Mitch's Wargaming and Modelmaking: Pictish Army for Dux Brit

Long ago, when the world was young, Two Fat Lardies promised a supplement for Dux Brit covering raiders from the Celtic fringes of Britain. This is going to cover Picts and Dalriadan Scots, plus possibly others (North British/Strathclyde Welsh?) hopefully with campaign and advancement rules, and the Game and Fate deck cards that will presumably be needed to capture the specific flavours of these other armies.

Well, the world's a bit older now and after a long period with no sign of the actual printed supplement, Lardie Rich has put a date of early 2014 on the release. I hear pennies being saved up!

However, what is reasonably clear and concrete is the form of the Pictish and Scots armies. So, you can assemble such a force and be ready to go as soon as you have the cards!

I don't suppose it's any great surprise to regular readers that I would LOVE to put a Pictish army into the field. Luckily, I have a bit of a head start with the WAB figures I've painted. Here's what it looks like:

Watch out, Aelle and Arthorius!

According to the TFL Yahoo site a Dux Brit Pictish army comprises:

One Level III noble with a champion and one (or two) Level II nobles

We're in charge!

Four units of six unarmoured/lightly armoured Raiders

The heavy mob!

One unit of four mounted Raiders

Too quick for you lot!

One unit of four missile troops

Yes, we WILL have somone's eye out!

One unit of four skirmishers

Can't catch us!

Things that stand out are that this is a fairly homogeneous army - all the Raiders count as warrior class troops. There are neither levy nor elite troops. It's pretty mobile, with three detached units.

Well, I already had the skirmishers, missile troops and cavalry, and the limited command section was quick enough with some of Gripping Beast's lovely selection. My raiders are assorted Pictish warriors from Gripping Beast, Black Tree Design and Newline Design, as described here.

Reinforcements are as follows:

1 Pack of War Hounds (No clues yet on numbers or how this works - be interesting to see!)

2 One (more) unit of four skirmishers (Got these!)

3 One (more) unit of six unarmoured Raiders

4. One unit of six Noble Raiders in armour (I can scratch these up from my various armoured Picts/Scots already. I guess these are the only elite/companion troops.)

Thus far only four reinforcement units have been designated, so far as I can tell, rather than the five that British or Saxons get.

Until the supplement materialises, there isn't a huge amount I can do with these other than look longingly.

Ready for a fight, anytime you feel like it...

Remember, these people are equally happy robbing, terrifying and brutalising anyone, so it's no good Aelle thinking he can sit back and laugh as they make Arthorius' life miserable, or for Arthorius to ignore them in the hope they will just concentrate on relieving Aelle of his ill-gotten gains.

Of course, the doomsday scenario for these guys is Alle and Arthorius deciding to gang up on them to get a minute of peace to fight one another without interruption from Points North. On the other hand, it's quite possible for either one of those two worthies to make a pact with the Picts to finish the other one off once and for all... Interesting times lie ahead, I would say!

This lot will give perfectly good service as a Scots SAGA force. The Scots are defined in the Northern Fury supplement. The difference between a Pictish army of (say) AD830 and a Scots one of (say) AD850 is really going to be in name only, so bring it on! With the addition of some more missile troops (to get a single point's worth of levy), here they are. First, as a four point warband, cutting down the number of warriors to 16 and adding a single point's worth of armoured hearthguard: