Reviewing Older Projects - Looking forward to Midgard

With the upcoming launch of Midgard Heroic Battles, it made me break out my miniatures from both Dux Britaniarum and Infamy, Infamy. Both projects I really loved but didn't get enough chances to play.

For Dux, I have three armies. A Romano-British, Early Saxon and a Pict force. The Picts are not even a complete base army. I have a base force for both the Romano-British and the Early Saxons. Most figures for all of these are Splintered Light. I have a few reinforcements that are needed still. The Romano-British do not have any heavy cavalry. I could use a few additional sections of warriors and levy to flesh them out as well. i will be fleshing these out with Splintered Light minis.

My understanding is that Midgard forces are larger than those for Dux and Infamy. So, i don't quite have enough to pull it off yet for the Dark Ages.

My Romans for Infamy are closer to being ready. I have five full groups of 8 Auxiliary Infantry ready to go. I started to work on some movement trays for them as well. I have 6 of 8 of a sixth Auxilia infantry group painted up. I have a group of archers as well. What I do have is additional Auxilia infantry that I bought off of eBay. These are based 4 to a base and are not the same as my other minis. I have enough for three and a half more groups. There is another lot that I bought that are based 3 to a base for a total of 48 more figures. They would need to be rebased. I can separate these and build out six more groups of Auxilia. I would want to repaint the shields on these to match my existing miniatures. Mostly as i was modeling a unit based on the Saalburg Cohort fort in Germany.

What I am lacking is Auxilia Cavalry to complete out the unit. I really don't want to paint up cavalry. I am too slow of a painter and horses take a long time for me. I am looking through the offerings on eBay and am thinking that I may end up just painting my own. Most have spagetti spears that look like they could break at any minute. I really like Rebel Minis figures. However, their command figures are not great. They have no cavalry command to speak of. Peter Pig is an option. Old Glory 15s and Khurasan are also options to look at. I will likely make Roman Auxilia Cavalry my next hobby purchase.

My Infamy Celts are another story. I have loads of figures. I purchased a few years ago a lot of celts that were painted. However, most are only partially painted. I rebased many of them. I am trying to get them sorted on movement trays. I have enough for a base force. I play on using them for both Gauls and Britons. The Chariots are in rough shape. Most have either broken or come apart. With some TLC, I should have a huge Celt army. I am missing some figures to complete out cavalry. Mostly a command element. I have tons of chariots that i could have enough for two groups of 10 chariots. If i can get the broken ones repaired. I did have some fun finishing a Celt light horseman last night. It was good to paint something other than a ship again.

So, what I know is, my armies are too small for Midgard. With painting time, I have a large enough Celt Army. I lack minis for all of my forces. I had purchased a set of armed Dark Age peasants for use with Dux but lacked stats with the rules to use them. I was planning on working on some anyway just beacause I think it would be fun to have some really bad troops on the field to defend a village or the like. I figure I can try to use them for Midgard.

Distractions, Ugh

So I found a youtube channel that was posting their Dux Britannarium campaign. I love the game but have barely played it. I knew I spent a ton of time painting figures for it. I thought I had a base force for both Saxons and Britons. I also had some Picts around somewhere. So instead of painting today, I made an inventory.

Saxon Horde

It was refreshing to see how well my Saxons are doing. I have most of what I need. What I found out was I was an idiot when it came to skirmishers. I have 2 guys with javelins and two guys with bows. They should all be the same type. Oops. Anyway here is my base force.

Pardon the junk picture. I have to paint the movement trays. I stole the skirmisher trays from my AWI guys. I am using the same basing method so if I paint them up for this, it will work for them as well. Bonus!. I sorted through what else I had. I found I had a nice set of dead Saxons. Donnington Miniatures, I think. They have a nice selection of dead guys.

Looking through the tray, I found two Wicca Priests or wizards. The picture was horribly out of focus and that is annoying. They are much nicer than the picture shows. These guys wouldn't be seen util a first battle and after the Saxon leader has advanced himself a bit.

