Victory at Last

At last, a victory on the WAB battlefield, albiet a small won, and one acquired not more than a few hours ago at my regualr gaming group.

Colin and I had arranged a game using the Raid Secnario for a change of pace. This scenario, published in the Sheildwall rules, is meant to represent the conflict surrounding a raid on a small, poorly defended village. Its a race against time as 500pts of attackers race to defeat 250 of defenders before a relief column arrives.

As Colin plays Vikings (Norse from the Western Isles, to be precise) it naturally fell to him to be the agressor, while a small band of my Norman Milites, dismounted and lead by the local Comte, lead a hastily assembled milita in the defence of the village.

I neglected to take Colins army list home with me, so I will graciously ask him to publish it in the comments section after this post. However, oit consisted of four units, each of about 10-15 vikings, including one unit of Hirdsmen. Three of these units were armed with javelins, shields and light armour, the leftmost one deployed in skimrish formation. Behind the middle foot section (I hesitate to call such small bands units) came a section of archers.

In defence of the village, from left to right, were 12 dismounted Milites, with no leader, standard bearer or musician, crouched behind the patchy village walls. The gap where a gate would have been in a more affluent village was held by 2o farmworkers (stats taken from the Raid scenario) armed with handweapons (representing a mix of billhooks, sickles, hoes etc) arrayed in three ranks and led by the Comte himself. To the right of these qyuaking peasants, were five of the Cmotes servants, armed with improvised weapons and stones. Hiding in the village, were five women and children, well back from the action.

At first sight of the dragonships off the Normandy Coast, the Comte - handily visiting one of his bastards with a small escort of his Milites, sent his squire riding back to his castle to summon reinforcements. The scenario called for these reinforcements to begin arriving on a random dice roll at some point after turn 3.

The reinforcements would arrive in the form in 10 mounted milites (again, with no leader, musicians or standard bearer) who were hadily out hunting in the nearby woods. Accompanying them were twenty-one freemen armed with spears, who had been acting as beaters.

Alltogether, including reinforcements, this force amounted to some 750 points, most of them leadership 4 and leadership 5 peasants. Significantly, my "general" was only a Comte and therefore my army did not benefit from the Army General rule allowing all nearby troops to use the generals leadership.

The battle opened immediately badly for Colin. A volley of javelins and arrows aimed at the milites on the left brought down only one of the beaily armoured spearmen, In the centre, the Viking Mate and his captains most faithful retainers charged home against the farmworkers. As Vikings cause fear in units with a leadership of less than 7, a panic roll was required. This was failed, but the sheer numbers of men in the unit. along with the Comtes imposing presence, prevented the hastily assembled mob from fleeing. However, so terrified were they by the awesome reputation of the northman (and perhaps forgetting that their lords were themselves once vikings, that they would need a 6 to score a hit.

Unramarkably, all nine of the mighty Vikings who could reach a target managed to land a blow on their opponent (WS4 vilkings need a 3 or more on on a D6 to hit a WS2 foe) but incredibly only two suffered a wound and, without armour, fell to the ground in a heap. Egged on by the ferocious young Comte, the terrified peasant s struck back but only the Comte was able to land a blow (twice in fact) both of which were turned by the stout shields of the raiders. However, Colins glee turned to annoyance and then dismay as he first realised that my three ranks meant that I had won the combat despite his not loosing a single man and then watched his elite unit fail a panic test and flee.

The Comte, not yet wanting his men to leave the safety of the barricades and leaving their flanks open to attack, held the all-too-willing peasants under his command at the gate, allowing the viking elite to flee. Seeing this, the left most group which had thrown their javelins at the milites (actually lead by the Viking Captain) also broke and ran, as did the archers behinf the first group.

So it was that when the rightmost group of Vikings looked up in glee from the sight of two dead servants pilling their life blood behind the walls and three more turn and run, they saw the rest of their ships crew fleeing the field like women.

