Dux Britanniarum AAR Vikings vs. Anglo-Saxons

I and Jonas have started a small Dux Britanniarum Campaign using our Vikings and Anglo-Saxons, to get a feel for the campaign rules. We decided to set the Campaign in Northumberland and the area of the first Viking raids in 793 AD.

Jonas are playing the Anglo-Saxons and we used the British starter army for them.

He´s Warlord was Aethelbald the Cruel a man of just 22 springs that had worked he´s way up much due to he´s tremendes constitution.

He´was  always followed by he´s Champion Ealdwulf an old and experienced warrior and of course two of he´s childhod friends Leofric and Hacca.

By King Aella the Generous they was assigned to protect the northern coast from the  Savage barbarians that attacked Lindisfarne last summer.

I would use my Vikings and run them as a Saxon Starter army.

My Warlord was Gutorm the Coward, of course no one dared to say it to he´s face as he was King Gudmunds second son. Gutorm didn´t even want to get out for a viking but as he was a man that liked other mens wifes he´s father thought it was best that he left home for a while...

To protect he´s son the old King Gudmund sent some of he´s best men. The old Champion Styrbjörn to make all the fighting, Sigvard and Ragnar was sent to lead the men, now they was out for some easy plunder...

We decided to start our campaign using the sea raid scenario from the TooFatLardies Summer Special 2012, after all the Vikings did arrive by boat...

The Viking 2nd in command, Sigvard and Ragnar, had decided that the Kings son Gutorm needed a easy prey for he´s first raid. So the aim for the attack was a small churche by the coast...

After the terrible attacks last summer , King Aella the Generous had posted small forces of warriors alog the coast. One of therse was posted close to the church, under command of Athelbalds 2nd in command Leofric.

As the two Viking ship run up on the beach close to the Church, the clergyman Brother Bede posted him self out side he´s church praying for a miracle to occur...

In the Anglo-Saxon shore camp there was much activety as the men gathered themself to deffend the church amd throw the invaders back in to the sea...

The Vikings ruched ashore, two groups of Hirdmen was ordered to meet the approaching Saxons... The rest of the Vikings was on there way to the church...

The Saxons that had guarded the coast moved swift close to the disembarking Vikings, Leofric didn´t get them in Shieldwall just yet...

By the coast the Saxon leader Leofric got he´s men to form a shieldwall to better be able to withstand the feirce Viking attack to come...

Gutorm the Coward commanded he´s men from the back...they was ordered to move as quicley as possible to the church, but was some hampered by the field and the forest.

PRAISE THE LORD !!! Brother Bede called out, then by a mere miracle Aethelbald the Cruel with he´s Thegns and a large group of gathered Fyrd arrived.

What was expected as a easy and quick raid, just had gone bad for Gutorm the Coward and he´s warband, only beccause The old Champion Styrbjörn told him what to do Gutorm didn´t run back to the ships... 

The Vikings formed a battle line to meet the approaching Saxons...

By the coast Sigvard and the Viking hirdmen charged the Saxon Shieldwall... a fierce battle started with several casualtys on both sides, but the Saxons stod firm...

By the coast the difference in warrior status started to show...the Saxon Fyrd started to be puched back, still maintaining the Shieldwall but suffering hard of the chock from the Viking Hirdmens heavy attacks...

By the forest the Viking luck wasn´t that good...although confront inferior enemys they recived heavy losses and soon two of the three groups was on the run for the ships... at that moment Gutorm the Coward to was intimidated and ordered a general retreat for he´s men, BACK TO THE SHIPS !!!

The battered Saxons let the Vikings embarke theirs ships and get away, glad that they managed to save the Church from the flames. 

Brothe Bede praised the lord for this greate Miracle and prommised to join Aethelbalds retinue for the comming month and care for the wounded men. Aethelbalds lost 9 men during the fight and it would take him a month to renew he´s warband, by the loot from the fallen Vikings he got a Thief´s Hord of plunder.

Gutorm had lost 13 men during the combat, he didn´t realy care as he´s father would send more warriors, but he was glad that he had survived he´s first real fight. 

