Arthur and Beyond: Sub-Roman
British Armies in DBA

By Dan Mersey

Our Subject is the Sub-Roman British, the romanized Celts of Britain left after the withdrawal of the Roman legions to defend their society against incursions by the barbarian Saxons, Scots-Irish, Picts, Vikings and Welsh. This is the army of the mytho-historical King Arthur.

Composition

The elements allowed, and my interpretation of the troops which comprise a sub-Roman British army, are as follows:


3x 3Cv	These represent the full time teulu of a sub-Roman chieftain or king, and may have been well armed and armoured, with javelins and shields, and maybe helmets, body armour and swords.
1x 3Kn or 2LH	The Kn are the most effective, but also historically dubious, element of the sub-Roman army. They may be used to represent heavily armoured cavalry early in the period, but from about AD450, the LH are a better historical bet. I can't see many players wishing to leave out that one killer element though!
4x 3Aux	These represent either town and countryside militias early in the period, and the common spearmen of later armies. Although being similarly equipped to their Germanic counterparts, the Britons are often assumed to have been poorer warriors - hence their appearance as Aux instead of Wb or Sp.
2x 3Aux or 3/4 Wb	These are the less Romanised warriors of highland Britain, fighting either as fierce Celtic warbands, or as warriors equipped to fight in their natural rough terrain.
2x 2Ps	The British light troops may have used slings, javelins or bows.

Enemies

Scots-Irish (#61), Caledonian/Pict (#67), Early Saxon, Frisan, Suevi, Bavarian, or Thuringian (#75a), Middle Anglo-Saxon (#75b), Sub-Roman British (#82), Welsh (#92), Viking (#106a), Pre-Feudal Scots (#111).

Tactics

Arthur's Knights The sub-Roman British have a good, if lightweight, mixture of troop types; compared to some of the historical opponents (such as Saxons or Vikings), the British are manoeuvrable and fast, but suffer from lacking a killer element (except the single Kn option).

Your best bet for organising your army is to mimic the believed tactics of the Britons themselves (who says DBA isn't realistic?!): Place your cavalry as a front line, and your Infantry as a solid wall behind them, trying to win the battle using the strengths of the cavalry (or rather, without using the weaknesses of the Aux.). My own preferred tactic is to pin down your enemy's main line with your cavalry, and try to outflank them using the weaker (but fast) Aux or Ps.

The sub-Romans are not really one of those every one's a winner armies; they do stand a good chance against most opponents though, especially with that little bit of luck from the dice or from your opposite player. The trick of them is to try to avoid exposing too many of your Aux to enemy elements (especially Wb or Bd), or to keep them in advantageous rough terrain. Luckily for my opponent, I don't usually manage this myself.

Camp

Depending on the location and time setting of your sub-Roman British army, the most suitable camps should be either a re-occupied hillfort (with a stone or wooden rampart; much less complex in design than Iron Age hillforts), or a dilapidated walled town.

Resources

Many books have been written on the times of Arthur; there are also a few websites. The most useful resources are:

Early British Kingdoms Website (D. Ford): a good basic history and genealogy website for the sub-Roman British peoples. especially useful for providing a few of the primary sources and lists of each kingdoms (supposed) rulers.
Arthur's Britain (L. Alcock): Probably still the definitive study of the sub-Roman Britons and their enemies. Many other books have been written on this period, but in my opinion, Alcocks is still the best.
Glutter of Ravens (D. Mersey): Beyond being a little advert (!), I really hope that this will be of interest to wargamers. The first half contains a set of DBA compatible rules; the second half is of generic use, and contains about thirty pages of information on British armies of the period AD400-700.
Britannia (D. Shadrake): This is the website of a sub-Roman re-enactment society. There are good write ups on the Britons and their enemies, all accompanied by some really useful photos.

About the Author

Dan Mersey has a degree in Archaeology and is a Contributing Editor to The Castles of Wales website. E-mail: danielmersey@yahoo.com.

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My thanks to Dan Mersey for this outstanding contribution. Comments, questions or suggested additions to this page can be sent to Chris Brantley, IamFanaticus@gmail.com.

Last Updated: June 15, 1999

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