One of the reinforcements is Saxon Cavalry. I have 4 of these guys ready even though they don't show up until the last round of reinforcements. They are also armored. Which makes them not light cavalry. But they will do and I really like them.

Next we have some reinforcements. I am out of skirmish trays so they are individuals. I have two groups worth here. Then I realized something. One of those groups was painted as foederati as possible mercenary support for the Britions. So I really only have one group of reinforcements of Warriors and one Mercenary Warrior group. Still, they could be used either way. The foederati were painted more uniform in appearance. I neglected to get a picture of them.

All in all, not bad. I need at least one more group of warriors for reinforcements (preferably two), another group of skirmishers (I have 6 bowmen to sort this out that need painting). I think that will have me set. I am pretty happy with what I have so far.

Post-Roman British

Here is where the gaps are occurring. I have the base force needed but really nothing beyond it. I opted to get smaller group shots for the base force. I kept the troop types having the same basic shield design to keep them straight. This was very helpful when I went to them years later and tried to sort out what was going on. I placed a warbases order today for more sabot bases so I can accomodate 8 groups of British and 4 groups of skirmishers. That should sort out all of my forces.

The first group is my British Lord and champion with his loyal warriors.

Next up is the second noble and the levy.

And then comes the next noble and his group of Milites/Elites.

The last part of the base force is the skirmishers. Here I at least have four of the same type. All bowmen.

I searched for anything else I had ready. Very little emerged. In fact, there were no unpainted figures much to my horror. I will have to visit Splintered Light again and order some more troops. (Reminder, I am running a sale on my scenario books. Use coupon code "ZWOSESMPIF" at check out for a 50% discount - https://payhip.com/ChrisStoesen). What I did find was three lone figures. A British noble on horseback, and two country priests. They will come into play a little later in the campaign. I can use the noble on horseback when he reaches the fourth level of reinforcements. The priests come into play if I help one out in a scenario.

With that disappointment, I made a list of "needs". This includes another group of bowmen or slingers (4 needed). A bishop. Good news there, I had purchased some Peter Pig figures hauling loot. It includes a nice scandalized bishop as well as five guys hauling off loot. I intend to use these for Saxons when they succeed in finding loot during a raid. They are primed and awaiting paint. A group of six warriors. The SL packs come in 12 so that shouldn't be an issue. I'll have a spare. A group of 4 light cavalry. The SL cavalry packs are in packs of 4! Two groups of shock cavalry and a noble. Well I have the mounted noble at least.

I am thinking of picking up a pack of elites as well. The reasoning is late in the campaign, you can gain extra elites depending on your path. The same holds true for the Saxons. I may have some spare unpainted figures for that though.

Picts

This is my smallest force yet. When Dux first came out, Mark L decided to jump in and went for a Pictish force. He made his way to paint 2 of the 4 groups of raiders, four crossbowmen, four slingers, a noble and a champion. I may have painted the raider cavalry. I only say this because the bases are ones I used. Mark based on very small washers. I will have to rebase to match the other troops.

Now for a base force, I am short 12 raiders. However, I have all 12 on painting sticks! Good news. I think I would rather have javelins for skirmishers than slingers. The slingers are generic enough that maybe I could move them to the Romano-British and get some javelins. Still thinking on this. I have another pict Noble to paint up to round out the leadership. Also a standard bearer and a musician just because. That would round out the base force and give me something other than a mercenaries to be used by either Saxon or British.

But the expansions call for Pictish war hounds. I have two dog holders for my Saxons that I bought from somewhere. I can picture the website in my head. The figures are a little on the thin side so they are just there (painted though). I will look at splintered light and see what they have. Next is 4 more raider cavalry. They are in the box on painting sticks! Next one is six more raiders and another noble. Got those ready to paint too. But alas, I don't have six noble raiders with a noble. I potentially have the noble but I would want him to match his men so that is probably splintered light again. I also have 4 more crossbow guys but they are just extras.

