Laserburn Nostalgia - a trip back to the 80s

 

Time for a bit of nostalgic time-travelling.  When I was up in  Glasgow at Xmas my mum presented me with a box containing 6 x 15mm figures and some card templates which she'd found when clearing out a cupboard.  I was immediately transported back to 1981 and games of Laserburn which my friend David and I played a lot when we were at school.

The figures were produced specifically for the game: I know I had more than the 6 survivors as we had enough for 2 sides but these are all that remain.  They'd been painted... I say painted, it looked like I'd daubed some paint on with my fingers!  So it was off for a Dettol bath and a good scrub before getting repainted.

These are Imperial Guard, specifically Black Guard, and a couple of Imperial Officers.  Actually, once they'd been stripped and primed I was quite impressed with the detail, given that they're over 40 years old.

I'm pleased with how they've worked out... thank goodness for Contrast Paints which really picked out the details of the power armour.

The figures are still available from Alternative Armies, including their main enemies, the Red Redemptionists (which I'm pretty sure I had originally), as well as a range of other SF infantry, robots, aliens and adventurers.  There are also a selection of not-Judge Dredd figures.

Alternative Armies also publish the rules we used with the figures... Laserburn... which came out in 1980.  These are very much a proto-Warhammer 40k set of rules for individual figures.  The background fluff and weapons etc were all moved over into the 40k setting a couple of years later by the author, Bryan Ansell.

 

We played a lot of Laserburn with our limited supply of figures.  We didn't have any terrain but had a large roll of wallpaper lining paper which we would roll out, draw the battlefield and buildings and, when the game was done we'd tear it off and throw it away, ready to draw another one.  Looking back, this was such a fun, creative way to play.

The rules are very much of their time... just look at that typeface!  And lots of modifiers and tables.  But they were a great sandbox set of rules for creating scenarios and I'm keen to give them another go.  Some of the background fluff hasn't aged well... the Red Redemptionists are Islamic for example... but that's not a huge deal.  It's all about the nostalgia feel.  And of course I'll need some reinforcements.  I've been perusing the Alternative Armies website where there are some really good value sets so I suspect this may be an unexpected wormhole I'm heading into... and I've just seen a mention of a forthcoming ruleset from Osprey which would be a good alternative if Laserburn don't hold up after all these years: Xenos Rampant...

Dux Bellorum - 1st game

So having painted my Late Romans and dug out my Late Saxons masquerading as Early Saxons (and some Vikings... shh.. don't tell anyone), it was time to actually get them on the table.

The rules are Dux Bellorum from Osprey which are yet another great set in their blue book series of rules.  They are pretty simple to play but have a suitable Dark Age feel.  I've always felt battles in this period should really emphasise the influence of the individual Commanders and these rules reflect this really well with the use of Leadership Points (LPs).  These allow you to improve the chance of activating a unit, add dice to an attack, cancel hits and enable units to interrupt another units activation... all very useful and of course as the action heats up you don't have enough LPs to go round.  If a unit routs you also lose a LP and this shift in the balance of leadership can make a real difference.

Our battle pitched a Romano British force defending against some raiding Saxons.  As neither of had played before we went for a straightforward scenario without too much complicated terrain although in hindsight the river was a bit of a pain.

The Saxon Horde...

...and the British

The British have Shieldwall infantry which are less aggressive but harder to damage.  A legacy of their Roman training and discipline I guess.  Combined with the LPs allowing hits to be cancelled this can make them pretty tough to damage.  And of course the Brits have Cavalry.

The Saxons are all infantry and have the 'advantage' of an uncontrolled advance.  This means they can charge further  than the British Shieldwall and are more aggressive but they have to charge unless you can make them fail a Bravery test (handily the LPs can be used to help fail tests as well as passing them!).

The  neat lines at the start of the game broke up as the fighting started

The Britons had 3 skirmish units of archers vs my 1 Javelin armed unit.  I'd read people complain that skirmishers are very weak in these rules but the British archers were deadly, combining fire to cause lots of casualties.  To be fair I probably tried ignoring them for too long and should gave tried driving them off sooner.

A very messy fight at the river

Andrew, commanding the Britons, used his cavalry to try and turn my flank, forcing me to split my  warbands and it quickly became obvious that the fight at the river was going to be a sideshow with the battle being decided between the Cavalry and the Saxon warbands on my left flank.

The 2 Warlords slug it out

The fights became very scrappy with a lot of to and fro but the British Cavalry began to press hard and the Saxons units began to disappear, shedding Leadership Points in the process.  The cavalry was also pretty beaten up by this point and could have broken but some careful use of LPs by Andrew stopped me causing enough casualties and eventually the Saxons reached 50% losses and began to melt away from the table.

The rules were very impressive and felt just right for this period.  It was great to actually get my newly painted figures on the table and into action and I've just spotted that Gripping Beast have been previewing the artwork for their forthcoming Picts which would be a great addition.

Hold the front page!

In a piece of shock news I've actually painted something!!!

For months now I've really struggled to get motivated to paint but a rare moment of determination has resulted in me painting a box of Gripping Beast Late Romans as part of my Arthurian project.

I knew I'd already made a start on this project but when I checked I discovered it was over a year since I'd painted up some cavalry!

I've splashed out on a copy of Dux Bellorum which look like an excellent set of rules and my Saxons and Vikings will masquerade as Early Saxons and Britons (just don't look too closely!).  I reckon one hairy Dark Age warrior looks pretty much like another... I know the Vikings don't quite gel but in a crowd they should pass muster.

The Romano-Brits will even get an outing in a game in a couple of weeks... of course, as new figures they're doomed to lose!!

Very satisfying to actually have got something painted again after a long lay-off.