Conwy Wargames Club Dux Bellorum Game

[Grigork]

For March's monthly game Pete put on a lovely Dark Ages battle with his splendid figures. We used Dux Bellorum rules because they work nicely with a small game providing tactical options for a player that get a result in an afternoon.

Dickey and Pete (the club has a lot of Petes) demanded to be the defenders of the sacred British soil and became the commanders of the Romano British. By default Dave and I took on the roles of Hengist and Horsa as the early Saxons.

The beautiful figures are mainly Gripping Beast.

See the fun we had here http://thewargamingmegalomaniac.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/2015-03-29-conwy-wargames-club-dux.html

Hengist with the Saxon noble cavalry


Arthur


Horsa's unit behind the D6

[TWD]

That looks great, lovely figures.
Nice to see Dux Bellorum getting a run out.

Tom

[Miantanomo]

I admire those figures. They capture the beautiful contrasts of colors during the Dark Ages. 

[Atheling]

Nice mini's  .
 
Yeah, the Dux Bellorum rules seem to have taken to the back burner which is a bit of a shame as for a while I thought that they may well have become the default rules for the Dark Ages/Early Medieval Historical Warfare.

I wonder why that hasn't come about? Skirmish gaming is cheaper? What happened to the big battles of the likes of the WAB Campaign Weekenders?
 
Darrell.

[guitarheroandy]

Nice mini's  .
 
Yeah, the Dux Bellorum rules seem to have taken to the back burner which is a bit of a shame as for a while I thought that they may well have become the default rules for the Dark Ages/Early Medieval Historical Warfare.

I wonder why that hasn't come about? Skirmish gaming is cheaper? What happened to the big battles of the likes of the WAB Campaign Weekenders?
 
Darrell.

I do like Dux Bellorum, but it doesn't have the excitement and 'oh my goodness!' moments that we used to get with WAB's Age of Arthur. It probably isn't the best set of rules for a weekend mini campaign in the old WAB style, as in my expereince, points match battles tend to be very samey, esp where shieldwalls are concerned. However, that may be because we haven't played enough different scenarios. I do really enjoy it when ever I play, but that's very rarely due to lack of regular opponents...

Am playing more War & Conquest these days and am working with Rob Broom to write and playtest Arthurian and Late Roman/barbarian army lists for that, which is fun...

[TWD]

I agree with Andy. Especially the bits about enjoying when I do play and yet not playing enough.

Also DB is an "element" game, closer in spirit to DBA than to WAB. Not that there's anything wrong with that - but it is a different experience I think. It also has quite a tight timescale (finishing with the arrival of the Vikings) and covers the properly Dark Age bits of the early medieaval period (as we're now supposed to call it) which narrows the appeal.
I think its a colourful and interesting period, and quite like the fact that the lack of much concrete knowledge gives a little freedom to the interpretation of armies and fighting styles but there is a bit of an impression that the period is just "men in brown with sticks hitting other men in brown with sticks".

With WAB you could play with any armies from bronze age to renaissance. And even (if so inclined) play "time tunnel" games of Hittites versus HYW French both of which factors opened it up to more people.

I still think there's a market out there for a WAB replacement. I'm a little surprised neither CoE or WaC made the leap to fully occupy that space. I think if anything they were almost too soon after the "death" of WAB - I know I didn't pick either up because I was quite content with WAB and in particular James (and Steve's) El Cid and AoA.

Hail Caesar has a good following (and gives a great game) but again is "element" based and aims for a different gaming experience.

However WAB still works just fine too, maybe it's time for another El Cid or AoA day later this year..?