We are back from the Med in time for Essex Warriors club day today. As I did not have a game, I decided to sit in on Steve Clarke and Ian Roberts "Dux Britanniarum" game - Steve's Saxons were raiding and looking to kidnap a British noble to ransom him later.
Ian's Romano-British had a watch tower plus troops scattered across the table.
As it formed part of their on-going campaign, nobles present already have their traits calculated as per the following charts
A quick reminder of the rule book - obtainable from Too Fat Lardies.
This is the raid that was selected.
Ian's troops chart.
He starts with a group in the watch tower plus levy supporting the Lord and his elite troops below.
His warriors are the other side of the table, hurrying to close the gap.
Steve has just two groups of warriors to start with that have come on not far from the watch tower.
The British Lord organises his defenders, elites on the left.
More Saxons arrive as Ian's warriors close in on them.
Steve has decided to "switch" a group from attacking towards the watch tower to joining the formation facing the British warriors.
Ian decides to attack before they can add their weight to the conflict.
Shields clash and swords and spears do their work
The British are forced back
As the British levy have been battered by the Saxons, Ian's elites are ordered forwards to attack the enemy to their front.
At last the British get some joy in combat but can they stem the tide ?
The Saxon lord sends his troops after the British warriors again as their force morale has steadily declined.
Once more the British are sent back reeling with casualties.
The British try one ore assault themselves, just one group against one Saxon isolated on the left of the Saxon line.
But all the Saxon Lord has to do is repeat his wins against the depleted British warriors to push their morale to zero - can they do it ?
The Saxons rush forwards again
As the British lord fights valiantly in front of the watch tower.
Before he can finish off a broken Saxon group,
Saxon warriors finally defeat the two British warrior groups - force morale gone !
The Saxons win the battle. But no captured enemy nobles - they had killed them all !
All this time, a British group has remained spectators in the watch tower - could their presence have made a difference ? We'll never know !
Elsewhere, our usual fantasy/sci-fi players amazed us by playing Napoleonic naval warfare !
Looked like the enjoyed it !
Another group had a big 15mm Napoleonic game going using Shako rules
There were some DBM competition games on the go, so a full complement present today.
Great fun.