Now he would rest and find some nice womens to comfort him while he was awaiting 2 month for the reinforcements to arrive and the wounded men to heal, then he would be back...

This was our 3rd Dux Britanniarum game, took a little long time, but that was probably due to two players on each side that had to discuss every decision...

Rules wise we start to get a good grip of them and it was nice to try out the campaign rules to, they realy give a good flavour and story to the fighting, looking forward to continue the campaing.

Swedish Crusader Ledung

I have now finished the first 7 minis for my Swedish Crusader force, some Swedish Ledung Warriors under firm command of a Knight from the House of Oxenstierna.

The institution known as leiðangr (Old Norse), leidang (Norwegian), leding, (Danish), ledung (Swedish), expeditio (Latin) or sometimes lething (English), was a public levy of free farmers typical for medieval Scandinavians. It was a form of conscription to organise coastal fleets for seasonal excursions and in defence of the realm. In Anglo-Saxon England, a different system was used to achieve similar ends, and was known as the fyrd.

The leiðangr was established in the medieval era, and not the Viking Age. It has been considered the maritime version of the Germanic system of hundreds which was described as early as 98 A.D. by Tacitus as the centeni. Since Tacitus also said the Suiones had a powerful fleet, it might have been based on the leidang. 

However, since all our sources on the leidang are medieval (the earliest, the Older Law of the Gulating, is 11th century at the absolute earliest, and might well be 12th century) this is highly uncertain. Before the establishment of the leidang, the defence of the realm was probably based on voluntary contribution to a defence-fleet. With the rise of the monarchies, the contribution became a duty.

The leiðangr was a system organising a coastal fleet with the aim of defence, coerced trade, plunderings, and aggressive wars. Normally, the fleet levy was on expeditions for two or three summer months. All free men were obliged to take part in or contribute to the leiðangr. 

All of the leiðangr was called to arms when invading forces threatened the land. In the expeditions only a fraction of the ships were taking part, but as expeditions often were profitable, many magnates and chieftains tried to join with their people as often as possible.

The lands were divided into districts, ship's crews, "skipreiða" (Old Norse), "skipæn" (Danish) or "roslag" (Swedish). The farmers of the district had to build and equip a rowed sailing ship. The size of the ships was defined as a standardized number of oars, initially forty oars, later the standardized size of 24 was increased.

In Norway, there were 279 such districts in 1277, in Denmark two-three times as many. The head of a district was called "styrimaðr" or "styræsmand", steersman, and he functioned as captain of the ship. The smallest unit was the crew of peasants who had to arm and provide for one oarsman ("hafnæ" in Danish, "manngerð" in Old Norse). 

According to the Law of the Swedish region Uppland, the hundreds of Uppland provided as many as four ships each, those of Västmanland two ships and those of Roslagen one ship.

The older laws regulating the leiðangr (the Norwegian "Older Law of the Gulating" dates to the 11th or 12th century) require every man to, as a minimum, arm himself with an axe or a sword in addition to spear and shield, and for every rowbench (typically of two men) to have a bow and 24 arrows. 

Later 12th-13th century changes to this law code list more extensive equipment for the more affluent freemen, with helmet, mail hauberk, shield, spear and sword being what the well-to-do farmer or burgher must bring to war. 

In 12th-13th century sources detailing the 11th century, jarls are mentioned as the chieftain of the leiðangr, in the 12th century the bishop could also be head of the fleet levy, although typically nobles led levies in the 12th to 14th centuries.

Dux Bellorum AAR Saxon vs. Late Romans

Here comes a AAR of our latest Dux Bellorum game. This time the Saxons invaders try to sack a small village fortunate defended by a Late Roman field army.

We used ordinary 32 points armys, made up from my Late Roman and Saxon collection, mounted om trays with a front of 80mm and we played on a 180x120cm table.

OOB

Saxon Warriors
1x Foot Companions with Leader
2x Foot Nobles
5x Foot Warriors
2x Foot Skirmishers one with Sling and one with Javelins

Late Romans
1x Mounted Companions with Leader
1x Cataphracts
1x Ordinary Raiders
4x Ordinary Shieldwall
1x Archers
1x Mounted Skirmishers with javelins
1x Foot Skirmishers with Bow

The Saxon objective was to capture the village by having a uncontested unit in the village wich would force the Romans to roll extra Moral tests. The game would last for a maximum of 12 turns.

