Lard Island News

With all of the playtesting of Dux Britanniarum that has been going on we have had a huge number of requests saying “Where can I get the figures?”. Naturally we pointed them in the direction of Gripping Beast for the 28mm option as, frankly, they tick all of the boxes for us. The quality of the casting is excellent, and the sculpts really seem to epitomise the period of Arthur.

Well, to make things even easier we had a chat with our chums at the Beast and the great news is that we are now stocking the first two ready-made armies, Romano-British and Saxons which provide you with all of the figures you’ll need to get started with your own Dux Britanniarum campaign set in the Age of Arthur.

We thought that the best way to show you the armies was to get one of each painted up by our good friend Matt Slade, a regular gamer of Lardy rules and something of a wizard with the brush. Today we’re going to take a look at the first of these that has just arrived on Lard Island and that had its inaugural game last night (more on that later).

The Romano-British starter Army is designed to provide you with seven Groups of figures plus four key characters. Starting at the top we have our Lord, his two right hand men and a champion. These will be some of the sharpest dressed chaps in your force, Matt has done two of these in blues which was a high cost product in ancient times due to the dyeing procedure. The leader of our force is Tribune Constantine of Calchwynned which is the Kingdom of the Chalk Hills in what we now call the Chiltern Hills. The Tribune has a red cloak as he is a soldier rather than a King. If, as the campaign progresses, he is elevated to a throne I will repaint that in imperial purple to show his status.

Next you have the Lord’s household troops, their title can vary but with our force here we are calling them Comanipulares. You get just one Group of these at the outset of your campaign with Dux Britanniarum, as your character progresses he will be able to afford a larger retinue of these, but we’re starting at the bottom here. Again these chaps will be quite well dressed, although I wanted this army to have a less upmarket look than my Verulamium Army. Verulamium was one of Roman Britain’s principle settlements and was a wealthy place, Calchwynned was a Kingdom founded by a dispossessed Prince from the north of England in around 480 AD so there is a distinct lack of cash, so a more lived-in look was what I was looking for (I’ll show you some snaps of my Verulamium troops in their finery a bit later so you can see the contrast). Here Matt has these chaps in the mail which only the best soldiers would be able to have among their possessions, with fine red cloaks which set them aside from the riff-raff, but their tunics are of plainer unbleached linens.

Below the Comanipulares we have the Milites, the regular soldiers of the Kingdom. There are two Groups of these and they make up the real nucleus of your army. These have a helmet in the Roman style but no armour. I really like the look that Matt has achieved here, with what is clearly an attempt by the soldiers to achieve some uniformity, but with varying shades and slight variations in styles betraying them as decidedly sub-Roman rather than Roman.

Then we have the Numeri, or the Levy. These are local farmers and tradesmen who take up arms when their Kingdom is threatened. These men have, generally, spears or the odd farm implement, a shield and nothing else. They are bare headed and their clothes are entirely without any uniformity. They look exactly like what they are, barely trained men who are ready to protect their homes, families and crops.

Finally the missile troops, in this case a Group of four lads with slings. The rules treat these as exactly that, young men who are too young to join the shieldwall but who have some value as they have probably learnt to cast a stone some distance and with accuracy whilst protecting their flocks from wolves on the hills.

So that’s the complete starter army. There are actually a few more figures which serve to allow your first round of reinforcements as you gain a reputation and attract more followers. This can be had, unpainted, for just £65 which is a great saving from standard list price.

I thought you might like to see a few snaps of my Verulamium force in order to get a bit of an idea how you can paint these same figures up to achieve a greater degree of uniformity. You can see some Milites here where I have gone for a greater degree of uniformity. The tunics are in unbleached linen but have a woven trim in red to show off the wealth of the city. The shields are generally different but there is a theme of red and white which, en masse, shows them off as a solid block of troops rather than the more ad hoc look of the Calchwynned force.


You can see how the Verulamium Comanipulares are also more regular in their appearance.

I should point out that I based these figures, I like to have all of the bases done to match my Warbases movement trays and Matt is happy to provide the figures based or unbased as his customers’ prefer.

Matt paints all his figures with Vallejo acrylic paints with a smattering of Foundry and Games Workshop for good measure. On these figures he has used the Little Big Man transfers but he is happy to hand-paint shields as well. He varnishes his figures with a high quality protective matt varnish which is long lasting and protects the figures as well as getting a nice flat matt look (and that is something I was very impressed with). Typically turnaround is three to four weeks for a Dux Britanniarum army sized force. You can drop Matt an email at slade.m@sky.com or check out his web site at http://www.glenbrookgames.co.uk

Starting up a new period is never cheap, what with lots of figures to buy and paying the legalised bandits that rules authors. But if its a period for which you have little of no suitable scenary it can become doubly daunting. Such was the situation we faced on Lard Island when we began our Dark Age project. Of course figures you cannot sculpt and cast yourself for a sensible sum, and developing ones own set of rules takes an investment in time and effort that many of us cannot spare, however buildings is something that we can get some pretty speedy results with and save ourselves a packet. Let’s take a look at how we made the buildings you’ve seen in the battle reports on Lard Island News.

