The Great Battles of Arthur Dux Bellorum

[Scarz]

The legendary King Arthur lives again! Following the departure of the Romans and the conquest of Britian by the Anglo-Saxons, Arthur fought twelve great battles in his quest to unite the Britons as recorded by Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae (1136 AD).

This is the first in a series of scenarios comprising eight of the great battles (some were redundant) and Arthur's final battle at Camlenn (as recorded in Annales Cambriae). I have tried to use the 'histroical' record, and thrown in a bit of the legand just to spice things up.

Most of the dark ages battles were fairly small affairs, and while I reduced them numbers of men in the formations, these battles are probably still much bigger than would have been. But in all its really as much fantasy as history so what the heck.

Also, for a neat campaign, you can play each of the great battles (scenarios) in order as Arthur. If you lose a battle, or Arthur is killed, you lose the campaign.

1. River Pure
http://cid-cf9c26a61c3ac0e9.skydrive.li ... MS%5E6.zip

2. Black Water (Updated 4/2/10)
http://cid-cf9c26a61c3ac0e9.skydrive.li ... MS%5E6.zip

[Toby42]

Haven't tried the scenario(s) yet, but I love the pic. Where did you get it???

[Scarz]

Haven't tried the scenario(s) yet, but I love the pic. Where did you get it???

I don't recall exactly, just off the net. I can send it to you if you like.

[Toby42]

Thanks, I was able to save the picture off of your post!!

[Scarz]

The next great battles.

Cambuslang

http://cid-cf9c26a61c3ac0e9.skydrive.li ... MS%5E6.zip

Celidon Coit

http://cid-cf9c26a61c3ac0e9.skydrive.li ... MS%5E6.zip

[john2412]

Great series of Battles to play. Look forward to the rest !

Thanks
John

[Scarz]

Great series of Battles to play. Look forward to the rest !

Thanks
John

Glad you enjoyed it, let me know if you see any balance issues or errors, thanks.

[omarquatar]

i've played River Pure in multiplayer mode with the east Anglians and won...so it seems Arthur's career has ended abruptly at his first battle...wondering what he was famous for...
only joking, thanks for the scanarios

[Scarz]

i've played River Pure in multiplayer mode with the east Anglians and won...so it seems Arthur's career has ended abruptly at his first battle...wondering what he was famous for...
only joking, thanks for the scanarios

lol, well maybe he was overrated. Glad you enjoyed it, and what are you doing playing the bad guys, your supposed to be leading Arthur to victory!

[Scarz]

Vinovium

http://cid-cf9c26a61c3ac0e9.skydrive.li ... MS%5E6.zip

Urbs Legionis

http://cid-cf9c26a61c3ac0e9.skydrive.li ... MS%5E6.zip

[john2412]

Scar

Played River Pure as Arthur and won that one with no great problem, then played Blackwater and in that one I lost ( it was very close but I did lose - Arthur was ok but many of his men were running away ) Its only the third game I have lost overall too so dents my record a little LOL

IF the AI was more logical in its moving of the units over the River I suspect its too weighted towards the saxons, but as it is it made some very odd moves and allowed me to attack various groups of enemiy units piecemeal and almost achieve the victory conditions. I will play it again and keep Arthurs forces closer together and hope the enemy over the river and behind do not move up too quickly.

John

[Scarz]

Scar

Played River Pure as Arthur and won that one with no great problem, then played Blackwater and in that one I lost ( it was very close but I did lose - Arthur was ok but many of his men were running away ) Its only the third game I have lost overall too so dents my record a little LOL

IF the AI was more logical in its moving of the units over the River I suspect its too weighted towards the saxons, but as it is it made some very odd moves and allowed me to attack various groups of enemiy units piecemeal and almost achieve the victory conditions. I will play it again and keep Arthurs forces closer together and hope the enemy over the river and behind do not move up too quickly.

John

Hi John:
Thanks for the comments. Please let me know the second time how it turns out. The AI is so terrible that it usually needs a big advantage to win, but that kills the potential for head to head play. I suspect that in Blackwater you can't let the enemy groups come togather, so Arthur must go after one group or the other. The AI might let you take on both, or hold one group off with a bit of cavalry, but a human opponent won't.

Scar

[omarquatar]

[ The AI is so terrible that it usually needs a big advantage to win, but that kills the potential for head to head play. I suspect that in Blackwater you can't let the enemy groups come togather, so Arthur must go after one group or the other. The AI might let you take on both, or hold one group off with a bit of cavalry, but a human opponent won't.

Scar

indeed, the game must be played in multiplayer mode to be appreciated, as the AI is very weak.
one question: aren't your scenarios a bit too little? a couple of bad dice throws may ruin a battle, as you can't recover from 2-3 routs.

[Scarz]

[ The AI is so terrible that it usually needs a big advantage to win, but that kills the potential for head to head play. I suspect that in Blackwater you can't let the enemy groups come togather, so Arthur must go after one group or the other. The AI might let you take on both, or hold one group off with a bit of cavalry, but a human opponent won't.

Scar

indeed, the game must be played in multiplayer mode to be appreciated, as the AI is very weak.
one question: aren't your scenarios a bit too little? a couple of bad dice throws may ruin a battle, as you can't recover from 2-3 routs.

I usually create bigger scenarios such as Zama and Rahpia, as I enjoy the bigger ones, and as you say there is more room for error. However, the smaller ones are nice too at times, and its very difficult to model this timeframe with large armies. I guess you could make the units 50 man, and then get more that way, but I am not sure if that would feel right either. From the stock scenarios, it seems anything under 30 units is considered low for complexity, and many of these Arthur ones are around 30 units and may not appeal to those of us that like a grand battle with tons of stuff to play with.

That said, some of the latter Arthur scenarios are much bigger, you might try Vinovium and coming soon, Bandon Hill or Camlann if you don't care too much for the little scenarios.

[Scarz]

The last of the battles as recorded by Geoffrey of Monmouth. Only Camlenn remains.

Tryfrwyd (Updated 4/4/10)

http://cid-cf9c26a61c3ac0e9.skydrive.li ... MS%5E6.zip

Badon Hill

http://cid-cf9c26a61c3ac0e9.skydrive.li ... MS%5E6.zip

[petergarnett]

One of Arthur's less well known sayings

[omarquatar]

I usually create bigger scenarios such as Zama and Rahpia, as I enjoy the bigger ones, and as you say there is more room for error.

i didn't mean error, i did mean bad dice
but how many warriors were in a war band? from 20 to 100? one surely could double the BGs in the tinier games

[john2412]

Hi John:
Thanks for the comments. Please let me know the second time how it turns out. The AI is so terrible that it usually needs a big advantage to win, but that kills the potential for head to head play. I suspect that in Blackwater you can't let the enemy groups come togather, so Arthur must go after one group or the other. The AI might let you take on both, or hold one group off with a bit of cavalry, but a human opponent won't.

Scar

Scar

Well I reran the battle, decided to go for the units across the river first and this time the AI sent the rest down en masse logically and they arrived before Arthur could deal with the first group, end result was a decisive defeat. ONLY good factor was that ONE of Arthurs archers units was holding off some 6 or so Javelin units of the enemy for a while !! My feeling is that maybe the infantry for Arthur is a bit light as they seem to get easily taken out whatever happens and only Arthurs cavalry can do any good.

John

[Scarz]

King Arthur"s Final Battle.

http://cid-cf9c26a61c3ac0e9.skydrive.li ... MS%5E6.zip

"that last weird battle in the west"

--Alfred, Lord Tennyson