In the early montning the Romans deplyed a small force of three units in the village and splited there cavalry on the two flanks. The Saxons placed there skirmishers in the middle and divided the Nobles within the Ordinary Warriors to get them moving more easily. 

No one saw any villagers or livestock...Zzzzzz....Zzzzzzz...

As the combat begun at the fields outside the vilages the newly awakened livestock and villagers emerged from the houses and started to run all around not certain of what to do...

The Roman Commander order all he´s cavalry on the both flanks to start moving, all acording he´s cunning plan... Eager to win a swift victory he sets it all on one card and charges forward with he´s Companions and some Riders, thinking he will easy defeat three units of Saxons...

The Saxon commander order a general advance of all he´s troops.

In the heart of battle the Chronicler forgot to dokument the Battle...Sorry... 

Here we see the center of the acction as the Roman cavalry have dissengaged after the first unsuccessfull charge, trying to make one more, this time causing more damage...

On the Roman right flank the Cataphracts had a hard time fighting it out with two Saxon units...

In the Center the remaining Saxons had reached the Village and the Romans in shieldwall just outside...a fierce battle started...

The saxon puched back the defender of the Village, that lost the advantage of the deffensive wall... The Roman shieldwall just outside the vilage also had a realy hard time...

The Roman Riders and a unit of Saxons on the left flank was defeated, but still the Roman Commander and he´s Companions fought on, seeing in vain how the village they were set to protect was overvhelmed with barbarians...

By midday the Saxons had claimed the village, slaughtering the last of the heroic defenders. It was a hard blow to the Roman moral and the remaining parts of the army chose to retreat of flee as cowards as the saxon put it...

This was a nice game! As we still learning the rules and had 2 players on each side it probably tock a little longer than it should, but we had a realy nice time and some good beer:)

Brown Swedish Crusaders?

Some more pictures of my first Swedish Crusaders now in Brown and with a movement tray:)

The minis are based on 20mm bases, the tray are 80x50mm

Archers in the back row to give some missile support.

Swedish Crusaders

Here are a first VIP pictures of some Swedish Crusaders.

The minis are a mix...

Back row: 

• 2 viking archers from Artizan, oen with a heas swap (GB plastic saxon head)

Front row:

• Knight from Curteys mini with a GB axe. 
• Medieval spearmen from Curteys mini with a Warhammer head and GB Shield,.
• The last 3 are plastic GB viking/saxons with shield from Curteys/GB and GB the last one got the head with warhatt from the Curteys medieval spearmen...hope you got i all :)

Baltic Crusades 13th century

Back in 2010 I got a questions from Bishop Lord , that was planing a 10mm Medieval Scandinavian army, about some reference information. The question got me thinking of a Baltic Crusades project of my own...but I newer got around untill now...I hope;)

My first thoughts was to mak a 15mm Early Medeval Swedish army, using all my vikings, focus around the Swedish crusade to Balticum in 1240 and the Battle at Neva...

BUT 15mm are not my main scale at the moment...so I have decided to go with 28mm.

The Battle at Neva was fought between the Swedish Crusading force (including Bishop Thomas of Finland) under command of Birger Jarl (might have been Birger Jarl? At least in my version) and The Russians under command of the Novgorod Prince Alexander Yaroslavich (to become Alexander Nevsky after this victory.) Read more here.

The Swedish force I will start to make will be composed of some Noblemen and their Hird (the only pro soldiers in the army), they was probably mounted i.e knights, I plan to mix some armoured knights with a lot of less armoured followers, Probably not more than 2 units, like 1 for Birger Jarl and one for the Bishop Thomas.

The Infantry by the time was the Swedish Ledunge, freemen that was oblige to serve for the King/Jarl a set number of days each year. They will have quite outdate equipment (round shield was still often used) mixed with the latest, and led by some dismounted noblemen… So I will use a mix of vikings, normans and other back dated minis as well as some more up to date minis with iron hatts and some dismounted knights as commanders. I also plan to mix in one or two bow/x-bow men in the back of the units.

