War and Conquest 'Age of Warlords 2' day at Peterborough Wargames club

Brilliant day last Sunday at the club! We hosted the second War and Conquest 'Age of Warlords' gaming day, with participants either trying to cause (or prevent) the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the mid 5th Century AD. I had written the lists prior to the same event last year and they had seemed pretty well balanced last time out.

Once again, I took my Patrician Romans. This time, I restructured my force so that it was very elite-cavalry- heavy, fielding my Bucellarii as Huns, supported by foederate German nobles and Hun horse-archers. This was backed up by one unit of Roman pedes and a unit of Germanic foot who had been whipped from the Roman fabricae, so were armoured, and equipped with with heavy thrown weapons. There was an additional unit of Roman sagitarrii and I had 4 personalities - 2 Roman with the bucellarii and 2 Germanic - 1 with the mounted nobles and one with the infantry. This gave me 5 SIPs...very useful they proved too!

Most of the armies present were significantly bigger than mine - players having gone for troops and often big units of them to get more dice in. We had a fair few Patrician Roman armies, several Saxons and a Frank, maybe some Romano-British too...can't quite remember. But each army did have its own 'character', which was nice - no two forces had been composed the same.

Due to one player falling ill on the day, I only got one game in during the afternoon, against George ad his Heptarchy Saxons, so I spent some of the morning downstairs playing some Sci-fi thing by Spartan games (pretty good fun actually, despite the fact I don't really like such games normally) and making tea!

My game was really good fun! It went to the wire! I initially drew the 'kill your opponent's 2 most valuable units' objective. Well, no way my poncy late, late Romans will kill Saxon Gedriht, so I expended a SIP to choose one and went for 'get an unbroken unit into the enemy deployment zone and prevent him doing the same.'

I decided to play aggressively, as George's army was bloody enormous! However, he only had one unit of Gedriht, so that was a bonus! I deployed with all my cavalry on my right flank, intending to refuse the other as long as possible while I smashed his left. I expected him to advance, form shield wall against my cavalry and envelope me on my weak left flank, thereby crushing my plan, but, for whatever reason, he didn't. Seeing my massed large cavalry units, he moved an infantry unit from his right to his left to support it. This was his undoing, as, although his Gedriht mashed my foederate foot like they weren't there, my pedes broke the unit of Geoguth they were facing and, chasing them down, smashed into the flank of the marching reinforcements, breaking them in one turn! While this wa sharpening, my bucellarii, despite flunking two charges, did massive execution in their second combat round to break the Duguth facing them and threaten the flank of the Saxon horse who were valiantly battling my German nobles, the Huns having seen off the skirmishing Saxon cavalry with a volley of arrows and a well-timed charge. In the end though, it all came down to who got strategic advantage in the final turn. If George won that, his Gedriht would have flanked and slaughtered my bucellarii...if I got it, I'd be home and dry. My extra SIPs saved the day here and the game went to me, as my Pedes were firmly settled in George's deployment zone and my cavalry were soon to arrive there, as the Saxon horse were unlikely to last another turn.

This game made me think about the lists. They are generally good, I think, but there may be an argument for slightly increasing the cost of armour for some units - notably those non-noble units who can get them from Roman fabricae, etc, as armour certainly makes a difference (as it should) in combat. I'm going to look again at the lists and possibly submit some suggestions to Rob Broom about that.

Anyway, it was a fun day - everyone seemed to think so and reported it as such, so we must be doing something right! Huge thanks to all who travelled so far to come along, especially Rob who drove from Bristol to be there for 9.00am!

Here are a few pics...

My only game of the day - The Patrician right flank - Huns about to see off the Saxon light horse...

View from the Roman lines...

View from the Saxon lines...

Roman bucellari crash into Saxon duguth...kontos didn't work ever so well in this charge, but luckily the Saxons did no better!

Combat erupts all along the lines

My depleted bucellarii about to finish off the Saxon Duguth...

Age of Warlords Round 1 Pictures

Andy Mac's Saxons (Brude's faction) vs Carl's Saxons (Conn-Ann's faction)

Andy M (Brude's faction) and Mike (Conn-Ann) with more Saxon-on-Saxon action...

Andrew's Saxons (Brude's faction) vs Grahame's Scots-Irish...the great Conn-Ann himself!

...And finally, a bunch of pics from the doubles game that I played with Bedwyr and the allied British war band (for Conn-Ann's faction) against Phil's Picts (the great Brude himself) and Tony's Saxons...

