y come in groups of 4 and won't impact too much on the game as a whole, I'm guessing.

Below are 4 shieldwall markers. I'll use these to help remind myself when my troops go into shieldwall, as I have a brain like a sieve and would otherwise forget!! I do the same when playing WAB!!!

In Dux Britanniarum, units gain 'shock' as they fight combats, get shot at, or move through tough terrain, etc. Keeping track of this is crucial in the game, so I made myself some shock markers using various Dark Age casualty models I had in my bits box, plus some casualty marker bases from Warbases. Pics of each one below. I painted these in 4 evenings this week, using the 'white undercoat, bright neat basecoats, Army Painter dip, one highlight with the original basecoat, Testors Dullcote' approach. I think they look pretty darn good and sit alongside my 3-layered army pretty well! They will also come in handy when playing Dan Mersey's Dux Bellorum as well, so two birds killed with one stone there!

And that's the lot ready for Monday!

I hope that you have enjoyed this brief glimpse into my initial force and resources for Dux Britanniarum. I am now going away to create some character profiles for my heroes ready for setting off on the campaign trail. Whether Mike and I will do that Monday or just play a practice game, I don't yet know. Whatever happens, I hope to take pics and write a report following Monday's game, so tune in next week to check that out.

Cheers

Andy

Nice Weather For Dux...

Blimey...seems like Arthurian rule sets are like buses...you wait ages for one then along come a load of 'em all at once!!

Yup...my PDF download of Dux Britanniarum has arrived (the hard copy should be here in a matter of days...) so now my line up of Duxes (is that the plural???) is complete.

So far, I have skimmed through Dux Bellorum and had a flick (if that's the right word for a look through a PDF) through Dux Britanniarum and it is abundantly clear that what we have here is potentially two very good rule sets that both have their own very unique takes on wargaming the Age of Arthur. I can honestly see me playing both games regularly if I have opponents to play with, as both games do very different things and each looks like it'll do its particular 'thing' very well... The following are just a few initial observations and I will expand on them once I actually start playing each set.

Dux Bellorum is a set of battle rules that simulate armies of about 500 men in full-on battles. The basic 'unit' is a stand of models representing 50 men. This means that one has to have one's models based as 'elements' in effect. For the WAB players amongst us with 20mm slottabase armies, this is no problem...we'll just use sabot bases/movement trays. I'm already thinking I might design some for the game and ask Warbases to build them for me. 120mm wide and 80mm deep should do it, with 12 shieldwall foot, 10 warrior foot, 5 formed cavalry, 3 skirmish cavalry or 4 skirmish foot to a base. That way, I can field a full 32pt (standard size army - the Dux Bellorum equivalent of WAB Age of Arthur's 1500pts) Romano-British army or indeed a Welsh army from my WAB models with no problems at all.

The basic mechanics look pretty straightforward and easily adaptable to any scale of minis or size of table with very little effort - movement is done in base-widths so base sizes are irrelevant other than for determining table size (although the notion of using increments of 4" with 28mm models on the big bases as per Steve 'Age of Arthur' Jones' idea is the way I want to go. )

There are army lists provided for all the obvious protagonists in Britain from 400 - 800 (ish) AD, so lots of scope for using those Dark Age and Late Roman armies.

The key to Dux Bellorum seems, from my initial skim through, to be the way that a warlord's leadership points are allocated to units/groups of warriors - command and control seems very big in this game. Leadership points do all sorts of cool things, usually boosting one's abilities - bravery, aggression, etc or cancelling hits - even interrupting an opponent's move sequence. As casualties mount, leadership points are lost, making it harder for the warlord to influence the battle, which is a good representation of battlefield attrition. Very clever idea!

The production values are top notch and typical Osprey, with the addition of pretty pics of model soldiers. For £11.99 it's an absolute bargain!!! Now, who wants to play???

Dux Britanniarum, on the other hand is a full on campaign system and skirmish game all in one. The production is absolutely superb, with excellent layout, etc. It costs almost twice what Dux Bellorum does, but it is worth it, as the artwork and layout is brilliant.

In this game, you are either British or Saxon. As the former, you are attempting to keep your kingdom safe from pagan marauders and rsie to either be a King or to be the Comes or Dux Britanniarum - Warleader  of Britannia. As the saxons, you are trying to steal the British kingdom and become its new Saxon king. There will be a future supplement detailing multi-kingdom campaign systems and additional raider 'nations' (e.g. Picts, Irish)

There is a great system for generating your characters and, army-wise, you start with a standard force. For the Britons, 1 unit of elites, 2 of warriors, 3 of levy and 1 of skirmishers, plus a war leader, his champion and two nobles. For the Saxons, this is 2 units of elites and 3 of warriors and 1 of skirmishers with the same characters as the Britons. Now, historically speaking, I'm not convinced by the British levy, but most rules include them and it does make each army different, which in this game's terms seems as though it will be important. The basic warbands can increase as the campaign progresses, with unit sizes increasing (all formed units start at 6 models, skirmishers 4) and extra units being recruited (assuming one is successful in one's battling/raiding). One can also upgrade units as battles are won (although the number of elites is always limited - you can't just upgrade everything to 'elite') and foederati can also be hired, so, as the campaign progresses, things get more and more interesting.