Lastly I will make some skirmish units…one with Bow and one with X-Bow or a mix…most of the missile armed men fought in the back of the Shieldwall, so just a few skirmishers for the Swedes.

There are not many books in English about Sweden in this period but Ospery have 2 that can give some more info if you are intereste in the period.

Osprey - Men At Arms 436 The Scandinavian Baltic Crusades 1100-1500

Osprey - Men At Arms 396 Medieval Scandinavian Armies (1) 1100-1300

Both books have the Swedish David Lindholm as authour he are a MA of University of Lund in Sweden where he studied medieval archaeology, history and ethnology. He is also a specialist of medieval weaponry and warfare, and I think he have made a good work with these books.

There are also the Osprey book about the Battle of Lake Peipis 1242 that gives god information about the setting, the Russians and olso mention some about the Battle at Neva 1240

Osprey - Campaign 46 Lake Peipus 1242

Dux Britanniarum AAR Welsh vs. Vikings

Haven´t been to much painting for me lately... but I have managed to play some Dux games at least...

I introduce Dux Britanniarum to 4 of the members at our club last week, here comes a short AAR of the event;)

As several of our members have got SAGA armys we decided to move the seting forward a couple of hundred years and use a Welsh and a Viking warband.

The Welsh used the Romano-British stats and the Vikings used the Saxon ones. We also altered the configuration of the warbands some due to the minis we had, I have made a small point value schedule to calculate the composition of the warbands.

OOB

Vikings
Warlord "Torgeir the Red" and his Champion "Varg"
He had brought he´s two hephews to lead his men.
4x6 Hirdmen (Elit warriors)

Welsh
Warlord "Engelbert the Bold" and his Champion "Aderyn"
He had also brought two relatives as help to lead his men.
1x6 Elit Warriors
2x6 Warriors
2x6 Levys
1x4 Skirmishers

One again we run the Farm raid scenario, The Vikings got 3 moves befor the game started.

The Vikings had just landed on the beach and hurried to move against the defenseless little welsh farm to get some fresh sheeps...

Torgeir the Red shoose to move through the fileds...not the fastest rout...

As the first group of Viking raiders reaches the farm and start to search the house for plunder the Welsh Warlord Engelbert the Bold and his bold men emerge from behind the forest...

As Torgeir the Red joins the pilagers in the houses the Welsh close in on all sides of the farm, just one lone group of Vikings lure behind the farmhouses douptful of what to do as they been left withouit any heroes to show the way...

The viking hirdmen left without any leadership was a easy prey for Engelbert the Bold that after a short but intense fight chase them away...

At the same time there are a hard fight going on around the small hovel... 

The first group of Vikings to enter the farm have struck gold...or at least some sheeps that they start to haul forward the beach and the ships...

To save there beloved sheeps a bold group of Welsh warriors charges the Vikings that are on there way to the beach, they let the loot go and meet up the Welsh Warriors...

Torgeir the Red start to feel overwhelm and start to get his men out of the farmhouse to be able to meet the threat...

The Vikings fighting on the farmyard do good and starts to were down the Welshmen...but at the Hovel the Vikings starts to get beaten up...

Engelbert the Bold  are nowere to be seen...

The few Vikings that were left at the hovel start to run for saftey, shasing some innocent sheeps before them...

Torgeir the Red order his hirdmen to get the looted sheeps at the farmyard and run for it...TO THE SHIPS!!!

Engelbert the Bold returning just in time to see some of the sheeps to be draged of to an uncertain destiny...

Good work boys ! at least we got some real god action and some sheeps to dinner... Torgeir the Red didn´t won the day but he got some plunder and only small losses, he will be back in a mont or so...

Engelbert the Bold was proud of his men, many untrained but still they fought well in the struggle against the sea raiders only loosing 6 of his men he still had a strong force and with some reinforcements he would be ready to meet new threats to his realm within a month or so...

This was a very nice game, I think several of the participants will play more Dux Britanniarum especialy if we make a Viking era campaign of it. This was my second game and I think the rules worked realy good even as there was 4 rookiess to them....worked very good with 2 players aside to.

