Battle Report - 28 Jan 2013 - Dux Britanniarum

Andy's gorgeous wagon train.

You know how it goes by now - place terrain, roll for the scenario. I won the roll off, and got to place two big woods and a hill down the middle of the table, rather hoping I'd roll for something that made them an impendiment to Andy's forces. It sort of worked: the wagon train scenario puts the British levy in a fort at one end of the table and the rest escorting wagons from the other end of the table. The Saxons get to start on one side, but the Britons get d3 moves first, before they find out which side the Saxons come on.

"If you go down to the woods today..."

I worried a bit, because it seemed I could lose out quite badly, as there was a tempting gap between the trees for Andy to duck through if he rolled well enough and then I had a 50/50 chance of winding up the wrong side. As it turned out, he only got two turns, and I wound up on the 2' of table edge to the right of his starting position, with some of his force the wrong side of the slow moving wagon train.

Next roll, how many groups come on in my first move. 

One. Phooey.

My hearthguard (wolf banner) about to turn onto a
very tempting flank.

Oh well. Better be the hearthguard, then. Aelfric, Godric and half a dozen elites activated quite late in the turn, advanced just enough to be intimidating. Andy turned his warriors and levy to face, leaving a gap between them and a patch of rocky ground that was just wide enough for me, without requiring me to pass through their zone of control. So I took it, rolled well, and made it to the middle wagon, who, wisely deciding that a tall Saxon with his spear levelled at you is always right, decided he'd go my way. 

Next turn my Lord's card came up early, and the unit that just nipped through the gap was behind the flank of that formation of warriors and levy... and I had a Carpe Diem card, which means it's a flank attack. For once, my dice didn't desert me, and one of the two groups... I think the best word is disintegrated. [As an aside: I think we messed up the rules a bit here, so will be asking the Oracle!]

My hearthguard leg it.

Things got a bit interesting about then - I managed to deploy the rest of my groups, and then Andy's Lord peeled off a unit of hearthguard off his big formation and waded in on my elites, with a decent hand. Two rounds of combat and half my hearthguard (and my Lord and his champion) were headed for the edge of the table. Fortunately, they didn't make it all the way there, before turning to flee to a somewhat further away friendly edge.

Meanwhile, Andy had backed his remaining unit away from the big group of hearthguard and warriors threatening it. So Ecgwine and a unit of warriors decided to follow, after a glance over their shoulders to where Maximus Minimus was making a good legionary pace out of the fort. The resulting scrap in the wood forced the Britons back a bit further. 

Next up, or close to it, I get to activate Aelfric, my Lord, who's obviously got to part company from the fleeing heartguard. Not that it matters, since he's got three activations. So. Activation one. Draw a card, just because I'm one short and it might be useful. (It isn't.) Activation two: realise I'm well within command radius of the big block of warriors and remaining hearthguard facing off the British hearthguard. Order them in!

Andy has an Evade card, so his hearthguard scoot backwards out of the fight, leaving me to wade in on the rest of the British. My dice almost let me down in the first round, but finally Andy's (for once) desert him, he loses the fight by 3 kills and falls back.

Ecgwine (on the right) has just pushed through the woods
and cleared out another unit of Britons.

Oh - nearly forgot - activation three, move Aelfric and Godric away from the unit that's lost its amphora!

Ecgwine follows up through the woods, hits the retreating unit again. It loses its amphora. Somewhere not long after that, Andy, perhaps wisely, decides to call it a day. I, being well aware that I'm here for the wagons, not to kill British (though I have killed quite a few), elect to let him.

A look at the table layout, with the fort at the top,
and the Saxons original deployment edge bottom right.

End result, a +4 win to me. A Thief's Hoard of loot, a month's uncontested raiding and two more figures to one of my units of warriors. Can't be bad.

As ever, thanks to Andy for a great game, and equal thanks to the guys at Lard Island for producing a brilliant set of rules.