Blog quondam, Blogque futurus

...and in its time of greatest need, it would return...

This blog is back- hopefully- and what better way than with the start of some practice games for Dux Britanniarum by TooFatLardies?

This was to be a bit of a learning-the-rules session.  We decided to go for a battle scenario and fielded an ungodly number of groups in the hope that there'd be carnage amidst the stopping and explaining of the rules to our four players.

Anyway, on the with prologue.  The scene for our Dark Age attack ws a suitably mist-shrouded valley.  To the north, there was a gentle rise of land topped with an ancient stone circle, in  which some mystical chap in a cloak was mumbling to himself.  To the south-east, a reasonably dense forest (or part thereof).  Strewn across the battlefield were a number of tilled plots of land, that would prove to be remarkably difficult going in the end. 

Streaming in from the north-west came our heroes (to my mind anyway) whilst their vile foe came as a rabble from the east.  With entrails about to be spilled and breeches to soon be filled with fear, the respective leaders of each side decided to do what they could to lift and stiffen the spirits of their troops...

"Look, I know there's going to be a certain amount of violence, but at least we all know it's for a good cause- don't we?"

Surprisingly, these somewhat diffident words had some affect on our hero's humble troops, raising their morale [+1 Force Morale] and certainly inflating his own sense of self worth [Lord's status raised from 3 to 4]  Sadly attempts to invoke the power of the Almighty fell on deaf ears, and the ecclesiastical sherry served alongside wasn't really what his troops wanted in a pre-punch-up pint.  What of the foe? 

Right lads, let's get ratted!

No messing about for the foe- after a swift half (or half a dozen), they decided it was time to close with the enemy.  Battle was to commence...

...just very slowly....

Suffice to say, there was much general manouevring on both sides, and for once the missile troops on both sides actually got a good chance to soften up their opponents.  Movement rolls suggested that the majority of troops on both sides were having second thoughts about haring into battle, and our hero's forces discovered that a shieldwall is great for survivability, but at the expense of mobility.

However, this did give time for both sides- particularly our hero's- to race through the Fate deck, buying cards like there was no tomorrow (which would be the case if they lost).  Ah-ha!  They've realised that all cards are equal, but some are more equal than others, to misquote the word of God.

 In  the end, there were two significant clashes.  To the south, a formation of two our our hero's Warrior groups had been stiffened with the presence of their sole Elite group.  Enough was enough, they thought, and with our hero and his champion to the fore, they hurled themselves at their dastardly foes.  This cunningly saw them use two of their Fate cards, boosting their formation's number of combat dice from 18 to a mighty 30!  Alas for their foes, they had no Suitless cards to boost their own abilities, and rolled a 'mere' 18.  Suffice to say, these mere dice were not enough to stop the foul enemy Elite group from routing in short order.  To add insult to injury to the enemy, the group that the enemy Elite fled through decided that now might be the time for a tactical withdrawal.  An inviting foot-wide gap now began to appear in the enemy line!

To the north, our hero's forces had skirted the bottom of the gentle rise as they hurried to meet the enemy (incidentally contacting the enemy's sole group of harrassing troops, forcing them to be flee the field of battle).  This time it was the enemy who had the initiative, hurling their spears with strong arms and then aggressively charging into the troops before them.  Our hero's Warriors held their own, but out on the far flank, the humble Levy crumbled in the face of the determined enemy charge.

"Whaddya mean, call it a draw?"

At this point, time meant we had to come to a close.  There'd been lots of explaining of rules and choices to the new players, and consistently low movement rolls had delayed the expect clash of arms, but encouragingly during the post-game drinks, there was a strong desire to have another game next week, to try out a more conventional scenario.

I spies me a Church raid....

Brother Pistus carefully picked his way along the trail to St. Ogg's, his mind elsewhere.  It had been some time since he'd heard from his cousin, Brother Noote of St Nimmo's.  He hoped nothing had happened to him.  Before Pistus could consider Noote's fate further, he became aware of a number of gentlemen bursting out the undergrowth, rushing towards St. Ogg's and waving speasr and axes.

Not again, thought Pistus...

Dux Britanniarum: You've got mail

<Scene:  A back garden, about a month ago...>

So, nice weather this week meant being able to crack on with prepping the Dux Britanniarum starter armies that have been acquired.  Once again, an inability to focus strikes, as the miniatures from earlier in the week are flung aside in favour of newer shiny things. 

