Dux Britannnium Campaign - October 565 AD

Starting positions after deployment

This game was the last of the campaign year and probably the last game of the campaign for the Scots of Cenel Loarn, and this time they were out to raid their near neighbour's, Ian's Picts in Fib.

We randomly threw up (that sounds wrong, but you know what I mean) the Raid on the Church scenario and with the Scot's as the attackers and Pict's defending, the Scots coming on at one end of the table and with the randomly thrown position of the church half way on one side of the table and the Picts luckily (or unluckily as it turned out) randomly deployed on the same position as the church.

The Scots got a fairly low head start roll and only had the minimum two rounds of move before the game started properly.

The game was there after, extremely short lived. Two of the cavalry unit's squared off and fought each other to the withdrawal as a side show behind the church. The main event was the two bands of warriors lining up to the side of the church, four groups of Pict's and three groups of Scot's (though expanded by four warrior's due to previous game advance's). The Scot's got the charge in first as the order of the activation's came out and with a Carpe Diem card and a couple of extra cards charged in and with the same number of dice each in the first clash the Scots got a massive seven kills and a horribly huge number of shock points too, aided by the effects of the cards used.

The Pict's unsurprisingly broke, and with a second round of combat as they fled and were pursued by two of the Scots Warrior groups were practically destroyed and the Pict's were off the table being so close to the table edge to start taking with them their skirmishers who were caught in the Scot's pursuit. Game end with most of the Pict's off table by the end of the third round of gaming.

This bring's the campaign year to an end for the Scot's and with interest waning for the Dux B campaign, the end of the Campaign too.

I quite enjoy the rules to play, mechanic's wise but the randomness of the play/scenario's often has meant the games were often over before they began. A problem to be redressed by only playing pre-set 'designed' scenario's to balance out the games and make things much more interesting.

Dux Britanniarum Campaign - September 565 AD

My penultimate game of the campaign season was due to be played a week or so ago and just as I was preparing to raid one of my neighbours, I was raided myself by some scruffy Saxons from far off land, down the coast. 

Andy W and his Saxons had the campaign season initiative from last month and having not been around these parts before had decided to attack my Cenel Loarn Scotti (who were ignominiously last on the initiative), heh ho.

Having not played the raid the Church scenario, we plumped for that and Andy as the attacker set up his forces and got a good three move lead with some decent move throws to start.

I got a good starting force throw and got my three Raider Infantry Groups and my Skirmishers on the table to face the on coming tide of Saxons.

Positions at the start of the fun

So 'having at it' in the first couple live rounds, the Saxons moved forward with one group of warriors heading for the church and the rest their Warriors and Elites began to form up adjacent to the church and link shields, while their Missiles and Skirmishing types kept an eye on their exposed flank.

The Scots Warriors, hemmed in slightly by the woods moved slowly forward and formed up facing the Saxon Warriors while the Skirmishers skirted the woods and moved towards their opposite numbers. They were then followed by the remaining Scots forces who entered the board behind them and the Scots Cavalry and Missiles skirted wide and began the long march round towards the flank of the Saxon Raiders.

The troops line up and face each other before the clash

The way the draw fell, the Saxons got the charge in first and though they had the 'advantage' of the charge with a Carpe Diem card etc. the number of dice was pretty equal in the clash and the dice were pretty equal in the first result, but on the second melee of the round the Scots got the better of it and forced the Saxons to back off but both sides had a couple of losses and a stack of shock each.

While the Warriors on both sides recovered their breath and dressed their ranks, the skirmishing types maneuvered round each other and the Saxon Missiles took some shock from the Scots and were then ridden down along with their Skirmishing brothers by the Scots Cavalry as they circled round to the rear of the Saxon forces.

The Scots Skirmishers were in turn run down by the group of Elite Warriors Andy had positioned to guard his left flank. These in turn lost a couple of Warriors to fire from the Scots bowmen.

The end is nigh

By this time the Warriors facing each other had girded their loins once again, and it was the Saxons that got the draw again and once more charged in to try and force the issue before the Scots Cavalry hit them  in the rear. Unfortunately they faired even worse than they had the first time and failed to dent the Scots lines and with the Scots Cavalry skirmishing from the back and the Scots Warriors in front, and entire line of Saxons went down including their Lord and a lesser Noble in what proved to be the decider of the game.

With the bulk of the Saxon force down or out and Andy only having successfully managed to get one loot token so far in the proceedings, and the looting Warriors about to be surrounded in the church, the Saxons legged it, giving the Scots another 5 point victory.

