Thursday 23 August 2012

Quick Review: Dux Bellorum

I've just got my copy of the Dux Bellorum: Arthurian Warfare (DB) rules which were released on Monday so I've decided to give them a quick review. I haven't played a full game yet but I've had a good look through the rules and they look interesting. (Update: my first AAR's can be found here) The Dark Ages seem to be a popular period at the moment what with Saga, Dux Britannium and now these rules. 


The DB rules are for smaller sized armies than FoG, roughly equivalent in size to Basic Impetus or DBA. The recommended army size is 32pts. Unit types range in cost between 5pts and 1pt for each base of figures. But you can also spend pts on buying special abilities like 'Mead' which gets your troops boozed up, increasing their Aggression (how hard they hit) but reduces their Cohesion (meaning they will break quicker). Of course there's nothing to stop you playing with larger armies.

The rules are well laid out and interspersed with the typical Osprey illustrations. There's the usual background followed by basing information before you get to the actual rules which cover 25 pages. You also get army lists and scenarios making up the book's 64 pages. You can use any scale figures you want with the rules and you don't have to rebase figures as long as you and you opponent use the same basing system. All measuring is done in base widths (BW) so the game will easily scale to match whatever figures you plan on using.

Combat is pretty straightforward. You get one D6 for each point of Aggression your troop type has (adjusted by a few modifiers like charging) and you have to equal or beat the opponents Protection rating to inflict a casualty. Each casualty you take reduces your Cohesion by 1. When a units Cohesion rating reaches 0 it routs. What makes the rules interesting for me though is the use of Leadership Points (LP). Each army starts the game with 6 LP although you can spend army points on buying more. These LP are allocated to units each turn and can be used for things like increasing the number dice rolled in a combat, negating a hit, to stop an impetuous unit charging out of control, and even to interrupt your opponents turn to allow one of your units to move etc. You can allocate up to 3 LP to a unit each turn but you don't have to specify how they are going to be used. With armies having on average about 9-10 units you have to think hard about where and how you are going to use your 6 LP. Also every time you lose a unit you also lose an LP.

The LP concept is what sold me on the rules. I like the extra level of tactical thought it adds to the game. You can see the system in action in this playthrough of the first turn of a game by the author of the rules.

As a bonus I'm hoping that I can get the Saga players at the club to buy a few more figures and move them into DB so I have plenty of opponents. The only slight disappointment I had with the rules was that I got them confused with Dux Britannium and expected them to have a built in easy run campaign, not the rule's fault of course.

I like what I've seen so far and this should get me finishing off painting the 28mm Saxons & Vikings I've had waiting on my table the last six months. But the best thing about the rules though is the price. (You can buy them from Amazon here). When you consider their production values and compare them to other rulesets which come in at about £25 they're a bargain.

Saturday 18 August 2012

"20 Questions"

Never one to let a bandwagon pass by without jumping on it here's my answers to Ray & Fran's twenty questions.

1. Favourite Wargaming period and why?
Ancients, mainly because of the variety. I get bored easily playing with the same army all the time and ancients gives you hundreds of armies to choose from.

2. Next period, money no object?
I alreay have figures waiting to be painted for Renaissance, WSS, Napoleonics and ACW so my future periods are covered. But with money no object I suppose I could buy painted figures and I think I would go for WSS because I want to use the 'Maurice' rules.

3. Favourite 5 films?
I'm not really a film buff so I don't have a list of favourite films, but here's a few I liked.
'Leon' -  brilliant performance from a young Natalie Portman
'House of Flying Daggers' - this one represents my love of Kung Fu movies.
'Two Week's Notice' - this one represents my love of RomComs.
'Shrek' - The later films were rubbish though.
'Bullitt' - Just for the engine sounds in the famous chase sequence.

4. Favourite 5 TV series?
Again very difficult so many series I could list.
Red Dwarf - Quality British comedy
Blackadder II - the best series of the bunch.
Deep Space 9 - My favourite Star Trek series
The West Wing - Quality American TV (Also check out 'The Newsroom' if you haven't already)
A Town Called Eureka - Although the last two series weren't as good as the early ones.

