"Glutter of Ravens v. Dux Britanniarum" Topic

I have GoR, and am considering DB as a possibility since I like Mersey's work in general. I am still curious as to how he updated GoR to more modern gaming mechanics, in his words.

It is true that the mechanics were a bit old school, clunky, reaction based stuff. So I'm wondering what he did to modernise them in design.

Thanks!

Dan Mersey's rule set for " Dark Ages" is Dux Bellorum- a great game. Not sure how it differs from his Glutter of Ravens, as I have never seen the older rule set.
I think Dux Brittaniarum is a Two Fat Lardies game, which has had good reviews, but I have never played it.

I have both Glutter of Ravens and Dux Bellorum. Its been a while since I read thru the Glutter rules but as I recall, they have some of the same characteristics: basing by element, unit qualities like: attacks, defense and cohesion. DB uses a D6 and the stat lines for the above factors are less fiddly. Additionally DB utilizes "leadership points" which are a pip of sorts. LPs can be used to influence combat (added to the offense or defense) or moves. Lastly, DB has army strategies, such as fanatics, chariots, javelins, hero challenges. DB is a much better, streamlined game IMHO.

What Prince Albert said

Thanks for the correction, the TFL DB I do have actually and it was shelved – as is always the case with TFL among my crew – after a single gaming evening.

I found my GoR copy and was seeing how it could be improved, and then heard about HIS DB, so thought I should check in with it. And found it on Amazon for $13 USD with shipping, so grabbed it!

Thanks for the thoughts.

Well, there is this saying about tastes and colours…
PLayed Glutter or Ravens years ago and found it very enjoying
I had high hopes for Dux Bellorum but before we tried those rules the I had introduced TFL Dux Brittaniarum ones in our club, and they quickly became the most successful rules ever played in our 20+ years existence. About 145 raids and battles later there's still no sign of alyone losing interest.

We did try Dux Bellorum too as I have always been a fan of Dan Mersey ( the plan was to play Dux Britt. in 28 and Dux Bell. in 15)but somehow after a few games in which units got 'locked' into a perpetual fight with no outcome in sight, players just gave up.

It's obvious we have a different minded crew as other TFL rules like for instance Chain Of Command or IABSM too have been eagerly accepted and played quite often.

We played Glutter of Ravens quite a bit years ago but there were some issues with the rules. Everyone started the game by bossting their stats to the maximum (if you don't do that you disadvantage yourself as your opponent will get boosts but you will move into combat unboosted), but once the fighting started we found the Saxons were just better than the Romano-Brits.
So we stopped playing them.
I have Dux Bellorum but haven't tried them yet.
Dux Britanniarum is excellent – the cards really make the game interesting as you have to time your tactical strokes and then have to wait a bit before you can do another.

I'm working on new rules called Dux Lignum.