Firstly, the Gripping Beast figures are a joy to behold, particularly when undercoating meant a lot more detail 'popped' out than these aged eyes had been able to make out previously. 

Not quite sure why, but the decision was taken to paint all the metal bits on the miniatures first.  Being used to miniatures from more modern eras, it was a joy to be able to generously slap on various metallic paints with abandon, rather than with the usual levels of discretion exercised with moderns.  So much chain mail.  So many helms.  So many sharp stabbing swords and so forth.  After twenty-four hours of drying, the various bits of sword, chain and helmets got a coat of magic wash to seal in that metallic goodness and to offer a bit of shading.  

Thus far, the paint job looks fairly respectable, but that's bound to go south once a start is made on the clothing and skin tones...  

<Scene: A spare room/office/study.paint desk, now>

Crikey.  All my Romano-British are painted up and armed, with a basic texture base applied.  They're tabletop ready and in record time by my standards.  I've surprised myself.

Having seen the various discussions on the TFL Yahoo group, as well as the examples of others' forces, in the end I've given the Elites a uniform paint scheme, the Warriors uniform tunics only and the Levy a random mix of hopefully suitable colours.  At first the homebrewed wash/dip I used on the non-metallic parts made the miniatures somewhat muddy but the look has grown on me, and let's face it, there's bound to be a certain degree of mud in Dux.

Romano-British defend a tiny monastery; Elite troops to the left, young skirmishers to the right.

A blurry picture of the skirmishers.

Not-Arthur checks behind the monastery with a couple of spear-armed comrades.

I really should get a better camera.  The one I have just isn't up to the job of snapping minis, and it's a shame; the Gripping Beast minis have some lovely detail, as noted in the start of this post and the Arthur freebie that came with Dux Britanniarum is indeed a joy to behold, even with my painting.

Buildings and fences are by PMC, and were had for a steal from eBay.  Furthermore, when I opened the package to find one building had been smashed in transit despite the excellent packaging, PMC got a replacement to me within three days.  Top job.  As stated in an earlier post, you don't require many buildings for Dux; in fact, there's just a watch tower left on my wishlist, which may come into play at Warfare.  

Now to crack on with the Saxons.  Let's see if I can get them finished by December 31st, in time for some January Dux.

Dux Britanniarum: How do you know he's a king?

So, armed with a fistful of dice, I tackled the atmospheric but nonetheless straightforward procedure to create some heroes and villains to struggle for control of Britain.  It was considerably quicker than the time taken to write this post, and the preceding one!

Having consulted both the fantastic maps in the Dux rulebook and my own OS map of Roman Britain, I decided that my future games would be set within the Kingdom of Celemnion.  The rules allow you to place your campaign pretty much anywhere on mainland Britain, from the lowlands of Scotland southwards.  As such, I quite liked the idea of fighting on local ground, namely the Valley of the Temmes, hence Celemnion.  This also set a start date for the campaign, 550AD, as the Saxons pushed northwards from what is now Hampshire.  

The next step is to personalise the various nobles on each side.  The Romano-British are led by 22 year-old Tribune Albanus, the son of a centurion.  Clearly his mind is more on matters spiritual than material, given that he is also rather devout.  It may well be worth investigating the role of religion once play begins, both on the table and off it in the campaign.  Albanus is supported by a pair of Decurions, Burcanius (who is 25 years of age and short and wiry in physique) and Lupinus (a venerable 31 years old).  Burcanius is also the son of a centurion, and is both dutiful and an excellent horseman.  By contrast, Lupinus enjoyed a more privileged and wealthier upbringing as the son of an honestiore, but is none the worse for that, "for Lupinus is an honourable man", to anachronistically misquote the Bard.  As military nobles, they are responsible to a king who happens to be 64 years old.  The campaign rules allow a play to be made for the throne if wished, so a pensioner monarch might be handy.  None of them have any reputation to speak of; hopefully they'll each carve one out for themselves, rather than having it foisted upon them by their Saxon foes.    

Meanwhile, the Saxons are stirring to the south.   Their Aetheling is Aelfric, 27 years old.  His right-hand men- well, adeligs- are the ox-like Sigebryht and devout Coelwulf, 31 and 28 years respectively.  The son of a peasant, Coelwulf is the odd-man out, with the others both being Wodenborn aristocrats.  Again, they all have no reputations to speak of; not surprising given that Aelfric and Coelwulf have (to my mind) distinctly un-Saxon physiques, being short and wiry.  In fact, I get the distinct impression these are Saxon slackers, with Aelfric more interested in lust than loot! Having said that, his 'thief's horde' of initial loot is more impressive than Albanus' 'beggar's bowl'. 