I need a druid type of guy. I will see what I have. I probably need to buy something. All in all, I have no excuse not to play this now as a solo campaign or talk my son into it. I should be able to manage a few raid scenarios before needing more figures.

What I really need to do is finish my East Front stuff and stop being distracted. Lets see how that works. That's it for now.

April, 500 AD: Victory is Ours

The king read Lord Donyarth's letter for a second time. "My King, it is my good fortune to report that on this day we have smote the pagan invader from Habitancum's province. It was brought to my attention that a force of Saxons had landed on our shores. The small folk of the realm came to us as I was entertaining my cousin, Artbranan, from Pictland. He had with him a small force of men and he immediately agreed to join the in pursuit of the Saxon scoundrels."

The farm at the border.

"We could later learn that the Saxon invader was named Garmund who presumed to call himself 'the Bold'. His men had quite the head start in approaching the farmstead. He was far closer to the farm than we were. By the time we saw the invader, they had reached the farm."

The Saxon reaches the farm on

"Our forces quickly became one long slow line of men. Our archers led the way. I followed with my small group of Comanipulares. Next Artbranan's crossbowmen (4), his group of spearmen (8) and my cousin followed. Next, Senyllt and our two groups of Milites followed. Lastly was Gwalchafed and our three groups of Numeri."

"We approached the farm where we were told the invader was moving too from behind a large outcropping of rock. This narrowed number of men that could move through to the open fields near the farm. Indeed, this slowed our movements considerably so that we feared that we would not arrive in time. The Saxon had already gathered up the sheep and cows from the farm and had started to move them back to their ships.

Here you can see the entry point for the Romano-British. With such a narrow entry point, we did not thing we could reach the Saxons before they fled.

"The Saxons began to loot the houses of the farm. The first building was abandoned rapidly as was the third. The second seemed to entice them that something was there. Our canny peasants have so long hidden valuables from our own tax collectors that what chance did illiterate barbarians have?"

The houses to the right and left had 1's rolled for their loot test right off the bat. Nothing was ever found in the center hut even though it was searched almost every turn of the game. Right and center huts shown here. "One of our archers tripped on his quiver and spilled his load of arrows across the ground. The others moved to assist him. This is the only possible explanation as to why they moved so slowly compared to my cousin's men. His crossbow men raced across the battlefield. They found the enemy skirmishers and fired into them as they attempted to run with the farm's cows. Here they drew first blood killing one of their skirmishers."

Mark's Pict crossbowmen. These are Sergeant Major Miniatures.

The Picts draw first blood. We used Mark's casualty figures from Sergeant Major Miniatures.

"Interestingly enough, one of their groups of warriors that was accompanied by an enormously hairy man, was herding sheep. We never caught up with this group. The farmer lost six sheep to these men. Two were carried by the hairy man, one under each arm. We later learned that this was Wulhere, the Saxon champion.

Senyllt and our Milites quickly formed a shieldwall and faced off against the closest Saxons. They moved into a line with two groups of their elite hearth guard facing the Milites and a group of warriors slinking behind a wall.

"To complicate matters, the Saxon presented cavalry on our flanks. Undoubtedly these were men who stole horses from some luckless Briton. These were no natural horsemen. They moved in lurching motions but still caused our men some concern."
These are a mix of Splintered Light and Outpost miniatures Saxon Cavalry. The standard bearer and spear wielding ones are from Outpost.

"The cavalry threatened and caused the Pict crossbowmen to flee to the safety of a nearby wood. My cousin moved his spearmen forward to challenge the cavalry and prevent them from attacking the rear of our infantry. This halted their advance. The crossbowmen moved to the edge of the wood and gave the cavalry a volley and ran them off."

"I must compliment the courage of my cousin at this point. His men charged the retreating cavalry. In a bounding rush they ran after the Saxons and chased them back to the farm."

