A Tribute to Mad Lemmy

[toxicpixie]

Sounds like a "they're full of skirmishers/light troops and those aren't any good, so we better give them a load of specials to make up for it" when they're actually already pretty balanced?

[Leman]

Thing is, I don't see a chariot being taken overseas on a raid.

[toxicpixie]

Kind of hard to fit in a coracle! Mind so's a horse...

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Great poster Dan!
Irish do sound a bit 'broken'. Can't a handily dug pit be placed in front of that general?

[Leman]

I assume raiders would pick up horses on their first raid, but I associate Irish chariots with the warfare at home between the Irish tribes.

[Last Hussar]

I take it these are the Lardie rules (I've only seen DB referred to - and there are 2 sets of Early Medieval rules with those initials).

The problem with rule sets is that its very hard to create the real world consistently.  A v B works fine, but every extra army/troop type just complicates things by a greater factor than the number of things added (I am fully aware that we all know this!).  Plus it often defies expectation

A beats B
B beats C
so
A always beats C?

Um no.

War is an art as much as a science, and while there are good real world reasons A>B>C>A, because we have to provide all the physics its easy for loopholes to occur.

[toxicpixie]

Yeah, rules balancing is always tricky. I tinker with a few bits & bobs of rules writing & amendments and I can never satisfy myself either with my own rules or other peoples!

Dux Bellorum sounds good - the Irish Question is the first hint I've seen of misbalance so I'm intrigued more than I should be, I think!

[toxicpixie]

Hang on, I think I'm confusing my systems there - it's Dux *Britanarium* you're playing isn't it?! Think I've only heard decent things about both?!

[DanJ]

Hang on, I think I'm confusing my systems there - it's Dux *Britanarium* you're playing isn't it?!

Yes it's Dux Britaniarum by Toofatlardies.

I played a small campaign with Saxons which ran to two campaign years with Saxons vs British, the games were pretty close and well balanced.

It's the new Raiders Supliment which is giving us issues.  I can see the reasons behind the new factions and rules and historically the raider nations caused a lot of problems but from a game balance perspective the original British and Saxons only recruit a unit of skirmishers after winning a game by a margin of +6 or 7 which is very hard.  The British can upgrade a few troops to shock cavalry which are useful but then need fortune (and good cards) to catch the raiders. 

All in all the games now seems slightly out of balance but the Irish Warlord seems to add an extra advantage which none of the other factions enjoy.

[Last Hussar]

I'm going to use (GW) Uruk Hai v Rohan.

Now I'm thinking  Uruks as Raiders/Saxons- yes?  But they have the big shields, so shield wall better?  Nor have Rohan with the shield wall.

[DanJ]

In DB only the British have the ability to use shield wall.

The rules state "The Shieldwall is a close order defensive formation of two or more Groups. This is only available to Foot Soldiers and, in this period, only to British forces as the Saxons are lightly armed raiders who fight with smaller buckler style shields".

This seems reasonable and certainly makes for an interesting dynamic between British and Saxons.  All the new raiders armies can't use shield wall either which helps the British survivability but makes them slow to manouver.

[DanJ]

The Official Annals of North Reged - Continued

In the sixth month of the year of our Lord 580 the land of Northern 'Graveyard of the Barbarians' Rheged
lay basking in the summer sun; crops were ripening, livestock fattening and the people prospered under the
protection of the Lord Lemarius (known with affection as 'The Insane')

Into this bucolic ideal swept the Irish, intent on despoiling the lands and people.  Avoiding the watchful eyes of Lemarius's border tower the barbarians grounded their roll-on-roll-off coracles on the beaches of Tunnocellum and after unloading their chief's anachronistic chariot rolled inland towards the peaks and summer pastures of the high fells.

Intent on committing foul mischief, despicable crimes and mortal sins the Irish decided to raid the prosperous Hamlet of Shapistum high in the valleys of the Eastern Mountains. 

Fortunately for the innocent inhabitants Lemmarius was warned of the Irish's arrival and took his war band to contest their progress.  Fortune and the hot summer sun, smiled on Lemmarius and moving through secret ways and tracks, guided by the men of Shapistum, he arrived at that village as the unwashed sweated and struggled up to the valley.

IRISH CAVALRY



On arriving before the village the Irish were dismayed to find the vanguard of Lemmarius's warband already in the village.  As the hairy barbarians struggled forward in the heat Lemmarius himself arrived with his elite cavalry, bowmen, skirmishers and a good turn out from the village levy.

Although Lemarius found it difficult to deploy his men in the close terrain around the village the Irish were downcast by the size of his warband, their holiness, their cleanliness and the tightness of their shield wall.  After a few desultory exchanges between the skirmishers on both sides the Irish decided they faced certain defeat and took to their heals, running pelmel and helter skelter back to their coracles which they launched in great haste and paddled swiftly away looking for easier pickings.

The men of Shapistum, although poor were so grateful for their salvation that they offered Lemarius what little they had and gifted the victorious warlord a small bowl of treasure which the Lord Lemmarius graciously received and vowed to use for the welfare of all by investing it in another watch tower to guard the borders of Northern Reged

And so as the heat of the day abated the men of Shapistum returned rejoicing to their peaceful toil and Lemmarius returned victorious to his hall.

ALMOST THE FULL IRISH WARBAND



Translation (What actually happened)

Matt decided to raid the province of Tunnocellum, thereby avoiding my watch tower in Caer Ligualid.  However Tunnocellum is the Lake District and the terrain was particularly dense, two mountains, two forests, a wood and a couple of other minor bits and pieces.

The scenario was the village raid and the village turned out to be in the shadow of one of the mountains and close by two of the forests, it was immediately christened Shap.  The weather was a heat wave which removed the 'Bounding Move' and 'Fleet of Foot' cards from the Fate Deck.

Matt rolled a 1 for his set up and only had one turn before I arrived; rolling for my arrival point I ended up in the village!  In the first turn my warriors arrived and moved to guard the only feasible approach to the village from Matt's deployment zone.  In the second turn the rest of my force arrived and with three units of Levy in the village, the cavalry trying to manoeuvre between the rear of the warriors and the village and the bowmen only moving 4" and getting in the way of everyone things were getting very crowded.  Only my skirmishers deploying to take on Matt's skirmishers did anything.

After another turn or two Matt decided he couldn't achieve a scenario victory and decided to pull back, I was happy to accept a 1 point victory as I couldn't see a way of deploying to achieve anything of note.

At this point we decided to play on to see what might have happened and I was very glad Matt had decided to withdraw when he did, his cavalry charge achieved little in the confined area available and he bounced off my cavalry.  However before I could reply (and I had a full hand of cards which should have seen me destroy his cavalry in 1 charge the massed raider infantry attacked my warriors who, despite being in shield wall and braced were substantially out diced with one of the infantry units breaking through the woods to catch my cavalry in the flank.

In a couple of turns I lost my shock cavalry, Lord (wounded twice) and two units of warriors.  Force Morale tumbled after three poor dice rolls and everything else ran away. 

The obvious moral of this tale being 'if you've got raiders, get stuck in'.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Lovely looking forces Dan, and another great report.

[Last Hussar]

So. Are you dead yet? 

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

No, keep your fingers crossed mate!