Battle Report - 30-Apr-2012

Skipping ahead while this is fresh in my mind :D I'll go back and catch up on the three outstanding reports later!

Last night AndyH and I convened at the club to playtest an Age of Arthur scenario for WAB. This was one Andy had designed and sent to me for critique, and we'd gone through several rounds of back and forth (see my posts on scenario design for some of the things I was thinking about while suggesting tuning - predominantly use of the board and terrain). The final map we designed is visible to the right - it's going to get a few tweaks from here still, and I may well post an 'evolution of a scenario' post later. As for the actual detailed rules of the scenario - you'll have to wait for those :D

The initial setup, looking down
the ridge line to the tower.

Advance apologies for the quality of some of the photos - the light was a bit low, and I wasn't allowing enough time for camera shake on the iPhone.

So for now - a battle report. Andy was the attacker with his Romano-British, and my Saxons' solitary unit of Duguth plus some bowmen had just lit a fire in the watchtower to warn the rest of my army of their approach!

Andy advanced, and I rolled for arrival of the rest of my army - pretty decent, in that half the units from the village off my table edge showed up. Next turn, his first unit of Milites made it to the tower, attacking up the slope, and his cavalry crossed the river and began to threaten my approaching reinforcements.

Andy's cavalry forge across the
river.

His attacking force was met by a hail of javelins and arrows, but managed to scare off the archers defending the hill top, and hauled their way up the slope.

Meanwhile my cavalry (from another village) showed up on Andy's left, and the left flank turned into a rather involved battle of manoeuvre between his cavalry and Milites, and my Gedrith and cavalry, which lasted most of the game. At the same time, Andy's (disloyal scum of a bunch of) Saxon allies turned up on the right flank and moved in to join the fray around the tower.

Eagle's eye view of the battle at
the watchtower

Back at the tower, the Milites were repulsed, but rallied, and the battle at the tower itself became something of a standoff. His Saxons (boo, hiss) routed my Geoguth, and proceeded to chase down my other unit of Duguth in the centre. The archers, who'd rallied in a wood almost on my baseline, decided this was too much, and fled.

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

In the last but one turn I managed to charge his cavalry on the left, after several rounds of cautious manoeuvring, and after two rounds of inconclusive melee, my Gedriht caught them in the rear, and destroyed them. End of battle, and... wow. I don't think I've ever had to think that hard in a WAB battle before - the terrain and scenario meant that line-up-and-smack-the-crap-out-of-each-other was never going to work.

The final result? A bloody standoff, in the best traditions of AoA battles. My thanks to Andy for being, as ever, a gracious and fun opponent, and for letting me critique his scenario and rip the original terrain layout to shreds!