5. Favourite book and author?
This is almost impossible as I have hundreds of books and love reading. But my favourite authors include David Gemmel, L.E. Modesitt and David Weber. Favourite book would have to be the Belisarius series by Eric Flint & David Drake.

6. Greatest General? Can’t count yourself!!
Napoleon, no contest.

7. Favourite Wargames rules?
There's a few that I'm dabbling with that look interesting like Maurice, Lasalle, Dux Bellorum and War & Conquest. But I'd have to say Malifaux for their original elements and gameplay. (Although more of a skirmish game than a wargame)

8. Favourite Sport and team?
This has to be watching rather than taking part, so it's football and Newcastle United.

9. If you had a only use once time machine, when and where would you go?
It would have to be to answer questions like how did they build the Pyramids/Stonehenge/Incan cities/Nazca lines etc.

10. Last meal on Death Row?
Lean roast beef with gravy, yorkshire pudding and chips followed by Ben & Jerry's Cookie Dough ice cream.

11. Fantasy relationship and why?
Morena Baccarin, because she's stunningly beautiful and was in Stargate & Firefly.

12. If your life were a movie, who would play you?
James Stewart

13. Favourite Comic Superhero?
Captain America

14. Favourite Military quote?
"Know yourself and know your enemy and you will never be defeated" - Sun Tzu

15. Historical destination to visit?
Chichen Itza or Machu Pichu

16. Biggest Wargaming regret?
Selling all my stuff when I quit years ago.

17. Favourite Fantasy job?
I'm retired, trust me it's better than any job! But if I had to choose it would be England Football manager.

18. Favourite Song Top 5?
Don't really have any favourite songs, but here's a few I like.
My Funny Valentine - Big Muff
Foolish - Ashanti
Heaven - Emilie Sande
Callas went away - Enigma
Unfinished Sympathy - Massive Attack

19. Favourite Wargaming Moment?
Running a DBA campaign for Headingley Wargames club in Leeds.

20. The miserable Git question, what upsets you?
People who spend ages trying to reverse into a parking spots in cark parks! Just park nose first, the gap you will then be reversing into to get out is much wider!!!

Here's the list if you want a go:
1. Favourite Wargaming period and why?
2. Next period, money no object?
3. Favourite 5 films?
4. Favourite 5 TV series?
5. Favourite book and author?
6. Greatest General? Can’t count yourself!!
7. Favourite Wargames rules?
8. Favourite Sport and team?
9. If you had a only use once time machine, when and where would you go?
10. Last meal on Death Row?
11. Fantasy relationship and why?
12. If your life were a movie, who would play you?
13. Favourite Comic Superhero?
14. Favourite Military quote?
15. Historical destination to visit?
16. Biggest Wargaming regret?
17. Favourite Fantasy job?
18. Favourite Song Top 5?
19. Favourite Wargaming Moment?
20. The miserable Git question, what upsets you?

Tuesday 7 August 2012

Games I'd Forgotten: Cosmic Encounter

I was reading through a few blog posts yesterday when I came across a mention of a board game called Cosmic Encounter. It rang a bell with me so I Googled it and sure enough I found this picture which brought it all back to me.


As the name suggests players represent alien races that are seeking to spread themselves onto five foreign worlds. To accomplish this, they make challenges against other players and enlist the aid of interested parties. But alien powers, which are unique to each race, give players ways to bend or outright break some of the rules in the game. There's another game of the same name available now from Fantasy Flight Games which is a more modern remake of the original. 

Some of the games different races

A game in progress

I remember playing this lots back in the late 70's it was great fun but simple to play with lots of opportunities for backstabbing. Sadly yet another game I wish I'd kept now. I may look at buying the new version but it's rare that I get a chance to play a board game with three or four others. So I'm not sure I want to invest £40+ on a game i may hardly get a chance to play.

Saturday 4 August 2012

Malifaux: More Gencon Previews

First up, is the all plastic Hanging Trees box set. This Special Edition features a Hanging Tree, which stands a little over five inches tall, and includes both Eric and Nathan hanging around after a hard day. Also included are two smaller trees, along with bodies, which can be used as alternative Hanged models.

