Today, we played with 2 armies from the original rule book, Aelles' Saxon Raiders and Artos and the Britons. We diced for who got what army, and I got to be King Arthur, complete with Excalibur, a legendary weapon! Tony got to join be as Bedevere, while poor Lawrence was on his tod sloan with Aella and the Saxons!
The battle lines drawn up, Saxons to the right.
Lawrence had his 2 units of slingers on his left.
His Hearthguard and Veteran spearmen in the centre...
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...and his young warriors on the right.
Tony had a single slinger unit, alongside the foot Commitatus and the Pedyt spearmen.
...
I had my Tribal Warriors held back, with Arthur and the Mounted Commitatus to their right. Merlin was with the Tribal levies!
The battle began with the Saxon slingers weaving out to the edge of the table, where they had the woods to fall back into.
The Hearthguards deployed out into line, facing my Tribal troops.
Only the Young Warriors poured forward to contest the wood, and presumably go round Tony's flank if possible.
Tony had put his slingers in the wood, and damaged one unit of younglings, but despite evading, the enraged warriors attacked and caught the skirmishers.
In the centre, the Pedyt Spears expanded out into the centre.
I fell back from the Saxon Hearth troops.
Even my cavalry fell back to extreme sling range.
The Saxons continued a slow advance, keeping in line.
On their right we still had to work out that fight!
The archers damaged the Young spears, but were easily routed.
I detached a Commitatus unit to support the centre, where the Saxons looked to be trying to outflank Tony's line.
Merlin was ambling forward so was glad of the support!
Tony had moved a Veteran Spear unit to match the victorious Young Warriors.
The Saxon slingers left the wood to get into range of Arthur's cavalry.
The Saxon Hearthguard advanced, threatening my lone cavalry unit.
On Tony's wing his men were beating the Saxons.
But the Saxons redoubled their efforts and reversed their retreat.
One of Tony's Spear units broke and ran, leaving a hole in his line, the reserve unit had entered the wood to stop the Saxons there.
In the centre Bedevere had routed a Saxon spear unit with two of his!
However, Beowyr's unit had been by 2 Saxon units and suffered a similar fate.
Beowyr was wounded in the battle too!
Having baited the slingers from their cover, Arthur charged them.
An easy victory for the elite Commitatus!
Merlin managed a 'Weakness' spell on a Saxon unit, while I sent one of my Tribal units to stem the tide of Saxon success.
The Young Saxons managed to drive back Tony's spearmen, but at least Bedevere was able to stop any supports for them to a degree.
The Saxon centre charged Tony's weakened centre.
My Tribal troops charged in support and managed to kill the Saxon commander...but they were destroyed in the battle too!
Tony's spearmen had been driven back out of the wood.
On my wing, I sent a unit of Commitatus round the Saxon flank, forcing the Saxon Hearthguard to extend their front to prevent getting outflanked.
On Tony's wing the Saxon youngsters were fanning out, trying to extend their breach.
However, they had picked on the Foot Commitatus and were broken!!!
Having opened a gap, Arthur led 2 units of Commitatus against Aelle and a unit of Hearthguard. Amazingly the tough Saxons were immediately destroyed for only 1 Stamina loss on my cavalry!!!
Tony's spearmen destroyed the Young warriors after a hard fight.
I had a Tribal unit forward to stem the Saxon advance.
However, Arthur's charge had decided the day! The Saxons were at 0 Rep.
We still had 5!
A close fight, we had been close to 0 rep the turn before Arthur's charge!!
However, as ever, we all won as we enjoyed the game!