First we assemble our kit. Foamboard is the basic building material for the walls, with artist’s mounting board for most of the detail. We use 3mm MDF as a base. In addition we’ll be using a tiny bit of cardboard from a cereal packet, two scalpels, one sharp and one not so sharp, some PVA glue and Polyfiller interior wall filler (apologies to our pals across the pond, I am not sure what this product is called there. If anyone knows let me know and I’ll add it here) and some Milliput modelling putty. Obviously a ruler and pen are a great help as well.

The first step of construction is to mark your walls out on the foamboard. Here I am actually constructing a barn or agricultural store so I am going for a very simple rectangle with a pitched roof. The door is a large double door on one side and with a couple oif ventilation windows in near the eaves.

Now I use the sharp scalpel to cut these four walls out and the door. keep hold of the door section as we’ll be using this very soon. Now I cut out the small window sections. They are going to have wooden shutters so I only cut halfway down through the foad board as I’ll be sticking some cereal packet cardboard in here later for be the shutters.

So, now we have five bits, the four walls and the door. Just like this:

Next I bring my trusty friend the hot glue gun into use. This is a superb tool for terrain builders. It is rough and ready, makes a bloody mess, but sticks like the proverbial to a blanket. The first thing I am doing is recessing the door section so that it is in the doorway but set back about 3/4 of the way in. The hot glue gun round the edges of this once you have it in place is all you’ll need to hold it solid.

Now I glue the rest of the building together. Just run the glue gun down the edge you want sticking and it will do the job for you, but do place the building on a flat surface at each stage as whilst you don’t mind the walls being a trifle wonky the whole structure will need to be stuck onto a flat base shortly.

Now I use the hot glue gun to attach strips of artist’s mounting board to represent the building’s timber frame. Don’t bother measuring these strips with a ruler, cut them pretty roughly as that’s the way timbers would appear in these times when cut with an axe, however don’t go out of your way to make it look rubbish, or it will! I used to stick these bits on with PVA glue, but it took ages to set and then warped most of the rime so you’re end up redoing it. Now I am just careful to use a minimal amount of hot glue and this speeds up the process tremendously.

Now I begin to add the door timbers. Remember the recess we created with the door shaped section of foambaord, this is where we stick some suitably sized strips of mounting board. What I do is cut a section of mounting board the right size, 2″ by 1.75″ in this case, and then roughly cut this into strips. I then apply them with two lines of hot glue which will be invisible laters, as we’ll see.

If you are currently thinking “This looks bloody awful”, you’re right, but fear not, this is the Dark Ages and miracles can happen!

The next phase makes things look even worse. We paint to whole model with PVA glue. This seals all the bits in place but also protects any foam board edges which, if you get spray paint on them, as we will later, will just melt. Not the looks we seek! I use this stage to also add to cross bits on the doors and once that’s done I leave to dry before sticking the model onto a suitable pice of MDF.

Now I add a roof, or more to the point the roof supports. These are simply two pieces of mounting board which will support the thatch. Don’t forget to measure this as the building is unlikely to be inch perfect and we want the roof to provide as good a fit as we can without going to too much bother. A slight overhang at the bottom of the slope, but no overhang at the sides is ideal.

Next is the squidgy bit! Mix up some PVA glue and Polyfiller to about the consistency of slighty runny cream cheese, but don’t try to get rid of the lumps they are good.

Now slap it alll over the building. Remember, we’re looking for a finish of rough plaster on the walls but relatively smooth wood on the timber. I make sure the filler gets into the gaps between the mounting board planking and then run a finger down it to get a smooth look. Keep this off the door as if you paint this gloop on them you’ll spoil the effect of the door timbers, and keep it off the roof as it will bugger up the thatch we’ll be applying later.

Now let this dry thoroughly. Overnight is good, but I just shove it in a very low oven (don’t try this at home kiddies!) to accelerate the process.

Now we have our solid building, and apart from the roof which is a bit flimsy it is solid as a rock. We now get out or trusty Milliput with which we’ll be doing our thatching. Mix up the two colours to the right consistency (see instructions in Milliput box) then roll out a sausage of the filthy stuff. This is a bit of a practice-makes-perfect job. When I made my first building with this method I used far too much of the stuff, now I feel I have ti about right. I roll it out to be just greater than pencil thickness, probably 1.5 on the pencil gague if such a thing exists, or about a two fifths of an inch diameter. Now place this along the bottom edge of the roof on one side. This bottom bit on each side is slightly fiddly as you need to curl it round the overhang as well as getting it squished out correctly. Think of this as like feather edge boarding on a shed. You want the bottom edge to the thickest with the top edge thinnest. Use your fingers (or thumb if you are co inclined!) to squash the sausage out until it assumed the right shape. Thin at top, thicker at bottom. Remember these words!

Now comes that Zorro moment when you wield your scalpel to form the shape of thatch. Just tap all along the putty running over it three or four times from slightly varying angles to avoid something that looks too regular. Here’s a snap of the first two bits done. Once they are done work up with similar sausage rolls of milliput all the way to the top. There you use a smaller sausage to form the ridge, with tiny little indents along both sides. The more artistically orientated can try all sorts of thatchers patterns at this point, but my attempts at such cleverness failed abysmally. Keep it simple is my advice.

The above photo shows the building completely roofed and dry. Here I am adding a layer of PVA glue onto which I have put a mix of sharp sand and cork rocks. I make my own mix for basing stuff to get the finish I want. Where the door is I just added sharp sand and no rocks. Once that is dry add a watered down mix of PVA over the top of the sand to keep it in place. Once that’s dry you can undercoat and your model is ready for painting.

