Dux Britanniarum

I played my first game of Dux Britanniarum from TooFatLardies on Saturday and I had a blast!! I thought the rules sounded good, but actually playing was even better then expected! I played the role of the Saxons using my Vikings in substitution until I can paint up some actual Saxons and my friend Nick from http://moitereisbuntewelt.blogspot.de/ used his lovely Late Romans.

Sorry, no pics of figures as I was just play testing to see if the rules work for me before committing to anything. As it turns out they did indeed work very well for me so more posts on  Dux Britanniarum will be coming soon! For sure one of the best skirmish games I've played and easily right up their with Operation Squad in terms of innovation!

Just to give a real quick overview of what Dux Britanniarum is in that it's a game set in what we often call the Arthurian period which is to say the period just after after the Romans packed up shop and left England to it's own devices in 410 AD. It pits the Romano-British (Romanized Britons) holding on to their land vs the Saxons( Germanic tribes) raiders who are trying to carve out a kingdom for themselves at the expense of the British inhabitants. The game is campaign based where you take the role of either a Romano-British Tribune(Junior Officer) his subordinate officers, and his military contingent or a Saxon Lord, his Nobles and his Warband where you both try to take and hold land and rise in status to either a King or Dux Britanniarum and of course establish your own Kingdom in the process. Later Picts, Irish and Scotti, will be added to the mix to compete for their own piece of the turf vs I suppose against themselves and British and Saxons.

The system requires very little bookkeeping to run, but allows a player to add more complexity if he wishes to do so. Rules can be a little tricky to find in the book at times(probably my own ineptitude), but once found are very easy to understand and so don't require constant checking later.

We decided to set the scene in Southern England in the Kingdom of Rhegin which consists of 9 or 10 provinces with Noviomagus Regnorum, Anderitum, Magnus Portus being the most important. I'm attacking from northern Germany via the sea and need to establish myself at some point on the coast and then move inland. However, I first need to make a few raids to acquire enough wealth and  prestige to be declared a Warlord before I can take any land.

 
We played a scenario involving a raid on a small village church that worked out well for Hamarolf "The Battler" my Saxon Lord in netting him a small victory and some coin to enrich his coffers. I was luck to cause enough casualties over my own to Nick that I was able to field a fully recovered force a month earlier then he could. I promptly declared another raid the next month. Nick was faced with the situation of either fielding a reduced force which could go pretty bad for him if he lost and so I think he wisely choose to let me conduct an uncontested raid where I could only acquire a small amount. However, this still put me in striking distance of becoming a Warlord if my next raid is successful. As said earlier once I achieve Warlord status I can actually attempt to take provinces. I've already started painting my Saxon Warband and so will post my results along with updating the campaign as we go along.

Time to hone the axes and hit the sea as I smell loot in the air!