Battle of Celidon Forest (c. 493)

Continuing to play our way through the scenarios presented in the old (and quite excellent) Warhammer Ancient Battles' Age of Arthur supplement, we played the battle of Celidon Forest (Arthur's seventh battle). Joining the units on the table were Jamie's two freshly painted units of Picts and my two freshly painted units of late Roman Legionnaires. Based on prior games' experience, I tweaked several of the unit profiles and special rules.

• Shieldwall went from -1 for enemy's to hit target unit on shooting and melee to just a +1 armor – the -1s were making shieldwalls to powerful. I also added that a unit with the Shieldwall rule simple made a Courage test every time it was the target of a melee or shooting attack. If it passed the check the shieldwall was formed or "held", but it if failed it either broke in the face of the oncoming assault or failed to "form up" for whatever reason. All usual modifiers (cumulative casualties, leader with 12", other special rules) still applied to the Courage check, which gave some nice nuance, with units becoming more and more likely to not "hold the line" as their morale was worn down with casualties.
• The Gregarious rule (based on the "Warband 1 and 2" rules from WAB) was also dialed down a notch. Previously, at the end of a melee, a Gregarious unit received +1 to the resulting Courage check for every strength point by which it outnumbered or vice versa, so if the Saxons had 10 figures and the Britons 6, the Saxons would receive a +4. This is supposed to reflect a troop type who's confidence soars when they are doing well but crumbles when things don't look so good. In prior games this plus/minus was too "swingy", so it was reduced to a simple +1 if the Gregarious unit outnumbered its opponent, with an additional +1 if the Gregarious unit was still generating 12 melee dice and the enemy was only generating 6 (with a negative mod if situation reversed), so the max modifier was +2 or -2.
• The Impetuous Charge rule (also based on the "Warband 1 and 2" rules from WAB) is now only checked if the unit is within 6" of an enemy unit. On a "1" on a roll of a d6, the unit charges. Otherwise you may activate as normal. This eliminated units trying to charge from 48" away!
• Removed javelins from Irish ceithern units. Their base morale was also lowered by 1, added a rule where they received a +2 to courage checks if within 6" of their leaders' unit, reflecting the dependence of Irish ceithern to be inspired by a heroic leader.
• Picts are Fleet Footed and Hard to Target, but like the Irish had the "Ferocious Charge" rule wherein they reroll all misses in the first (and only the first) melee in which they are involved in the game.

The late Roman legion units were profiled as regular miletes but with the Drilled rule, reflecting Briton or Romano-British troops who has been trained by a continental veteran or former Roman commander who had trained them in the Roman manner. Drilled allowed them to reroll a failed Courage check, either both dice or the lower of the two (including on Shieldwall checks).

The Celidon scenario had the Romano-British army (played by yours truly) retreating from a failed raid through the woods, who are then set upon by the Saxons and their Irish and Pictish allies/mercenaries (Jamie played these). The Britons needed to get three units, or two if one included the "army general" leader unit, off the opposite table edge. For a strategy I decided to shift my entire force to the left and try and run up the table edge, hoping the opposite Saxon flank would fail to come across in time to make a difference.

(Above: starting positions, Romano-British/Britons on the left)

(Above: Romano-British milites)

(Above: Jamie's Pictish chief)

This strategy immediately ran into trouble because the entire Saxon force moved forward quite quickly while the Britons were still trying to maneuver to the left, so that the net result was the Britons had not advanced forward hardly at all by the time the lines started to hit eachother – the opposite side of the table suddenly seemed very distant!

(Above: Romano-British suddenly find a large number of Saxons directly in front of them!)

(Above: Saxons prepare to attack a Romano-British shieldwall)

Second mistake was the Britons held their cavalry back instead of just having those two units sprint to escape. My thinking was I wanted the leader attached to one of the cavalry units to hang around and lend his +1 to Courage checks. The other reason was that the cavalry might be able to help break up some Saxon units and allow infantry to escape.

(Above: late Roman Legionaries posing as more Romano-British milites trained "in the Roman manner")

(Above: Romano-British foot trying to move to the left even as Saxons swoop in)

However, by about halfway through (our game "clock" would stop when both sides had combined to lose 8 units), it looked like the Britons' plan was going well – a few Saxon attacks had been repulsed by sturdy Shieldwalls and two or three Saxon army units had already broken or were on verge of breaking. Then came a key moment – a Saxon unit attacked a drilled Briton milites unit, and Britons did not hold their Shieldwall (even with their reroll from Drilled!)! The unit was shattered.