And here’s the complete barn after painting and adding some flock.

All told the most expensive part of this model was the Milliput as I used half a pack, so about £1.50 for that. Everything esle cost almost nothing in real terms. I have used less than 5% of the mounting board and a similar amount of both the foamboard and the MDF, all of which were only two or three pounds a sheet. The PVA and polyfiller is impossible to cost, but one way or another this building comes in at under two quid which makes a small village, sprawling farmstead or even a town perfectly achievable. What’s more, these won’t break like resin if you drop them.

For those that fancy comehting a bit different you could take a look at Brian Burger’s excellent Warbard blog where he uses towel to model thatch, really very smart indeed. Check that out here: http://www.warbard.ca/2012/04/17/towel-thatch-a-photo-tutorial/

As people will have noticed movement bases of the sabot variety are something that Dux Brit has seen me use for the first time. For a while now I have been using the six figures 3 x 2 arrangement for the basic Groups in the rules, however they were a bit too regular for my more irregular troops types, perfect for the shieldwall, but just not “freestyle” enough for the less disciplined troops. Well, the great news is that I contacted young Martin at Warbases and asked if he could help by providing something suitable for the rules, and the good news is that he has come up trumps.

As you can see Martin has created a really nice six figure bases which is designed to take six 1p pieces in a formation that is regular enough so you can see they are not a bunch of drunks staggering about the battlefield, but equally they are not the seried ranks of Rome. Indeed, here’s a picture of Tarmacticus and the Picts (didn’t they have a number One in the sixties?) on said bases.

Not sure if Warbases have these on their web site yet, but I am sure you can drop him an email and he’ll be happy to flog them to you. I have to say that this is making me think that these would be perfect for Sharp Practice as well. Regular bases for regular troops, more chaotic stuff for Wallahs and the likes. It certainly speeds up play just shifting blocks of figured about rather than having to move thirty miniature chaps each time.

You can find warbases here http://www.warbases.co.uk/#

A stonking playtest on Lard Island last evening as we ran out one of the scenarios based around a Saxon raid to steal some British livestock from the festering swamp lands around Llon-i-Dunican. I’d have preferred some cows for this but haven’t found what I am looking for (Welsh Blacks) in 28mm yet, so sheep had to do.

The table was a difficult one, with three main areas of raised ground and a Y shaped river punctuated with small lakes dividing the three. The Saxons started the game in the red shaded area at the bottom of the picture and had to find one of the two fords marked with the red arrows. The British were hot on their heels and were due to arrive on one section of the blue shaded areas on the table edges. The rolled to see which side they arrived on and then at which point, it could have been in any 12” section of the 48” edge marked. They then rolled to see how many turns it would be before they arrived.

As it turned out Cyddic had four turns lead on the British so he needed to find one of the fords as soon as possible. Rather amusingly he decided to go and check out the largest lake rather than the move obvious sections of narrow stream, and this really caused him problems, especially as the sheep kept wandering off. Wulfstan spent the first four turns running after an unruly group of wooly monsters who kept going round in circles.

As it was, by the time Cyddic found the ford the British were already entering the table. To make matters worse they were coming on at precisely the point nearest the ford and rushing forward to try to get a shieldwall in place to block the Saxons’ line of escape.

As it was the British were not quite in position when Cyddic led his hearthguard across the ford as the vanguard of the Saxon force. Desperate to stop them Noggin ap Nog advanced with his Milites in shieldwall to make contact.

(Apologies, that’s a rubbish picture, but I didn’t have another one)

The fight was a hard one, the shieldwall ignores the first kill on each Group of men making it a tough nut to crack whilst the Saxon hearthguard are vicious killers. After two rounds of fighting the British fell back with two men dead from each Group and excess shock. The rules make the presumption that once you commit your troops to a fight you lose much command ability. You can rally them and exhort them to fight well, but you can’t simply decide to withdraw. Once a fight is initiated it continues until one side or the other falls back, usually through a combination of Shock (which can subsequently be rallied) and men killed (which can’t be replaced). If a unit withdraws a couple of inches then the enemy will follow up and maintain contact. More than that and the lines have come apart due to fatigue.

Whilst they had been repulsed the British had hurt the Saxons, killing a couple of men and, importantly, wounding Cyddic. Leaders have a certain status level which tells us how far their command range is, how many things they can do in a turn and how many dice they add to a fight. Each time they take a wound this is reduced by one, so Cyddic was now reduced to a status II leader, making rallying his men harder. This led to a momentary pause in the fight as he attempted to get his heartguard back in order rather than follow up the retreating Britons.

Now Gaius Ambrosius, the last of the Romans, brought forward his Comitatus, his best troops. Forming them into a shieldwall with the Milites he rallied shock using his command initiative. Like Cyddic he began the game was a Status III Leader, so can do three things in a turn. One was forming the shieldwall, the other two were used to rally the Milites, taking one point of Shock from each of them.

In the next turn Gaius used two of his command initiatives to rally two further points of Shock and then used his last initiative to lead the shieldwall into the fight. In addition Gaius played four cards from his Fate hand at this point. Usually a commander can only play one card when he is activated, but if he holds a Carpe Diem card he may seize the moment and play a run. In this case he played an Aggressive Charge, increasing his chances of hitting, a Bounding Charge which ensured that he’d make contact and not fall short, a Hero of the Age which with him personally leading and fighting in the front rank gained additional dice in the combat (albeit increasing his chance of a wound), and the Carpe Diem card. As three of these were from the British Dragon suit he also gained a further three dice in the fight.

