samedi 1 septembre 2012

Dux varients

I have been using my brain cells recently while i wait for the rule book to arrive, thinking of any way i can exploit my miniatures collection for these rules. Basicly to run a campaign you need an attacker to raid and a defender to protect his realm. The possibilities are endless...

  • Vikings and Saxons, easy, already been thought of, and could be played with minor changes. Give the Vikings the shield wall ability and keep the cards the same. Ferocious charge can become 'boar's tusk', same rules different name.
  • Normans vs Saxons, or French? Some new cards for the Normans.
  • Bit different now; 15th century. As in my previous past, i noted several thoughts such as Lancastrian raiders in the north following Towton, French and English raiders in the Channel and the French, Burgundy wars. Maybe two small Italian states battling each other for domination?
  • Lord of the Rings setting, with the orcs raiding the lands of the free peoples. Orcs will play as Saxons more or less, and Minas Tirith as Britons. Rohan would be slightly more difficult, as they are mostly horsemen but perhaps they have less men, but most mounted?
These are just some of the less crazy ideas (i thought a modified campaign system could be used for guerilla warefare, such as partisans in WWII or the Vietnam war!), not sure for fate cards just yet but all will become clearer when i read the rules.

As for forces, i have several thoughts.

Vikings as early Saxons, later Saxons as Britons. Nothing new here.

No ideas on Normans, but their has been a lot of talk on the lardies yahoo group recently.

Right, 15th century. The main problem here is archers; English armies had lots more archers than in Saxon times, and often fought in hand to hand. I thought that warrior class archers may shoot and fight in hand to hand (maybe less effective?) while levy archers run, as skirmishers. As for lists:
-English: 1x6 Men at arms on foot (elites), 1x6 billmen (warriors), 3x6 archers (warriors, & levy?), 1x6 levies perhaps and possibly 4 skirmishers with handguns.
-Burgundy: 1x4 knights (elite shock cavalry), 1x4 sergeants (warrior shock or light cavalry), 2x6 soldiers, 1x6 militia pikemen, 1x4 skirmishers with handguns.
-French: 2x knights (elite shock cavalry), 1x4 sergeants (warrior light cavalry), 1x6 soldiers with pole arms, 3x6 frnac archers (1 unit with bows or crossbows), 1x4 skirmishers as above.
-Scottish: 1x6 men at arms on foot, 4x6 soldiers zith long spears, 1x4 border horse (warrior light), 1x 4 skirmishers.
All needs testing of course.

As for lord of the rings, i have 2 lists;
Orcs: 4x6 warriors, 1x4 warg riders (warrior light cavalry), 1x4 skirmishers, maybe 6 urak hai or tough orcs (elite).
Minas Tirith: 2x6 veterans (elite), 2 or 3x6 warriors, 1x4 missile troops.

All the above lists have a leader, champion, and 2 big men, or nobles.
I have some fate card ideas, put i'll leave it at that for today!

Back to school for me soon, so imput will decrease :( Never mind, i can't be on holiday all the time.

Please feel free to critic my ideas, and don't feel bad if you tell me they're naff. They're just some ideas taken from my notebook.

6 commentaires:

  1. I think I will use them for some of the smaller Pelopponesian Wars battles. Not in the campaign setting, just one off battles. Different grades of spearmen, shieldwall, missile troops not that effective, cavalry minor role.

    I hope to have a game later this year so you should be able to see the results on my blog

  2. I like your ideas so far. Sounds good. I want to do late romans v Picts or Saxons.

    1. The great thing about these rules is that you can modify them for a huge amount of periods. Although made for Arthurian warfare they can be easily used for many ancient or medieval periods!

  3. Some interesting ideas.
    The core rules themselves are certainly generic enough to adapt them to almost any period where hand-to-hand combat was predominant. Only tricky bit would be not to make the opposing armies too samey.
    It is, however, the card system what makes or breaks a setting. I think you loose a fair bit of "period feel" if you don't include a decent set, preferably with a campaign setting to have a certain impact on your games.
    Personally, I'll go with a fairly similar setting to the original one, i.e. Continental Europe in the 4th to 5th century, the provinces on the area of modern Germany, Switzerland and Austria in particular. Another one will be a 3rd century Germania, maybe with switched roles for Romanised and barbarian warriors.


    1. Yeah, the deck needs to be good since it is the cards that give flavour to the games. Without the cards it's more like a big brawl, the cards make it more tactical.
      I know what you mean about it being bestr for 4/5th century, as in latter times such as in the 15th century archery was more effective.

