Dux Brittaniarum are a set of rules that focus around the Saxon invasion of the British isles during the 5th to 7th century. The rule book are 92 pages full colour and avaliable in printed book, as a .PDF or in a tablet version.
The layout of the book are nice and clear with several rules clarification pictures and some gaming pictures, could have been some more gaming pictures in my mind.
The glue bounding of the book are good, although I still have one Issue with the printed Dux Britanniarum book...the top layer plastic on the front and back have started to come loose at the edges...
At first glance I was a little disappointed of the softback book I got in the snailmail...I had expected a hardback book... suppouse it was my lack in english as I ordered a "Hard Copy"...for me that was Hardback...
I would have prefered a real hardback book, suppouse I have been spoiled by the nice Hail Caesar and Black Powder rules book, again they are at least £10 more expensive...
In the printed copy they also included a A3 print of a map of the British isles, stunning work by Coral Sealey. I think you can download it at the TooFatLardies yahoo group.
So back to essentials...the rules...
They are the kind of rules that I like, focused on the telling of a story, campaign games and easy fast play rules with a certain amount of unpreditctable outcomes.
The key to the game are of course, as in all? TooFatLardied rules, the card driven activation. In Dux Britanniarum they have separate the special card from the Action deck to a Fate deck, work mighty good. The card are ofcourse sold at the TooFatLardie site or you can print your own as they kindly provided them for free here.
But there are a few glitches to the writing of the rules... I feels that some rules are lacking in explanation, are hard to find or not included at all as the authour might have taken them for granted... gets especially cleare than one reads the design notes on there blog. The design notes are a must to get the rules right...
Apart from these realy small issues it´s a very good set of rules. Can´t point it out to many times, it´s so nice to have a game that focus around the campaign gaming AND campaign system that are easy to administrate.
The campaigns are in my mind 2 man affairs, so that will limit the gaming possibilitys, but it shouldent be to hard to get around I suppouse... sure the Lardies already thought of that for next expansion to the game.
I realy hope to get some Dux Britanniarum campaings up and running...maybe one with Vikings and Saxons...or with my new project that are in the pipeline, think they would be prefect...
AAR of our first tryout game of the Dux Britanniarum rules in a day or so:)
I'm really interested in these, especially if you can use them easily for later, Viking era gaming and campaigns. What sort of numbers of figure are used on each side?
ReplyDeleteGod Morning Paul
ReplyDeleteThe rules have a relay generic base and will probably work from ancient to later medieval...its just the campaign that are set in the Arthurian period, but can with some effort be used in other periods of history, its a 4 page article in the TooFatLardies Summer Special 2012 about that.
Miniature vise you ned about 40 minis a side that will grow some during the campaign. No army points.
Best regards Michael
Thanks for the review. Another major aspect for me, and a difference vs. other TFL sets, is the use of full hand of cards to activate units, instead of the traditional card deck. That provides almost endless different game possibilities when playing the same scenarios. As for the soft cover, I decided to protect the book with plastic sheet, the same we use to protect my children's school books.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the plastic sheet tip, might go for that:)
ReplyDeleteBest regards Michael
Thanks for the initial thoughts. I am enjoying reading the rules as well. There are a few things that I don't find to be totally clear, but in general I like the look of the rules a lot. Enough to have a new painting project!
ReplyDeleteI've been reading Ray's at work during toilet breaks!
ReplyDeleteI must reiterate the comment you made about the design notes. All new players MUST read those, as they will clarify most of the situations that seem unclear on a first reading.
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree, an excellent set of rules indeed!!
Regarding the campaign, I know that the Lardies are currently working on multi-player campaign rules and I am very excited to read that new factions are coming soon - Picts, Scots Irish and Northern British!! Hurrah!
Looking forward to reading your first AAR.
Cheers
Andy
Really late on this one but I'm going to buy these and maybe, just maybe, paint up both sides. Thanks for the review Michael!
ReplyDeleteGood decition they are absolutely a favoriter set of rules at the moment, Will work fine with your vikings.
DeleteBest regards Michael
Even later on this post - but been reading over the rules and now with the innovative activation system they brought out with COC I see some options to removing the card activation and changing to a COC style activation ! the rules and the feel is awesome !
ReplyDeleteInteresting idea ! But be shure to keep the fate cards as they are a big part of the greatness of Dux Britanniarum.
DeleteBest regards Michael
Im mapping out some ideas for it over the week - and will have something up as a draft idea soonish - look out for an update on my blog :)
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