River or stream?

After playing a bit of 10mm Dark Ages recently I decided I needed a river.
mainly because most Dark Age battles feature rivers in some way shape or form. Probably because water features provided naturally boundaries between territories so were inevitably the place where armies clashed as expansionist Warlords came into conflict.

Anyway, a rummage round in the loft unearthed a resin river set I have a dim recollection of buying many moons ago for games of Warmaster.
these bits are actually the narrower pieces from the set, and may originally have been intended as a stream fro 28mm games.

 Sample layouts

 The full set

Some rough drybrushing and the liberal application of flock and shiny gloss varnish and I have something for my Dux Bellorum forces to paddle across.

Dux Bellorum Late Romans v Saxons

Having finished painting some of the lovely 10mm Pendraken Late Romans recently I thought it time to give them a run out on the table. So I set up a solo game.
I did consider another trial of One Hour Wargames, but in the end decided I'd rather play Dux Bellorum and I had the time to do so.
I used the Saxon force from the campaign I began many months ago, and diced up a Romano British type force to oppose them.
The Saxons had seven units, the Companions, two units of nobles and four units of warriors. Their Romano British opponents had Companions, noble shieldwall, ordinary riders and three units of shieldwall. Both armies had an extra LP.

I decided on a basic annals battle and used some blinds to lay out the Romans and then gave them all a free move forward.

The game unfolded with both sides pushing forward and the Romano British occupied a hill on their left with a group of three shieldwall. Their right saw the companions and nobles also push forward whilst the cavalry, who had begun by shielding the left flank pulled across toward the centre to support them.

The main Saxon strength lay in the centre with two small units forcing their way through the woods whilst a larger mixed group held the right.

As the lines closed the Saxons moved to encircle the smaller group of Romano British warriors on their left. The Roman cavalry bravely moved to force the Saxon Companions to break ranks and charge them instead of the more inviting infantry target. On the Saxon right a stand off developed as the warriors opted to stay away from being forced to charge a shiledwall on the hill.

As the lines clashed one of the Romano British units on the hill hurled itself into the Saxon companions in support of the riders.

The battle now degenerated into something of a grind. The Romano British nobility braved the wild charges of the Saxons and held their ground, but were unable to make much impression in return.

Over by the hill a further large fight broke out as warriors and shieldwall alike were drawn into the combat.

The Romano British riders left the Saxons companions locked in combat with the shieldwall and instead added their attacks in support of their leader.
Whilst the fight by the hill ground on, with first one side, then the other gaining a slight advantage.

Finally the Romano forces gained the upper hand on the Saxon left, eliminating a unit of warriors and allowing the Companions to begin rolling up the flank.

With their enemies being eliminated the riders were able to throw themselves into the rear of one of the warrior units by the hill, tipping the balance in that area.

With the extra numbers now free to join the battle by the hill and LPs in short supply the number was up for the Saxons and they melted away.
This part of Britannia remains Saxon free for a while longer.


I had fun getting the toys out, and it scratched a growing Dark Ages itch. I'd forgotten the rather grinding nature of games of Dux Bellorum, and it was late before I remembered some of the tactics of throwing numbers at units near to collapse. Once a unit or two has gone the impact on LPs means the game rapidly races to a conclusion. It feels like a plausible simulation of Dark Age warfare - a bit of jockeying for position, followed by a long shieldwall huff and puff before the dam starts to break...

I am now eyeing (once again) the part finished Musketeer Late Romans and thinking if I get those finished maybe I can persuade Steve or General B to give the game and period a go.

Pendraken Late Roman Cavalry

Finished off three stands of 10mm Pendraken Late Roman cavalry to add to my Dux Bellorum forces.
These will be Ordinary Riders in the rules.

Wee Saxon Cavalry

A couple of stands of Magister Militum 10mm Saxon cavalry.
Yes I know the jury is at best "divided" on the existence/use of cavalry by the Saxons. Divided in the sense that the majority of people don't think they had any. However the Dux Bellorum rules allow you to have some. As did the Warmaster rules. As did the WAB Shieldwall rules and as this army started off as an attempt to recreate my 28mm WAB army for 10MM Warmaster I have had a bag of these lying around for years and they've been on the painting stick for at least a couple of years.

As a break from NWF I painted them up this weekend.
I feel the urge to play some Dark Age stuff soon so have added a few Pendraken Late Romans to the painting queue in an attempt to finish/restart my Dux Bellorum in 10mm project and campaign. Or possibly for another game of One Hour Wargames.
They're actually not terribly good models (the Pendraken Romans are much nicer) and they're for the later Saxon period - I think they're supposed to be Huscarls with big Dane Axes and large shields - but I don't care - they're done and at this scale no-one will ever notice. Two units is at least one unit larger than I'm really likely to use - and probably two units larger most of the time.

As a final indignity, just as the static grass was drying I found a bag of 40mmx30mm bases, which is what Dux Bell cavalry at this scale are *supposed* to be based on. Oh well, at least the Late Romans will be on the correct size.

Unarmoured 10mm Pendraken Late Romans

Some progress on the wee fellas.

I painted these in much the same way as in the 10mm Late Roman Step-by Step guide I produced earlier this year.

Nice and easy to paint (though the close ups show the bits I've missed!)

Some command units next.

Wee Saxon Companions for Dux Bellorum

Finally finished the foot companions for my 10mm Saxon army for games of Dux Bellorum.

To tie them together and help distinguish from the other Nobles I used a consistent red and black on the shields. I even tried for a raven/eagle design on the leader's shield.

Pendraken models, nice enough but not as jolly or easy to paint as the Late Romans.

This army is now finished (though I have some cavalry in the painting queue), so I'll try and get some army shots done.

How to Paint Pendraken 10mm Late Romans

Here's how I went about painting the Pendraken Late Romans I picked up at Hammerhead.

I started by cleaning the models up a bit which didn't take long as they were all clear, crisp castings with minimal flash.
I then glued them all onto coffee stirrers with superglue. I'm painting three stands each of eight models, 24 in total, so glued them six to a stick on four sticks to make it easier to paint them.

As these models are mostly armoured I sprayed them with black paint (Boyes).

They were then drybrushed all over with GW Chainmail and helmets and spear tips picked out.

From there I started on basic colours. Just aiming for neatness. And not worrying too much about bits that are hard to reach. At this scale if its hard to reach it'll be hard to see, so just let the black undercoat act as shadow.

 Tallarn Flesh

 Deneb Stone

 Snakebite Leather

 Scorched Brown Trousers

Bestial Brown Trousers

Yellow Shields and Red scabbards

Then I added some GW washes.

I then went back and gave a few highlights to the cloth. Just a light flick with the brush tip in most cases.

The shields are the focal point of the miniature. So I gave them some extra highlighting with Sunburst Yellow.
Then I painted on the design with Mordian Blue. Then a central highlight of enchanted blue and finally some Enchanted Blue mixed with Skull White

From there they were separated from the coffee stirrers and then glued to the Warmaster bases.

Next the base was covered with watered down PVA and dipped in sand

I then added some thinned Brown Ink to the base.

When that was dry I overbrushed with Vomit Brown.

And then drybrushed with Bleached Bone.

Finally I painted on some patches of watered down PVA and then dunked the base in static grass.

Big Close Up

Unit shots