Fellow Blogger and sometime opponent Scrivs has already posted his blog on the subject so go and have a read of that now, but don't forget to come back
Right, back here again?
Like Scrivs I too would be taking Early Saxons. Unlike him I wasn't planning on using them as a different army at any point in the day.
This was my list:
Cynning
Fearsome Blow, Army General
Thegn
ASB
Scop
Wiglera
Atheling
23 Duguth
Full Command
24 Duguth
Full Command
18 Gedrith
Light Armour, Full Command
24 Geoguth
Throwing Spear, Full Command
9 Skirmishers
Slings
9 Skirmishers
Javelins
The Wiglera went in with the Geoguth as they were Fierce in any case, and the Atheling in the unit of 23 Duguth. All the other characters went in with the Gedrith.
The plan was simply to charge forward, kill everything that moved and win.
Apart from a few Gripping Beast Skirmishers and a smattering of Geoguth the army was all made up of Bill's lovely Musketeer Early Saxons, with some LBMS Banners and shield transfers
The scenarios can be found over on the Beasty Boy's site here
Game One
First up was Carl with his nice Norman army. I say nice in that it was nicely painted and Carl is a nice chap. Apart from that it was all horrid First Charging Warhorses and Duxes with 4 attacks. Yikes!
We were playing the Battle at the River scenario. I decided to go all out for the ford and use the Geoguth to merely contest the Bridge. Given that the Geoguth are Fierce and so will be warbanding towards the enemy a third of the time this was what might at best be described as a slight tactical error.
My Gedrith and Duguth on the left near the ford pushed cautiously forward whilst a second unit of Duguth pushed up to the river bank to face the onrushing Dux and his boys. Over on the right the Geoguth walked steadily toward the bridge.
Dawn Breaks on a peaceful Saxon Valley...
Forward, men!
Oooer! Where did they come from?
Chuck, aaargh, splash!
Fighting broke out across the ford as the skirmishers exchanged pointy sticks with the Saxons coming off worst.
Don't panic lads, it's all under control
What could possibly go wrong?
Run away!
Over on the river bank the Norman Knights charged, and despite the advantage of the riverbank the inevitable First Charge took it's toll and the Duguth ran way and were run over.
How did they get there?
Get off our Bridge!
This left a bunch of Norman Knights in backfield, not what the thin sketch of ragbag ideas I liked to imagine was a plan had called for at all.
It's at times like this that men step up to the plate. And the manliest men at my disposal were my Gedrith who duly stepped up to the river bank to meet the Norman knights, Dux and all, head on.
And surprisingly they did all right.
For a bit.
However the remaining Duguth disgraced themselves after catching some (admittedly outrageously accurate) javelins from the Norman skirmishers and fleeing for the hills.
Over by the Bridge the Geoguth had got round to failing a couple of Fierce tests and were splashing about half-on and half off the bridge while Normans threw sharp things at them. When they eventually emerged, somewhat bedraggled, the cowardly curs backed off. And continued a stream of pointy objects.
(For some reason I'd stopped taking pictures by this point, sorry).
Despite doing his best to blow it the Norman Dux eventually found his kicking boots and (with the aid of some foot fellas) saw off the Gedrith.
And with that Carl was able to claim the ford uncontested and get a unit of knights close enough to the bridge to deny me maximum points for that objective.
A fairly big win to Carl in the end. Norman knights are a tough match-up for the Age of Arthur armies, but that's only part of the story, Carl played better than I did and even some poor dice for him couldn't snatch me anything remotely resembling a win.
Next up, some Welshmen. In a Valley. That sounds a bit familiar...
This left a bunch of Norman Knights in backfield, not what the thin sketch of ragbag ideas I liked to imagine was a plan had called for at all.
Let's be having you...
It's at times like this that men step up to the plate. And the manliest men at my disposal were my Gedrith who duly stepped up to the river bank to meet the Norman knights, Dux and all, head on.
And surprisingly they did all right.
For a bit.
However the remaining Duguth disgraced themselves after catching some (admittedly outrageously accurate) javelins from the Norman skirmishers and fleeing for the hills.
Over by the Bridge the Geoguth had got round to failing a couple of Fierce tests and were splashing about half-on and half off the bridge while Normans threw sharp things at them. When they eventually emerged, somewhat bedraggled, the cowardly curs backed off. And continued a stream of pointy objects.
(For some reason I'd stopped taking pictures by this point, sorry).
Despite doing his best to blow it the Norman Dux eventually found his kicking boots and (with the aid of some foot fellas) saw off the Gedrith.
And with that Carl was able to claim the ford uncontested and get a unit of knights close enough to the bridge to deny me maximum points for that objective.
A fairly big win to Carl in the end. Norman knights are a tough match-up for the Age of Arthur armies, but that's only part of the story, Carl played better than I did and even some poor dice for him couldn't snatch me anything remotely resembling a win.
Next up, some Welshmen. In a Valley. That sounds a bit familiar...
Good report Tom, I also played Carls Normans, but hid in a wood from them :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the plug.