Last night our reporter returned to the early/mid 6th century AD, and the cold, wet island known as Britannia. Following withdrawal of the Roman regular army nearly 100 years before, the invading Saxons have been steadily advancing westwards from their initial settlements in Kent. Today the Britons under their warlord Arthur plan to defeat them at Mount Badon recapture much of the lost ground. As he climbed to the top of the palisade his initial reaction was “that’s a lot of forces for Lion Rampant”. Indeed the 25 units that deployed seemed double or more what would normally be used, and even then Phil had reduced the unit count as per the scenario in WSS121.
The scenario saw the British holding position below the hilltop fortifications, behind the ford over the river Avon and on the Saxon flank. The Saxons were in a single mass albeit facing mainly in two directions, with a small force defending the ford against Arthur’s cavalry.
Battle began with Arthur charging his Elite cavalry across the river into the Saxon light infantry. Surely this would be a massacre? Maybe not and Arthur’s men pulled back.
The light cavalry thought better of charging and threw javelins, causing a solitary casualty. Below the fort the two forces moved closer.
British archers inflicted a few losses, but the Saxons advanced remorselessly.
The flanking forces faced off against each other, with four British units deciding that attacking six Saxon units was rash in the extreme.
The cavalry tried again but failed to rally and below the fort things deteriorated for the British. The Saxons virtually wiped out the archers and another foot unit was reduced to half-strength. In desperation the British warleader Amalric of the Dobunni issued a personal challenge to Cerdic the Strong. Wrong decision! The hairy-arsed barbarian was soon standing over Amalric’s bloody corpse, and the British line was wavering.
With Arthur sitting impotently across the river, one leader dead and several units battered the British called it a day and left Badon to the Saxon scum.
My observation was that it had been an “interesting” game. Tony rolled some excellent dice, and Greg’s presence on the British flank was noticeable by some particularly poor British die-rolls. The sheer number of units meant it would always become a slug-fest, and so it proved, with numbers favouring the Saxons. As with Lion Rampant 1 the rules didn’t inspire me at all, albeit Phil said that we hadn’t used the leader characteristics despite them being on the force rosters. I was also struck by how there is no benefit for flank or rear attacks. To me a bit weird, but there you go. I certainly wouldn’t use them for this size battle again. This was almost TTS-size in unit count, so why drop our tried-and-tested “go to” set of rules. I have borrowed Phil’s copy to read whilst he ventures into the land of NFN* next week. I’ll see if actually reading them makes things any clearer!
Simon
*NFN: “Normal for Norfolk”. "Normal for Norfolk" is a descriptive phrase used to describe an individual or action which is seen as so ridiculous it could only have been born as a result of the inbreeding supposedly commonly found in Norfolk. This can range from unusual local pronunciations and dialect to the incredibly stupid nature of many accidents in the region, or sometimes merely be a comment on how someone might look physically abnormal in a manner which cannot be prescribed to a specific condition.
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