The Comtes timid peasant escrt were all too happy to remain within the village boundaries while the only other efective unit on the field, the milites, were old and canny veterens to wise to leave th e safety of the walls at this early stage in the battle. The only Norman movement was the three fleeing servants, whose flight took them near the five terrified mothers sheltering their children in the shadows of the rear wall. However, the five terrified women did not flee at the sight of the three pampered "castle boys" running towards them. They had faith in the stamina and bravery of their men.

So it was that, realising they were not pursued save for the jeers of their comrades on the right, the entire Viking army rallied. The archers took revenge by firing a volley into the peasants, killing several, while the centre group advanced once more towards the peasants and let fly with javelins, killing one more. Meanwhile, the left group of Vikings advanced tanatalisingly close to the Milite position on the left of the field, theri javelins felling another brave young knight in his prime. On the right, the bravest group of vikings on the field moved around to the right flank of the village, seeking entry through a gap in the poorly maintained village wall.

At this point, sensing his flank about to be turned and knowing that he was about to be assaulted on three quarters, lead his men, peasant and Milite alike, into a wild sally. Taken completly by surprise (no peasants had ever been foolish enough to actually attack THEM before) the viking veterns in the centre stood their ground and slew several peasants, but actually took more casualties than they inflicted and lost the combat AGAIN, although this time their desire for vengeance and plunder (as well as their shame) overcame their desire to live.

On the left, the surviving Milites charged over the wall and into the fray against the VIking Captain and his crew. A fierce melee ensued, in which the ferocity, toughness and numbers of the Vikings was negated by the skill and armour of the Norman warriors. Though many fell on both sides, Viking and Knight alike remained firm.

On the right, the three servants, shamed by the courage of the women, turned to gather stones and return to the fight (under the RAID special rules, units less than five strong o not automatically break and may rally). Bravely, three unarmed men moved towards the breech in the right flanking wall and three stones at a dozen armoured, rampaging vikings.

On the Viking turn, the archers moved towards the breech in support of their colleagues, whose javelins brought down only a single servant, while the other two remained steadfast in their defence of the cowering women and children behind them.

On the left, Viking and Milite struck simultaneously. heaby armour alone could not save the brave, but young, knights from the heavy blows of the norse captain and his men, but they reused to break and reduced the party facing them to just eight men against five battered and bloody survivors

In the centre, the Comte slew two vikings, and his men slew one more. Although by now reduced to a bare two ranks rank, there were now only 9 elite vikings facing the Comte and his ten surviving farmhands. The peasants refused to break and neither did the Vikings but the end was now in sight.

At this point it was now my turn 3 and the reinforcements could now enter the board. Colin's hopes had rested on getting his men entrneched in the village before these reinforcements arrvied (hence my charge on turn two to delay this and decrease the chance that his vkings could pursue beaten units into the villgae itself). Inside the village, they would be safe from a massed cavalry charge (the tightly packed huts meant I would only be able to charge my Mounted milites two knights breast, reducing the chance of an automatic break due to their ferocious charge ability). Additionally, two of his three melee units were reduced to a half dozen figures or so, the only one with more than ten was sitting with its flank exposed to any reinforcements within easy charge distance of my table edge and without the villages protective walls around it.

In addition to the knights, the unit fo libres I has purhased as reinforcement held nearly as manyu melee troops (21) as Colins entire army at this point, and while they carried only spears and had no armour protection, their rank bonus meant they would overrun anyone who would stand against them.

At this point, Colin conceeded, even without waiting for the reinforcement roll to be made. We both agreed that this time he had been the one killed by the dice (those farmhands should have been broken on turn one) but that the game had been fun overall. I suggested that next time we should both agree on a unit size cap and that I would leave out the Milites to keep things interesting past turn 3. In truth, mu inlcusion of mounted troops in my reinforcements really stacjed the deck in my favour.

COlin had gambled that he could have outflanked me due to his greater number of units, but he had lost sight of his objective by not sending his skirmishers on the left (led by his general) around the back of my line to torch buildings (25 vp per building) and kill the women and children (another 25 vp each ) while pinning my two main combat units (the farmhands and milites) in place with his other units.