(Above: Picts advancing on Romano-British right)

(Above: things towards the end - Romano-British pedyt archers not doing well...)

 

The Saxons pushed the attack, destroying another foot milites and a mounted milites unit, while loosing just as many in exchange – but the Saxons could afford to lose units in order to both delay the Romano-British advance and to "stop the clock". And sure enough, in the end the eighth unit was removed and not a single Romano-British unit was within even 30" of the opposite table edge. Arthur was heard to shriek:

"Now I know how the Romans felt at Teutoburg Forest!"

Battle at Bassa's Ford (c. 493)

Continuing our way through the twelve battles of Arthur/Artos, we enjoyed another quick game of Lion Rampant (modified for games set in Arthurian/Late Roman England or the Barbarian West) using the Bassa's Ford scenario from the WAB Age of Arthur book.

The Britons were defending and began the game in a long battle line to the "south".  The Saxons (with their usual Irish allies/mercenaries) were coming on the board from the "north".  The Saxons would score victory conditions by trying to get as many units as possible across either the ford (some sand on the river near the center of the table) or the bridge located to the "east".

(Above: starting positions)

(Above: starting positions)

The rest of the Saxon army (played by me) was able to come on board fairly quickly.  The Britons (Jamie again) advanced their lines and formed up on one bank of the river. The Saxons also formed a line and advanced forward cautiously.  I initially considered attempting a general forward advance by the entire Saxon line, getting in range where my javelins could perhaps create a weak point that I could exploit, and I formed the Saxon battle line with this in mind.  However, at the last second I lost confidence and just blundered about half of the Saxon forces at each of the crossings. 

(Crossing at the ford is attempted)

I screwed up by not wanting to move at half-rate across the river, and instead tried to funnel Saxon infantry across the ford.  The Briton shieldwall of course held so an immediate bottleneck was created.  I should also have sent both Irish units at the ford since they are classed as fleet footed so could have dashed across the river created some chaos with their ferocious charge one-time melee bonus (reroll all misses).

(Above: Briton cavalry counterattacking the ford)

Instead I sort of muddled around the crossing, and the Britons used archery and some cavalry counter-attacks to chase off the assault.

(Above: Saxon right in disarray, nowhere near the ford.  At top, Saxon assault n the bridge has gone nowhere with massive casualties)

With the effort on the right flank a complete go-nowhere, the fresh units on the Saxon left attempted to force the bridge.  This was met with even less success as the Briton shieldwall held and Briton cavalry and archers again dispersed other attempts to cross the river itself.

While this game and the prior two have been pretty one-sided defeats for the Saxons, they were still fun games and had their touch-and-go moments.  The obvious fixes needed is that Briton archery is too strong, range might need to be reduced to 12" instead of 18", and the Shieldwall rule should probably be +1 Armor vs. shooting and melee rather than -1 To Hit, which probability-wise make the Shieldwall practically invincible.  The armor rating for the majority of infantry might also need to be upgraded to 3 instead of 2 in order to get a little more of a back-and-forth in melee, preferably taking a few rounds before one side breaks.  As currently written, units are loosing 4-6 casualties right off the bat, which is fast but perhaps too extreme.

Jamie had so much fun he went out and bought a Pictish army from Old Glory, in response to which I have started painting my late legionaries to bulk up the Britons some more.  More games in the Barbarian West forthcoming, no doubt!



Battle on the River Dubglas (c. 493)

We played another very fast game of Lion Rampant using some Arthurian/Late Roman variations based on the excellent WAB Age of Arthur supplement.  The set up was from the 'Battle on the River Dubglas' scenario in the back of Age of Arthur, with the River Dubglas on one flank.  We diced for position and the Britons (Jamie) chose to deploy to the 'north' at the base of some hills, leaving the Saxons (me) with Irish allies/mercenaries to deploy in low grounds alongside a marsh.

To start the game off there was a challenge between champions fight per the scenario.  We suited this to Lion Rampant by resolving a duel between invisible champions.  The Briton won and recieved the boon of a single automatic pass of a morale check once in the game (which he then forgot to use).  Victory was a simple rubric of first side to lose four units (out of seven) loses the game.

(Above: early moves, the Briton cavalry advancing at upper right)

Opening moves consisted of the Briton cavalry moving up aggressively on the Briton left while the infantry arranged itself on the right.  The Saxon left (three units) shifted hard to the left to try and dogpile on Briton archers anchoring the flank.  This went poorly, with the Saxons taking many casualties from the archers, then fairing poorly in a melee, followed by the leader's unit routing, throwing the entire command into disorder.  Further casualties and poor morale checks resulted in the loss of two of the three units in that division.