A another pretty good game and reasonably balanced this time, with the random elements not taking too much from the game. The dice in the melees definitely going the Scots way which was nice.

Dux Britanniarum Campaign - August 565 AD

The Scots of Loarn move to intercept their raiding cousin's

This month, August 565 AD, while the Scots of Cenel Loarn were preparing to raid their Pictish neighbours to the east, their cousins from Cenel n'Gabrain launched a raid into the lands of Loarn attacking a village and attempted to loot and pillage all they could find.

We had plumped to play a chosen scenario as both Ian and myself had so far only played a couple of scenario's in the campaign as the random roll's for the both of us meant that we had repeatedly played the same couple of scenario's so far in the campaign. We chose to play the village raid as neither of us had played this scenario yet. The only winning conditions were that the raiders had to find and leave the table with two successful loot rolls to win. Anything else meant the defending Lornian Scots were the winner's.

With all the random throws done the starting positions were that the raiding Gabrain Scots were already in the village and beginning to search for loot with the Skirmishers and Missile troops doing the searching and the Gabrain Lord and his Raider Cavalry and all his Warriors lined up to meet the Loarn Scots as they entered the table at the far corner. The Loarn Scots started with only the Lord Fearadach and his Warband on the table, with the rest of the troops to follow the following turn as they activated.

With the initial set up and things already looking a bit nasty from the outset, both Ian and myself thought things looked a bit like a foregone conclusion withthe raiders looking to get a quick and easy victory once the looting had been successful.

While the raiders searched for loot, Fearadach with nothing to lose, launched himself and his warriors straight at the invaders but came up short from contact.

The Invaders response was predictably a charge one and the Gabrain Scots Warriors charged to meet the oncoming Loarn Warriors and though backed up with a Ferocious charge and a double round of combat failed to break the Loarn Warriors but both ranks had a significant amount of shock inflicted. Then the Gabrain Cavalry and Lorn charged in the flank and again two rounds of combat were fought and due to the horrendous amount of shock inflicted the Loarn Warriors were forced back but managed to drive back the attacking cavalry but the combo of warriors and cavalry proving too much.

By this time however, the rest of the Scots began to make an appearance and began to filter onto the field in support. The Skirmish infantry and cavalry moving round the right flank and began to shoot and inflict shock on the recovering and re-ordering Gabrain Warriors. along with the Bowmen who also added their muscle to the fray and also began to shower the milling warriors.

The Loarn Noble Cavalry came round the narrow left flank and rode to rescue their fellow warriors and rode into their Gabrain counterparts and utterly destroyed them.

This success however was to be short lived as the Gabrain Lord brought back his remaining bounced cavalry and in a couple of rounds of combat destroyed the Loarn Nobles in return. 

The respite that the cavalry duel on the left flank however had given enough time to get the Loran warriors back into the fight and enough shock had been removed to get them to charge again which they did before the Gabrain Warriors could reform due the constant fire from the skirmishers and Bowmen.

This clash was briefer than the first and with only two thirds of the Loarn Warriors entering the fray, they trounced the Gabrain Warriors who with significant shock already ended up with double shock and the warriors broke en masse.

The Gabrain Lord in revenge, charged into the unit of Loarn Warriors who had had no noble attached and so had not recovered any shock and with lots of dice against two, the third group of Lornian Warriors were broken and being next to the table edge from the start ran off the table.

Next the Gabrain Lord charged into the victorious Loarn Warriors who wer moving to pursue the fleeing Gabrain rabble, and with were nasty dice rolls from Ian, and some spectacular dice from me destroyed his charging cavalry and wounded the Lord who broke and fled.

The victorious Loarn Warriors now pursued the fleeing Lord and overwhelmed him and captured the knave for ransome. 

All the while, while the battle was raging to the south of the village, the Gabrain Skirmishers and Bowmen had been ransacking the village to no avail, much to Ian's chagrin. In fact it was almost the last turn of the game before he managed to throw a 6 and sneak off with one paltry loot.

With time running out and all the fighters of Gabrain killed, captured or fleeing the game was declared an overwhelming victory to Cenel Loarn and a much surprising outcome after the initial set up. Just goes to show, in the words of the prophet..."Never give up! Never Surrender!"

Dux Britanniarum Campaign - July 565 AD

Another match in the ongoing club Dux B campaign and with this being my first game of the year, I was looking forward to my Scots doing a bit of raiding and keeping it local (as they do) and made a foray into their Pictish near neighbours over in Fib under the leadership of their Lord, Allan.