I on thether hand, felt justified in sticking as many farmhands (at 2 points each)as I coudld afford into one big unit as I had to spend at least 50 points on villagers and needed to take at least 5 of each type (farmhand, servants and women/children). As the farmhands were the most melee competant I picked a large number of them to offset their hideous combat deficiency and give them my single permitted charavter as a leader. The gamble paid off (but just barely) and I should by rights have been loosing four of five or them a turn.

I do believe however, that taking the horsemen (while realistic- after all, who else would be able to get to the village in time to save it if not horseman) was not sportsmanlike. At the very least, I could have made them flemish, taking away the lances and fercoious charge so that colins troops would have some chance against them. But to competely fair, next time I will leave mounted troops out altogether.

Next week, 2000 pts vs Julians Moors and then a Lord of the Rings scenario the week after.

First Engagement.

No, I`m not getting married. As promised, here is the Battle Report for my first ever game of WAB, 1300pts of disciplined Norman ranks against 1300 pt of Viking Horde. Vikings played by Colin. Norman's run by me. The result, you'll find, was quite satisfactory for us both. Cos we both had fun.

The Tabletop: The table top was mostly flat level ground. I arrived last so Colin had already set up the board with "symmetrical" terrain to ensure the ground did not provide an advantage to either side. In my left quarter there was a hill, level ground in the centre and woods on my right. In the centre of the table was a field of crops which allowed half movement and did not block line of sight (No, 15 feet of corn will not stop an arrow!). On my left Colin had a wood on his side of the table and a hill on my right.



A Brief Word ABout Photo's:

There are a lot of very bad, poor quality photo's scattered around this battle report. Believe it or not, these are the ones that turned out best. For some reason the flash on my digital camera had packed in and as we've already seen my cameras autofocus isnt exactly top class. So I can only apologise for the very poor quality of these pictures. Colin had a very well painted army, but it doesn't show through well in these pics. Any naked figures you see are my own: I`m ashamed to admit it, as I HATE playing with naked miniatures (I`m a bit of a paint Nazi, it's true).


Oh yeah, about the "naked"balsa wood movement trays. Yes, I know, they are very garish. But I only finished painting and flocking the movement trays last night. As I had to blue tack the figs to the base for transport I fixed them to the underside of the base. I didnt want the flock coming off before I'd had time to give it a PVA wash over the top. The idea was to arrive early and then place the minaitures on the trays the "right" way up. But due to running late at work (fixing other peoples mistakes, as usual) there wasn't time to sort things out before the beginning of play.



The Armies:

Vikings

I didn't think to ask Colin for a copy of his list, so this is not an exact breakdown. But from my left to his right:

1 unit of 13 skirmishing Hirdmen (Hirdmen) with Double Handed Axes and Throwing Spears (began in the woods on Colin's side of the table.

A fairly large unit of Bondir (Bondir 1) with throwing spears and handweapons. Maybe twenty-four strong.
This unit deployed directly opposite the hill on my left. 4 ranks.

A second, larger unit of Bondir (Bondir 2) with throwing spears and two-handed axes, accompanied by a Godir. Directly opposite the crop field. 4 ranks

A unit of around 24 Hirdmen (Bodyguard) led by the Army General. Double handed axes and throwing spears. Includes 3 Berserkers. Facing crop field. 4 ranks

A unit of about ten skirmishing archers (Archer 1) deployed in front of Bondir 1 and the Hirdsmen, screening them both.

A final unit of ten skirmishing archers (Archer 2)deployed on the hill to my fight.

Normans:

Again from my left to my right.

21 Dismounted Milites, (Milite Foot) thrusting spears, heavy armour, shield.
Deployed on the rear slope of the hill on my left. 3 ranks.

12 Coloni Skirmishers (Coloni) with bow. Skirmishers. Deployed on the hill crest.

16 Serjents (Serjents) with lightarmour, shield and double handed weapons. Deployed opposite Bondir 2 and facing the crops. Light Infantry. 3 ranks.