Dux Britanniarum first game AAR

Here comes a short AAR of my and Jonas first tryout game of Britanniarum from TooFatLardies.

Jonas Commanded my Romano-British and I took command of my generic Saxons. We started to roll for the Character but only all the way for the Warlords as we was a little short of time and the main focus was to try out the rule engine.

OOB as per the rules.

Saxons
Warlord "Wselfwulf" and his Champion "Wyman"
Two relatives to the Warlord as Leaders, "Abrecan" and "Bana"
2x6 Elit Warriors
3x6 Warriors
1x4 Missile (Slingers)

Romano-British

Warlord "Titus Claudius Cogidubnus" and his Champion "Vindicus"
Two close friends as Leaders, "Marcifilius" and "Morganius"
1x6 Elit Warriors
2x6 Warriors
3x6 Levy
1x4 Missile (Archers)


We rolled for scenario and got the Farm Raid, the Saxons got 3 turns of movement befor the game started.

The river was in the Saxons way and with just one passable ford...the rest of it was impassible due to heavy rains the last days...

The Saxon warlord Wselfwulf sent he´s slingers to the left to be able to shower the British from the saftey of the river. At the same time Abrecan and he´s Saxon Warriors had managed to get cross the river ans reached the farm to start the loot of the duildings...

At the same time the British warlord Cogidubnus and all his Warriors emerged close to the farm and started to advance forward the farm...

So far so good, nice with random movement, usualy 3D6" if there arn´t any obstacle in the way like a ford or a stone fence... you have to use all the movement rolled, if you haven´t clearly stated where you want the unit to move.

Yet more British forces emerged from the Saxon left...the Saxons still had problem to get over the river... and they didn´t find any loot in the house...

At the farm the first battles started to emerge...The main part of the Saxons still struggled to get pass tha ford and the Britts had a hard time to get cross the enclosed field...

The British levy managed to make a swift advance in to the Saxon slingers...that disperse and took no more part in this raid...

If the missile-slinges had been skirmish-javelin, they would have thrown there sticks and retreated, but missile troops contacted by formed troops are dispersed for the rest of the game...Should have used then differently...

The British Elite Warriors managed to beat the Saxons in the house that after a fierce and close battle made a run fore it to the ford, creating havoc amongst ther own comrades in arms.

If a unit gets, double the amount of men left in it, of schock, they are out of buissness for the game and just try to get home as quickly as possible. The arrow markers are 1 chock and the dead markers are 3 chock.

Warlord "Wselfwulf" still tryed to lead his men to the farm for some plunder...but there was plenty of British warriors there already...and more was comming at the back, risking to cut of the retreat...

After some more intense fighting at the outskirt of the farm a unit of Saxon elit warriors broke due exsess chock...heading back to the ships in a haste...

Both forces roll for Warband Morale Value at the begining of the game and for each unit lost och Hero wounded the Morale drop... at this time the Saxons had lost 5 of 7 points....

After a failed last push in to the farm by a unit of Saxon elit warriors Warlord "Wselfwulf" decided that there was better to save the rest of the men for a nother day, he ordered hes Warband to start to withdraw back to the ships....

It had been a close shot for Titus Claudius Cogidubnus as the only undamaged units left for the british was the Levy, he was still glad that he´s forces had managed to repell the Saxon invaders...

This was a realy nice game and we learned alot of the rules and will absolutly play different next time. The rules are quite easy and run realy smoth, it was sometimes hard to find rules during the game, but we will both read them some more to get them right next time.

Please make a visit to Jonas blog "A Conflict of Interests" to and read about the battle from the British point of view:) 

Dux Britanniarum "Review"

Here comes some initial  thought of the new rules Dux Britanniarum from Too Fat Lardies...

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:)

28mm WotR minis for sale

I have sorted out some minis from my leadpile of 15th century 28mm minis that I never will have time to paint up.

So if any one of you are in need for 56 (37 Bill/pike/Spear men, 13 Archers and 6 handgunners) unpainted WotR/15th century minis from the Crusader miniature WotR range, please post a comment with your email adress and I get in touch, ofcourse I won´t publish comments with mail adresses:)

The price asked for are £40 + P&P.