After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing we settled on the Watch Tower raid, the same as my last foray against the Brits and with an identical set up with the Pict's running for the tower with their Lord to get to safety at the opposite end of the table and the Scots coming in from the opposite corner trying to head them off before they got to safety.

The difference here was that the Pict's didn't have enough Cavalry to passle up their Lord and high tail it to their tower like the Brits did and unlike the Brits Allan didn't make a great head start movement roll, so the game was on.

The Gods of the movement dice were kinder to the Scots Raiders this month and the raiders  cavalry quickly closed in on the Pictish Lord on foot with his two bands of warriors while the Scots Lord, second in command and the mass of Scots warriors moved straight for the Pictish Lord who moved out from his tower in an attempt to stem the tide.

Enough to say briefly that the clash of spear on shield was brief and bloody, for the Pict's who, outnumbered 3 to 1, took a beating and with huge shock and half casualties took to their heels with their Lord. The Pictish Missiles tried to slow the oncoming Scots steam roller but were caught as they tried to cover their Lords reteat and were trampled into the bloody earth and fataly their Lord was caught as he ran from the fray.

At the same time as the warriors clashed the Pictish cavalry made an attempt to pick off the Scots missile and skirmishers but were out skipped and took shock from both of these missiles.

And to add insult to injury the Pictish Lord who was trying to gain succor from his liege lord was caught on the slops of the small hill to the north of the tower and had to stop his flight and defend himself against the Scots raider and noble raider cavalry as best he could.

With the loss of his Lord, a unit of warriors and his missiles gone, a break test was due and as Allan's force morale was fairly low from the onset and a couple of high rolls for his lost units and Lord the Pict's broke in the face of the fierce Scots onslaught. (Well that's what I'm calling it, really Allan faced a difficult task due to a dearth of cavalry or mounted Lord and the with some poor movement rolls his fate was sealed).

Still, a much needed victory for the Scots of Cenel Loarn at last, and with a +5 victory the Scots get some much needed cash and a couple of extra warriors to boost their ranks. Sliante Mhath!

Dux Britanniarum Campaign - June 565 AD

British Warriors and their Lord
wait outside their Watchtower

The fourth month of the campaign and the third month that the Scotti of Cenel Loarn ventured to do battle, having sat things out in May licking their wounds after the ding dong fecht with their neighbours in Pictland back in April.

Back up to strength they ventured south and looked to raid into the lands of Brits of Alt Clut (commanded by their Lord, Kev).

The randomly rolled scenario was the raid on the watchtower which once read up boils down to the attacker (me) trying to capture one of the defenders (Kev) Lords before they reach the safety of their tower. With the majority of the Brits starting defending their tower and a couple of warrior units and a lord coming on at the other end of the table the Brits have got to leg it to gain safety.

The Scots again randomly come on on one of the four side sections and have to try and intercept the Lord before he gets to the tower and then capture him. The fact that to capture a Noble the captors need to overwhelm the Noble and unit/formations he is with in combat by having three times the number of dice as the defender. No small task in its self.

The dice were duely thrown for deployment and I threw a 3 and set up on the same side as the tower at the far end and Kev threw a four which meant he started at the opposite side. Pretty much the worst set up I could hope for. Curses. The Brits also get a bit of a head start by virtue that I only get to have two units on the board to start with with the rest of my force coming on on the second turn as they are activated. Double Curses.

The game started and the cavalry unit that the Lord was with having turbo charges horses and were half way across the table before I moved. Abandoning the warrior unit of Brits, the Lord and his bodyguard raced to the tower with the rest of the British standing at the tower ready to repel boarders.

The Scotti cavalry made a spirited last minute charge down the road scattering the missile troops to the wing and the Noble Raiders breaking the British Shock cavalry screen and forcing them off the table but the Raider cavalry accompanying them got caught by the British Warriors before they could get in the way of the retreating Lord, and were mobbed.

All the British Lords now safe and sound at the tower, game over with a fairly quick 3 point victory to the Brits. With light losses to both sides (as most of the troops didn't see any action or in deed even get close to each other) both sides are free to participate in July's fun activities.

Pretty obvious to both of us from the start that this game was going to just be a race of the cavalry, and see if Kev got any low dice scores for his cavalry move (which he didn't) so almost a foregone conclusion given the random deployment but easily could have been the other way round. Such is the unexpected (and random) nature of Dark Age raiding.

Dux Britanniarum Campaign - April 565 AD

Second month of raiding in the Dux B campaign and this month saw myself raiding into my Pictish neighbours terriotory and trying to lift some cattle in the Cattle Raid scenario.