21 Liberi (Liberi) with shield and spear. Deployed to the right of the Serjents. Facing Crop Field. 3 ranks.

11 Mounted Milites plus Dux (Knights) deployed slightly behind and between the Serjents and the Liberi. 2 ranks.

The forest on my right remained empty (apart from dice and "dead" miniatures) for the duration of the game.

I set up second and finished first. Colin won the first round (which suited me fine).

THE BATTLE

Turns 1 and 2:

On turns 1 and 2, the Viking Line advanced along its length, with the Hirdmen on my left moving forward to flank my forces on the hilltop. My Serjents, Liberi and Knights marched to meet the Vikings while the Milite Foot on the hill stood their ground. My shooting was largely ineffective, but it did suffice to reduce the numbers of Bondi unit 1. The Viking shooting was far more formidable. The Liberi were quickly reduced to a single rank and some change by the end of turn 2. However, they were know firmly in place and ready to charge the Viking Archer unit screening his battle line (Archer 1). I knew that once they drove off these pesky skirmishers, the Berserks would unleash their fury against these sacrificial lambs. Whether it was the bravery of their hearts or the thought of being run down by their own Knights should they turn and run, they passed every panic test (one per turn) and advanced steadily into position. The Godir chose this moment to leave Bondir unit 2 and join the Bodyguard in anticipation of a charge by the oncoming cavalry.

By this point, the First unit of Bondir were also at the base of the hill on my left.

Norman Turn 3.

The Viking Bondir at the foot of the hill chanted and jeered as they tried to entice the Milite Foot down from the hill, the crest of which they had advanced to at the beginning of the battle. However, the poor-sighted Bondir leader (no doubt squinting as the sun reflected off the shiny helmets of his foes) was unable to discern that the Milite Foot were in heavy armour, and could not have charged them even had they been foolish enough to give up the hill.

Meanwhile, on the right the Liberi let out a mighty yell and charged the Viking Archer unit screening the Bodyguard. Though a few more of these brave and doughty warrior (with the encouragement of their Duke and their own unit leader) fell as the cowardly Bondir fired and ran, their failed charge did bring them close enough to the Bodyguard that they could see the rolling eyes and frothing mouths of the three berserks struggling to break free from their comrades and wreck bloody havoc upon the field.

Meanwhile, the Knights cheered the brave sacrifice of their peasant levy, advancing behind them in anticipation of the gap they would open in the line. This would be a path leading straight to the Viking General, his bodyguard and a moment of Norman glory.

To the Liberi's left, the Serjents advanced into the cornfield. Their shouted challanges and crude gestures made clear their intentions to engage the second and largest unit of Bondir at the earliest opportunity. This was a clash the fierce vikings seemed to anticipate with relish. Meanwhile, the Coloni screening the Milites atop the hill moved round to screen the left flank of theMilite Foot from the encroaching Hirdmen skirmishers.

Viking Turn 4

The Viking General and his Hirdmen could restrain their frothing maniacs no longer. Two of the three berserkers burst from the unit, storming into the sorrowful remnents of the Liberi and ripping them to pieces, accompanied by gales of laughter from the Bodyguard. A third berserker, seeing an whole regiment of Norman Serjents before him, could not resist the thought of attacking so large a unit single-handedly and was quickly cut down for his trouble, having claimed only a single mercenary to wait upon his table in Valhalla.

The small unit of Bondir on the Norman left maintained their position beneath the hill, waiting for their Hirdmen skirmishers to move into position and steeling themselves for a bloody slaughter. The Hirdmen themselves moved to engage the Coloni at a run but could not reach them this turn, eager to avenge the single shield-brother who had so far fallen to Norman archery.


Above: " I taunt you a second time!".