(Above: Saxon gedriht infantry)

Meanwhile, on the opposite flank, the Briton cavalry came to grips with the two Irish units, who had a "ferocious clash" rule wherein they could reroll all misses on the first melee of the game, which they each used to severely damage one cavalry and destroy another.  The remaining two cavalry units suddenly found themselves positioned in front of three Saxon and Irish units at under 6", allowing the invaders to rain javelins upon them, with the end result of all three cavalry units routing or being destroyed!

(Above: Irish infantry)

(Above: set-up for final showdown)

So, with each side having a flank thoroughly repulsed, we were left with four unit of infantry per side.  The Britons formed up and the Saxons surged forward.  Despite a strong attack by the elite Saxon gedriht, they were repulsed by a strong melee performance by the  archers, deciding the game in favor of the Britons.

(Above: Saxon gedriht prepare to charge Briton infantry)

Overall, as I expected, the Saxons performed much better in an open-ground battle than they previously did in the River Glein scenario, where they could not concentrate javelin fire upon the Britons.  Otherwise, the Saxon "gregarious" rule (at the end of a melee, this unit will receive a +1 bonus to any courage check resulting from that melee for every additional Strength Point it outnumbers its opponent by) seems rather redundant.  However, dicing for Impetuous Charge (on a 1) only if within 6" of an enemy had a nice intended feel to it.  Archers are also perhaps a little too tough in melee (defending on 4+!)

Battle on the River Glein (c.493)

We played a very fast game of Lion Rampant using some Arthurian/Late Roman variations I had generated after having gotten my hands on the old (and quite informative) WAB Age of Arthur supplement.  I had previously painted some Old Glory "migration period" Saxon infantry, Irish infantry and a few Romano-British infantry for use in Saga warbands, and had thankfully not sold them at Enfilade last year.  I accumulated a few more OG packs, along with some Footsore Miniatures, and finished painting up the whole lot in December (including rebasing some of the individually based earlier figures to multi-base). 

(Above: starting positions, with the Saxons on the left and the Britons on the right)

The "core stats" for almost all units is the foot yeoman from the Lion Rampant book, whom moves 8" and has an armor of 2.  He is a "fighting man" of his day, which is to say, he can more or less handle a sword, a spear, a shield, a bow, or a horse in equal measure if needed.  I got this idea or approach from reading Guy Halsall's excellent Warfare and Society in the Barbarian West 450-900 (2003) (which I acquired through my local library's Inter-Library Loan program!).  From this basic profile, I adjusted some stats up or down, and added special rules inspired by the WAB supplement.

(Above: the Saxon right, led by a Hengist or Horsa type fellow).

The Saxons had just two unit types:

Saxon Geoguth (“Doo-guth”) Points 5
Attack 6+ Attack Value 5+
Move 5+ Defense Value 4+
Shoot 6+ Shoot Value 6”/5+
Courage 4+ Max. Move 8”
Armor 2 Strength Points 12
Special Rules:
Raiders (re-roll all melee dice rolls of 1); counter-charge vs. foot; Javelins (shoot 6+, range 6 hit 5+); Impetuous Charge (see below); Gregarious (see below)

Saxon Gedriht (“Yedtrict”) Points 7
Attack 5+ Attack Value 4+
Move 5+ Defense Value 4+
Shoot 6+ Shoot Value 6”/5+
Courage 3+ Max. Move 8”
Armor 2 Strength Points 12
Special Rules:
Raiders (re-roll all melee dice rolls of 1) [note: this was based on the "Saxon Buckler" rule from the WAB supplement, and represents a fast, aggressive style of combat]; counter-charge vs. foot; Javelins (shoot 6+, range 6 hit 5+); limit 1 per army [note: this is a sort of "hearthguard" or "companions" type unit]; Impetuous Charge (see below); Gregarious (see below)

The Saxons were aided by Irish allies, with the following stat block.

Irish Ceithern Points 5
Attack 6+ Attack Value 5+
Move 5+ Defense Value 4+
Shoot 6+ Shoot Value 6”/5+
Courage 4+ Max. Move 8”
Armor 2 Strength Points 12
Special Rules:
Fleet footed; Javelins (shoot 6+, range 6 hit 5+); Fearsome Clash (in the first melee of the game only, this unit my re-roll any missed hits) [note: Fearsome Clash is based on the "Mixed Weapons" rule from the WAB supplement]; Impetuous Charge (see below); Gregarious (see below).

