Blog Revival and The Last of the Romans

Oh boy, it's been quite some time.

A really long time.

I don't really have any good excuses, other than a long sabbatical from modern wargaming. I'm not sure if this happens to anyone else, but I will occasionally go through periods of burnout in the hobby where I just can't get excited for whatever I happen to be working on at the time. This most recent occurrence, which lines up with my last post until this time last year represents the longest period of inactivity since I started wargaming. It's not that I left the hobby, I still visited all the blogs and forums multiple times a day and listened to multiple wargaming podcasts, but I continued to be uninspired to create my own armies and terrain for quite some time. 

That is, until I stumbled across Footsore Miniatures at Fall In in November of 2016 and decided to actually stop and look at Bill Thornhill's fantastic Dark Age miniatures. I had no intention of buying anything, but upon seeing his incredibly characterful and beautifully painted Late Romans and Early Saxons, I promptly dropped over one hundred dollars on a pile of Romans with the intention of finally starting a force for Dux Britanniarum by Too Fat Lardies. I bought the rules set and the Raiders Supplement way back when they were released and I fell in love with the campaign system, even before I fell in love with the period. I decided to just pull the trigger and picked up enough for a Romano-British starting force and it was the first time I'd been excited to paint miniatures and build terrain in a long time.

Naturally, being the smart gamer that I am, I decided to look into the period and see how I could make my new purchases serve a multi-purpose role and I stumbled upon the Domain of Soissons. I have to admit, the idea of expanding Dux Brit in a different setting sounded very appealing to me. Isolated Romans defending their lands from the Franks, former staunch allies and now enemies. It just fit so well with the period and the rule set. Unfortunately, I was not satisfied with the offerings for Merovingian Franks in 28mm so I would have to either substitute or settle. Again, being a smart gamer, I decided to do neither. I proceeded to butcher some of my recently purchased Romans and turn them into Franks, complete with their signature hair styles and mustaches. Many of my attempts look just awful up close, but I'm pretty pleased with them at arm's length. Below is some of my work  along with some conversions for you to poke fun at.

And the Franks

I ended up speaking with Bill Thornhill at Historicon 2017 about my dark designs for his beautiful miniatures and he, strangely enough, encouraged me. His enthusiasm for the period and the hobby encouraged me further and I will always be grateful for his input. He also was kind enough to provide me with separate heads that he uses for his sculpts so that I may convert my guys a little easier. If you didn't know already, Bill is a pretty good dude and a true asset to our shared hobby.

I also set about converting Dux Brit to the new setting. For the most part, it was just taking the bits that suited the conflict. As such, the Romans are a slight variation from the official Romano-British forces and the Franks are essentially a combination of the Romano-British and the Saxons, as I expect the forces would be more similar on the continent. I also have created a Visigoth force from scratch, but using troop types from the official rules to maintain consistency and balance. I've constructed new campaign progression systems and added new game-play mechanics to give the new forces character that I feel fits the period and what little we know about the factions involved, added a new scenario that fits the warfare of the period, and created a terrain guide for the different regions of the Domain of Soissons. This project is by no means done, but at 40+ pages, I think it's well on its way.

Anyway, I've been rambling for a while, but I felt like an explanation and introduction were in order.

I will be posting the introduction for the Campaign supplement, The Last of the Romans soon.