Meanwhile, the Viking Bodyguard inched backwards in horror of the coming charge, but despite their best efforts at "finding surer ground" they knew they could not hope to put sufficient distance between themselves and the Norman horseflesh bearing down upon them

The viking archers upon the hill and those who had fled from the Liberi assault now turned their bows upon the now screenless Norman Knights. Three knights and their mounts died screaming under Viking Arrows, and the brave knights gritted their teeth and the loss of so much noble blood in so unseemly a fashion. Yet their Dux's strong will and calls for order kept the maddened knights from wasting their charge upon such unmanly foes. The knights, couching their lances, grinned evilly as they summoned up thoughts of revenge, anticipating the slaughter their powerful lances would wreck amongst the Viking Hirdmen of the Bodyguard.

Norman Turn 4.

The proud company of Norman knights let fly their brave battle-cry and charged across the hoof churned, blood-soaked earth. They barely paused to swat the now exhausted and near dead bersekers out of their path. With a great and mighty crash, the Norman Knights wreaked a mighty havoc in the Viking ranks, three hirdmen of the Bodyguard fell beneath the lances of Milites and Dux and another two fell beneath the mighty blows of iron-shod hooves. Yet the Danish axes, swung with all the desperate might of hardened men, took blood of their own, the Viking General himself claiming three more brave knights. For a moment it seemed the Viking line would break, but then, just as the Norman musicians throat was dried from fear and dust, the Viking hornblower let air a mighty note. With fresh vigour, the Danish forces pushed into the Shieldwall. Hacking left and right, Dux Baldwin looked first to the screaming horses and dying men around him, then to the Vikings with their deadly axes before him, and he knew their line would not break. Deciding that to stay and fight against such numbers with the momentum of the charge all but lost was far less attractive than the thought of Viking arrows he led his brave retinue out of the fight in good order. There, sufficiently distant that no Viking charge could reach them, he set about re-organising his much reduced line and made ready for another charge.
Above: The surviving knights as they begin to fall back in good order.


The brave and doughty Serjents, seeing that their general was leading the flower of their army away from the melee, recognised that their intent was to reform and charge again. They did not panic, but steeled themselves for the coming onslaught. A few moments later they had advanced to the edge of the wheatfield.

Viking Turn 5/Norman turn 5


All across the battlefield the two armies jockeyed for position. On the left, the Hirdsmen finally manouvred themselves into a favourable position where they could charge next turn. The Bondir at the foot of the hill finally seemed to notice how heavily armoured the Milite Foot were when the Normans began to advance down the forward slopes. They continued taunting the Vikings trying to entice a reckless charge. Thus allowing the Norman Coloni better shots at the Hirdmen. Even so, the feudal serfs were so terrified by the sights and sounds around them that they only felled a single Hirdmen between them.

On the Norman centre: disaster. The retreat of the Knights became a rout. Though the Dux struggled mightily to reassemble his line in some sort of order, the hail of viking arrows and the death of two more knights started a panic he was powerless to prevent. Cursing his men for women and worse, he was left to ride after them waving his sword in the air, shouting "Rally, Rally!" to no avail.

Viking Turn 6

All across the battlefield, the Viking horde gave voice to a mighty cheer. The Hirdsmen on the Norman left charged the Coloni, who paused to fire a single arrow each before fleeing. However, so shaken were they by Viking might that not a single arrow struck home with sufficient force to piece mail. The brave Hirdsmen, thwarted by this cowardly retreat, instead charged home into the flanks of the Milite Foot on the hill ( I forgot about the redirecting charges rule). Seeing this, the more timid Bondir at the foot of the hill also finally charged forward to join the fight. Two brave Norman spearmen were quickly cut down from behind and a third from the fore, but the doughty spearmen, knowing that though their flanks were threatened, the high ground was theirs, stubbornly refused to flee. They fought on, slaying two of the Hirdsmen and two Bondir. Even without their rank bonus, this made the combat a draw. Though once again Viking Horns sounded louder than Norman trumpets, the Dismounted milites stood firm and unshaken. They fought on.