Now, I just need the postie to deliver the starter armies that Too Fat Lardies are also offering, and we can get cracking with our first Saxon raid- once they've been painted and based.

Ah- I should've known there was a catch...  

Dux Britanniarum: King of the who?

Huzzah!

The digital version of Dux Britanniarum has arrived!  This is the latest offering from Too Fat Lardies, and its appeal is such that it has caused me to start an entirely new wargaming  period (Dark Age Britain, c.450-600AD) which was something I'd managed to avoid for, ooo, sometime now...

Anyway, what we have in digital form (hard copy, cards, limited edition Arthur figure and starter armies scheduled to arrive later in the week) is what looks like a rather nifty set of rules for Dark Age combat married to a cracking campaign system (it's the latter that started drawing me to these rules, although a number of other factors played a role in eroding my resistance to beginning a new period). 

The publication itself is, well- words will fail me.  Suffice to say, it is gorgeous- a clear layout, lovely photographs of miniatures in play and very evocative illustrations.  I can't wait to get my hands on the dead-tree version.  What follows are overviews of the various sections found in the rules, referred to as Books.

Book One's breakdown of forces is nice and clear, and highlights that you don't need to be painting up hordes of miniatures (although I imagine you could if you wanted to).  Even with a campaign in full swing, it looks like you'll only need to add half a dozen or so figures at one sitting.  Ideal for those of us who are challenged when it comes to painting the lead pile.  This section also contains the procedure for generating the Big Men of your chosen force, and is reminiscent of other products available through TFL, Platoon Forward and Squadron Forward.  By the end of the process, you're already going to be attached to your force's leaders, as illustrated in the post which follows this one; already my non-existent forces have developed personalities!      

Book Two looks at campaign objectives, career paths and 'filthy lucre'.  Both Saxons and Romano-British can be as ambitious as they want.  The latter can- if successful enough- even get a chance to decide whether to become Comes or go for the top job of King (which requires the existing king to have an unfortunate accident...).  This is done through a series of 'career paths', which include actions such as gaining religous support (as well as that of bards), constructing watch towers, dykes and hillforts, purchasing relics, strengthening city walls, recruiting armourers, getting promoted by the local Curia and even establishing ties with neighbouring kingdoms- and that's just the Romano-British options.  All of this is funded by your military successes.  It is clear how the book-keeping to this end is minimal as the rules state.  As ever with wargamers, I imagine players could make it as elaborate as they wish.  Indeed, although all you need is a sheet of paper, the rules point out you could go the whole hog and begin penning your own chronicles.

Book Three is the fight.  To be honest, I've skimmed over the actual combat rules (about a fifth of the entire publication), on the grounds that reading rules and actual playing them through are two very different beasts.  So, gameplay is being saved for a future post.  However, I like the look of the pre-game options to boost your force's morale (Single combat between champions!  Booze for those about to die!  Praying to your chosen deity!  A suitably inspiring speech!), ditto the Fate Deck (should be interesting to see how that affects combat) and the post-game sequence, which to my untutored eye seems to cover almost every aspect likely, including sieges, civil war and regicide!  It also looks at the enhancements you can make to your kingdom in a campaign context, as well as expanding your personal retinue and annual events (for the most part, death and taxes).

Book Four:  The Book Of Battles!  Whether you're campaigning or not, this section allows you to generate five basic raiding scenarios, as well as gearing up for full-on battles when one or other side is getting mightily ambitious.  Having been sad enough to go through and tot up what terrain one might need to run any one of the five raids, I was pleased to note (from my perspective) that you don't need huge amounts.  With hills, woodland, river and so forth already sorted, my eventual outlay looks like being a watchtower, a church and three farmbuildings.  Perhaps some kind of town gate, if I feeling grandiose at a much later stage.  

The final Book is the Book of Kingdoms, giving details of the various locations one's campaign could take place in.  Having no particular claim to knowledge of this period, this section did a bang up job in bringing me up to speed, so to speak.  The very final page forms a reference sheet for the game itself. 

Dux therefore looks like shaping up to be highly enjoyable (yes, I know I've not actually played it yet).  Already there has been talk on the TFL Yahoo group about future expansions to cover raiders from the west, such as the Irish, as well as looking at cavalry in more detail.  However,  let's start by generating up some protagonists, shall we? Onto to Dux post #2...