"Dux Bellorum Markers: My Brilliant Ideas" Topic

I just bought the DB rule book and I love it. I like that it uses relatively small armies because it gives me a chance to lavish the units with lots of detail and be able to make some beautiful armies. I am thinking vignette-style unit bases of 120mm x 60mm, and some really nice, dedicated terrain pieces. I want it to look as cinematic as possible and that's hard to do with huge armies.

The drawback, for me, is the markers. I really don't like using dice or chits, if I can help it. Like Jack Nicholson's terrible accent in The Departed, they take me out of the moment. So, I was thinking that I might use something that looks like it belongs. Casualty figures are my first and most obvious choice for recording hits, but marking the LPs is a little trickier. Then I had a eureka moment: what if I base a bunch of command figures on individual stands and those are the LP markers? You guys think that's a good idea, or bad? What are some of you doing for markers?

I'm not familiar enough with the Dux Bellorum rules to give an informed opinion, but anything that uses miniatures as markers sounds cool to me.

Like Jack Nicholson's terrible accent in The Departed, they take me out of the moment.

And I LOL'ed at that. Yeah, Jack didn't work for me at all in that role. Come to think of it, very little in that movie worked for me, especially the last ridiculous ten minutes.

I think your idea of using individual leader figures as LP markers is a capital idea!

Let's see pictures when you are done with your bases. I was thinking of doing something similar, so that I could show wedges for my warrior units and mounted companions, and a two-rank formation of spears for shieldwall, etc.

But I don't have the money or time right now to make dedicated figures for this game, so WRG-mounted figures will have to do. Let us know how you get on!

I use reproduction Roman coins for our Macedonian and Punic Wars version of DB.

That sounds like a good idea.I myself use saxon and late roman shields to represent the lps.The most you can use is 10 per side,with 6 being the least.

We are playing DB here in New Zealand. We had used armies that were based for DBX but with separate heroes for WHAB. You are right, they make great LP markers.

Yep, I use command figures (and any others I have to hand. for Leadership points. They look particulalry good with the larger unit sizes you are considering.

I have gone with dice (using a frame on the base) however: it immediately shows the unit cohesion, rather than having to remember the initial cohesion and count the bodies; and I combine it with colour-coding the dice to indicate the unit type.

I'm looking at using glass pips from one of my board games. They look like jewels, and come in a variety of colors so you can use a different color for the leadership points on each side.

I'm also using 120mm bases so they can double with my Impetus armies. HOWEVER, I've also been giving thought to the 120mm oval bases that Renedra makes. It'd make for a nice little vignette idea for each unit.

I like the idea of oval bases. I haven't actually played the rules yet – would there be any frontage issues of you go with an oval base?

I've been podering the frontage issue of oval bases. As long as you measure from the ends, where it's 120mm in length, then there "shouldn't" be a problem, especially if both sides are mounted in the same manner.

Like Impetus, Dux Bellorum uses a lower number of bases per army, and thus it's entirely possible to build two solid armies to play against eachother with the same, or lesser expense than one large army for some other rules.

I'm not yet positive I'm going to use the oval bases, but I am certainly leaning heavily in that direction.