Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Bacaudae Insipiration

My Bacaudae project is unusual that the original inspiration was a single picture; this one:



It's by Angus McBride from Tim Newark's book Medieval Warlords.

I looked up "bacaudae" and found to my great surprise that much of what is now Brittany was, for several decades in the fifth century, effectively independent of the Roman Empire.  It's not clear whether the bacaudae were proletarian revolutionaries or petit bourgeois tenants of Roman absentee landlords trying to retain the existing social order in a chaotic world but either way I could envisage an interesting setting for skirmish wargames.

This all sat in abeyance for many years until serendipity decided I was to be given a kick up the pants.  Within a couple of months I'd discovered Lion Rampant and found myself at Vapnartak where the bring-and-buy included some cheap Arthurians and a trader was selling another inspiring Newark and McBride book.  The Barbarians - Warriors and Wars of the Dark Ages gave me two more pictures:



Well after this one and the previous picture I knew I'd need a Roman villa to be a centrepiece of any Bacaudae-oriented game...



... and the fact that the central Roman government was handing out (already settled and civilised) land to any barbarian who would fight for them suggested any number of interesting plots.

And so one of this year's Christmas games will feature a civitas (basically a villa and associated farming settlement) in eastern Armorica beset by multiple claimants to ownership, wandering mercenaries and a fair amount of religious disputation.

Pics to follow roundabout New Years Eve!

2 comments:

tradgardmastare said...

Most interesting,I look forward to hearing and seeing more.

Counterpane said...

Thanks for commenting Tradgardmastare. I'll try to remember to take plenty of photos at Christmas.