My year of 2020 wargaming has been dominated by anglo saxons and latterly playing some test games using shieldwalls. These fairly static affairs have allowed me to consider a small selection of rules and compare them.
A few posts ago I mentioned I had bought some new rulesets along with a book on modelling scenery. In this latest game rules test the newly acquired Dux Britanniarum gets a solo run out.
At the start of the first lockdown I tried to buy both Duxes, one by Mr Mersey and one by Mr Clarke. I expected to be comparing them. One arrived yet the other just did not come. In the end, having determined that no money was handed over by me, I concluded I had abysmally failed to complete the purchase. And that was that.
Having enjoyed playing Dux Bellorum and for that matter Table Top Battles by Mike Smith, plus AMW and one hour wargames, both by Neil Thomas, I returned to the fray and bought TFL’s Dux Brittaniarum. If nothing else it was Neil Shuck’s summary recommendation, back in 2012, that TDux gives you an excellent campaign tool as well as an excellent set of table top rules. It was the linked series of battles approach that made me buy the ruleset.
So here is my first TDux outing – again solo – complete with mistakes. I made quite a few but decided not to correct them.
I started at the beginning in another way. Interestingly the game handles the various parts of Britain with good geographic logic. In doing so it reveals the rather haphazard progress of the saxons across the land. Maybe Richard Clarke intended this to make the point that the saxon takeover of Britain was not some well orchestrated invasion.
So it took me a while to order all the “Book of Kingdoms” in chronological order. I was looking for a starting point.
And unless I am wrong, which is quite possible, the TDux fighting proper starts really in 472AD in Linnius – Lincolnshire if you like the modern take.
Nice try – oi! – this is the 5th Century – no modern take Lincolnshire thank you, and this is not a recently built Roman Road bridge either……..although it is the humber estuary. The river looks a bit wide here and I don’t like those mudflats, they look shifty to me.
I reckon I have 12 discrete campaigns to go at covering the period 472AD to 590AD.
In my first campaign I am raiding Caer Lind Colun and if captured its three other connected lands become the next target. But I am getting well ahead of myself. Right now Caer Lind Colun basks in the evensun of being a Roman Legion city while my rabble of adventurers occupy some small ships battling the running tide of the Humber……..
So a raid was the order of the day. Those mudflats still look dodgey but plenty of hideaway creeks methinks. Thank my pagan god for my having a trained spotting crow complete with full colour camera!
I started at the bottom of the heap as recommended in the book – a lowly saxon with a few followers landing somewhere on the coast of england, in my case near the mouth of the great humber estuary.
Coenwulf desparately needed some food, animals and coin. Coenwulf was “skint” like most over wintering saxons.
The Forces involved were defined in the rules.
The Saxon Force comprised
- 3 duguth groups
- 2 elite gedridht groups
- 1 missile group
Each comprised 6 figures while the missile troops numbered 4.
Note the game is set up for skirmishing in single figures group together. It is designed to permit your choice of figure or figures representation. Most recent rulesets have designed in flexibility of playing pieces in terms numbers and/or base size. The days of ground/figure scale and actual base size being critical are long gone and I like this level of abstraction.
The Saxons were led by Coenwulf aged 23 of average build with the constitution of an Ox. The son of a peasant Coenwulf had a thiefs hoard of wealth hidden in his ship.
Ebroin at 30 was his elderly Noble yet tall, strong and dutiful. He is ABLE and being wodenborn an aristocrat and LOYAL.
Gudwal 27 was short and wiry, lusting of power another son of a peasant trying to make good.
In these posts have woven the narrative into the actual game play. The game gave me the ideas for the narrative. I am already warming to the campaign side of TDux.
In March 472AD Coenwulf led his small force inland having hidden their small ships in the dryish wooded end of a shallow muddy creek on the south coast of the Humber estuary.
After finding some abandoned hamlets, if they could be called that, Coenwulf discovered a small village and managed to capture a lone ploughman (his lone furrow work can be observed along the battlefield centreline!!!). He quickly confirmed that the village was well occupied and that the local chief had a base there: Filthy Lucre time for Coenwulf…….
