2023 - Back to the Dark Ages!

Happy New Year to all!  I hope 2023 is good to you.

When I first met Alan (which the Lad says was also in the Dark Ages) I was kindly gifted the newly published rules Dux Bellorum to tempt me to the Dark Ages way of things; not that I needed much of a push, admittedly. And while we have played many Dark Ages games with Lion Rampant and SAGA we somehow never got back to Bellorum.  Our first game of the new year seemed a good way to rectify that omission and scratch a growing Dark Age itch once more. 

Some of Alan's fabulous Post Romano British army

Its always great to play with Alan's extensive collection of fantastic Dark Age models, which is not small. We decided to leave the Mounted troops at home to simplify our first game and I got to field his Saxons, taking Companion Foot, 2 Noble Warriors, 5 Ordinary Warriors and 2 foot skirmishers (with bows).  Alan took his Post Roman Britain/Arthurians with Companion Foot, 2 Noble Shieldwall, 4 ordinary shieldwall, 1 foot skirmisher (with bows), an 1 extra Leadership point and the Experienced Leader Tactic. It made for an interesting matchup of Warriors vs Shieldwall

We learned much along the way and the mechanics reminded me of a mix of SAGA, DBA and Lion Rampant (no surprise on the latter!) that flowed well, though we still have a few questions!  I liked the  Leadership points resource management, and the battle did indeed feel like a big battle as opposed to a large skirmish. We also saw that Shieldwall units did not stand up as well to Warriors as might be expected, though I did roll an unfeasible number of 6s which skewed the outcome (in fact there was 6 of them across 2 x 5 dice attacks!)

Overall I enjoyed Dux Bellorum and would like to play more. Unfortunately they do suffer from Osprey 'Blue Book' syndrome in which they are published, have a couple of follow up articles but then left behind and unsupported. With some tweaking they could forward in time into the Viking Age, or earlier in the Roman period. Certainly not 'beyond the wit of man' if we get around to it anyway...

The return of Dux Homunculorum!

Thanks mate, that was fun! #makethedarkagesgreatagain :-)

Rules note: One of the criticisms of the rules is that using a Ld point for an extra attacks, gets you a chance to get a hit (rolling 5+), but spending a Ld on defence automatically negates a successful attack. So hording points for use in defence is a no brainer, albeit a bit boring and can really slow a game down.

We used an internet (non author) suggestion that in spending a Ld point in Defence, the defending unit  must pass a morale check to negate the hit - fail and the hit is effective and the Ld is still used. Seemed to work well and added a fun element of chance.

SAGA Redux

Its been some time since I opened my Dark Ages collection but the new edition of SAGA has piqued some interest at the club. Sufficiently so for me to get out my Irish Warband and finished them off.  They hit the table at Club night last week - I was frankly overwhelmed by trying to remember the game, understand the new game, and try to use a new warband.  I was also against my old Nemesis Alan who masterfully carved me into small parcels with his Scots without loosing a SAGA dice worth of casualties in return!

Alan's beautifully painted Scots

Alan's beautifully painted Scots repel yet another charge by the Irish!

Then on Good Friday, Slowpainter John treated us to a SAGA Bash at his place where 8 of us pushed lead around and got into the new rules with a "learn together" type approach.  There are lots of reviews on the net but suffice to say that the system is now more granular and I think has added tactical depth without significant complication.  Good stuff.

Pagan Russ arrayed for Battle 

Mounted Hearthguard secure the left flank of Izzie's Welsh battle line

Marty's Anglo-Danes and Aled's Anglo-Saxons clash

Alan's Russ Warlord seeks out a worthy opponent on the field of battle

I played my Irish again, this time against Aled who was using Alan's gorgeous Pagan Russ for the first time and took the mercenary Steppe Horseman too.  With some coaching assistance from the Dux I managed to pull off a win with my Warhounds being best on ground after they mauled the Steppe Nomans and then dragged down the Russ Warlord (reminiscent of Thulsa Doom's village attack in the opening scene of the original Conan the Barbarian!)

The Puppies in action, harrying and mauling the Horse Archers from the Steppe 

The dogs of war were indeed slipped - the enemy warlord was tasty!

I'll post up some pics of my Irish separately.

Dux Brit: The Raiders

If you've been head down, bum up busy with the last weeks of the painting challenge and unwanted 1:1 scale modelling projects like me (stupid laundry...) you too may have missed the news from Lard Island that the first supplement for Dux Brittaniarum, The Raiders, will be released at Salute next month!

From the Lard Island Blog:

Great news for Dux Britanniarum fans who are attending Salute is that The Raiders supplement covering the Irish, Scotti and Picts will be released at Britain’s premier wargaming event in the heart of London’s docklands.