The ensuing fight was desperate, two rounds of combat failed to see a winner, ending Gaius’s activation. The two sides remained contact, the fight would continue when the next Leader’s card was dealt. In fact the next card dealt was Brythnoth, the deceiver. Brythnoth used his two Command Initiatives to rally shock from his group (once in the front rank of combat the leader’s command range is ignored, he can only affect the Group he is physically with) and the fight continued. This time one of the Groups of British Milites had had enough and fell back 4”. This was sufficient to break the shieldwall, leaving three Groups of Saxons facing two isolated Groups of Britons. With the advantage in his favour Cyddic used just enough dice (he hoped) to hold the Comitatus whilst loading the rest against the remaining Milites In the subsequent second round of combat the second Group of Milites was decimated, the survivors fleeing the field, but the Comitatus slaughtered the Saxon heartguard facing them, albeing suffering sufficient shock to see them break contact, withdrawing 3” to try to reform.

Gaius’ card was now dealt, and everyone expected him to rally the Comitatus, who had a dangerous level of Shock, but it wasn’t to be. Instead he rushed to join the Numeri of the Levy.

By now Wulfstan had given up chasing sheep and had cross the ford. His fresh Group now rushed forward to engage the Comitatus. Just a couple of points of shock would see them fleeing the field, but a remarkable round of combat saw the British hold. Cyddic, now with a second wound, flung what remained of his heartguard into the fight, but still the British Comitatus held, albeit recoiling again.

It was now that Gaius sent in the Levy. Again he played a Carpe Diem card in order to make a successful flank attack (otherwise your enemy will just turn to face you) and piled in with two Groups who broke from their shieldwall and charge in as a mob. A third group rushed forward and dispersed the Saxon archers who simply run away of contacted by an enemy, which indeed they did.

Normally in combat levy die like flies, but here they were hitting an exhausted unit with a leader down to Status I, which is as bad as it gets. Weight of numbers was sufficient to see Cyddic flee the field, having just missed being killed by playing a Armour Bright card which allowed him to shrug off the last wound which would normally see him dead.

A really gritty game with all the flavour of a Dark Age battle fought over a river crossing (Maldon anyone?). To be fair to Cyddic (and more to the point Sid, who was playing him) he was VERY unlucky that the British arrived at precisely the worst possible point on the table from his perspective. However as a playtest game it is good to take the worst possible situation in order to test the scenario to its limits, and let’s face it if you’re daft enough to think that a lake is a ford you deserve what you get! Hell hath no fury like a regional weatherman foiled…

To clarify a few points on the rules. The turn sequence is card driven, but somewhat different to some of our other games. There is no “Tea Break” card which ends the turn prematurely. All the cards in the deck are played each turn, but with the order in which they are dealt meaning that you get varying permutations in terms of the order of activation. The deck is actually very small, just three Big Men for each side, and a card for each Group of archers and skirmishers who do their own thing rather than rely on instructions from Leaders (frankly the leaders are too busy to be interfering with these lesser mortals, they focus on the fighting men, not the young lads with a few bows). So, we had a Game Deck of nine cards for this game.

The Fate Deck is a central part to the game. How big a hand you get can vary in a battle depending on whether the Gods are with you and other bits and bobs that Dark Age folk worry about, but for a raid it is the standard five card hand for both sides. This allows them to construct their plan of action and, at the appropriate moment, play their cards to gain a tactical advantage. You can, of course, try to improve your hand and this makes for a fun sub-game within the main game. That said, the Fate Deck does not totally dominate play, a good plan is still a good plan without any Fate cards, but if you have a decent plan it can give you a fleeting edge at the moment of contact.

Next week I hope we’ll be adding some cavalry to the mix.

It’s here, the first of the new Handbooks for I Ain’t Been Shot Mum. Battle for Liberation covered the period 1943 to 1945 in Western Europe and includes all the data you’ll need to field German, British, US, French and Italian forces. Included for each nation are a range of force options, full data on equipment used and the organisational structures for use with the rules. Select your core company and then add your support platoons from Battalion, Regiment, Division and higher. Each nation has a section on their own specific armament and rules for the kit they used. In addition we have added sections on air-support throughout the period and supply in airborne opertaions. Let’s take a loot at the full content:

Using this Handbook

British & Commonwealth Forces
The Rifle Company
The Reconnaissance Squadron
The Tank Brigade Squadron
The Armoured Division
The Motor Company
The Parachute Company
The Airlanding Company
The Commando Assault Troop
79th Armoured Division
Rating Your British Forces
British Armoury
British Weapon Rules

United States Forces
The Rifle Company
The Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop
The Tank Company
The Armored Rifle Company 1943
The Armored Rifle Company 1944
The Ranger Company
The Parachute Rifle Company
The Glider Rifle Company
Rating Your US Forces
United States Armory
US Weapon Rules

French Forces
Compagnie de Fusiliers-Voltigeurs
Compagnie d’Infanterie Portee
Escadron de Chars
Escadron de Reconnaissance
Commando du Choc
Goumiers Marocain
Milice Centain
French Forces of the Interior
Rating Your French Forces