"The Saxons began to fall back in order to consolidate their winnings thus far. They had taken another casualty from the Pict Crossbowmen at some point. They fell back to the well in the center of the farm. I saw an opportunity and charged my Comanipulares directly into the Saxon Hearth Guard. Our men slammed into the rough Saxon line and fought with great fury. We lost two men but threw the invader into great confusion. Many more Saxon lay dead at our feet but the charge and heavy fight left my men exhausted and unable to pursue. They withdrew to recover"

The British get very lucky and manage to beat a group of Saxon Elites but loose their amphora as well.

"Following our example, the Warriors quickly follow us into the faltering line of Saxons. Our Warriors further drove the Saxon back and shattered their line of battle.

The warriors proved even luckier and managed to beat another group of elites and did great damage to the supporting Saxon warriors. They would take 6 casualties in these sharp fights.

"The Saxon now only had a thought for escaping with their ill gotten gains. They began to fall back further and further. Our men had fought bravely and done very well. Gwalchafed and our three groups of Numeri finally had arrived. The levy proved decisive. As they were still fresh troops, they charged forward and drove off the remaining Saxon hearth guard. The remnants of their hearth guard fled from the field in terror of our martial excellence."

The levy had the worst movement rolls. On 3d6, I managed to roll a 3. In poor judgement, I attempted to wrap around the others by passing through a small field that further slowed them. Eventually, they got to where they needed to be.

The levy actually managed to cause some damage to the Saxon elites. The suffered 2 dead but inflicted more damage to the worn Saxons.

The uncultured Saxons must have been raised in a barn, as they ripped off the door to the hut rather than close it.

"Unexpectedly, the cavalry made another appearance within the farm. The Saxons threatened to charge our warriors that were regrouping after fighting off the infantry. I rushed to their side. Senyllt, Cadfan (my champion) and myself led our renewed warriors in a neck or nothing charge against the Saxon Cavalry and defeated them to a man."

Editor's note: The four cavalry were outmatched on the big men's dice alone in the fight. Only three cavalrymen were killed but we failed to check if it was horses or riders that died. Either way, the unit broke and ran causing the Saxon force morale to reach 0. This was enough to give the Briton's the game.

"The remaining Saxons fled the field. The two cows were recovered for the farmer. We looted the bodies of the dead. We won a great victory. We killed no less than 8 of the Saxon hearth guard. Another 7 of their warriors fell as well. We found three bodies of their cavalry and recovered several horses. Also we should not forget the first Saxon claimed by Pict Crossbows. Our losses were six of our warriors, two of my Comanipulares and another 2 of levy. I offer you this shirt of Saxon mail as evidence of our great victory."

"Your obedient servant,
Donyarth, Lord of Habitancum"

Editor's Note: The mail shirt offered was slashed open and nearly useless. The rest of the booty that was useful, he kept to himself and for his men.

The king shook his head. The arrogance of Donyarth worried him. Two attacks this month. Yes, both Aethelfrith and Donyarth had been successful. But this was only the beginning. His spies have told him that the numbers of Saxons hungry for plunder and land are limitless. Only time will tell if his kingdom will survive.

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On Saturday March 9th, we had another game of Dux Britannarium. This was the Farm Raid scenario from the main rules. Doug had decided to go with a Saxon force and I tried my hands at some Britons.

Having extra players we added some additional forces to the base troops each command would have. Mark had painted up 8 Pict Spearmen and 4 crossbowmen. He commanded these and the Briton Warriors. I had based my Saxon Cavalry. So these were added to the Saxon forces. Doug and Steve shared the Saxon Command. We should have given additional skirmishers to the Saxons. The Saxons nearly had the game won before the British could reach the farm. Just bad luck kept this game from going their way. They were close to their friendly edge. They did make off with some of the sheep.

The results of the battle gave the Britons a Thief's Horde in plunder. In addition, we gained two additional warriors and are able to replenish our dead immediately. Doug's Saxons will replenish their troops in 2 months.

Thus far, the campaign is going well. We have only played out April of 500AD in two games. Thus far it is going well. Hopefully we can get Brian's troops on the table shortly to get him involved. It looks like we now have 5 solid players in the campaign. Stay tuned for the next installment.