This long awaited supplement won’t just include the addition of the three new and exciting factions for Dux Britanniarum, but will also provide two beautiful new maps over which to fight your campaigns covering modern Ireland and Scotland. Once again the stunning artwork has been produced by Coral Sealey and we’re sure you’ll agree that they really set the tone for a campaign in the Age of Arthur.

The will to game in Arthurian Britain grows stronger in this Man Cave..

http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=2542

Saxons: Unpopular Chaps mostly

Not Saxons, but amusing nonetheless

Alongside painting my WW2 Brit Paras and more Scouting activities, I came across this interesting piece which puts the Saxon (Angle, Jute etc) suffering at the hand of the Norsemen into context.  To be blunt, they pretty much got what their forebears sowed.  Self evident really, but I found this article an interesting reminder of the Saxons' own marauding days.
http://thepublici.blogspot.com/2009/07/family-values.html

Back to the Dark Ages!

Last week I had the pleasure of enjoying Alan’s hospitality as we had planned a few weeks ago. After a delicious meal he ran an introductory game of SAGA for me, pitting his fearless Vikings against a Welsh force under my command.  It was a 4 point “Clash of the Warlords” scenario, with both of us taking 2 Hearthguard and 2 Warrior Units.

Three pieces of terrain were placed (two swamps and a large forest) which I hoped to use to break up the Viking warriors.  I combined my Hearthguard into a single 8 man ‘shock unit’ to try and overwhelm one flank, accepting the loss of a SAGA dice for the extra hitting power.

Initial Welsh deployment - strong on the left flank!

The armies advanced to contact and all was going to my plan with one of the Viking warrior units isolated by the swamps and allowing me to gain superiority by reinforcing my left flank.  At this point I found that perhaps combining my Hearthguard wasn’t such a good plan – when I got 6 hits on his 4 man unit they all died and the extra hits dissipated - but his 6 hits in return whittled me down worse in the bigger 8 man unit.  Note to self no 1: it would have been better to rush one unit in, build up the fatigue on the enemy, then send another fresh wave in to finish them off.

The Horns of the Welsh Buffalo close in, but not strong enough to intimidate the Norsemen!

The battle continued with attrition on both sides but the Welsh wore more casualties.  I got to try different Battle Board effects and suffer some of Alan’s too.  In the end it came down to the Warlords in single combat for two successive turns without result.  By this stage my Leader had only a few badly fatigued figs around him while he still had a full Warrior unit and a couple of Hearthguard, so the writing was on the wall and like a good Welshman I melted back into the forest.  Note to self No 2: javelin volleys are cool, but Welsh aren’t Norsemen so perhaps not being so aggressive in the future would work better.

Welsh retire to the covers of the woods after taking casualties

I very much enjoyed the game and while the table mechanics are quite easy to grasp, the Battle Board is clearly where the interesting dynamic is (as well as the frustrations of not having the right dice to do the ‘killer move’ one might want to).  The lack of an overall force morale mechanic was very different and perhaps more of a tournament style than what I am used too.  Then again, it made me make my own decision of when to retire so when the awaited campaign rules appear (next year I think) perhaps this will be more prevalent.  Certainly it is a game I want to play more and as the table mechanics are simple it is a system my gamer Lad could learn quickly.  I’m keen to try Normans and Anglo-Danes, and the new supplement Raven’s Shadow includes the Irish and their wardogs, so I will be interested in those too.

Great dark Ages action: a Warlord Mano-a-Mano duel !

I greatly enjoyed the evening, meeting Alan’s family and using his beautifully painted figs - his hand painted shield work is fantastic and definitely to be envied!  So much so that I’m feeling all inspired to get my own figs out and pimp their shields!  You can see his remarkably similar version of events here (link)

Note to self No 3: There is no shame in loosing your first match to a tournament champion! (link)

SAGA: Northern Fury!

Got this email update from Gripping Beast today - Sweet!

SAGA: Northern Fury Release Date & Pre-order Info!

'Northern Fury' is the first expansion for Tomahawk Studio & Gripping Beast's 'SAGA: Dark Age Skirmishes' and it is now available to pre-order.

'Northern Fury' contains details of four new factions for your SAGA games: the Bretons, the Jomsvikings, the Scots and the Anglo-Saxons. Along with a description of each faction, there are all the rules you need to muster yourself a warband (including new Heroes,) plus of course a brand new Battleboard for each faction. Each of these new factions presents new and interesting challenges, both to command and to face across the table.