German Forces
Grenadier Kompanie
Volksgrenadier Kompanie
Panzer Kompanie
Panzer Grenadier Gepanzerte Kompanie
Panzer Grenadier Kompanie
Aufklärungs Kompanie
Panzerspäh Kompanie
Fielding German AFVs
Luftwaffe Jäger Kompanie
Fallschirmjäger Kompanie
Volksturm Kompanie
Gebirgsjäger Kompanie
Rating Your German Forces
German Armoury
German Weapon Rules

Italian Forces
Compagnia Fucilieri
Camice Nere
Corpo Italiano di Liberazione
Compagnie Fucilieri 1944-45
Esercito Nazional Repubblicano
“Quattro Divisione” Compagnia
Partigiana “Brigata”
Antipartigiana Compagnia
Rating Your Italian Forces
Italian Armoury
Italian Weapon Rules

Death from Above
Smoke with the 2” mortar
Supply in Airborne Operations
Credits

Battle for Liberation is 99 pages absolutely packed with information and a guide on how to use the Handbook for selecting your forces for I Ain’t Been Shot Mum it is availabe in PDF format for just £10, and to make it even better we’ll be producing a low-ink printer friendly version which you can have for free when you buy the complete full colour edition.

The farms of Dihangfa Dan Cadwch Yn Glir had been a regular target for Saxon raiders since Cyddic had declared his Kingship of the Middel Seaxe. Small raids to seize livestock and wheat had kept the local Levy busy through the summer of 476, yet now there came a greater threat. Cyddic himself had raised his new standard and now stood at the head of his army with a sworn oath to the God Tiw to destroy all Britons who stood before him.

From Verulamium came the forces of Calchwynned, the Kingdom of the Chalk Hills, with Gaius Ambrosius, the last of the Romans, at its head. A body of Velites and archers preceded the main body who rushed forward to take their place amid the buildings of the farm.

Cyddic’s men came forth, with Wulfstan hurling back the Velites and driving them from the field. Brythnoth, the deceiver, came from the left while in the centre Cyddic’s force ran swiftly.

As the Britons faltered, their shieldwall not yet formed, Cyddic seized the moment. With a yell he hurled forward his axe, splintering a British shield. His men followed suit, some goading their foe, others leaping forward to clash with the unformed Britons. As the line crumpled Gaius Ambrosius stepped forth and joined the fray, his sword ended the yelps of many Saxon dog and Wulfstan fell back before him.

Yet now came forward Brythnoth’s leading his Kings Companions, and now the Britons fell before their knixes and axes, the ground wet with blood of heroes. First one group of Britons they bested, then another.

Now was the moment for Cadwalladr the Bold to lead his Numeri into battle. Farmers and peasants all but marching with the step of the Milite, for Cadwalladr had trained them well and with shields locked they came forth.

Ready to die for their land stood the Britons, and die more would, for the vengeance of the Saxons was terrible, yet for all their violence and cries to vile Gods they too lost men on the spears and blue blades of the Britons.

As Gaius joined the Shieldwall the Saxons tide broke on the British rock and Cyddic knew that his Gods were not with him that day. Standing firm the Britons could but watch as the plague which blights our fair island was seen to retreat and withdraw to return to their stinking halls.

A famous is Pyrrhric victory for Gaius Ambrosius. A terrible error nearly cost the Britons the battle, their shieldwall running forward to gain as much ground as possible before forming into shieldwall was caught unformed and the Saxons slaughtered the majority of the British Commitatus and Milites, leaving the Numeri of the Levy to try to stop them. Gaius had intervened in the initial debacle, wielding his sword in the front rank and momentarily throwing back Wulfstan and his men to allow a few soldiers to escape the killing. These he now used to bolster up his weak line.

However, even such bravery appeared to be for nowt as Gaius and his few survivors were routed and the Saxon hearthguard came on to meet the levy. Unbelievably the shieldwall held, rallied first by Cadwalladr, then joined by Noggin ap Nog and finally Gaius who had managed to disentangle himself from the rout. Three times the shieldwall was on the point of collapse, three times it was rallied. Cyddic was wounded twice, Wulfstan once making command difficult, and finally a wound to Brythnoth was sufficient to make the Saxon cause a lost one.

Hillariously Biffo playing the British was almost weeping openly as his plans were shredded by the initial Saxon charge, and he then spent the game wailing and gnashing his teeth and predicting impending doom at any moment. Then he won.

A really great game, full of tension, excitement and a colossal narrative factor which made for a brilliant evening. The Saxons really did come on in a howling, baying mob and their use of the Fate cards was superb, allowing them to break up the Romano-British line by goading here attacking there. The British desperately sought to stabilise the line, with personal intervention from their warlord saving some men, and finally better quality overall leadership, even with lesser quality troops, saving the day.

Velites, or javelin armed skirmish troops, were the newcomers for this game. They harassed the advancing Saxons, but in this game were simply overwhelmed by the ferocity of the Saxon advance and fled the field very early on. Hopefully they’ll do a bit better next time out.

It was found hundred and seventy six years after the birth of our Lord when the plague that was Cyddic the Seaxe returned to our lands to steal for himself a throne in the land of the Britons. For one year now, since the death of Boicicus the Protector our fair city had been part of the realm of the Kingdom of Cynfeln in the Chalk Hills. Aged was the King, infirm with the weight of years, yet among us was his war chief, Gaius Ambrosius, last of the Romans. Gaius who had fought with Boicicus, Gaius who had been born to the purple and who, it was said, had served the great tyrant in Gaul. Now it was on him that the hopes of the civitates rested.