Mark's pictures can be found here.

Dux Britanarium - First Game

On October 13th, I managed to get in a solo game in of Dux Britanarium. What I found was that the game flowed really well and the turns moved quickly even with some fumbling on my part and the distraction of having the TV on at the same time.

What the scenario did teach me is that if you are not in a shield wall and you are Romano-British, you are dead.

The game started with the table setup. Since I was the only one playing, I used all of the terrain that I had available. The farm itself comprised three buildings. Since I only own one dark age building, I used some Russian Front Ukrainian buildings to fill in for the other two. The farm had sheep and a pair of cows/oxen as well. Below is a blurry picture that looked better at the time I took it.

And to the east of the farm...

To the north of the farm was some fields. It was from this direction along the road that the Saxons would enter.

I have attempted to spare you from some of the worst of the setup shots. Here is a table level view of the farm. Note that this is before I noticed in the rules that it needed to be three buildings.

The pre-game festivities had the Britions getting some good rolls from a stirring speach from their lord and adding to their overall staring morale. The Saxons sought some advice of their gods who gave them bad omens. The twins decided that they would rather live and sit this battle out. With the Saxon lord having his group morale lowered by the bad omens, he decided that the only way to have a happy force was to open the bar. Drinks for everyone! Well it seems that this did the trick and they were back up to their original starting morale. Both sides agreed that it would be best not to mess with a good thing and lets get the show on the road.

The Saxons had two turns of movement in which they could advance unmolested across the board. This would have been great for them if not for the abysmal movement die rolls. The entire force did not clear more than nine inches from their edge of the board in two turns.

Once the Saxons had their two turns to move, the Britons began to arrive to save the farm. I thought the Saxons moved poorly, well the Britons had nothing on them. The Saxons bottlenecked themselves attempting to move up the road. This left a column of warriors stuck behind the elites and skirmishers.

And a closer picture of our Saxons heroes.

The Britons eventually arrive.

Both forces utilize the road and head towards each other. The Britons get seriously bogged down and are stuck between a small wood and a field while the Saxons begin to get underway. The Saxons send a lord and a group of warriors to raid the farm and the Saxon skirmishers run to the farm to look for a better position to harass the Britons. This proves to be an excellent move as the skirmishers reach the farm as do the warriors who immediately begin to search for loot.

The advantage was definitely in the hands of the Saxons when the two sides finally met in combat. With only the single group of British elites in the front who were being shot at by skirmishers and attacked by two groups of Saxon elites, it lead to a route of the British elites.

The elites falling back through the British warriors behind them severely shook the British warriors. The Saxon Elites pressed forward and engaged a group of the British warriors while the Saxon skirmishers turned their attention to the approaching British skirmishers. Notice that I have yet to acquire any casualty figures. Instead I resorted to using my IABSM tokens to mark casualties and dice for shock.

One group of British warriors was routed off of the board. Giving more shock to the regrouping elites and causing a group of levy to nearly break as well. The second group of Warriors charged forward and hit one side of the Saxon elites as shock was beginning to wear these warriors down.

The British had some success against the Saxons with the counter charge but it was too little too late. With the levy having not been engaged and the Elites and Warriors already broken, the Saxons moved forward their fresh troops forward. To preserve what was remaining of the British force, the British decided to leave the field to the Saxons who were more than happy to raid the farm.

The game was not as bloody as I thought it would be. The shock was the deciding factor. The Saxons had a very good run of Fate cards in their initial combat. The Saxons lost 2 of their elites. The British lost two elites, three warriors and a skirmisher. I still have to resolve how much loot the Saxons walked away with. What really amazed me was how quickly the action proceeded. If I would not have had the distractions, I could have resolved the game quicker than the setup and take down of the terrain went. I think i will try for a wider table next time. I used a 6' x 2.5' table that was a bit narrow and probably lent itself to creating the choke points.

