Dux Bellorum: Kitchen Table Edition (updated 21st March 2024)

[Old Hob]

Looking forward to getting my own force painted up and getting stuck into the kitchen battles!

Yes mate! Can we use your terrain? 

They look great. Keep up the work - the kitchen table game will look great

Thank you.

You don't have to play along/across the table; you could have oblique deployment areas instead, with a suitable distance between armies?

I read this while I was having my morning coffee at said table and immediately moved the kids' breakfast out of the way to check it out.  That is genius. It's so obvious, but would never have occurred to me. Good call.

[Devilcane]

Always happy to bring terrain! (*looks at materials pile and starts plotting smaller terrain peices...)

[Major_Gilbear]

You don't have to play along/across the table; you could have oblique deployment areas instead, with a suitable distance between armies?

I read this while I was having my morning coffee at said table and immediately moved the kids' breakfast out of the way to check it out.  That is genius. It's so obvious, but would never have occurred to me. Good call.

The only real "downside" to this is that each player may end refusing an opposite flank if the forces are big enough to mostly fill the deployment area, but you can rotate the angle to lessen this and give each side a deeper deployment zone too.

Radial zones from diagonally opposite corners is another possibility, as are "L" shaped corner deployments. In fact, I think playing around with the options and even mixing them up can produce some interesting choices for the start of a game.

[Pattus Magnus]

The game War and Conquest included angled deployment zones in scenarios, similar to what Major Gilbear described. I never found a local opponent to try the rules with, so I don’t know how the changed deployment zones impacted games, but it seemed like it would provide some interesting variation.

[Old Hob]

Shock progress update - first base of Wiglaf unarmoured Saxon warriors completed.
That's 2 units in the same calendar year!
Another 3 or 4 of these and I'll be dangerously close to having a playable army.
As always, constructive criticism welcome.

[Pattus Magnus]

You’ll get no criticism from me, that base looks excellent! Seriously, I don’t think I would change anything. I like the palette you chose and the figure arrangement on the base works great. Do more of this!

[DivisMal]

The same here! Only criticism might be that you live too far away to visit for a nice game with such lovely models!

[guitarheroandy]

Those are so cool and most inspiring!
Still waiting for my Wiglaf miniatures order to arrive...

[Old Hob]

Thanks for the very kind comments, folks.

Pattus Magnus - the colour palette is based loosely on an experimental archaeology piece I read about dying textiles. Apparently greens, yellows, browns and blues are all fairly straight forward, while reds are a bit of a pig and likely used more sparingly. I felt the sky blue on the chap on the far right of the front rank was a little off, so I changed the recipe to grey-blue for the chap in the back rank, which I'm a lot more happy with. Trying to base the back rank so they don't look like they're stabbing the front rank was a bit of a challenge, mind.

DivisMal - It was all the cool 15mm armies on the fantasy board that gave me the boot up the bum I needed to resurrect this project, so thanks for posting!

guitarheroandy - They are really lovely sculpts. I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with them.

[PBR Streetgang]

Brilliant painting, very impressive. I also thought they were 28mm and a tad large for the kitchen battles until I realized they are in fact 15/18mm. I will second Pattus Magnus regarding the choice of color palette.

Just my opinion but I don't think the disparity in size between FiB and Wiglaf is too noticeable, and will probably be less you when you are pushing lead on table. As for your choice in Dux Bellorum for rules, it's one of my favorite sets and it really gives me the feel of the period. I ended up doing them in 10mm with the beautiful Pendraken sculpts. I still need to finish all of my armies but your brushwork might just inspire me to get it done!

[DivisMal]

Glad that it’s partly my fault that your most excellent armies got resurrected!
That paper you read sounds interesting! Do you still remember where it was published? I have both a professional and a hobby inerest in things like that.

[Old Hob]

Brilliant painting, very impressive. I also thought they were 28mm and a tad large for the kitchen battles until I realized they are in fact 15/18mm.

Thank you for the kind comment. Although I put a lot of effort into the paint job, I still think it's the quality of the sculpts that's shining through. Mr Mersey describes the Wiglaf minis as 'Travel 28s' on their website, which I think is pretty good description.

I'm also coming round to the idea of maybe mixing Wiglaf and FiB minis in the same armies. I will certainly be using FiB for an opposing army. I'm very tempted by their Scots-Irish, and I have an idea of using the early Saxons for the Gewisse. Again, the FiB range is a vast improvement on old school 15mm bobble-heads and they also paint up really nicely.

That paper you read sounds interesting! Do you still remember where it was published? I have both a professional and a hobby inerest in things like that.

I had thought it was on EXARCH.net, but having looked back through their archive I seem to have misremembered that (well worth a visit all the same). For what it's worth, I also used online photos of dyed wool taken from A Heritage of Colour by Jenny Dean, which I found really helpful.

More bits and bobs are currently in prep (including some Vendel culture lads), so hopefully I'll have something new to share in the next few weeks.

[Atheling]

I'm also coming round to the idea of maybe mixing Wiglaf and FiB minis in the same armies. I will certainly be using FiB for an opposing army. I'm very tempted by their Scots-Irish, and I have an idea of using the early Saxons for the Gewisse. Again, the FiB range is a vast improvement on old school 15mm bobble-heads and they also paint up really nicely.

Are Forged in Battle the same size as Wiglaf Miniatures (please )?

[Old Hob]

Are Forged in Battle the same size as Wiglaf Miniatures (please )?

Slightly smaller by maybe a couple of mm. There's also a bit of variation across the range (the Saxon Raiders are, in general, larger than the Saxon Nobles for example). I wouldn't mix the two manufacturers on the same base, but I think the scale will be 'close enough' on the same battlefield. There're some useful comparison shots on James Morris' blog https://mogsymakes.net/2022/02/26/small-far-away-part-3-more-15mm-dark-ages/

[DivisMal]

Thanks! Now I’m really keen to see those Vendel dudes !