A river runs straight across the flat lands near the estuary. Some higher ground surrounds the village which sits on the west side of the small river. To the south access is limited by a hill below which is some marshy ground either side of the river and beyond a narrow piece of hard ground, a wood to the east. South of this difficult ground is a good fording place. Near the village a simple bridge has been built.
To the north more marsh and some higher ground further ring the village.
Coenwulf swiftly advanced on the village. This phase of the game is covered in the scenario with the Saxons moving twice without any response. The village was on the wrong side of a small and narrow but deep river so Coenwulf found a ford point north of the village and sent one warrior group into the village. Meanwhile he took the rest of his force south on the east side of the river. He was convinced it could not be this easy to raid a village. The place did not feel undefended.
Now I will explain the terrain selection. I used the generator in Mike Smith’s Table Top Battles. I divided the board (6′ x 4′) into 24 squares.
In TTB rivers go straight across the board between two sides. I picked the short edges so the river ran 6 feet down the board and a third in, so occupying one row of the notional 12″ squares.
The rest of the terrain was generated by throwing a series of dice to first select the type and then location. Mikes generator also dictates the number of terrain items.
I then applied the TDux terrain rules to each generated piece.
The net result was the Saxons entered from the north passing across fairly empty land to reach the village and discover a passable bridge over the river by the village. Ceonwulf thought things could not get any better. His divided forces were now easily connected again.
The villagers had fled so once the various farm animals had quietened an erie silence descended.
Across the land from the south came the unmistakable sound of armed men on the move, yet uncaring for the noise they made. They were in a hurry: They no doubt intended to spread fear by their noisy presence.
How long does it really take to ransack a few buildings? Ceonwulf was beginning to wonder just this issue when to the south west a mass of soldiers appeared, moving fast. And suddenly they were over the river and on the east side making straight for Ceonwulf.
Of course there must be a ford down there as well.
What were clearly unhappy Romans, rushed along both banks of the river. Coenwulf could not now retreat to the village without risking his escape north to the ships. After all, this river was only going grow deeper and wider as it neared the great humber estuary.
He ordered his men forward and hoped Adelig Gudwal had enough strength to hold the village and loot it at the same time! In TDux the various leaders get descriptions like Tribune or in this case Adelig for a minor Saxon noble.
Now the Romans (because here they still celebrated their military forefathers)
Tribune Vitalinus at 32 had years of hard fighting experience behind him. Son of an Honestiere he possessed merely a beggars bowl of wealth. Yet he was tall, strong and a devout christian.
His Decurion Tiberius at 22 was of average build also devout and son of an honestiere as well.
His other Decurion Silvanus also 22 was short, wiry and honourable. He was an exile with an unexplained background. Yet he had proven himself in battle quickly and was now to be trusted.
The hilltop lookout warnings on these clear late winter days had meant that Vitalinus knew raiders were on the move. And he had almost guessed their destination. Just not in time to be the welcoming party.
His scratch force comprised.
- 3 groups of Numeri
- 2 groups of Milites
- 1 group of Comanipulares
- 1 group of missile troops
As with the saxons each group consisted of 6 men, 4 for the missile troops.
At this point I should say my “groups” were actually 80 x 60mm IMPETUS bases of infantry in mail with shields and axes and looking suspiciously like late anglo saxons, danes and normans!
The headcounts used in TDux I represented with small coloured dice.
Adelig Gudwal was already ransacking the village and getting frustrated. Nothing except farm tools and threadbare cloth, not even some decent food or drink. It was a bad time to raid – the end of the winter sees everyone “short”. These people were just like Ceonwulfs people, half starved from a long hard winter.
Vitalinus raced towards the enemy and then stopped his men. These raiders were no rag bag bunch of thieves – they were well armed and organised and their shieldwall was already in the making. Vitalinus ordered his men into a better line before restarting towards the raiders at a more controlled pace.
Now both sides built their men into a battle frenzy – controlled but willing to close with the enemy and risk death and injury. As the two shield walls closed small axes appeared overhead along with small javelins and a few arrows. Soon the shieldwalls would collide and mayhem begin.
And now it became clear to Vitalinus that this would not be a mornings quick work.
In the next episode Vitalinus closes in on the raiding Saxons.
The Wargaming Erratic 