2nd game of Dux Britanniarum (with less testing and more playing)

We managed to roll out the muddy golf course that are our current gaming tiles at the Prague Wargames Club for another tale of daring-do's (and sometimes don't's), with a very bloody maul of a Saxon raid on a Romano-British church (no the lads above are not queuing up for confession).

This was the second raid in our new campaign. The Saxons received a bloody nose during their last raid on a Romano-British village. As a result they spent two months nursing their wounds and rebuilding their force. In the meantime the British Lord had lifted enough money (filty lucre) off the Saxons to be able to bribe his warriors to declare him Praefectum (a higher rank on the road to kingship).

The Saxons, still short of cash need to continue raiding until their Warlord has enough money to bribe his way up the social ladder. Only then will he have enough prestige (and cash) to attempt full battle with the British and try to seize a provice, and eventually a kingdom (the Saxons above starting the raid; their target the church in the distance).

Now the Saxons were staring with a -1 to Army morale as they had lost the last raid. They were lucky and got four turns of moves before the British could enter the table. Once at the church they had to pass two looting tests to find the gold. But could they? No, they passed one test (a 5 or 6 on a normal die) and then failed every other one, and sat for the whole game stuck in the church trying to sniff out that last golden chalice.

With all the dithering at the church, there was nothing for it but for the Saxons to get stuck in to the British vanguard to give the boys at the church more time to find the loot and then leg it off the table. (Saxon Hearthguard charging towards the British, followed by the Saxon warriors).

The two elites Saxon units, with Saxon Warlord and champion attached, ploughed into the British Hearthguard, and bounced off! The British played the Shieldwall braced card from the Fate Deck, and the Saxons the Aggressive charge card, which cancelled each out.

The Saxons reeled backwards after a poor dice roll and losing nearly half their men. They were then hit immediately by a fresh group of British Warriors; more casualties (9 now out a total of 12) and then a stack of Shock Points. This added up to more than twice the number of remaining men, and so the two Saxon units routed automatically (Losing ones Amphora). The remainder of the Saxon elite routing off the table below.

The next effect of this mess was that the Saxons had to take an army morale test as two elite units had routed. This led to Saxon army morale being halved (get to 0 morale and the whole army routs off the table).

Dead from the elite Saxon units loitering somewhere in Elysium, or is that Valhalla.

The British tide of units kept coming on as the raiding party was still fumbling with the Vicar's drawers in the church. There was nothing for it but for a combined group of two Saxon Warrior units to charge into the British to delay or hopefully rout some of their opponents.
 

They piled into the British Elite unit and smashed them, but in doing so sustained huge causalities and shock points in turn. The British broke first, but it was a Pyrrhic victory, as the excess shock points then routed both Saxon units. (the result of the final bloody encounter below).

Below, the Saxons still messing around in the church, as the Saxons square up for their final charge.

With the two units of Saxon warriors running for the hills, the Saxon Army morale fell to 0, and it was game (or raid) over.

Again, like the first game, everything ran very smoothly with these rules. The Saxons now have their tails firmly between their legs and must sit out another two months while they recover from their losses.  They can raid again in July, but the campaigning season finishes in September, so they really need a successful raid soon. The next raid will also see them start on a -2 to morale after this defeat. What will it be? hit a wagon train, rustle some sheep, or torch a watchtower. More Lardie mayhem to follow soon with this excellent set of rules. (All figures and buildings by Gripping Beast)

Dux Bellorum Test Game

So after a bit of post-Christmas procrastination I finally  finished my Early Saxon Army for Dux Bellorum (all Gripping Beast except command pack from Musketeer Miniatures), and ticked off one of my New Year's resolutions. In the sense of the Philosopher/Sociologist Bordieu I inflicted a bit of "pedagogical violence" upon myself; that is set myself an agreed date to play-test the Dux Bellorum rules down at the Prague Wargames Club before the army was finished, and thus accept the pain of prolonged painting over a short space of time. Now the bases still need a good and proper flocking... So I'll post up the eye candy when they're ready.

The Saxons lined up on their "muddy" bases.

Anyway, back to the test game. This was our first run at the rules. I'd read them through about twice, but could I remember anything on the day? No. So the rules passed their first test in terms of ease of reference (the booklet is not that hefty), though they would benefit from an index at the back.

My opponent was Pavel, who seemed to remember a few more of the rules, which speeded things up. He fielded his late Roman 32 point army on the day, and had a worrying amount of cavalry that my foot only force would try to deal with.

