Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Medieval Adventures => Topic started by: ulverston on May 09, 2020, 08:03:21 AM
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Hi Guys,
I was looking for information on the Dux Britanniarum game which appears to be a really original set up and is played as a campaign... and that's all I know! I have seen a couple of Lardy vids on youtube but not a lot else. Its not cheap at over £30 and so would like your thoughts if anyone is actually playing it?
I am not a fan of cards in wargames nor of specialist dice which has stayed my hand on the Saga ruleset.. is Saga a decent/easy game to play?
The lockdown is giving me the opportunity to work on the shameful mountain of figures I have stashed away from the wife and I like to organise them into units for games systems but I don't have rules for this period (unless you count Lion Rampant, DBA and Dux Bellorum!).
Thanks for any thoughts/advice. I have Sub Roman Brits in 28mm and generic Dark Age spearmen to work on...
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Are you playing solo, being in isolation, or are you getting your wife to play against you?
I have played Dux Brit and find it is hard to play solo. You have to build a hand of cards for each side. I find it hard to not have each side build a hand that simply counters the other side. If you can find a way to play with hidden cards it may work. As an adversarial game it plays well and can be fun. A lot depends on scenario design.
There is a Dark Age adaptation for Lion Rampant on the Dux Rampant forum.
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I don’t have experience of Dux Brit, but it seems to get a lot of good press.
I have played lots of Saga, it is a good game, but it certainly can feel a bit more on the heroic (if not fantastical) side of history, with some of the battle board abilities. The new version of Saga cleans up the rules nicely, it is a good game to play, fairly straight forward around the basic rules, but gives a good interesting game. The real depth comes in the battle boards (which need the custom dice). There are options for DIY dice, but having done this, I’d just buy the ones you need. The battle boards can take a bit of learning for each faction - so that you know the different abilities and when is best to use them.
For solo play the battle boards probably make it difficult. Having to manage two boards wouldn’t be easy - especially if you are new to the game.
As you already have Dux Bellorum and Lion Rampant what doesn’t work with those rules for you? I’ve played both a tiny amount, and neither really floated my boat, but it might help others with suggestions.
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I like SAGA and play both the Viking age and Fantasy version. The special dice would probably make it decent for solo gaming, because you have some randomness influencing your decisions.
It's a small unit-level skirmish game, units fight and move together. The rules are fairly simple and relatively abstract (the only real stats are how many dice a figure rolls in combat and their armour value that enemies roll against). It is very much a historically-inspired game as opposed to a simulation of real battles. You roll your SAGA dice and place them on your battleboar to ativate units and special abilities, and some of these are fairly supernatural (but not outright magic) in feel.
Quick and fun game, greatly enhanced by the scenario book, Book of Battles. We tend to play a randomly generated scenario from there.
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You may also want to consider Dux Bellorum by Dan Mersey from Osprey for under a tenner.
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I'd just like to point out that you do not 'need' the 'special dice' to play Saga. You can use ordinary dice but it does slightly, but not I think significantly, slow speed of play.
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Have a look at Comitatus by Simon McDowell.
It was designed for the period, gives a good game and has enough built in uncertainty to give an interesting solo game. The designer has a website so you can see if it look like your sort of thing.
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There are a few vids on You Tube that you may find useful- some better then others:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqFXI7XvVvA (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqFXI7XvVvA)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud2P737HS2c (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud2P737HS2c)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkruVc-3aFw (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkruVc-3aFw)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioD9tGBBOek (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioD9tGBBOek)
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Thanks for the info chaps. I will certainly watch the vids as there is at least one that I have not seen. Saga may be a go as I was begrudging paying twelve quid for the special dice! I have the Dan Mersey set but feel its more suited to 15mm or that may just be me?
A Dark Age version of Lion Rampant would be very interesting and I will have a look for the information on that game also I will look at Comitatas as I have never come across that before.
Thanks for the help Chaps, there is certainly plenty to go at.
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A Dark Age version of Lion Rampant would be very interesting
There's a Dark Ages version of the game in one of the Wargames Illustrated articles written by Dan Merser the author from a few years ago. I forget which issue it was in. Hopefully someone in the LAF Medieval section might have a better memory then me ???
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There's a Dark Ages version of the game in one of the Wargames Illustrated articles written by Dan Merser the author from a few years ago. I forget which issue it was in. Hopefully someone in the LAF Medieval section might have a better memory then me ???
Ooh, nice! It seems to have appeared in Wargames Illustrated #331 - "Landwasters and Raven Feeders".
Doing a quick Google search for it leads me straight to... your blog lol
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I found the Lion Rampant article on the excellent Oldsardes blog.... is that the one?
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I found the Lion Rampant article on the excellent Oldsardes blog.... is that the one?
I just looked it up, I am sure I've seen it before but thanks for the reminder... for anyone interested, it's here: https://gary-oldsargeswargameandmodelblog.blogspot.com/2019/06/landwasters-and-raven-feeders-for-lion.html
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My gaming pal and I have played a lot of Dux Brit and almost every time it has produced a great game. The cards work really well and allow you to craft a tactic that will give you an edge in one particular engagement but do not overwhelm the game.
The different factions play out well and allow you to develop a feel as to how each side is best set up to win. The raids are quite varied but can sometimes produce an odd result, especially when trying to capture one of the nobles, depending on the random entry points.
The campaign system works really well, although we have adapted the rules slightly to allow the British to gather taxes when the Saxons cannot raid. This balances out the Saxon ability to raid unchallenged when the British are unable to field an army.