With both myself and Andy (my Pictish Neebur) pretty much novices with the Dux B rules, we were a bit hit or miss with the rules but luckily there was a fair bit of sage advice on hand to help us out if we got really stuck (which we did on a couple of occaisons) but we muddled through a despite a couple of errors on our part, mainly through assumption of things rather than anything else, we played through the game and had much enjoyment from the event.

With myself trying to get at least two of the three stands of livestock from one end of the table and off he other I knew things were going to be a bit of an uphill struggle. Getting three moves free before Andy's Picts appeared at the far end of the table to intercept (couldn't have been a worse place for me for him to appear) my forces did their best to high tail it towards the other end of the table.

The inevitable clash came on the far half of the table with some skirmishing which I got a slight advantage with and my cavalry easily saw off his at the far end of the table. So far so good.

First major mistake now followed with us believing that my cavalry couldn't charge to their rear (into the rear of his warriors nicely lined up in front of mine about to charge) we assumed that they couldn't do an about face so instead I charged his missile troops and scattered them to the four winds. Andy subsequently agreed that this situation if I'd been able to attack his infantry would have drastically changed the course of the game, but c'est la vie).

Andy's Pictish warriors then charged my warriors and scored a whopping 20 hits and did obscene amount of kills and shock on my chief and his warriors who, funnily enough, reeled back and withdrew back in the direction from which they came for a couple of turns while my Lord frantically took off shock from the warriors until they stood pretty much where they had started.

Things started to get pretty confusing from this point and to be honest quite exciting, with all the troops on the table going this way and that and too-ing and fro-ing right across the table in a see-saw match with neither gaining the upper hand but the Scots picking off more of the Picts until honour's were pretty much equal again.

Eventually, time really beat us and with this the last game still going on in the hall, and a bit of a crowd had gathered to watch and shout abuse (sorry encouragement) at the two sides, Andy was supposed to be flying out on hols at 5:00am the next morning, I called a halt to the festivities as the game was still up for grabs but was going to take a fair bit of time to draw to a conclusion in my favour at any rate, I gave the honour's to Andy (and told him he could keep his scabby cows, I didn't want they anyway) by way of a Pyrrhic victory, Andy allowing me to withdraw un-molested., as our losses meant we are both going to sitting out of the raiding next month already and didn't want to make things worse.

A pretty exciting game as I said and certainly picked up lot's on the rules for next time. Although May 565 AD might be a bit quiet round these parts.

Dux Britanniarum Campaign - March 565 AD

Last week saw our Dux Britannarium campaign kicking off.

With this being my first game of the campaign and also my first game of Dux B things were going to be a bit dicey or so I thought.

Luckily (or not) it was Ian's (the other Scotti Player) only second game, so we were both beginners.

For the first turn (March 565 AD) Ian had stolen the march on me (as I was about to raid into Flotla), and with no regard for his brethren raided into his fellow Scotti realm of Cenel Gabhrain forcing me to defend the homestead.

The scenario we rolled was the Wagon Train one, which turned out to be the most complicated (for Dux B novices anyway) and provided a few problems from the outset, mainly with the scenario written for the Saxon/British bands, it doesn't translate well into the Raiders band units, so a bit of improv was required. With both forces being Scotti, we had identical forces.

My task was, with roughly half my force, to escort three wagons from one end of the table to an opposite corner where the gates of my holding were, and the rest of my force were hold up. Ian threw for his deployment and ended up right in the middle as close to my train as was possible.

Ian launched his assault on my wagon train pretty quickly and moved into position and lobbed a few missiles at my troops, while his cavalry moved around the front of my train to position himself for attack and block my route.

My re-enforcements exited the steading and started to make their way to the action.

Ian's cavalry and lord charged into the flank of two of my spear who had managed to form up with my Lord and 2nd in the line up and bounced the cavalry with minor casualties but inflicted a few shock points on both sides.

Now muddling through and still with the cards dealt at the beginning, which turned out to be pretty good (Carpe Diem and a couple of other good ones) my now three spear ranked up and charged the bounced and shaken cavalry and inflicted more shock and five casualties breaking them and carrying on into Ian's skirmishers and automatically scattering them.

Ian, with half his force gone and really only his untouched spear on the field and my skirmishers and cavalry fast approaching decided to leg it. I didn't contest his departure deciding not to push my beginners luck.

Good first game and once we got the hang of things it went fairly easily, helped along by some sage advice from Andy who is organising the campaign and who was playing Kev on the adjacent table.

Casualties were light on both sides, so we are both available for raiding next month.

Need to get a move on and get the Children of Gabran painted up for the next outing.