Dux Britanniarum: Playtest at the Hobby Bunker

Wow two posts in 2 days.

Last Thursday myself and Adam got in our first game of DuxB. We are planning a campaign, but we felt it was good to get in a couple of practice games first. Adam had never played the ruleset and I had played just two solo games. It has became obvious to me that playing solo is no way to learn a ruleset.

We played the farm raid scenario, with myself taking the Britons and Adam the Angle attackers. Essentially for the Angles to win they had to attack the farm, loot some stuff and then escape unscathed. In the pre game set up the farm was placed half way down the table. My entry point was the farm itself but I only got to bring one unit in on the first turn. Adam got to make 4 moves with his whole attacking force before I even got to place any figures!

Here we can see the basic layout. In the far ground are the Angles, all set to go, to the left within the farm itself you can see my missile troops (young boys with slings). They are just there to mark my entry point. I actually do not get to place any troops until the Angles have had 4 moves.

The terrain from anther angle. The trees are a medium obstacle for the troops with light cover and the crops are a minor obstacle with no cover. The fence is linear terrain with light cover. Doorways and gates in the fence are unbarred. (We played this wrong, I thought it was free but it is -1D6 on movement. 

Adam's 4 move headstart was quite successful as you can see as he has entered the farm and actually even has entered one of the buildings. Looking grim for the Britons.

I finally get to enter some troops on the table, I decide to bring in my Comanipulares (elite troops) , I really need to clear out the village. They immediately attack one group of Duguth (warriors) in the rear, while playing the Carpe Diem card as well as a Audacia card. This allows me to attack the Angles from behind (without it they could turn to face me), and adds 2D6 to my combat dice. The Duguth Lose their Amphora and flee. One down.

The Angles decide that an attack with another group of Duguth, these are driven back as well but my elites take some loss and shock. I must of got excited then as I forgot to take some photos. (Adam has some of this action on his blog, the Fencing Frog. the Angle Gedriht then arrive and defeat my Comanipulares. Very bloody action indeed.

Turn 1 ends finally and I start to bring in the rest of my forces as their card come up. At this point my  two groups of Combrogi (warriors) have arrived and driven the Angles out, aside from the Gedridht still trying to loot the cottage to the right. Unfortunately the Angles in the cottage to the house to the left have found some loot and are starting to flee. In the foreground you can see my Pagenses (levy) moving up to enter the fray.

The fleeing Angles with their loot, I have sent out my slingers to harry their journey.

Well as you can see the Angles are successful in escaping with their loot. I lost my elite troops as well as my slingers, but the Angles suffered dearly losing their bowmen, two groups of warriors as well as 8 of the Gedridht. All nobles survived. As we did not calculate a morale test at the beginning of the game, I gave Adam his first Dark Ages victory. Well played! The game played quite well despite the Angle's early advantage.

We made a ton of mistakes with the rules, but the game went very quickly and we had a lot of fun. We had several questions after our first game but most were answered by a re-reading of the rulebook, the others were answered on the TFL forum.

I thought I would list some of the points of confusion we had and in which way they were clarified.

• Fate Cards: When a noble is activated he can use the Fate cards of either suit. The suited cards can not be played otherwise. The bonus of playing a suited cards is that it adds +1D6 to the combat D6 total if the Carpe Diem card is played. The unsuited cards can be played anytime ie. as an offense or defense.
• Movement: Unless the group is moving up to a certain point (to include terrain features or joining another group), the full distance has to be taken from the throw of the D6.
• Champion: Is attached to the Lord, if the Lord joins a group for combat the Champion does as well. He can not act independently.
• Groups in Buildings: Do not offer support to other groups outside of buildings.
• Movement through Unbarred Doors and Gates: Costs 1d6.
• Activation: In respect to movement and going into formation, it can be done with one activation but cost 1D6.
• Nobels Movement: Move for free when attached to group, otherwise costs 1 Activation.
• Facing: A group can move in any direction without cost. It justs moves in that direction, it can turn around etc, with no cost. But at the end of movement it ends up facing in that direction. If the group then wants to change facing or go into an allround stance then 1D6 is subtracted from the movement. I had a tough time understanding this but when I got it it was quite simple.

We are playing one more trial game in two weeks and we will then start our campaign in September. I am sure we will have other questions from our next game and I will post them with our next playtest.