Dux Britanniarum Campaign - September 565 AD

My penultimate game of the campaign season was due to be played a week or so ago and just as I was preparing to raid one of my neighbours, I was raided myself by some scruffy Saxons from far off land, down the coast. 

Andy W and his Saxons had the campaign season initiative from last month and having not been around these parts before had decided to attack my Cenel Loarn Scotti (who were ignominiously last on the initiative), heh ho.

Having not played the raid the Church scenario, we plumped for that and Andy as the attacker set up his forces and got a good three move lead with some decent move throws to start.

I got a good starting force throw and got my three Raider Infantry Groups and my Skirmishers on the table to face the on coming tide of Saxons.

Positions at the start of the fun

So 'having at it' in the first couple live rounds, the Saxons moved forward with one group of warriors heading for the church and the rest their Warriors and Elites began to form up adjacent to the church and link shields, while their Missiles and Skirmishing types kept an eye on their exposed flank.

The Scots Warriors, hemmed in slightly by the woods moved slowly forward and formed up facing the Saxon Warriors while the Skirmishers skirted the woods and moved towards their opposite numbers. They were then followed by the remaining Scots forces who entered the board behind them and the Scots Cavalry and Missiles skirted wide and began the long march round towards the flank of the Saxon Raiders.

The troops line up and face each other before the clash

The way the draw fell, the Saxons got the charge in first and though they had the 'advantage' of the charge with a Carpe Diem card etc. the number of dice was pretty equal in the clash and the dice were pretty equal in the first result, but on the second melee of the round the Scots got the better of it and forced the Saxons to back off but both sides had a couple of losses and a stack of shock each.

While the Warriors on both sides recovered their breath and dressed their ranks, the skirmishing types maneuvered round each other and the Saxon Missiles took some shock from the Scots and were then ridden down along with their Skirmishing brothers by the Scots Cavalry as they circled round to the rear of the Saxon forces.

The Scots Skirmishers were in turn run down by the group of Elite Warriors Andy had positioned to guard his left flank. These in turn lost a couple of Warriors to fire from the Scots bowmen.

The end is nigh

By this time the Warriors facing each other had girded their loins once again, and it was the Saxons that got the draw again and once more charged in to try and force the issue before the Scots Cavalry hit them  in the rear. Unfortunately they faired even worse than they had the first time and failed to dent the Scots lines and with the Scots Cavalry skirmishing from the back and the Scots Warriors in front, and entire line of Saxons went down including their Lord and a lesser Noble in what proved to be the decider of the game.

With the bulk of the Saxon force down or out and Andy only having successfully managed to get one loot token so far in the proceedings, and the looting Warriors about to be surrounded in the church, the Saxons legged it, giving the Scots another 5 point victory.

A another pretty good game and reasonably balanced this time, with the random elements not taking too much from the game. The dice in the melees definitely going the Scots way which was nice.