Overall I would thouroughly recommend them for two player games. If you wanted to play solo then it would need some adaption since the cards would provide no surprise at all.
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Ooh, nice! It seems to have appeared in Wargames Illustrated #331 - "Landwasters and Raven Feeders".
Doing a quick Google search for it leads me straight to... your blog lol
lol lol lol It does!! lol lol lol
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Hi, I've played both SAGA 1st edition and the 2FL's "Dux". Both are small unit/skirmish games which only need circa 40 figures to game with. 2FL's Dux has a built-in campaign systems which seems to add more "interest" to the game, albeit my group of gamers have never managed to really get into it. In essence both try to do the same thing with either the SAGA battleboard or the Dux card-hand adding some random "fog-of-war".
I think both Dux Bellorum and Comitatus are "bigger battle" rulesets, albeit Dark age battles weren't that big by classical standards. I haven't played either but I think Dan Mersey's set is one of the better Osprey offerings ( previously released as "Glutter of Ravens?), and is unashamedly aimed at the "Arthurian Period". Simon McDowell is a well known gamer and author on the Late Roman period. Indeed I first met him at a Society of Ancients Conference back in the mid-'80s . He knows his stuff and I am sure anything he writes will be good. For some strange reason I never did but Comitatus.
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previously released as "Glutter of Ravens?
Same author, different set of rules though there are some similarities but not many IMHO.
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I will note that the specialty dice are not required for SAGA. They look nicer, but there are translations to a regular six-sided that is true for all factions.
The rare symbol is a 6, the next two are 4 and 5, then the common is 1-3.
When I gave out battleboards and a 4-point faction to some friends I printed out the numbers and laminated them over the battleboards so they would not need the specialty dice.
Conversely, blank dice with some stickers and a pen can fill in (I have dice for Late Roman, Norman, Viking, Milites Christi, Anglo-Dane, Magic, and Scottish that are all hand done this way. I own zero sets of the Gripping Beast versions)
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Thanks for that Maniac, the dice are what initially turned me off from this game and the cards from the Lardies Dark Age game. I have started to paint the Sub Roman Brits and in the future will probably go with Saga... making the dice is a much preferable option than spending £12 per set as I play solo, that's a great tip, thanks.
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Thanks for that Maniac, the dice are what initially turned me off from this game and the cards from the Lardies Dark Age game. I have started to paint the Sub Roman Brits and in the future will probably go with Saga... making the dice is a much preferable option than spending £12 per set as I play solo, that's a great tip, thanks.
Another way to deal with this, is print out a set of the symbols, then when you roll your traditional dice saga dice pool, you can cross reference them to the symbols and use that pool of symbols to place on the battleboard.
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These alternative dice options are all true - but having tried several of them, I would still suggest spend the £10-12 to get a set of dice.
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I know the thread is a few month old, but I've played a lot of Dux Brittaniarum and love the game. But it needs to be played as a campaign to get to it's full potential.
With the lock down and clubs here have not been allowed to convene since march this year I decided to make a table to be used in Tabletop Simulator.
So now I'm looking for gamers who want to give it go.
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The guys from the Northern Tempest Saga Podcast have put a Solo play scenario on the Studio Tomahawk Forum
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/studiotomahawk/solo-play-saga-t8285.html#p53634
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I can't seem to get my head around the Osprey Dark age set nor the Dux set which needs cards , I would like to see a vid or watch people play it before I went any further with this set.
I will certainly be watching a lot of youtube over the next few days. Indeed painting is moving on with three units done but I am awaiting the sabot bases before I start gluing them down. The cold weather means no outdoor chores during the holidays, just hobby time.
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I can't seem to get my head around the Osprey Dark age set nor the Dux set which needs cards , I would like to see a vid or watch people play it before I went any further with this set.
What is available online via YouTube is unusually limited for the Too Fat Lardies who are usually so efficient at such things. Just look up Infamy, Infamy! their set of 'Ancients' rules (for the Very Late Rebublican/Early Imperial Romans in Europe, Large skirmish) which is lavishly covered.
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Atheling I know what you mean by lavish coverage! Looking for anything remotely Roman on the net and the Lardies turn up with Infamy LOL. I actually enjoy almost anything they produce and listen to their podcasts but I do wish they would cover their other sets a little more....having said that they probably work 23 hours a day as it is.
I think as I will be using Hail Caesar I will base my figures on 40mm squares. Should I decide on another set later I will just buy more figures!
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Atheling I know what you mean by lavish coverage! Looking for anything remotely Roman on the net and the Lardies turn up with Infamy LOL. I actually enjoy almost anything they produce and listen to their podcasts but I do wish they would cover their other sets a little more....having said that they probably work 23 hours a day as it is.
I'm sure they do. Their work ethic for getting rules out is quite amazing.
I think as I will be using Hail Caesar I will base my figures on 40mm squares. Should I decide on another set later I will just buy more figures!
That temptation is ever present ;) :)
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Well just to update the kind people who replied to this thread and gave advice. It has only taken me over a year to get around to making a decision and I have bought the Viking starter set from Gripping Beast.
So now some plastic Vikings can join the large mob of (thankfully) painted Dark Age figures in my collection.
I have been watching a really good Chap on Youtube explain the rules (Wargames Hobby) and now I suppose all those hours watching Saga Thorsday may start to make sense.
Thanks for the help.... see you in plastic Valhalla at some point.