WYR2059 - Hanging Trees -  $80.00 

Next is Miss Terious, a female Death Marshal. Miss Terious is the $100 Special Edition miniature for this year. For all orders of $100 or more placed at Gencon either at the booth or online, this miniature will be included in your order for FREE.


Last is a “perks” miniature for Henchmen, Santana Ortega. This miniature will be made available initially only to Henchmen. After a bit of time, Santana may be made available to the public by way of tournaments, prize support, etc. Which is a pain as it's a great model and one I'd love to own.


They've also announced some more Ten Thunders models. I really like the look of these and will be definitely getting some. Looks like the Gencon releases are going to get me spending large sums of cash and get me playing Malifaux again. If you've never tried Malifaux give it a go if you get the chance. It's a great game with lots of tactical depth and subtlety, not to mention the great looking models.

WYR5078 - Oiran (3 pack) -  $21.00 

WYR8001 - The Thunder Box Set -  $35.00

WYR8002 - Ten Thunders Archers (3 pack) -  $21.00 

WYR8003 - Yamaziko -  $11.00 

Friday 3 August 2012

Change to Posting Schedule

For various reasons I'm not getting much time to game or paint at the moment. So not having much to write about means I'm going to stop posting every day for a while. Hopefully normal service will be resumed soon.

Thursday 2 August 2012

First Game of Muskets & Tomahawks

I had my first game of Muskets & Tomahawks (M & T) on Monday night. For those of you not familiar with it M & T is a skirmish game set in the French & Indian wars period. It's made by the same people who did Saga but apart from the number of figures it uses there's no similarity between the two games.

I used Graham's British while he used his Indians. The game uses a points system to allow you to build your force to suit your style of play. I think we were playing 200pts a side. The terrain layout is shown below.

The terrain layout

We did use missions but not sub-plots (whatever they are). My mission was to scout his two quarters of the table and get back to my baseline. While Graham had to burn down the church and farm on my left.

The basic game mechanics are simple. Each unit has a number that you roll against to hit, kill after a hit or save in melee. Some units have special rules that can modify these numbers as can terrain.

I set up my two British units to cover the church and farm on my left with the intent of holding them. While my Indians were on my right with the aim of using their better speed to do the scouting. Activating units is different in M & T, each unit and each officer has a card which is added to a deck. The deck is shuffled and then the top card is flipped over indicating what unit type and nationality can activate. I had three units and an officer while Graham had four units and an officer.  When a card is flipped all of the units of that type and nationality can activate. This method of activating means that if you have say four units of the same type you could flip their card four times in a row. Meaning that you could activate all matching units four times in a row before your opponent could activate once. Of course the opposite is true and after you have activated you opponent still gets to activate. It's different and makes any kind of tactical planning a bit of a lottery.

Anyway on to the game. I moved my Brits forward into defensive positions to await the enemy while my Indians ran forward. My Indians morale was poor (as was my dice) and they kept falling back from enemy fire, ultimately running away completely. My Brits used their firing skills to inflict lots of hits but couldn't convert them in to kills (again bad dice rolls) also when I did manage a kill Graham's supposedly fragile Indians didn't fall back.

Graham's Indians quickly managed to fire the church while another unit massacred my left flank Brit's in melee. All his Indians then converged on my centre unit who did their best managing to kill a number of Indian's with shooting and in melee. But sadly the enemy's superior numbers and my bad dice rolling told and they were wiped out.

So what did I think of the game? It's interesting, but for me the card based activation makes it too random. I'd play it again but I won't be buying the rules or any figures. Here's some pictures from the game.

My British regulars advance to defend the church

My Indians getting ready to scout

In prepared positions getting ready to blast the heathens.

My Indians encounter two of Graham's units

Graham's bloodthirsty Indians rush forward to engage my British

Gallant defensive volleys do not deter the savages

My troops can only watch as the heathens burn down the
church while using it for cover

The gallant survivors try to hold on

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