Also in 'Northern Fury' is a new, multi-player scenario called 'Wooden Oaths.' Multi-player SAGA games are great for club-nights and bring their own set of challenges and rewards and this scenario is a great way to start if you've never tried multi-player SAGA games before. 'Northern Fury' is 22 pages, full colour and comes with 4 separate card Battleboards and is £12. It is released on 3rd April 2012. At the same time, we will be releasing new Starter Warband sets for the Anglo-Saxons, Bretons, Jomsvikings & Scots, plus re-enforcement figure packs for the new factions and some new SAGA dice for the Scots. These are also available to pre-order now. As if you needed an incentive, pre-order 'Northern Fury or any of the new 'Northern Fury' based deals now and get a FREE limited edition Scots Warlord sculpted by Bill McThornhill (pictured right, the Warlord that is, not Bill.) 'Northern Fury' will also be available from and distributed by Architects Of War (USA), War & Peace Games (Australia) and Comitatus Figurines (France,) and they will all have a limited stock of the FREE Scot Warlord too! UK shops can order their stock through our Northstar Military Figures, our UK distributor.

Cross Border Raid - AD 474

A great scenario and story by Too Fat Lardies - cant get enough Dark Ages massed battles!
https://toofatlardies.co.uk/cross-border-raid-ad-474/

Our Dark Ages Participation Game

Essentially we set up a 6 x 4 tale depicting a Saxon villiage which the Vikings would naturally want to attack and loot.  There were three major objectives, which could each be attacked by two Viking warbands.  This gave us a scalable game depending on how many players there were.  The objectives were the Church (and its gold and relics), the village (good plunder and slaves) and the great hall (plunder and the illegitimate sprog of King Hagar the Horrible, who he wants back).

Either it was a good game, or it was a convenient stop next to the lavatory...

Essentially, each objective had a Fyrd defending it with poorly equipped peasants, but strongly armed Saxon reinforcements (either Huscarls or Mounted warriors) were sure to arrive shortly after the alarm was raised, so the Norsemen had to be quick about it.  I must admit that we were too busy playing the game to take too many pic, but here are some pictures of how it turned out...

We even managed to interest one of those rare Lady gamers!

A Saxon watch mans the pallisade walls

And sentries patrol the perimeter

Bugger...

The gate is breached!

Defend the Holy relics!

Shield walls clash

Little Pig, Little Pig, let us come in!

The Saxon village

...which is hotly contested by its citizens!

The professional raider at work!

A good time had by all!

Dark Ages preps for Cancon

You may recall that the Man Cave Gamers are running a Dark Ages participation game at CANCON.  Of course moving house, Christmas, the Lad's birthday etc all got in the way of my preps but having just realised I have only a week to go, I'm now going full bore.

The majority of my Dark Ages figures

Mostly, its about basing the additional figures we will need, which Ken has already painted up. So I have to base about 20 figs per day to make it, as well as finishing off some terrain like the palisades and the church floor.  I'm sure I can do it though!

Men (and two shield maidens) of the Vik - thirsting for action!

Defending hearth and home - the Saxons (minus 25 already on the workbench)

That is probably enough chaps to form some decent SAGA warbands too!

Viking Shield Designs

If you haven't found these before at the Hour of Wolves website, check out these handy print 'n play style - great!
http://www.hourofwolves.org/?view=flagsAndShields&which=vikingShields&pic=0

Raven Feast

These are a 2 page set of ultra simple Dark Age rules -  really suitable for the bigger battle games where our skirmish rules are bogging down a bit.  In fact, I am having a go at modifying them a bit for use at our demo game at CANCON.  Essentially, roll 1 dice to hit (based on the skill of the warrior), 1 dice to save (based on the armor of the target).
We have them a go recently and they worked well - except rolling low for success really does my head in :-)

http://home.dejazzd.com/broadsword/Feasting_Ravens/FR_OPFS_PAGES/FR_OPFS_House_Rules_Page01_Files/Raven%20Feast%201_1.pdf

Peasants finished

Finally finished basing these peasants - figs by Gripping Beast (click on images for bigger version)

More New Viking Figs

Seeing as yesterday's post was so warmly received, here are some more new figs: Foundry Berzerks
(click on images for bigger version)

The penguin on the shield is particularly intriging!

Love the helmet on the left and the braided beard in the middle!

All painted by my mate Ken.

New Viking Figs

Its been a bit of a Blood Bowl fest here lately, but that doesn't mean the Man Cave's Dark Ages are over!
Here are some of the latest works, being some nice figs from Foundry. (click on images for bigger version)

Actually, I purchased these through ebay, and then found out that they came from Jason of the Der Feldmarshall blog - http://derfeldmarschall.blogspot.com/  Thanks for the exchange Jason - hope you enjoy seeing them ready for their welcoming feast in the new Great hall!

I really like this fig

This Godi channels power from the Gods - or is it the Green Lanterns???

All figs painted by my talented mate Ken