At the stream of Dim Mynediad they met. To the south could be seen Cyddic’s men, roaring in their cups as the mead flowed among them. Forth came Gaius to speak to his men, all Britons true, and with voice strong and clear he told all of their land in the hills, of their cities and churches still true to the ways of Rome and free from the pagan stain. Then forth did stride Arthur ap Mullard, champion of the Britons to face the Saxon Abrecan. It was a strong blow for Arthur which wounded Abrecan, but a sly twist of the knife saw blood on the Briton’s tunic. With vigour afresh Arthur drove home his spear, slaying his tormentor. (an unfortunately posed photo follows..!)

Now Cyddic came forth to speak, his voice heavy with mead, his rage profound for Abrecan was his son and in his rage he drank deeply from his cup and swore on the hand of the God Tiw that he would be avenged.

To wait would be folly, for Gaius knew that his God was with him. Forward came the British shieldwall, and on ran the Saxons, their cries to their dark Gods echoing from the hills. Across the stream they came, through the damp ground of the marsh and onto firmer soil. On their left Wulfstan came, climbing the rise to the small copse which over looked the farm. In the middle came Cyddic and on his right Brythnoth the Bonesplitter.

Ahead our archers’ bows sang as their arrows found their mark, whilst in the shieldwall Gaius and Noggin ap Nog stood firm. The levy with Cadwalladr the Bold struggled forward to join the wall, encouraged by the fair words of their beloved leader.

Now forward came Brythnoth, dashing aside the young boys with their bows who fled before this devil. On our right Wulfstan moved against the levy who fell into disorder turning to face him and in their panic were driven from the field, their blood turning the grass green.

One came Wulfstan, as Cyddic’s men looked on, taunting our brave Britons yet fearful to close. Then Wulfstan was upon the flank of the shieldwall, slaughtering a group of Milites before Gaius Ambrosius stepped forth with his companipulares. “None shall pass here” was he heard to call, and before him many Saxon fell.

Yet outnumbered but not outfought, Gaius took a wound and his loyal guard made haste to hurry him from the field. But of such action he would not hear. Returning to the shieldwall he steadied the line as another wild Saxon attack, the pagans fuelled in their passions by drink, as Cyddic at last closed with his hearthguard.

Yet now Brythnoth was thrown back by the British Levy, their shields braced against his charge. Cyddic could be seen to waver, as Wulkstan stood weary with his wounds amongst his spent men unable to assist. Calling to his Gods the Saxon King with no throne cast off the mantle of circumspection and with a final cry fell upon the Milites. Nogging ap Nog was wounded and in the rush Gaius was driven from the field, great was the slaughter and Cadwalladr the Bold brought back his Levy to cover the retreat.

His force spent, Cyddic could claim the field but his losses were such that no pursuit could be attempted. Defeated, but stout of heart and valiant of spirit Cadwalladr stood firm and the retreat to the walls of Verulamium began. Now we stand under siege with the very Devil at the gates of our city. Shall its villas, fountains and churches fall to the pagan? Shall we find hope in the shape of our neighbours who could march to our aid?

Appius
Annales Vervlamiae

A great playtest. I have been putting much thought into getting the balance of combat right and have had my ideas mapped out for a few weeks now, but this was the first chance to put them to the test; and they worked! Hurrah. This is quite a different form of combat for us, we’re much more used to ranged weapons so the whole full-on-contact stuff has required a good deal of playtesting in search of balance.

The combat system of who fights who is now much streamlined. We built the system up to the point where it was pretty much over-engineered but was starting to do what we wanted, and then stripped out all of the unnecessary stuff to leave a solid structure in place that wasn’t overly convoluted. Very pleased with that.

The next phase is to work on the campaign system as some areas of that are very much flying by the seat of their pants, with just vague ideas sketched out. That should be fun to do over Easter.

Some good news on the movement bases front. You can see my movement bases with my Romano-British which are by good friends of Lard Warbases in bonny Scotland (Cyddic’s troops are on different ones, not sure who by but they belong to my chum and well known TV weatherman Sidney). Anyway, Warbases have produced some sample six figure bases in a semi-regular shape specifically for Dux Britannarium, so ideal for troops not in shieldwall but in a more rough and ready “formation”. I will be ordering some today so I’ll take some snaps when they arrive. You can check out Warbases other stuff, like the more formal movement bases seen above here: Warbases

As part of the development of Dux Britanniarum I have been wanting to get a force of raiders, essentially these can be Picts, Scotti or Irish who in the campaign system are only there for the craic and the loot (actually the Irish get a bit more involved on the west coast, but I am generalising). With getting the IABSM Handbooks taking up literally every waking moment (more generalising!) I just don’t have the time to paint up everything I’d like, so on the advice of a chum I contacted Matt Slade of Glenbrook games www.glenbrookgames.co.uk whose brushwork has always impressed me. His brief was to paint the first tranche of a raider force, really the core elements as I have yet to finalise the exact army list for these chaps. The results were truly superb. Matt had this little lot back to me in about a week and I am over the moon with what is now Tarmacticus and his retinue. Take a look here.

