Another test of the coastal raid scenario down the club; Wee Dougie and Colin took the British, defending the shore against the Saxons of Myk and Rod.
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| The British have seen the Saxon ships and array to meet them (and also be annoying firing down at them from the promontory). |
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| We note with amusement that the British priest is clearly trying to draw in prospective worshippers by any means necessary, since his church is next to both a ruined Roman temple and a stone circle! |
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| The first of many stand-offs.... |
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| ...as the British hearth guard come hurrying from inland and array (elites in the front, warriors in the rear) themselves in shieldwall to face.... |
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| ...tthe Saxon Gedriht, struggling up the cliff path. Top centre, the other unit of Saxon warriors decide to avoid this scrap and head for the church. |
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Unfortunately, Rod and Myk as the Saxons have a really rubbish hand of cards, and the British is only a little better, so they spend a couple of turns trying to improve their hand (or in in-character terms, banging shields on spears and psyching themselves up). Note the Saxon warriors heading for the church centre right.
Sound tactics is for the Saxons to get stuck in as soon as they can, as being charged by a shieldwall is NOT to their advantage.... |
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| Unfortunately, the British get their act together first, with a handful of pretty decent cards... (Saxon looters top right thinking 'by Odin, we're better off out of that!' |
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Back go the Saxons, and have just enough time to rally off a bunch of shock, still having no decent cards, when in go the British again!
Unfortunately, I stopped taking photos here. One unit of Saxons was in the church and making markedly better looting rolls than I ever do. But the levy came down off the promontory (see top right of the above picture) after the other bunch of Saxons had decided to come reinforce their elites (top left), and skirted round the wood. Just in time for one group of Saxon Gedriht to run away, and the other to find itself right where they could charge it in the rear. With a Carpe Diem in hand.
Now, for all levy aren't brilliant, when it's 2:1 in their favour, AND they're hitting on 3s, and then dealing shock on a 3+ and killing on 5+, there's really only one way that fight is going to go...
Even then it was still touch and go - if the Saxon lord had managed to get away from the fleeing Gedriht before they left the table, the looting warriors (who were ready to leave the church at a run with Bounding Move and Step Forth cards in hand) just might have made it to safety before the Saxon force morale ran out.
An excellent game - thanks to Wee Dougie, Myk, Colin and Rod for helping me test it out! |
Great game report. Incidentally, touching on the religious side of the game with those three holy sites in your set up, I had an idea for another way to part a Romano-British Lord from some of his filthy lucre. If in a pre-battle phase he gets 'We are Blessed,' with pluses to FM short of a miracle, he has to mark the site with a standing Celtic cross. It's a little early for Romano-British vs Saxons, such crosses being erected from the 8th century onwards, but it might add a nice touch to the game.
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