After I had lost both single combats, I had too dice for deployment of troops, hence my somewhat staggered lines  on the right...Bedwyr's war band nearest the camera.

Pict skirmishers and skirmishing warriors threaten my flank while Brude's main force  hangs back from the ford...

The allied British Teulu launch into Saxon Duguth...this should have gone our way, but superb Saxon dice on the break test and Saxon thrusting spears  gradually whittle the brave Brits away...

The Picts have stripped the my flank and are in the rear, as my warriors and Teulu converge on the ford...

The Saxons inexorably forcing the battered Teulu back - just look at my casualties top and bottom, despite thrusting spears on my troops AND large shields!

My Teulu turn to deal with the Pict skirmishers...they did this and then turned to deal with Brude, winning the combat, but forcing the Picts back into the ford! Blasted 'loyalty' (I had it too on my Teulu...)

Where did all the Britons go?????

Age Of Warlords Arthurian Campaign Update

Brude waded through the ford, surveying the carnage. Dead Britons were plied thickly along the river bank and within the ford. On the slopes of the hill leading down to the river, Berct, the king of Brude's Saxon allies was busily heaving the mail-shirt off the dismembered corpse of a Briton noble - the king or, at very least, a prince, judging by the quality of the armour.

"You and your men did well, Saxon. It shall be remembered." Brude stared around him once again. He could not believe the destruction!Across the battlefield, his own forces had engaged in a brutal day-long struggle against the Briton king Bedwyr ap Custennin, a man whose forces had in recent memory inflicted mighty defeats on two Saxon kings and who had tested his own army to its limits. Although his light troops had stripped away Bedwyr's cavalry and archers, the Briton nobility had forced his own bodyguard back and the British foot had crossed the river, forcing his won warriors back in disorder. If it hadn't been for his allies crushing Bedwyr's allies... Brude forced the thought from his mind. The ford was won and Bedwyr's men had withdrawn, albeit in good order. They would fight another day. 

But now, the work of ravaging the enemy lands would occupy Brude and his men, along with his allies. These Britons would rue the day they aligned themselves with Conn-Ann...of this Brude was certain!

So, round 1 of Age of Warlords is complete! The forces of Brude have taken a massive lead in this round, with 2 mighty victories, 1 close-run victory and 1 mighty defeat. Due to a player pulling out, I had to command two Briton war bands in my game, with the results as noted in the narrative above. My main force (Bedwyr's army) basically achieved a bloody-stand-off against Phil's Picts, with failed war band tests causing mayhem on both sides and the Romanised equipment of the Britons telling in the final combats, although Phil played it well, as he had 'loyalty' with his general, thereby ensuring that, in the final combat of the final turn, although he was almost certain to lose it, he would withdraw in good order and contest the ford which was currently being claimed by one unit of my combrogi.

The additional Briton war band that is being used in Grahame's faction was destroyed to the last man by Tony's saxons. I didn't play he game badly and Tony didn't really play it any better than me, but he won the crucial combats and made a couple of critical break tests that prevented major units in his army from being destroyed. So, although I felt I played well, the combined points difference meant that I suffered a mighty defeat! So bad was it for the allied Britons, that, not only did three characters die in the game, but two died permanently in the post-game sequence!!! Yikes!!!

Anyway, the results of round 1 mean that Brude's armies will be the attackers in round two, and the scenarios will be a variety of capture places, people, etc, scenarios.

Pictures from Round 1 to follow, as Mrs Geetarhero has the camera at a Michael Bolton concert this evening (steady...no nasty comments now...she really likes his voice...

Round two on Monday...

Age of Warlords - WAB Arthurian Campaign Introduction

Brude MacBrude, mighty Bretwalda, king of all Britannia, heaved himself upright, cursing inwardly as the entirety of his kingly hall spun wildly. Forcing back the instinct to vacate his churning guts, the huge Pict warlord flung back the fur coverlet on the royal bed and lurched unsteadily towards the door. 

On the other side of the bed, the young Briton serving girl lay unmoving... Brude shook his head...he couldn't even remember taking the girl to his bed...By all the gods, those Saxons could drink!! He had always been a drinker, able to drink all-comers under the table and into sweet oblivion, but those Saxon kings...they had taxed him to the limit. Still, Brude wagered that they were in a far worse state than he this fine spring morning... Hair of the hound, that was what was needed... 

"WINE!!!!" he roared, wincing at the explosion of agony behind his eyes as his mighty voice echoed across the hall. 
"Wine..." he repeated again, finally reaching the door and, hurling it open, he breathed several deep lungfulls of clear spring air. It was chill, refreshing. Just what was needed.