We’ll have some great news in the next few days about starter armies for Bux Britanniarum and Matt will be working with us to provide a great painting service for these that comes with the Lard Seal of Approval, watch this space for news on that. In the meantime you can drop Matt an email at slade.m@sky.com to chat to him about any painting needs you have.

One of the issues I have always had with wargaming is trying to find bits and pieces that make the tabletop look just that little bit nice. I must admit this is a much easier job today than it was thirty years ago, but even back then I tended to scour model railway shops for bits of “Scatter” that made the table come to life. A fantastic example of this today is the Peter Pig ranges which have all sorts of bits and pieces, such as telegraph poles and road signs, which can make a pretty plain table look something special.

With my current new project being the Dark Ages in 28mm I have been looking for some bits and bobs that do a similar job, but obviously in a more simple form. Back in January I attended Crusade at Penarth in South Wales (a really fantastic show, very highly recommended) and it was there that I really noticed The Scene for the first time. From Maidenhead in Berkshire these chaps produce a weird and wonderful range of odds and ends, some of which is really quite esoteric (28mm skips with a variety of rubbish/rubble loads anyone?!) but other stuff is not only perfect for general table dressing, but very reasonably priced as well.

Back in January I purchased three small ploughed fields, perfect to have outside some peasant’s hovel, and some areas or rocky and broken ground. I could, in all fairness, just get some model railway rocks and scatter them about, but there was something about their standing stones that had an air of antiquity about them that I thought would be perfect for the age of the Dux Britanniarum, so when I saw The Scene again at Overlord in Abingdon this month (another smashing show) I grabbed a few more packs.

In the following photo you’ll see my purchases which came to the princely sum of £9. Even the missus can’t complain about that as a hobby expense! I could have bought them ready painted, they have them available as well, but I wanted to paint them to match my Dark Age basing on the figures, so I bought the plain resin and saved a few quid.

My first job was to spray them with a black undercoat and then paint them with a roughly applied coat of Burnt Umber. As with my post the other day I used Winsor & Newton Galleria acrylic paint for this stage. A large cheap brush is a good idea for terrain, and this one was very large and very cheap. I would not use a decent brush for terrain as the wet/dry brush technique I use would just mess up a good brush.

Once this had sort of dried I dry-brushed on a very small amount of Vallejo Stone Grey to highlight the furrows on the fields, which was them complete, I now needed to do the field edges and the rocky outcrops.

I applied a coat of Raw Sienna with all the accuracy of a drunk in a urinal. If your paint job is looking at this stage you’re doing something wrong. This Galleria paint is not like the high quality wargame paints with a high pigment to gloop ratio, it is pretty slimy stuff that elderly women use to paint portraits of their dogs or ickle-pretty flowers, so it goes on a bit like grease. But fear not, the layers of colour do build up and you get some pretty nice tonality as a result. If that is a word.

Next step is a coat of Yellow Ochre which leaves the piece looking like it’s got jaundice. Now you need to let that dry properly.

The next stage is a pseudo-dry brush, actually using a bit more paint than you’re normally dry-brush a figure with. I add some bronzed flesh paint from Citadel to a bit of yellow ochre, probably 2:1 ratio, and then run this over all of the ground area. Once this is done I add some white (I use a tube of Plakka acrylic rather than using my decent figure paints) and add a final dry-brush over the top to create a highlight. I also finish off dry-brushing the residue of this over the ploughed bits of the fields as that blends in the edges with the field itself.

Here’s a side-on shot so you can see that we’re not trying to cover the base, but really just highlight the rocky bits and leave the earth dark (which is where the slimy acrylic paint helps us as it has the covering power of a string vest).

Finally I add some of my home-made static grass mix (I am the Colonel Sanders of static grass; I mix up my own delicious blend of 11 different grasses, flocks and scatter to get the perfect ground cover for me) and then whack on some of the SUPERB Silfor tufts as introduced to me by my old chum Kev Lowth. And that’s it.

So, I can say without fear of contradiction that if you’re looking for some nice bits of scenery for a very decent price then The Scene will fit the bill. You can check them out at http://thesceneuk.com/

I had and email the other day from a gentleman in Ohio who has just bought I Ain’t Been Shot Mum having been playing another particularly popular WWII Miniatures Game for some time. He chose IABSM as he was looking for a set of rules which didn’t treat Germans as uber-troopers, and consequently was seeking a system with a bit more balance. He raised a really interesting question and I hope he won’t mind if I answer it here so that a wider audience can benefit.

The good news for our friend in Buckeye State is that IABSM are written with no particular bias towards any one nation, indeed whilst better troops will undoubtedly have an edge over poorer quality ones it is just that, and edge, rather than the type of overwhelming “force multiplier” (to use a Dupuy’ism’) that is often applied to German troops. Long time Lardies will hopefully recall the Danzig Bleibt Deutsche street clearing scenario which we ran at Salute in 2006 which demonstrated that far from relying on sledgehammer tactics the Soviets could be quite sophisticated and in fact their ability to develop new and effective tactics on the hoof was something that had first been seen in the Winter War with Finland when they literally stopped the war for several weeks and retrained their forces to cope with the demands of breaching the Mannerheim line.