IMPETUOUS CHARGE: At the beginning of this players turn, roll a dice for each unit with the Impetuous Charge rule. On a roll of 1, they will move their full move toward the nearest enemy unit and attack it if it is in range (see Wild Charge rule). On a roll of 2-6 the unit may be activated normally.

GREGARIOUS: At the end of a melee, this unit will receive a +1 bonus to any courage check resulting from that melee for every additional Strength Point it outnumbers its opponent by AND it will receive a -1 for every STR PT it is outnumbered by the enemy for. For example: if at the conclusion of a melee a unit of Saxons has 9 Str Pts and its opponent has 8, the Saxon unit will receive a +1 bonus on its courage check (if one is required). If fighting against cavalry, double the cavalry unit’s STR PTs.

(Above: the Briton cavalry on the move)

The Britons had fewer special rules but more unit types at their disposal.

Mounted Commanipulares Points 7 ("Mounted Companions")
Attack 4+ Attack Value 4+
Move 5+ Defense Value 5+
Shoot -- Shoot Value -
Courage 3+ Max. Move 10”
Armor 3 Strength Points 6
Special Rules: Counter-charge; Limit 1 per army.

Mounted Milites Points 6
Attack 5+ Attack Value 4+
Move 5+ Defense Value 5+
Shoot -- Shoot Value -
Courage 4+ Max. Move 10”
Armor 3 Strength Points 6
Special Rules: Counter-charge.

Milites Points 5
Attack 6+ Attack Value 4+
Move 5+ Defense Value 4+
Shoot -- Shoot Value --
Courage 4+ Max. Move 8”
Armor 2 Strength Points 12
Special Rules: Shieldwall (may form on successful Move. -1 to hit from shooting and melee attacks, can’t move).

Pedyt Archers Points 4
7+ Attack Value 6
5+ Defense Value 5+
6+ Shoot Value 5+/18”
4+ Max. Move 8”
2 Strength Points 12
Special Rules: None.

Both sides had three commanders, and all commanders had the "Commanding" rule, so they could reroll one failed activation if a unit under their command was within 12".

(Above: the combined Saxons and Irish advance on the left).

The game's objectives were have a unit on both the bridge and the ford when the game ended.  The game would end when one side had lost more than half its units - when this happened, the other player would get one more set of activations and the game would then stop.  I was playing the Saxons and figured my best bet was to get on the bridge and force some melees where my various melee-bonuses would come into play.  Other units could be close by and hurl javelins. 

(Above: my strategy not going well)

However, the Briton archers had brilliant luck.  Even at extreme range (hitting on 6s!), they were able to lay down 3 casualties on one my Saxon units.  Melees were a bit of a wash - I would get below-average results on to-hit rolls and the various rerolls only served to make them average rather than devastating.  The Britons (played by Sebastian) were also very aggressive with their cavalry early on which I did not expect.  The result, as illustrated above, was that many of my units had 2-3 casualties laid out on them very fast and many were disordered.

(Above: fighting on the bridge)

Things went possibly worse on the other flank.  One Irish unit threw a snake eyes on its first morale test and fled the field. The remaining Saxons on the bridge were effectively bottlenecked and really couldn't support each other, so the Britons essentially took turns with various fresh units hitting the same Saxon unit.

I lost my fourth unit (over half) on the Britons's turn, and the Britons then proceeded to complete their turn and put disorders on all three of my remaining units.  On my turn (the last turn), one of those units failed its rally and fell back to almost its starting position!

(Above: deep hurting)

(Above: final positions - one unit of Irish still on Briton side of river, but bridge and ford both held by the Britons, scoring the a "major victory".)

(Above: victorious Briton milites at the ford)

I think the Saxons played poorly because of dice (as always) but also the scenario involved two bottlenecks and the various Saxon abilities might work better in concert in an open field, where a proper "battle line" can be formed. Their "Gregarious" rule never game into play, either - they all fell back too fast to wear any enemies down!  The next scenario is the River Dubglas and has significantly more open terrain - we shall see!

The "Impetuous" rule still needs work.  I'm thinking of having units test for it at the END of their turn and not the beginning, and only testing if they have not otherwise had a successful activation.  The idea is they try to run off and attack when you are trying to make them STAY PUT.  If you successfully move them then they are content because they are distracted. If they do not move the become impatient and take matters into their own hands.  I have to ponder this a bit and decide if units that did not activate because your turn ended need to check for impetuous or not...