Standing framed by the doorway into his royal hall which was situated on a hillock in the centre of the sprawling Pictish Broch, Brude reflected on the events of the previous three days.

Those four Saxon and Anglian kings came to him without fear, he had noted. But then, they were new come to Britannia, having fought their way into the lands of the coward Britons who had fought him in the Great Wars from five years before. These Saxon and Anglian kings had not yet seen the fierceness of the Pictish sword, the flight of Pictish javelins, the arrows from concealment that had destroyed warband after warband in the Great Wars... Great days indeed. 

Yet now, more petulant Britons and their puny Saxon allies were threatening his rule, rebelling against him, Brude MacBrude the Bretwalda. Well, that was fine...let them rebel! His spies had told him all he needed to know and, over much fine Briton beef, Briton Wine ('tribute' from his subjugated neighbours, of course) and fine Saxon ale, alliances with the newcomers had been made and signed in blood. These newcomers would fight by his side and the rebellion would fail. It would fail anyway, he thought, but better that our fine Germanic allies should perish in its demise than fine upstanding Pict warriors.

So it was done...

On the next new moon, the alliance would strike, crossing the river borders into the rebellious kingdoms for combat, pillage, loot and slaughter. A new Age of Warlords was begun and Brude MacBrude, mighty Bretwalda of Britannia would prove once again that he was master of this land and its pathetic people...

On Monday, we start our WAB campaign, Age of Warlords, set in 500AD in Britain. It uses army lists based on those in Age of Arthur, but uses 1000pt army lists with various modifications to allow smaller unit and more characters. If anyone is interested in the army lists, rule changes and scenarios, do let me know by replying to this thread with an email address and I'll then link you to a Dropbox folder with all the stuff in. I won't publish your email address on the comments section, so if you want to leave any other comments please do so separately so that I can publish those.

Look out for more posts as the campaign progresses....

Here's a few pics from a practice game I had with gaming buddy Mike W on Monday. We were playing the Battle of Mt Agned and were trying to gain control of the aforementioned Mt Agned while denying the other war band access to the hill.

Mike's dice failed him spectacularly in this game, but they finally came good on the very last turn enabling him to turn a mighty defeat into a close-run one. Basically, when pretty much my entire army (well, apart from the archers and one unit of combrogi that Mike had seen off) was camped on the hill, Mike launched his sole remaining unit (a unit of Duguth) against my Teulu in a suicidal charge to try to contest the hill. He lost the fight and needed to roll 4 on 2 x D6 to stay in the fight. Which he promptly failed to do, but on remembering that the character in his unit was the ASB, he re-rolled and got...A 4!!!!! Brilliant end to the game!! See Mike's blog for his take on events.

'Age of Warlords' WAB Arthurian Campaign Playtest Game

Last week, Andy Mac (one of the 5 Andys at the club!) popped round for a game of WAB. We are about to commence a WAB Arthurian campaign at the club, a bit similar to the Bretwalda thing I ran a few years back (in the blog archives for 2009 if you search about a bit) and this game was a play test of a Drustan and Essylt scenario I have been tinkering with.

I took a Lowland Briton force (basically a combination of Age of Arthur Romano-British and British Kingdoms, so they have shield wall, but are warband  - they play like later Saxons actually) and Andy took a typical Saxon force. In the campaign we use the 'character heavy warband' idea popularised by Paul Leach in his Wargames Illustrated articles from a few years ago, so 1000pt armies including 3-5 characters with no 'kings' and with army lists taken from Age of Arthur, except for the Lowland Britons which I have made up myself, based on Romano-Brits and Welsh, simply because I felt that balanced the armies better with the smaller warbands we are using.

Anyway, back to Drustan & Essylt...

This scenario is basically the defending warband protecting the princess Essylt who has secretly stolen away from her husband to be with her lover, the general of the defending army. The attacking force represents her husband coming to get her back. It's a dawn-attack type scenario, so the attackers have to dice for where units deploy. Defenders are deployed unformed, as they are all asleep. Essylt is in a hut on the edge of the deployment zone and only one unit of defending foot is allowed within 6 inches of the hut on deployment.

Also, it is dark - there may be one or two turns of darkness dependent on a D6 roll. This limits sight and movement, so units may move as far as they can see up to their maximum march rate, may move normally or even not at all while darkness lasts. Defenders also have to pass leadership tests to 'wake up' and form up. This includes the characters who may not be deployed in units at the start of the game!!!