The Campaign Starts - Romano-British Story

The young man removed his helmet from his head. Even with the chill of the late winter day, his hair was matted with sweat. The young man nodded to his two companions as they stood outside of the tent. The royal guards were standing fully armed and cloaked in fur against the cold. The young nobleman announced himself to the guards, "I am Bitucus ap Belator and these are my men Vindilus and Dubnus. We are here to see the kings."

It seemed so strange to say that. The twins Gwrgi and Peredur seem to have made a good beginning at protecting Ebrauc from their enemies. It was time to present himself to court. His father's death left an ache in his heart but he was prepared to take his place in the order of battle for the twin kings.

With a slight movement, the tent opened and the two men hurried inside. The large tent was heated by several braziers making the internal temperature nearly comfortable. Only Gwrgi was present. He waved the three men forward. They dropped to their knees in front of their king and muttered "My liege" in unison. He motioned for them to stand. The men did so and pledged their swords and honor to the twin kings of Ebrauc.

Gwrgi stood and walked them to a map of the kingdom. He pointed to the northern border. The Saxons have created their own kingdom north of us. They now call it Bernicia. We have word that they will begin to send raiders south this year. We also expect more trouble from the Picts. Our friends in Strathclyde are trying to plug the borders but there is only so much he can do and the Picts love to sail their Curraghs around so they could land anywhere. The Saxons are probably bringing in more men from across the sea as well. I need your men to help guard the north. We have some foederati guarding the shore in the south. However, they have to be carefully watched."

The briefing went on for quite some time. Bitucus met several other commanders at this time. By the time they left,he and his two nobles (Vindilus and Dubnus) were weary and ready to be home. They rode through the night and were met by Paltucca near his home. It was time to raise the men.

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Bitucus ap Bikk is a lordling of Ebrauc. Living near Catraeth he is of average build and a moderately wealthy man with a thief's horde of treasure to support his forces. He is a Son of a Warlord and descended from both noble Briton and Roman stock. His one failing is his lustful nature. The local priest, Father Mellitus often admonished him to settle down and get married. Instead he sought out pleasures of the flesh as the urge grabbed him.

Vindilus on the other hand is an exile of fallen Bernaccia. An older man than Bitucus by a mere five years, the man found shelter in the halls of Bitucus as well as a kindred spirit in his lustful exploits.

The last noble of the household was Dubnus. He was descended from solid Roman stock and generations back for five generations served to defend Britain. He is a devout Christian and probably the sole reason that Father Mellitus has not shaken the dust off of his feat and left Bitucus to his own folly. What drives Dubnus is his fierce ambition. He will not rest until he can command an army in the field and defeat the enemies of his King.

Lastly is old Paltucca. He was the champion of Bitucus' father and the young pup had the sense to keep him in the role. He has trained many men in the proper use of arms. It is the hope of old Paltucca that he has passed his skills of war on to enough men to hold off the pagan hordes. Hopefully they may, by God's grace, survive another year.

The troops of the household are not in the shape that Paltucca would wish. The household guard (the milites) are well trained and an efficient force. There is just not enough of them.

The Numeri are also in good shape.

However the Velites or levy are not much to be desired. They lack everything. Most are freemen farmers with no military experience. A few have been detailed off who have hunting experience to serve as skirmishers.

But the rest only make up for their lack with numbers. Many are equipped with only rudimentary weapons or farm implements. When battle comes, these poor men will be without shield nor armor. The blacksmith and cooper are attempting to rectify the situation but it may take some time.

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Well, I have my base forces painted. I am lacking about 3 figures to have enough to paint up real levy troops for the game but wanted to try out the concept of peasant levy.

I figure that they would not have the ability to form a shieldwall. Possibly have a force morale of their own that is one less than the rest of the force? They should only be present when on the defensive and protecting their village/town/farms. Possibly add a hesitant troops card into the main deck that would eliminate the levy's movement for that turn unless it is in a retrograde (retreat) movement. Any other ideas? I'd love to hear your thoughts.