Battle Report - 4-Nov-2019 - Dux Britanniarum "The Tax Collector"

Another playtest, with Carl taking the Saxons against AndyM's British, with AndyH doing most of the umpiring and me being rules and scenario consultant, since I wrote the latter.

The initial rolls produced a set of extreme start conditions (Saxons as many free moves as possible, British as far away as possible). We considered tweaking the scenario because we were pretty sure the Saxons would walk it, but figured we'd ride with it and see.

So, here's the Saxon hearth guard, centre of the village, chasing after the tax collector and his escort of levies, while some Saxon warriors (centre right) swing round the edge of the village (why are British villages always next to marshes??).... 

Next turn through the deck. British Leader 2 (Bad Squiddo's lovely Cartimandua figure in Roman armour) activates, but Carl plays a Step Forth to beat her to the punch. Rolls dreadfully and winds up 4" short.

So it's the lady in hand-me-down lorica segmenta's turn. Andy plays Carpe Diem, Audacia (+2), Hero of the Age and Aggressive Charge. She is getting eight dice (level 2, + 2 for the Audacia, x 2 for Hero of the Age) and everyone's hitting on 3's.  

Boom.
5 kills to 2. Back go the Saxon warriors...

...just in time to walk splat into the British Lord, his champion and his Comitates ranked up with some warriors behind.

Wallop.

Squelch.

Amphora definitely in danger of becoming absent for the Saxons there... although they did kill the British champion in the process, much to his Lord's chagrin.

Next turn through the deck. The Saxon Lord activates from behind the flank of the poor lass's levy, with a Carpe Diem...
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the levy lose (the Saxons had Aggressive Charge, so were hitting on 2's) 

And yep, you guessed it, Amphora well and truly lost, fleeing for the British  friendly table edge. 

Our heroine, however, who is clearly not one to walk away from a good ruck, activates to join the British Comitates before the end of the turn. Next turn, the whole lot of them waltz smack into the retreating Saxon warriors, who were trying to get away before their Amaphora went... And... well, they didn't, And it did. And their leader got killed.

Neeeeeext up... the Saxon hearth guard come wading in to the fray, and wallop into the British Comitates, who's front rank has been taking all the damage...  

It really boils down to who wins the big crunchy fight. And despite the British having our heroine in the scrap, the Saxon hearth guard are in much better shape, and the British dice are... frankly awful - 3 hits from 11 dice.
The Saxons dice are not awful,. and the Comitates take enough shock to lose their amphora...

What with leaders fleeing, being wounded and units losing their bottle. and everyone rolling badly on the Force Morale effect table, it's all looking a bit dicey.... (heh. Dicey. See what I did there?) 

Last turn. Saxon Lord comes up, and there's this bunch of British Warriors and Levy which have already taken quite a bit of tap (in a fight I don't think I have a photo of).... 

....and oh dear, oh dear....

The Saxons hold the field, and have all the time in the world to convince the tax collector of the rectitude of their current position...

MAN that was fun. :D