I'm Back! Raiding Season Campaign Game 1

Well, yes...I'm still here! Having been forced by a number of circumstances, including total painting burnout, to back off from painting and gaming in general, I have, at last, been tempted back!

So, to get me back in the mood for some serious Dark Age gaming action for 2012 (can't say anything official yet, but it's gonna be HUGE), I persuaded my mate Carl to play the WAB Age of Arthur Raiding Season campaign with me.

I have taken Northern Welsh against his early Saxon kingdoms, so, in game 1, Urien of Rheged (me!!) won the dice-off and became the attacker, launching a massive raid South into Mercia against Carl's pagan horde!

The first game in the campaign is 'Bassas Ford'. No pics, as Carl's whole army is unpainted and anyway, I Carl deployed his whole army, (1 unit of Gedriht + General, 2 x Duguth, one lead by his ASB, the other by a Wiglera, 1 unit of Geoguth and 2 of skirmishers) while I deployed a unit of javelinmen, a unit of mounted combogi with theri character (Owein, a Tiern). He then fought a prolonged challenge against an Atheling (who I presume led Carl's Geoguth...) For each turn the challenge lasted, I was able to deploy a further unit plus accompaying characters and luckily, our challengers were so shite at fighting that I was able to deploy all my units before my Tiern finally hacked his opponent to the ground and, having removed his head and waved it at the growling Saxons, made his way back to his mounted combrogi!!

The scenario is all about the attacker getting his general and lots of units over a river running diagonally across the whole length of table, with a central ford and flanking (very narrow) bridge! I therefore weighted my mounted Teulu (+ Urien and his ASB) and my mounted combrogi led by my Tiern onto the flank and decided to sacrifice the poor bloody infantry (2 x 23 combrogi led by Uchelwyrs) and 1 x 15 combrogi. As our troops are all light open order, we decide that the river rules in the supplement superceded all WAB 2.0 difficult ground rules otherwise the river was no real barrier.

The game went well! Predictably, my combrogi facing the Gedriht were annihilated, as were the 15 facing off against the Geoguth. The unit facing the Duguth lasted most of the game before eventually being run down. However, my mounted combrogi forced a flank crossing in the face of Saxon javelinmen and my Teulu ground the Wiglera's Duguth into the dust, the Rex challenging and slaughtering the Wiglera into the bargain. This meant that I had the general and 2 units across the river, fulfilling the 'close-run victory' conditions I'd aimed for with nothing Carl could do about it!! Huzzah!!!

In the post-game character dice rolling, the Saxon Wiglera escaped lasting injury, as did one of my Uchelwyrs. The Saxon Atheling and the other Welsh Uchelwyr both suffered wounds, the Saxon being reduced to WS 3 and the Uchelwyr reduced to 1 wound!!

So, one up to the Welsh and in a couple of weeks, we will play game 2, which, as I won a close-run victory, is the 'Roman Road', where Carl's 1000pts wil try to ambush my 1500pt column and prevent me exiting the board!!!

Watch out for a report on that around 5th Sept ish.

And keep popping back, cos I have Welsh cavalry on the painting table, testing a new 'speed painting' technique using army painter dip and 1 highlight - here's a picture of some WW1 Brits I painted a couple of months ago using the technique... Twice as quick as my layering, although how it'll work with Dark Age troops, especially the horses, who knows??!!! In the next week or so, hopefully, we'll find out!