Dux Bellorum...Punic Wars?

I really like the Dux Bellorum systems, a DBA-esque game but with a level of tactical complexity due to the leadership point mechanism that makes it far more satisfying to play. It is really straight forward and easy to play and my 11 year old son picked it up really quickly so am keen to use it to get him into a bit of historic gaming. So last night I used the Extra Impetvs IV Carthaginian army list as a template to make a Carthaginian list for Dux Bellorum. It needs a bit of tweaking no doubt but this should work as a starting point .

Carthaginian List

Number allowed	Unit Type	Move	Bravery	Aggression (& missiles)	Prot	Cohesion	Notes	Army Points
1	Foot or mounted Companions	2	10	6	6	6		5
0-2	FP Veteran Spearmen	2	9	4	6	4		5
1-6	FP Libyan spearmen	2	7	3	6	4		3
0-6	FL Spanish Scutarii	3	8 (6 for morale)	4 (2 with javelin)	4	5	2 BW range	3
0-2	FL Veteran Gallic Warriors (Warband)	2	9	6	5	6	Uncontrolled 3 BW charge	5
0-6	FL Gallic Warband	2	7	5	5	5	Uncontrolled 3 BW charge	3
0-2	Elephants	2	8	1 (1 javelin, 3 bw)	6 (5 vs skirmishers/foot)	5	+1 charging Mounted troops fight at -1 vs elephants	6 with bow 5 javelin
1-4	CL Numidian or Spanish Cav (mounted skirmishers)	4	8 (6 for morale)	2 (1 with javelin)	4	2	2 BW range, fire in any direction	2
1-2	CM Spanish  Cavalry (ordinary Cav)	4	7	4	5	4		3
0-2	CM Punic Cavalry (Ordinary  riders)	4	7	4	5	4		3
0-1	Punic Noble Cav	4	9	5	5	5		5
0-4	Numidian or Spanish skirmishers	3	8 (6 for morale)	1 (2 with javelin)	4	2	2 BW range	1

We will try it out and see how it goes

Craig

Impetvs- Carthaginians and Celts

Work continues  (slowly) on my Carthaginian and Celt armies. Last night I painted up two stands of Spanish skirmishers (Caetrati) to finish off the 400 pt Carthaginian army and over Easter managed to paint up a couple of stands of armoured Celts to act as my heavy foot soldurii (VBU 6) in my Celtic army. These will be the heavy hitters and unlike the rest of the force are FP so somewhat slower on the tabletop. I was a bit ambivalent about the BTD Celt sculpts (though I do love the Germans)  but painted up they look fine and will add a few more as my warband grows. I now have 18 stands of Celtic Warband done so the army is getting to be a decent size and can easily make 500 + points. I need to paint up another 4 stands of rear rank warband and also 2 stands of Javelin armed skirmishers, overall though the army is getting there.

 400 pt Carthaginian Army

Command structure good

Commander: Fair (+2)

1x FP Veterans (Gen)

1x FP Libyans

2x FL Veteran Gallic Warriors

2x CL Numidian Cav

2x S Numidians

           

Commander: Fair (+2)

1x FP Veterans (Gen)

1x FP Libyans

2x CM Spanish  Cavalry

2x FL Spanish Scutarii

2x S Spanish Caetrati

At 500 pts I simply add 2x Carthaginian Vet cavalry and 2x elephants. Done

 

My latest 400 pt Celtic army is:

 Commander: Fair (+2)

2x CM Cavalry 

1x FL  Vet Warriors-large (Gen)

1x FL  Vet Warriors-large VBU 5

2x FL Warriors- rear rank

2x FL Warriors

2x S Javelinmen

           

Commander: Fair (+2)

2x CM Cavalry  

2x FP Soldurii (Gen)

2x FP rear rank (regular warriors)

2x FL  Vet Warriors-large VBU 5

2x FL Warriors- rear rank

2x FL Warriors

3x S Javelinmen

 Below: Warband (left) and Soldurii (right). There is quite a difference in size between the Foundry Celts (the three figures in the front rank on the left base) and the BTD armoured Celts (right). Both fit with the plastic Celts from Warlord though- the Foundry being slightly shorter and the BTD a bit taller and definitely chunkier. The general figure is Warlord Games metal and fits better with the BTD range, overall though as long as Foundry and BTD figures are on separate bases the difference isn't too bad and not enough to worry about.

Thoughts on using Warband armies in Impetvs

I really enjoy using the Celts and my Ancient German warband armies in Impetvs. They are unpredictable and hard to manage, and timing of the charge is everything so they take a bit of getting used to. Much more fun to use than the oh so predictable Roman Legionnaires.   The German especially suffer at the hands of the Imperial Romans whose interleaved auxillia cancel the Germans one ace, their Impetvs bonus, but even so they make for challenging and fun games.

With my Celtic/Gallic/Galatian army the smaller warbands act to protect the flanks and fill any gaps that emerge while the large warbands, operating in pairs, do the heavy lifting. I have found the key to their success is holding the warbands back on opportunity for a turn or two to see what develops. I tend to lead with a skirmisher screen of javelins and possibly cavalry to disrupt the enemy line before releasing the warband and then tryng to get into contact with the Impetvs bonus intact. Not exactly rocket science when it comes to tactics and cunning with this lot.

One thing I do want to experiment with is more FP for the Celts, being slower they won’t race off quite as quickly, but of course it means that they cannot dominate the bad going to the same degree. 

Craig