On the other side of the coin, I Ain’t Been Shot Mum is firmly in the camp of being a scenario driven rule system rather than a points based competition game. For many gamers this approach fits the bill entirely, however I can fully understand that the gentleman in question, concerned as he is about the imbalance he felt was in his old rule set, is keen to strike a balance with IABSM.

In truth my feeling towards points systems has always been pretty clear. I feel that not only do they NOT create balanced games, they create an illusion of doing so which is even more misleading. A gamer seeking to create a scenario which provides both parties an equal chance of winning will have to sit down for a few minutes to think about how the game plays out, and then allocate forces according to what he feels will be fair. Of course I am not talking here about forces which are “equal”, although in an encounter battle this could be the case, but forces which give an equal chance of victory. So, for example, if my Company of infantry supported by a platoon of tanks is attacking a well entrenched enemy it may well be that the defender has little more than a platoon of troops with a couple of anti-tank guns.

Conversely a points system will lull the gamer into a false sense of fair play. Rather than think about the balance of the game it is far easier to just throw together 500, 1000, 1500, 2000 points (whatever system one is using) and say “Hey, that’s fair!”. No, it isn’t, and it cannot be so unless you are actually matching your forces so as to almost mirror each other. And that’s called Chess.

Yes, if you field my company of regular, well trained troops against your company of regular, well trained troops on a tabletop where the two halves mirror each other then sure, you can argue that the points system gives you balance. But, frankly, that sounds like a VERY dull game, and you could have balanced that scenario up with no recourse to a point system anyway! The problem with a points system comes when you introduce forces which are imbalanced, which sadly is precisely what the point system is designed to avoid.

Imagine I field a platoon of anti-tank guns. These are weapons designed to kill tanks. Yes, sure, some of them can fire H.E. at your infantry, but in truth they aren’t very good at it, or at least they shouldn’t be if the rules are reflecting reality. If you field a platoon of tanks my AT guns are a worthwhile investment in terms of points, if you don’t field any tanks and just stick to infantry then I would have been much better off going for a MG platoon. However, if I’d gone for the MG platoon and you’d fielded tanks I’d be in trouble. The truth is that this is a circle you just can’t square.

The same can be said for armoured cars or light tanks. I was talking to a friend the other day who had played a Spanish Civil War game where an FT17 tank had dominated the table because nobody else had any armour. In the land of the blind the one eyed man is King. If I spend x number of points on a platoon of armoured cars and you field all infantry then my little tin cans become the masters of the tabletop, with all the menace of a King Tiger. But if you field just one tank then I may as well not have bothered.

This, of course, does not even take into consideration the effect of the environment on combat. Were I commanding a company of German infantry on the Russian steppes and the enemy sent a couple of platoons of tanks against me I would be extremely concerned as I’d have almost no way of countering him once he had spotted my positions (were I using rules where everything was deployed on the table, with no opportunity to hide troops as yet unseen this would be even worse), as he could just stand off and obliterate my position with H.E. Yes, with IABSM I may well spring a bit of an ambush, use my panzerfausts to take out a couple of tanks, but after that initial shock the game balance would shift to favour my Soviet foe. But put my infantry company into the ruins of a German city, where vision is restricted and there are some rat-runs where infantry can evade tanks, then the boot is on the other foot. Without supporting infantry the Soviet tanks are the mice to my cats. Yet how many point systems take this into account?

To a large degree the way weapons technology has developed, with one invention leading to a development of a foil or counter-weapon, has led to a situation where warfare resembled the child’s game “rock, paper scissors”. Indeed you can use “tank, anti-tank mine, Engineer” in the same way. The tank will kill the engineer, the mine will kill the tank, the engineer will kill the AT mine. Of course warfare is far more multi-facetted than this simple model, however unlike some sci-fi games where one super-dooper walker can be the ultimate war machine, reality isn’t like that. Every arm of service, every type of platoon, has its own role which it excels at, but they will be equally unsuitable for other roles, and this is where points systems, for 20th century conflict onwards at least, MUST fail. You can only allocate a points value to a rock if you know your opponent has scissors, if he has nothing but paper your rock is worthless.

So how do you balance up your force with IABSM? There is no easy, glib answer I am afraid, it’s a bit like choosing your favourite sweet, you just have to suck it and see. In the rear of the rule book there are four scenarios which we recommend that any player new to the rules runs through. They have been designed to provide a simple, easy entree to the rules, with the first scenario being just infantry and then adding a bit more to the mix each time until you’re fielding an “all arms” force. My recommendation would be to use those scenarios to learn not just the rules, but also how your forces shape up. By the end of the first game you’ll get an idea of how your Soviet infantry company shapes up against German defenders. The national characteristics cards do give each force its own personality and reflect its strengths and in some cases weaknesses, and what balance you want to strike in your games can be influenced by experience as you play through the first couple of scenarios and as you gain a greater understanding of what the national characteristic cards do for your forces. You’ll also find that the scenario generator in the rules is designed to allow you to produce balanced scenarios without recourse to a points system, and equally importantly scenarios which are not the all too common wargaming “encounter” battle which in reality was a rarity.

It’s an old article from an old special, but why not take a look at this late war scenario from the Eastern Front in 1945 to see how the Soviets can operate when they put their mind to it. Far from a human wave, the tactics used there were developed around using a mixed team of infantry, tanks, assault guns and guns to clear each street. This represented a coherent and cogent solution to the problems of fighting in a built up area. Download it here:Danzig scenario