Crash!

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I had returned to the "Dark Side" of gaming. Since then, I've been playing a lot of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. I made a lot of progress, finishing the main quest and starting on the Knights of the Nine expansion.

A knight wearing the armor of the Crusader in front of the Priory of the Nine.

This afternoon, a severe thunderstorm hit, and now my X-box is kaput. I guess that's a sign to ditch the computer games and get back to the board.

"Recruiting"

I have an idea of what rules to use.

I have terrain. By the way, the buildings of Owlton came from Village in a Bag. I saw a pic on Bob Cordery's Wargames Miscellany site where he used ViaB, and I liked it. I prefer more of a "toy soldier" feel than a realistic miniatures portrayal, and I feel that ViaB fits the bill.

What about figures? As the Battle of Owlton shows, I have some plastic figures. They are just a bit larger than I'd like (I would prefer to go down to 15mm) plus it seems that painting bendy plastic figures is harder than working with metal. I'd really like to get some new figures.

I have my eye on Irregular.

Some Irregular Miniatures knights. Picture from their website.

I have some of their Marlburian figures for Horse & Musket battles (which I really need to paint) and I liked them. I need to figure out what I need and place an order.

Impressions

As I have previously noted, I picked up a few different sets of medieval war game rules. I have read through them all and wanted to share my impressions.

What am I looking for? I want a set of rules to allow me to play fantasy skirmishes where I can create stats for figures/units (rather than having to depend on stats published in expensive books). Although most rules allow for free movement, I plan to use a square grid, so the game (esp. movement) needs to be convertible. I hoped to get my wife to play with me, but now that we tried one game of FUBAR I think I'll be going solo. To keep interest up, I would like to play a campaign, so inclusion of campaign rules is a bonus.

I am going to create a separate post for each set. In a nutshell, however, I will probably stick with FUBAR, although I may modify it a bit based on ideas from the other sets. I love the campaign system in Dux Britanniarum and plan to run it based on a medieval Imagi-nation.

Song of Blades and Heroes

At first, I was very enthused by this set. It is true skirmish (each figure represents one person or creature) and requires very few figures (8-15 per side). They have a very clever system for activating figures. The player rolls 1 to 3 dice; rolling above a certain number allows the figure to perform 1 action. The player will roll activation for each figure in turn. However, if the player fails 2 or more rolls for a figure, his/her turn is over and the opposing player begins activation. This adds some tactical thought. Do I play it safe and roll only 1 die, which will automatically allow me to try to activate another figure, or do I go for broke and roll 3?

My enthusiasm began to wane a bit, as it seems that there are too many stats to worry about and that each figure's stats are tracked individually. Furthermore, I'm not sure if the movement system, which is integrally tied to the activation system, will convert well to a grid.

SBH offers a campaign expansion (Songs of Deeds and Glory), but it is primarily a system for generating random battles and determining rewards of victory or costs of defeat. Furthermore, it seems geared to campaigns with 3 or more players.

FUBAR Medieval

A free set of rules, FUBAR is designed for large skirmishes. Each figure represents one person or creature, but figures are grouped into units of approximately 6 figures (although I used smaller units for my test battle and will continue to use the smaller size). Heroes and leaders may act independently. I like the scale - a large skirmish with units - over the individual focus of Song of Blades and Heroes.

The game also seems easy to modify. It was simple to turn it into a grid based game, and I was able to take the statistical details (armor mods, weapon mods, etc.) and simplify them into a few stats. The activation system is very straightforward, which is preferable for solo games (although I may modify the system to make leaders more important, akin to Dux Brit).

There is no published campaign system for FUBAR Medieval, although there is one for their Sci Fi 40K version, which appears to have some good ideas.

Dux Britanniarum

I am a huge fan of the "Arthurian" era (Saxon invasions of 5th-6th century Britain and the efforts of the Post-Roman Britons to defend their land). Ever since I first saw these rules, I was intrigued, but the cost put me off. When they went on sale, I had to pick them up.

Figures are mounted individually but formed into units of 4-6 figures. An army runs about 40 figures, but each figure represents one man. Thus, these model large skirmishes. I like scale, although I may reduce the unit size by half.

The major turn-off for me is that they use a card-activation system. In some games (e.g Memoir '44), I like card activation but I am not sure how it will work for solo play. I bought the PDF edition of the game, so I am not keen on having to make my own cards.

A huge bonus is that the campaign system looks FANTASTIC. A player is either a Saxon raider or British defender. The Saxon is trying to conquer the British kingdom, but first he must build up his wealth and power by raiding the Britons. When he is strong enough, he may launch a conquest of the kingdom. Meanwhile, the Briton is trying to build up his prestige and wealth in order to stymie the invaders. The system seems to really give the flavor of the period.

I originally mentioned that I was looking for fantasy skirmish rules, so what would I do with a historical rules set? Not to worry, it seems that Dux Brit is convertible to different periods and even fantasy realms (at least those that are relatively realistic). There are at least a couple of bloggers (example) planning to use the campaign system for war games in Game of Thrones' Westeros. I may use it for a fantasy Imagi-nation.

Dux Bellorum

Published by Osprey, I purchased this set because:

• It was available on e-reader
• Osprey makes great books with cool color plates, which are included in this book
• As mentioned, I love the "Arthurian" period

The rules are really geared toward larger battles (with each base of ~ 6 figures representing 50 men). For my medieval project, I prefer individually mounted figures rather than multi-figure bases. Dux Bel can be played with individual figures, but it seems a bit fiddly.

The system of leadership points is interesting. Each army has a certain number of these points, which can be allocated to units, which make the unit easier to command, more inspired in battle, or more resolute in defense. Judicious use of leadership seems to be a key tactical component of this game.

The rules include scenario ideas, but no campaign.