Dux Britanniarum Campaign: First Game

Last week, ok well it's been 9 days since, I had a very enjoyable game of 'Dux Britanniarum' at Axebreakers mansion. Chris himself has written some words about the game.
As he already did the job of explaining the idea behind the game (and I go pretty much along with him) you should really head over to his blog.


Cyrric the Flatulent king of a small province in the outermost southwest of Britannia called Noviomagus Regnorum felt the cold creeping into his old bones as he was starring into the chilly spring night. He knew they were out there. Somewhere in the dark these vain saxon dogs were about to raid his kingdom.
After a rainy summer followed by poor harvest before a hard winter he knew his little realm was in no way prepared to meet the saxon threat. Just as he was about to leave the walls of his little stronghold he saw the luminous glare of burning huts in the otherwise deep black sky.

'Get ready you bunch of lazy bastards!' Theodosius Magnus bellowed at a group of drowsy figures.
This was one of these moments he asked himself why the hell he was here in this god forsaken part of the world.
Born in Rome as bastard of a high ranking officer in the field legions and a young slavegirl, he was part of the last Legions in Britannia as the Emperor decided to withdraw his troops to the continent.

Just hours before he had to embark, Cyrric this drunken piece of sheepdung, now calling himself king of Noviomagus Regnorum, asked him to stay and become leader of his despicable bodyguard. If it wasn't for this little girl having made eyes at him he would have refused the offer.

Now he was in the mud of a true british spring, his girl already in the hands of some other bugger, leading some dirty skits of soldiers to fight a band of marauding saxons. He knew he was already late as he had seen the fires of burning huts in the distance. Now it was all about swiftness to catch these saxons before they were to recover into the safety of the lost lands...

We played the first scenario 'Raiding a church' where I had to prevent Chris's Saxons from plundering the church and take the monk as hostage. The fight would be over when the troops taking the monk with them leave the table.

The real battle began after some rounds of aggressive maneuvering. As Chris's saxons had a headstart of three full movements I had to be quick to get my troops on the board and ready for action. Unfortunately most of the time my troops were standing in the way of each other due to my ignorance of the movement and formation rules.

First troops in contact with enemy warriors were a single group of levies...

Rush for Berlin 7: German mortar

After having suffered under the heat for several days now, yesterday was the time to rock the brush again.
I finally finished the mortar team from Artizan Designs to fit my other stuff for 'Operation Squad'.

Step by step: Cheap & easy sabot bases

As I had a very enjoyable game of Dux Britanniarum (AAR to follow) on saturday at Axebreakers mansion I asserted the urgent need for sabot bases.

Therefore I had a look at the different manufacturers of lasercut mdf bases. Some do quite usefull stuff but none really had exactly what I wanted. I need bases for 6 square and at least one round base as my Warlord and the Nobles are based on  25mm round washers while for the rank and file I used 20mm squarebases. So I decided to do them on my own.

To do your own sabot bases you'll need:

• Footfall sound insulation (In german it's called polystyrol)
• Plasticcard about 1mm thickness
• Hobbyknife
• Blade of a hobbyknife broken down to about 2cm length
• Marker
• Ruler
• Fast curing PVA
• Old brush
• Small clamps
• Magnetic foil
• Scissors

Step 1:
First cut out a piece of polystyrol sized 120mm x 60mm using your hobbyknife. Afterwards you should mark the positions for the bases.

Fall of the western Empire 14: Archers (almost) done

As summer finally arrived in Germany too, it became a bit quiet around here. As my men cave (like the rest of my apartment) is directly under the roof I wasn't really in a mood to paint some lead.
As I've been sick over the last few days I decided to do it anyway.
Therefore I finished the three archers needed for our first game of Dux Britanniarum on saturday at Axebreakers.

The bases still have to be done

Fall of the western Empire 13: First archer

Not much of an update here though I wanted to show you how my archers will look like.

 Figure is again from the Arthurian Range by Westwind.
The bow was bent in shape for better mixing up with the Musketeer archers.

Hope you like it.

Fall of the western Empire 12: Reinforcements & Fatigue markers

Haven't really been very busy over the last weeks but came round to paint some figures for my Late Romans. As I'm planning to use my warband for 'Dux Britanniarum' from the Toofatlardies at some point in the future I needed a new warlord, two heroes and an champion. Also I decided to paint a musician who will be my bard and two monks for spiritual assistance.

The South will rise again 1: First trial figures

Back from vacation I photographed some trial figures I finished before leaving Germany for some days in the sun. As the rather pathetic title allready suggests it's about Confederates for the American Civil War.
With the release of the new plastics Confederates by Perry-Miniatures I decided to finally give the whole ACW  thing a go.

Rush for Berlin 6: MG-34 & Rifleman added/ SAGA: Late Romans vs. Vikings

Finally finished the last of the ordinary footsloggers for my Luftwaffenfelddivision.
As Artizan don't do a late war guy carrying a MG-34 I did a little conversion on a former MG-42  shooter giving him the barrel of a plastics MG-34 from Warlord Games. Still need some guys with Gewehr 43...unfortunately There aren't any available from Artizan.

Sweetwater Forum - Miniature Exchange

The little sparetime I had over the last couple of days I used to get the figure done I recieved  for the `Miniature Exchange` on Sweetwater Forum.
For the `Miniature Exchange` you get a figure to paint from another chap taking part and send a miniature of your choice to somebody else. As I never did any kind of comissional painting it was a nice challenge to paint up something I didn't choose myself.

So I ended up splashing some paint on some sort of cowboy... I have to admit I really have no clue what make this figure is. As I never really was into this whole Wild West kind of thing, except playing cowboy and redskin in my childhood, it was completely virgin soil for me.
Therefore I hope the result is ok:

 

 

Thank you for watching!

Rush for Berlin 5: German Reinforcements

As spring has finally arrived in Germany too, it has been a bit quiet around here. Mainly because the workload increased, but also because I got a bit lazy over the last weeks.
So I needed about two weeks to get the next seven guys for my Luftwaffenfelddivision done.

I decided to paint up some more footsloggers to get a bit pf variation in my list.
So three soldiers with StG 44, three soldiers with Panzerfaust and a Medic are done.

First the hole bunch: