The table after the Saxons' three deployment moves. |
That, apart from one other event of which more later, was pretty much all that went right for the Saxons, unfortunately.
Ecgwine's warriors follow the missile troops, just visible through the trees ahead of them. |
This is how it should have gone! |
And then, while taking the photo you're now admiring, I looked down at the top card on the activation deck, the one I'd just activated on...
"Saxon Leader Two."
Oh. Bother.
Saxon Leader Two isn't Leofric. It's Ecgwine, who is off traipsing merrily through the woods to the village.
This little British settlement won't know what hit it... |
His card was right at the bottom of the deck, of course. By which time, the rest of the Saxons are most of the way to the village, and Andy's had a chance to shuffle his Fate hand a bit. Never mind. The British are still in the marsh and not in shieldwall, so let's get stuck in!
I charge. Andy plays his newly acquired Step Forth card. I play mine. So Leofric gets to charge anyway, with 18 dice at 3+ against 23 at 4+ as before. Easy. We know how this goes.
Remember my appalling luck with dice when it matters? Yeah, that. The Saxons take a serious pounding in two rounds of combat, and recoil back, Leofric taking a wound and dishing one out in return. And my hearthguard are too far away to help.
So - shuffle the Activation deck, and off we went again. Andy's levy came through the gap between the woods and the hills, and then his Lord activated. And that, as they say, was pretty much that. Of the twelve warriors Leofric started with, he was down to either one or none, depending on the roll for a wound on him Easy enough. Three wounds on the group he was with, so two die and on 1-3 he takes another wound, 4-6 the last warrior in the group dies instead.
Theobald leaves the battlefield, bearing Leofric's body. |
There then ensued a rather spectacularly messy fight over about four activations. I charged Maximus Minimus and his Levy, and my dice, once again, suck. Even though he's in shieldwall, we're both hitting on 4+, I shock him on 2-4, kill him on 5-6, and he's shocking me on 4-5, killing on 6. And I lost the fight.
Andy pondering his next move. |
I don't have a lot of choice here, really: my only chance is really to activate Aelfric, rally off a point of shock, get the other group back into the fight and hope I can beat Maximus and the levy enough they run and I follow a bit further out of harm's way. It doesn't help that I'm on a Force Morale score of 2 right now.
So back in we go. And come out of the fight surprisingly well, considering. One group's on 5 figures and nine shock, and the other on 2 and... again... 3. And to add insult to injury, the damn British archers decide that it's their turn, and take potshots.
Remember my dice rolling?
Yeah. That again.
Two groups heading in opposite directions, having lost their amphora. Force Morale level? -1.
I always wanted to see what happens when you win a battle by 5+. Well, now I know.
I have to say? This was an absolute corker of a battle, even though I got absolutely mullared. Especially when you consider that Andy's first reaction on realising where he got to deploy was "well, this is a win for the Saxons, then." Hats off to Andy for a great win.
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