"Dux Bellorum - a bit of help please" Topic

Hi all,
I've got Dux Bellorum coming as a christmas present but the wife got to the post before I did and has hidden the book away for christmas before I had a chance to have a quick look :(

I plan to go to Warfare at the weeked and wanted to pick up some miniatures to go with the rules (Saxons and Romano-Brits).

I was thinking of going smaller scale 10mm or 15mm to keep costs down. Could anyone give me a rough idea of how many units(elements) a side make for a decent game and how many figures to a unit you would use. Just so my uncontrolled Show spending can be focused slightly :)

Any pointers greatfully received

Thanks Jon

It really depends on how elaborate you wish to go.You can pretty much get away with DBA sized armies,and that is a good place to start.

I played my first game last night. The figure count was 38 figures for the Saxons and 44 figures for the Romano-British. The GM suggested these were starter army sizes. There were plenty of forces to control. Units were 6 men each (5 Sax, 6 A-Brit) with a a single 4 man missile skirmish unit. Four special figures per side…lord, 2 sub-leaders and a champion.

Religon,

I think you're talking about Dux Britanniarum, the original question was about Dux Bellorum. You're right about Dux Brit though – what did you think of them?

Thanks guys.

Just to clarify this is Dux Bellorum the Osprey rule set and not Dux Britanniarum the TFL set.

DBA sized armies sound ideal…

Well, since I have the book right here on my desk…

Romano-Brit:

1 Foot/Mtd Companions with Leader
0-3 Noble Riders/Shieldwall
0-4 Ordinary Riders
0-9 Ordinary Shieldwall
0-1 Bow
0-1 Mtd Skirmishers
0-2 Ft Skirmishers

Saxon:

1 Foot/Mtd Companions with Leader

0-2 Noble Riders and 0-1 Noble Warriors/Shieldwall
OR
0-3 Noble Warriors/Shieldwall

0-9 Ordinary Warriors/Shieldwall
0-2 Foot Skirmishers

Each '1' represents 1 unit, which can be as small as a DBX element, although I (and many gamers I believe) use 4 elements in a 2 x 2 formation as 1 unit.

Generally, I would advise 4 x DBA armies when it comes to getting figures.

[Y]ou're talking about Dux Britanniarum, the original question was about Dux Bellorum. You're right about Dux Brit though – what did you think of them?

Apologies. It was the TFL game. I only saw the rulebook, upside down from across the room, in a less that readable font.

I thought Dux Britanniarum was below average for battlefield action. As a matter of taste, I generally don't like TFL's design choices. Any game with command pips or commanders with command umbrellas driving activation leads to large scrums in the middle of the table. Nothing wrong with it really, but actions really seemed predetermined.

To be fair, I liked the introductory phase of drinking, speech-making, praying and challenges. That part was spot-on with real impact on the game. I also understand that the campaign rules bring an additional dimension to the game.

Go with 10mm and 40mm basing. You can generally fit 10 figures of infantry in 2 ranks on a base and it looks way better than 1 rank of 4 15mm figures. The amount of figures don't really matter. You might do 10 for shieldwall and 9 for warriors. 3-4 for heavy cavalry 2-3 for light cavalry. Skirmishers can be 4-5 per stand.

Infantry stands can be 40x20mm. Cavalry stands are 40X30mm. Chariots are 40X40mm.

Thank you all that helps lots. Time to go and plan some show shopping.

Cheers Jon

Dux Bellorum armies come in at about 10 units: 3 points for an 'ordinary' unit, 5 for a noble, skirmishers – really levy – 1 point; the suggested army size is 32 points.

A unit can be anything from a single 40mm element to … anything you want, really. I've played with 40mm, 60mm (square) and 120mm frontage units.

That is true. My armies are a bit different-I have Splintered Light RomanoBrit,Saxon and Irish DBA armies (with added packs)and all the figures are individually mounted on washers.I made 40x40mm (40x50 for mounted)sabots with magnets and just put the figures on top to play. I also made cohesion markers by using a paper punch for shields,with a tiny dop of white glue as a boss,mounted them and painted them up,in sets of 1,2,3,4.For leadership points I painted up some 28mm Saxon and Late Roman shields (10 each)to dole out where needed.

Btw,I have Dux Britainnarium,too(but havent quite got round to them,yet).I can use the same indidually mounted figures-I just pull out a different set of sabots that I made for them.

skinkmaster – my own 60*60 bases are sabots (I use the figures for Saga as well. Individual figures do service as command points but I stick to mini dice on the sabots for cohesion (and being the sad fellow I am, I colour code them for troop quality as well).

Dux Britanniarum is an excellent game – it's the cards which make it something other than a 'line em up' game. You have to pick your moment when you have the right cards.
We certainly don't find it degenerates into a scrum – quite the contrary. It is often good to send a leader with a unit off on a flanking move.

Dux Brit is a fun game, but the scenario set-up rules are such that sometimes you are faced with an un-winnable game.