Dux Bellorum Rules: first game

We played our first game using the draft version of Dux Bellorum last night. Saxons v Sub-Roman British. We kept things simple so didn't use any special rules.

The game was great and all done in under 2 hours despite lots of looking in the rules to clarify things. I expect we got a few things wrong but overall the game was cracking.

The rules are due for publication in August, from Osprey. I already have a set on pre-order.

Cheers
Steve

Comments

  1. Dux Bellorum seems to be very interesting! Any pictures from your game?

    Best regards dalauppror

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  2. Do they play in a similar way to Saga mate? Or is it more of the traditional look to sturdy units of [probaly psychotic :)]warriors?

    Darrell.

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  3. Hi Darrell. Don't want to give toouch away as they aren't published until August. Nothing like Saga though. Element bases and measurement in base widths. You could use small bases like in DBA or big ones like in Impetus, or something in between. The game is a streamlined and updated version of "Glutter of Ravens". Armies are purchased from a list, points can also be spent on increasing leadership and on a variety of special rules to upgrade the army in some way. Armies seem to work out at 8-10 elements but this could be more if you deliberately choose lots of poor quality troops with a bog-standard warlord.

    Cheers
    Steve

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  4. Hi Steve

    In "Glutter of Ravens" you had 3 different stats to keep trak for each unit/base. Lots of markers on the gaming table or a record at the side which was not optimal...

    In Dux Bellorum it seems like they cut it donw to 2 stats, but in the playtest pictures I have seen a lot of dices and gems to keep track... look very clutter...is there any other ways to show the units stats sugested in the rules? Or have they solved it in any other way?

    I understand fully if you not allowed to tell...I´m just curious as "Glutter of Ravens" realy had some god ideeas in them.

    Best regards Dalauppror

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  5. Each unit needs to have its cohesion (strength) tracked. This is what the dice are for in the pictures. As my bases are bigger I instead use casualty rings on a broken spear - removing them as the unit's cohesion deteriorates.

    The gems represent leadership points which are allocated to units each turn - I use glass beads - You only get a limited number of these and part of the fun of the game is deciding who to give them to and how to use them best as thay can affect movement, attacking and defending.


    This is much more streamlined than GoR! No paperwork to keep track of.

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  6. Thanks Steve for the explenation, sound like they fixed some things up.

    Did.t realy like the ring idee at first BUT now I realy see that it can come in handy:)

    The allocation of the leadership points sounds as a interesting gaming mechanism.

    Will defenetly try them out, then released in August.

    best regards dalauppror

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  7. I´m going also to wait, it sounds really interesting, and I like a lot the period.

    Thank you very much for the information.

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