Breaktime Blast from the Past: Dux Bellorum and the Twilight of Empire

 Nothing like a new job and business travel to keep you off the tabletop but I was able to recently play a game of Dux Bellorum.

 

Dux Bellorum is a great, fast past set of rules written by Daniel Mersey and published by Osprey Wargames that allows you to re-fight the Dark Ages in Britain from the Late Roman period up to the year 800 AD.

Armies are element based and can be of any scale; movement and ranged combat is my base width (BW) allowing any figure scale or basing mechanism. In issue 62 of Wargames Soldiers & Strategy I read a Dux Bellorum article by Steve Jones in which his armies are mounted on 120 mm width bases but he uses 4 inches as the BW for convenience.  I decided to follow suit, mounted the armies on their bases and created my own measuring stick with a wooden dowel.

 My measuring stick.  Nothing fancy but it gets the job done.

The battle fought is a fictional encounter between a Late Roman Army catching up with Saxon raiders ravaging the province of Britannia.The scenario would be the Annals Battle with each side having 32 points and a simple goal: Rout the enemy.

The Late Roman Army: I envisioned this force as the cream of the Roman army stationed in Britain with excellent cavalry and solid infantry.

Late Roman Army.  This is the force minus one of the Shieldwalls.

1 Mounted Companions: 5 points.  This is the Roman general and his personal retinue of Huns!
1 Cataphracts: 6 points. Well, I have some painted so why not?  
1 Noble Riders: 5 points.  Veteran and well mounted cavalry.
1 Mounted skirmisher: 2 points.  Armed with javelins, these local auxiliaries have been tracking and keeping an eye on the Saxon dogs.
3 Ordinary Shieldwall: 9 points. Solid Roman Infantry.
2 Foot Skirmishers: 2 points.  One unit armed with javelins and the other with bows.

 Late Roman skirmishers.

Strategy and Tactic: Imposing Horseman: 3 points. Adds +1 die when the cavalry contact (charge) the enemy. Cataphracts and mounted skirmishers do not get the bonus.

 Hoping to ride down the Saxons.

Early Saxon Army:  An elite raiding force trying to make a get away.

My Saxon Army . . . but no skirmishers for you this time!

1 Foot Companions:  5 points. Warriors of course!
3 Noble Warriors: 15 points.  Extra armor, skill with weapons and flags.
3 Ordinary Warriors: 9 points.  We can fight.  Just point us in the right direction.

 The Saxon Warlord and his Companions.

Strategy and Tactic: Loyal: 3 points. One of the Noble units increases its Bravery to 10 for the entire game. 

The Loyal relatives of the Warlord get to carry the big flag.

Next up:  The Battle, why you should not charge solid infantry with your cavalry, skirmishers and much more.

Breaktime Blast from the Past: Sea Wolves for Dux Bellorum

 Now I have 2 completed armies to battle against each other in Dark Age Britain using the rules Dux Bellorum.  This army will represent Early Era Saxons and Sea Raider Early Era Saxons.  The Warrior units are mounted on 120 mm x 60 mm stands and the Foot Skirmishers are mounted on 120 mm x 40 mm stands.

 

I haven't really decided on which stand will be the mighty Saxon war leader with his tough, but smelly companions around him.  Any of the four Noble Warrior stands, which I have identified with standards, can fulfill the role of leader.

 

I will probably do a couple more stands of foot skirmishers since the Sea Raider army can field more of these light troops.  I currently have one unit of archers and one with javelins.

Now it is time to raid the province of Britain and see if the Late Roman army has any fight left in it . . .

Happy Tanksgiving!

 

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone as we celebrate in the United States - and a belated Thanksgiving to our neighbors to the North. It is also known as Thursday in the rest of the world. If were you live does not celebrate, just give Thanksgiving to the Lord where all good things come!

Breaktime Blasts from the Past: Dux Bellorum Late Roman Army

Ever since I read Rosemary Sutcliff's novels about ancient Britain (The Eagle of Ninth, The Silver Branch, The Lantern Bearers, The Sword at Sunset, The Shining Company, etc!) I have had a fascination with the Late Roman era in the West and Dark Age Britain.  With the publishing of Dux Bellorum I have found a game that I truly enjoy for gaming a period that I enjoy so much.

I have completed my first army and now it is time to show off!

The might of a Rome, starting to fade but still packs a punch.

My General and Dux Bellorum (Leader of Battles) with his mounted comitatus.

 

The bulk of the Roman infantry is "Shield wall".  They can be superior infantry ("noble" in game terminology),ordinary or a combination or the two. I have four units for my army.

I have three cavalry units:  Cataphract (though actually they are modeled as the Clibinarri with bows), Riders and mounted Skirmishers with javelins. The riders can also be superior cavalry ("nobles").

Last but not least are my bow armed infantry and skirmishers.  I made 2 stands of bows; when separate they will be foot skirmishers with bows and when combined they will be bows.  In addition I have a foot skirmisher unit armed with javelins.

Now to finish those Saxons that keep raiding Britain . . .

Epic Revolution, Part 5: The 71st Regiment of Foot (Fraser's Highlanders) Painting Guide

 

The 71st Regiment of Foot (Fraser's Highlanders) in 28mm from Perry Miniatures.

I can definitely tell you that I am not going to paint my 12.5mm Epic Highlanders with the same detail as the above Perry's. I have painted the 71st two previous times using Old Glory Miniatures and Perry Miniatures. The good news is the quality of the Warlord Games Epic Highlanders that are resin. The figures do come in strips but there are a few individual figures for options so I used one to figure out how I was going to paint the unit. As always, this is a painting guide, not the painting guide.

Prime in white as I don't want the figures to look too dark as they are smaller.

I used Citadel Contrast (CC) Darkoath (BWAH HAH HAH!) Flesh for the skin.

I used Vallejo (V) Flat Red for the dicing on the band. As I painted I cleaned it up a bit.

V Dark Blue for the bonnet and CC Black Templar for the feather.

CC Blood Angels Red for the jacket.

I'll clean up the turnbacks later; fortunately the facing color and turnbacks for the 71st is white.

Trouser/coveralls are V Flat Earth.

The haversack and strap are V Buff. The cartridge box, bayonet scabbard, and canteen are CC Black Templar.

The musket is V Mahogany Brown. That's it. I'm not doing the metal parts of the musket for speed of painting.

V Gold for the cypher on the cartridge box and the end of the bayonet scabbard.

The hair will be various shades of brown, black and yellow ochre. The epaulettes, cuffs and turnbacks are V Flat white. The boots are also CC Templar black and I painted over the canteen with V Steel.

That's it! Quick and easy. Now to do the unit!