 

The set up was intuitive, and a quick dice roll and adding in aggression level of armies decides who is the aggressor and defender (important for the sequence of handing out Leadership Points (LP's) each turn). There are also a list of scenarios you can play at the back of the rules.  Now the LP's are the key mechanic in the game (plus of course a fair bit of dice rolling). The LP's are a bit similar to pips in DBx, but how you distribute them adds a nice tactical element to the game. Your  army gets 6 LP's as a basic (to which additional LP's can be purchased instead of units). You then distribute them at the start of each turn, unit by unit, first the defender (or repeller) awards LPs to one unit or group, and then the attacker (aggressor) and so on. Once awarded they cannot be moved (unless you have an experienced warlord who can reallocate 1 LP at the end of this phase. So if the attacker puts a few points down on the left wings, and the defender matches with more points on that wing,  and the attacker then loads up all the rest of his LP's on another wing, he can outwit the defender, and use the local LP advantage on the other wing to press home an attack.

 

Tracking Cohesion and Leadership points with differently coloured dice (a slight chore in the game).

The LP's are also used to reduce the effect of hits on a unit, and thus reduce the potential damage to cohesion. Once the manoeuvring is over and the units get into slogging at each other, this is where the LP's start to be used. Once you get enough hits and a units' cohesion goes to zero, then it is removed from play. Each unit removed also removes one LP permanently from the game for that side. I'm sure there are multiple strategies to be discovered in using the LP's (as well as learning the rules fully). 

The rules gave a satisfying game, and we almost got to a conclusion after just 2 hours of this first game (the better protected late Romans were pushing back the Saxons, who had 2 units of more brittle warriors/warband about to lose their cohesion, and be flanked at the same time by the Roman Cavalry). They felt "right" in regard to a dark ages battle, with some manoeuvring before the battle develops into a slogging match. This though does not last for too long as the hits quickly start to reduce cohesion points, so at one moment several units can melt away at once (simulating an armies breaking point and devastating rout). I'll write some more on the rules once I have fully digested the trial game, and get a few more games in over the coming weeks; but full marks so far.

Dux Bellorum: More Gripping Beast Early Saxons - WIP

So the Saxons are coming! (or nearly here if I can get over my painting mojo and finish them). All from Gripping Beast, and very nice too. I'm still thinking about how I will do banners, but will likely go with Paper banners for the Nobles and Companions, and Dracos for the Ordinary warriors/warbands. I suspect that these warbands carried nothing into battle, and just the warlord/chieftain and his household had a banner. The eye-candy Department of History will win this academic debate though, so Dracos it is...

I've set myself a deadline of next week to get them done, backed up by agreeing to field them for one game then (so they have to be done!)

 

Shield transfers are by LBM, and look very natural. Obviously they need a lick of Matt varnish to take the shine off, and blending in some colours from the shields edge. Otherwise very quick and easy to apply. The trick is to have a clean white undercoat on the shield.

 

 

All the figures are on 12cm x 6cm bases (Impetus standard)

Here are the next wave of figures, a few  highlights and shield transfers before completion. In total this will give me a Dux Bellorum 32 point army consisting of 1 base of Companions, 2 bases of Nobles, 5 bases of Ordinary Warriors and 2 bases of Skirmishers (bow).

 

As always, Gripping beast produce some wonderfully animated figures. These ones from their gruesome Early Saxon casualty set.

 

I'll post up more shots once the basing is complete, and then some games.

Dux Bellorum - Early Saxons

So as one of my new year resolutions I got the ball rolling with my Early Saxons. These fine chaps are intended to be part of a Dark Age army that I’m building for use with the new Dux Bellorum rules. 

I’ll base them to be compatible with Impetus as well. It’s not my intention to play Impetus, it’s just I like the effect of the large bases which give a better visual representation of a formed body. I was of course influenced by the lovely units that you can see over on the Saxon Dog blog.

http://saxondog.blogspot.cz/search/label/Arthurians

 

Now these are all from the Gripping Beast range, and are just excellent: very animated and natural looking, with good features and crisp detail. They paint up well, and the well-cast surfaces are easy on the brushes

 

The casualties and killers set is particularly gory; I think a bit of artistic license was at play here, though they will certainly “liven up” any unit of charging warriors…

This is also my first attempt at more professional figures photos. As you can see I still have some way to go to get the lighting and exposure right, though I think they convey the quality of the figures.

 Once completed the army should consist of 5 bases of ordinary warriors, 2 bases of noble warrior, 1 base of companions and 2 bases of skirmishers with Bows. That’s about 100 figures to paint up, so I’m a third of the way through (2 bases of warriors and 2 of bows almost finished, and 1 base of nobles primed for painting).

Hopefully I’ll have enough figures for a small trial game down at the club in Prague in the next two weeks, and of course more photos to follow.