The game mechanics look pretty straightforward, but are significantly enhanced by a card system that adds flavour to the proceedings for each side. This is the part I'm really looking forward to with these rules and ios the part I need to read in more detail before commenting further.

There are two types of battle - raids and battles, each giving rise to slightly different types of game. This is good, as it does depend on the stage of the campaign and the way one is getting on as regards whether raids or battles can be fought and also reflects the warfare of the time very well. The post-battle/raid sequence seems remarkably straightforward and the authors' claim that record keeping is down to a side of A4 could well be right!! Time will tell!

So, two very different, hugely interesting sets of rules. I will be playing Dux Britanniarum against Mike next Monday and have also got one definite local Dux Bellorum opponent lined up, with possible games within the next month. Exciting times for an Arthurian anorak such as myself!!!!

More to come soon, so keep watching...

Dux Bellorum has arrived!!! Dux Britanniarum on the way soon!!

Got my advance copy of Dan Mersey's new Arthurian rules today via Osprey. Bloody good book that combines rules, army lists and scenarios in one compact package. Great pics also from various related Osprey titles, plus two pics from my Arthurian armies and loads from James Morris' collection. Just need to order some bases now to create the 'element' style units the rules need (assuming I can find an opponent at the wargames club!).

I'll post a bit of a review once I have actually read and digested the rules a bit. All I will say at the moment is that they are an element based mass battle game that are a zillion miles away from my usual wargaming fare of WAB and skirmishy stuff... But that can only be a good thing!!

In other news, my movement bases arrived today for the Too Fat Lardies 'Dux Britanniarum' Arthurian skirmish rules. The actual rules are released on Monday and Mike 'Trouble at t' Mill' Whitaker (one 't' dontcha know...I spelled it wrong on my last post...sorry Mike...!!) and I are VERY much looking forward to this one, as it's got rules and campaign system all in one handy package!!! And it looks like it really ROCKS as a game too! Very nice! Check out the Lardies' blog http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/ for more info/battle reports, etc...

Pics of my Romano British army plus back-story once the bases are done and the book has arrived so I can choose which kingdom I am representing...

Mike and I are planning our first foray into these rules on August 6th...there will be a report and pics!!!

Triumph of the White Ravens!!

So, a few weeks ago, Mike 'Trouble at t'Mill' Whittaker and I reconvened with our new Age of Arthur scenario that we have been playing with for a while. We have had one test game already (on Mike's blog, I think) and this was the re-match. The map is below. Basically, the defender has a non-hearthguard unit and some skirmishers defending a watchtower against an enemy attack, but deployment of all other units on both sides is determined by leadership rolls which are modified each turn to give increasing chances of getting troops to arrive. The objective is to hold the tower at the end. We used 1500pts plus a bonus force of 250pts that would arrive in our enemy's half of the table at some point, time and place determined by dice rolls... I took my Romano-British and Mike took his early Saxons.

Below, my deployed defenders - milites with light armour, thrusting spears and large shields and some rustici with slings.

Here is what Mike managed to deploy and get on table in turn 1. My chaps were already outnumbered, as my troops don't start arriving til next turn!

So, Mike launched his attack with Gedriht and Duguth...oh dear...this ain't gonna end well!

 ...and both units assaulted my palisade, having driven off the skirmish screen... This is turn 2

 And, as expected, my milites crumbled and ran - they only lost the combat by one, surprisingly, but, not for the first time in this game, I couldn't roll dice worth a darn!!

However, things looked better  at the end of turn 3, as my army was beginning to arrive and the milites had rallied, albeit without their banner AND the tower compound was now full of the unwashed saxon horde. Trouble was, Mike was rolling superb depolyment dice so I was still looking shaky and very much outnumbered!

Turn 3! The Saxons line up against my milites against what was MY palisade... On Mike's right, Geoguth advanced menacingly...

However, it wasn't all bad, as my cavalry decided to arrive as well to threaten the Duguth on Mike's left and my skirmishers arrived on my extreme left to play havoc with the Geoguth there. Things were starting to look interesting now!

