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!!

Sneaky Peek!!!

"Oooh! Wot's this 'ere then?" I hear you cry....

"Top secret WIP, matey," says I, but because I am trying to keep you, all of my trusty blog followers... erm...'following' my blog, I am hoping to post the odd tasty 'morsel' to keep you all interested...and the above is one such morsel!!!

So, all you Colonial freaks, I'm sure you know what battle the above is from... Keep an eye on the Wargame press over the next few months to see more (this pic won't be published, so I'm pretty safe letting you have this little peek...)

In other news, in about 3 weeks North Star will be releasing the first 3 warbands for 'Muskets and Tomahawks', which will be the next BIG thing here at Guitarhero central. I shall be buying all 3 (Woodland Injuns, Brits and Frenchies) for 'dip and one highlight' painting and much 'Last of the Mohicans stylee gaming!!.

Also, watch for coming conversions of a few 'finest armoured' Arthurian Romano-British Commanipulares infantry (just to create a front rank to give a more WYSIWYG approach to my Romano-Brits) and more Dark Age Welsh cavalry (over the summer)...

Yes, the painting and gaming bug has bitten back and I am getting back 'in the zone!!'

Cheers

Andy

I Could Be King Arthur!!!!!!!!

AHA!!!! That got your attention didn't it!!!???!! So, why the supremely odd title to this post? Well, I just got back from a superb WAB Age of Arthur gaming day at Maelstrom HQ and, contrary to all the rules of wargaming and the gods of dice, not only did I come 3rd in terms of territories owned, but I was vying with another player for 'the source of the legend of Arthur' AND I was the only player to actually beat one of the two Frankish armies on the day. I won 2 and drew one of my 3 games...my first ever gaming day with no defeats in 11 years playing WAB!!!! The pic above sees my Dux and the Franksih king duking it out to see who would be 'Arthur'. After 'handbags at dawn' for about 8 rounds of combat, each killed the other, hence the shared title of 'source of the legend'...

So...game 1, a doubles game with my Romano-British ally, Geraint... Pic below sees my ally peering through the dawn sunshine over our battkleline...we were playing Cat Coit Celidon against Saxons (TWD and fellow Peterborian Mike 'Trouble at t' Mill' Whitaker) and we were attacking (with Romano-Brits?? Yikes!!)
Pic below shows my end of the battle line... My army was a Dux on foot with Finest Armour and Fabricae, leading 19 commanipualres with heavy throwing spears, large shields and heavy armour, plus Decurio ASB; 24 milites, thrusting spear, light armour, large shield; 2 x 24 Pedyt, thrusting spear, large shield; 10 equites with full kit plus light armour; 1 x 11 and 1 x 10 bow armed Rustici. I also had a bonus force of 23 allied Saxons Geoguth led by a Thegn.

Pic below shows my line about to be assailed by the Saxons...yes, it started badly...

...and rapidly got worse as my milites (who were reduced to Toughness 2 by 'fatigue') got trounced...(this is about to happen in the pic below!)

However, we turned it around and my Commanipulares attacked Tom's Gedriht and I challenged his general....

While this was going on, my bonus force arrived and prepared to kick ass on some nasty Saxons (who had already charged and seen off two of my foot units, (hence the captured banners at rear of Saxon unit!)

Below, the ongoing comitatus 'slug-fest'...

....which reaches its rightful conclusion below!!! I must admit, my howls of triumph nearly reached Peterborough!!! A 3-up save on your elites is a real God-send!!!!!

After that, I got the commnipulares off table, along with my equites. My ally also got two units off. Close-run victory to us and I captured 'Arthur's Spear', a nasty javelin throwing advantage!! All in all a great game and I did nothing stupid and had average dice...hmmmm....surely some mistake, your honour!!

So, second battle...River Glein, against Alex, another chap with Romano-Brits. Slight tweak on this, as one only has to be within 3" to contest a crossing, not actually on it!!!! See deployment below

My battle line...

Part of my opponent's line...

My elites, plus loads of crap foot!!

Slug-fest at the ford...

My equites crossing the river...

My milites in shieldwall about to contest the bridge...

Halfway through the game...it could go either way. And yes, that is a unit of pedyt off table having been panicked by the massed archery of 23 sagitarrii!!

My elites, having captured the ford, only to see it contested by the late arrival of enemy milites... Bloody stand off!! Again, I played this pretty well, only making a minor mistake and leaving my cavalry advance a turn too late on the flank, but it didn't matter...

So to game 3: Battle in the Pass: Objective: Capture the shrine in dead centre of said pass...oh, and try to actually win a battle against the (thus far) all conquering Franks. This game was against Steve, who I have played before and is always a fun opponent... My lines below.

Steve's lines...two nasty Pueri units...shudder!!!

So, we both legged it through the pass at top speed and had a HUGE slugfest in the centre that left Steve one Pueri unit down and me lovked in combat with his other Pueri with my elites and with his Franci with my milites. My cavalry attempted to shoot his down with the aid of my archers, but the dice failed us and we got charged next turn. My equites elected to flee...all of 6"!!! Cue dead cavalry and my pedyt get the chance to charge Steve's cavalry...who flee and never come back. Cavalry not much use in this game!!! Below, the titanic slugfest in the centre...

The same fight from behind my lines below, shortly before I finally broke the Pueri and pursued far enough to capture the shrine, although Steve was contesting it.

So, a minor victory to me. I captured one of Steve's three Arthurian artefacts, leaving us with two each, hence the single combat described at the start of this post. This was probably my most tactically sound game of the day and the closeness of the victory is about right as Steve played very well as well...very close run thing indeed....

Overall, a fabulous day of gaming. HUGE trhanks to Scrivs (and Tom) for organising and to all my allies and opponents who made it such a great day. Kudos to Peterboro' Grahame, whose Franks achieved three mighty victories and carved out a new Frankish empire in Southern Britannia.

Apparently, there's an El Cid day planned in the Autumn, which I shall make every effort to attend....

On a personal gaming note, this Romano-British army has now played 6 games and is unbeaten!! I think I may have finally found an Age of Arthur recipe that works for me...after only about 6 years!!!!!

I hope you enjoyed the pics and the report!!

Cheers

Andy