Andy rolled the attacker, so I prepared to defend Essylt. I took 2 Tierns (one as army general) and two Uchelwyrs, (one as ASB) with one unit of 10 mtd Teulu, 2 units of 17 combrogi, who were allowed to upgrade to large shields and thrusting spear at extra cost (using the last of the Roman weaponry and all that...) and a unit of 13 archer skirmishers. Andy took 3 Athelings, a unit of 12 Gedriht, 2 units of about 20 Duguth, one unit of 6 mtd Duguth and 2 units of skirmishers; one a massive 16 models in size!!

Deployment below:

As you can see, most of Andy's force (top of pic) was squashed into his centre by the deployment rules - he basically had to indicate which 4x4 square he wanted each unit in, then, after I deployed my entire force, he diced for each unit. We allowed a re-roll for the General's unit, so he, at least, was where Andy wanted him... This left my Teulu in a potentially great position on my left for swift flanking moves. However, we got two turns of darkness, which messed things up a bit...

Close up of Andy's deployment...

My infantry holding force, deployed between the wood and the hut containing Essylt...

In turn one, all my characters got to move to join their units and wake them up, which was mighty handy! This enabled them to attempt to move, but darkness hindered me here. Similarly, Andy had a few problems with the dark. At least we didn't have war band to worry about (no war band tests in the dark, as you can't actually see anyone!)

At the end of turn one, it looked like this...

By the end of turn two, it was all rather different! Andy had a much better turn of movement, with the pre-dawn murk hardly affecting him at all...sadly, my Teulu decided a bit of pre-dawn mist was too scary, so they stayed still!!! A*rse, feck, b*gger and b*llox!!!!

However, things weren't looking so bad on my other flank, as Andy had set up his skirmishing javelin men close enough to shoot my combrogi, who, not liking this much, decided to see them off, re-directing their charge into the suddenly revealed Duguth when the skirmishers failed their fear test and fled. Now, despite only having thrusting spears, as we only clipped the unit by a couple of blokes, and, as we are close order and therefore get that extra point in combat result, we managed to avoid taking a tw*tting!!

Pulling leaders and characters into the fight then gave me the advantage as I was using thrusting spears, so Andy advanced his remaining Duguth to try to tempt my other combrogi out of the shield wall I had hastily formed in a hopeful attempt at protecting Essylt who remained cowering in her hovel...

Meanwhile, over on my left flank, my Teulu's earlier tardiness was looking like it would prove their undoing as they were going to be forced to charge headlong into the Saxon Gedriht. This, dear reader, is what is known as 'a very, VERY bad thing!!!'

However, clearly God had chosen to side with the good Christian Britons on this day, as I finally managed to break the Duguth on my right. Despite the fact that the general's leadership was available, the other Duguth failed their panic test, I pursued the broken duguth, crashing into the mtd Duguth, who weren't happy at all. In short, the entire Saxon line apart from the Gedriht, soiled its britches and ran. This left me with two key questions:

1. Would my Teulu mangle themselves on the Gedriht?
2. Would the central unit of duguth rally? Important this, as if not, and if my Teulu could survive two turns of combat, I had a unit of combrogi who could possibly flank them pesky Gedriht and tip the balance there...

So, I charged... Bravely (stupidly?) I also reformed the central combrogi unit to face the Gedriht flank and, holding my breath, awaited the combat round...

Which looked like this...I actually won the combat!!! Could I survive the second round in Andy's turn? Would his Duguth rally?

Well, yes...I did survive the round, albeit with only 1 man and the general left in the Teulu....and no...Andy's Duguth failed a second test on leadership 9.... FLANK CHARGE!!!!!!!!!

And that was that...Andy's general died along with the pitiful remnant of his Gedriht, pretty much everything else ran off and that was the end of that! Essylt could remain with her lover...

Aaaahhhhhhhh....how sweet...lovely couple....

So, mighty victory to Bedwyr and the Britons.

Overall, we felt the scenario generally worked. Andy certainly felt it needed no more tinkering with. I, however, having thought about it since, feel that it's a bit too easy for the defender to get his troops in gear quickly, so I will tweak it a little, so that defending troops are not allowed to move on the turn they 'wake up'. This might give the attackers a bit more of a head-start, as, after all, they are the assailants coming in at dawn...

If that whetted your appetite for more, do look out for a series of posts over the next few months as the campaign gets under way. We will be gaming it the second week of each month, so there should be a battle report each time (for my battles) and possibly some narrative as well. I may even try a few more Dark Age battle poems like the last time we tried this kind of idea. Have a backtrack through my blog and look in 2009 for the reports from the previous campaign...