Turn 4: The Gedriht, sensing that an overwelming British attack was coming in the centre moved out to deal with it. Mike kept the Duguth in the tower compound, as he's very good at remembering the scenario victory conditions - lots of additional victory pts if the tower is uncontested at end of game! My equites were also really being annoying now, threatening the left Saxon flank. At this point, both our reserve units arrived. You can see my allied Saxons at the ford at the top of the picture and the 'White Ravens', which were Mike's mounted Duguth. The smart readers among you have by now worked out what's going to happen here, broadly speaking, from my post title...but do read on...it gets MUCH better!!! :-)

 Here you can see the end of turn 4, with Mike's duguth facing off my cavalry and the 'White Ravens' advancing towards my shieldwall...What??!! Surely not...

So, in turn 5 Mike's Gedriht attacked my Milites in their shieldwall and, wonder of wonders, BOUNCED!!!! Only a remarkably lacklustre British pursuit ended my howls of derision as the pride of the Saxon kingdom buggered off back over the hill AND panicked the dugutrh in the tower compound!!! At this point I was regretting the heavy armour on my Commanipulares, as they were struggling to impact on the battle at all....

 In turn 6, my milites advanced on the palisade to attempt to control it and my allied saxons closed off the 'White Ravens' retreat so they had to advance on my shieldwall...hmmm...cavalry sandwich, I thought....

 ...and, in turn 7, faced with the threat developing up their backside, the Ravens charged my shieldwall and caused a few casualties. No problem...thrusting spears, loads of ranks...16 attacks...and this is what happened!!! My cursed dice made their most spectacular appearance with 9 (NINE!) ones.

                                   

It got worse in the next round...these are my saving throws....

...which meant that the Ravens broke and ran down my milites. Luckily, no-one panicked, but all Mike's fleeing Saxons rallied, with the result that, although the tower was contseted, he had most troops close to it and gained 200 victory points in addition to those scored for busting up my milites with his (now much vaunted) 'White Ravens'.

 So, the scenario went to Mike.

Cracking game though, as always. I really enjoy playing Mike. We are evenly matched gaming-wise and we both have similar philosophy: it's all about fun and a great game and the scenario is king!!

We now reckon this scenario is a winner - Mike has played it again since with another club member (Saxons against Saxons) and it was another great game. It really makes you think. The deployment rules are really good - they keep both players guessing and the need to hold the tower keeps the game focused around its objective. The terrain also plays a part, which is very important. Mike and I have created a winner here, we think!

We are doing a club Age of Arthur day in November and are considering opening it up to other gamers wot we know, (details coming soon!) so if you come to see us in November, you may well end of playing this scenario then!!

For Mike's view of this battle go to his blog (http://troubleatthemill.blogspot.com/) and read his 'Saxon Poetry' version...it's great!!!!

More Native American Woodland Indians for Muskets and Tomahawks

Here are the next two models for my 200pt warband. These are both (I think) Conquest models. I am really pleased with the way the warpaint turned out on these! They took longer per model than the last one due to a varnishing disaster - I had been using Revell matte clear paint as, unlike brush-on Testor's Dullcote, it hasn't got fumes that will kill you! Sadly, it had gone a bit 'gloopy', so I diluted it. That worked fine on the first model on the previous topic, but not these two...for some reason, they ended up with blobs of pure white 'pooled' into many of the recesses and also on top of some raised areas!! Aargh!!! So I had to rescue them, which took 2.5 hours!!!!! Anyway, luckily we had decent weather on Sunday, so I 'Dullcoted' them outside!!!


Anyway, the 'rescue' job was, I think, worth it, despite me now being at least one model behind schedule...
This first chap has face paint lifted straight from the Osprey book "North American Indians of the Great Lakes", specifically plate C, figure 3...

This next chap's warpaint is a bit of a mish-mash...looks cool though, I think!

Here is a picture of all three painted thus far, sneaking out of the woods to burn some poor settler's cabin...

Three more are on the painting table and I hope to post them soon. I watched 'Drums Along the Mohawk' on Saturday for inspiration and 'Last of the Mohicans' is next on my list...

Cheers

Andy

First Model for Muskets & Tomahawks

Well, here's the first Woodland Indian for my 200pt Indian warband for the rather super looking Muskets and Tomahawks, a game I hope I can use at the club once I have enough warbands painted.
He was painted using the dip and highlight approach. The black warpainted flesh, the breech clout and the ammo-bag all had an extra highlight (usually I just bung on a highlight with the basecoat colour...) as they needed that extra layer.

Woodland basing courtesy of Army Painter Wilderness Tufts and Poison Ivy and some clump foliage I had in my scenics box - I am trying to get less of a 'meadow' and more 'under the woodland canopy' effect!!

I like the overall painting and basing effect and he's taken about 2.5 hours to paint (that's SPEED painting for me!)

More of 'em to come over the next few weeks - there are 23 models in the warband altogether!!

Hope you like him!!