Meanwhile, across the cornfield the situation seemed just as bleak. The charge of the second Bondir unit was preceded by a veritable shower of throwing spears. Yet the doughty Serjents, seasoned by generations of similar campaigns, simply cowered behind their great kite shields and took the weapons of their enemies upon them without complaint or the loss of a single man. Only when the vikings closed with axes did the first Serjent fall. But then, the Normans struck back with powerful Danish axes of their own, and while only a single Bondir fell, the brave song of the Norman trumpet and the sheer nonchalance with which the Serjents accepted the Viking charge took the fight out of their enemy. Suddenly remembering urgent business elsewhere, the largest Viking unit on the field took to their heels and fled. However, not one would live to attend to that business. As they fled, the Norman mercenaries pursued pitilessly, so that in a few sheer, brutal moments, theViking line was penetrated. Their largest "warband" had been massacred in flight. The Viking line was split and the Norman axemen were behind their Lines.

Above: The crucial moment before...... and (below) after the Viking Line Breaks. The batle on the hill (the miniatures have been moved slightly forward off the hill to stop them falling over) can be seen in the background. Well, sort of "seen" anyway. The unit in the foreground below is the Viking Bodyguard.





Where once, just a moment ago, it had seemed that all was lost for the brave defenders of Caen, now victory seemed once again within their grasp.

Norman Turn 6:

Above: The Battle on the Hill Top.

"Look you fools. Stop! They flee! They flee!"The Norman Dux was finally able to raise the spirits of his few surviving knights and squires. They once again turned their faces towards the battle. Seeing that their dismounted brothers and kin were near-surrounded atop the hill, the Knights spurred their horses to their relief them. But night was falling and the Dux already knew the battle would be over before he could reach his men. He cursed the wasted opportunity to acheive victory. With just another hour of daylight he could crush the Viking Bodyguard between proud horseflesh and Norman Serjents. Instead all he could do was spur his horse towards his embattled spearmen. Preying without much hope that the sight of his rapidly approaching horsemen would steal their hearts and convince them to fight on until full dark enveloped the battlefield, he urged his horse ever onward with lash and spur.

Atop the hill two more brave milites fell to Viking axes, by now the Norman line was breaking as men and burly Hirdsmen pushed their way into the gaps. For a long, dreadful moment the standard wavered, it feel to the ground from the hands of the brave Milite who carried it only to be taken up in the hands of another. As the line began to break, this brave young squire, Baldwin II, nephew od the Dux, peered to the left over the heads of his defeated countrymen and cried out:

"The Dux, the DUX! The DUX has come!"

With that, the brave warriors put their backs into the fray, not wanting to be shamed before their lord. On till darkness they fought, and when the surviving warriors of both sides left the field, none could say for sooth whether their battle had been one or lost. It seemed then, that the only reward for their valour would be another battle on the morrow....

Summary:

This was a very tight, close game, which could have gone either way. At one point, when 600pts worth of my army were riding away into the sunset, Colin suggested that now would be a good time to concede. But like a true tenacious Scot, I said "nah!" and fought on. And just as well. For in the very next turn, when all seemed lost and Colin was rolling a terrifingly large number of dice, his Bondi broke and ran. After taking just one casualty and then failing the roll off (Although my banks ranks were still in difficult ground, their light infantry status meant that I kept the +2 rank bonus)! Just like that, Colin had lost his largest unit and a strong infantry unit was behind his lines with only skirmishing archers and a much reduced Bodyguard to face them. It wasn't until after the game that Colin realised he should have moved his Godi back into the Bondi unit after my knights were chased off.

As it was, I hadn't even realised that he'd moved the Godi into the Bodyguard in the first place If I had, I wouldn't have been so eager to charge them with my knights. Not without inflicting a few missile casualties first! Ferocious charge would have done nothing to break them and with no rank bonus left and only str3 vs toughness 5 after the first round of combat, there was no way they would win a protracted fight. But such is life. Its a shame though, when those dice came up six and five for the break test, even the presence of the general nearby couldn't stop those Bondi fleeing. And THEN the Serjents pursued 11" into Colins side of the board to contest an otherwise secure table quarter. Its funny how one roll of the dice can change everything.

Speaking of which (and jumping around a bit here) I would say it's probably best not to go charging formed units of troops, even with my powerful cavalry, without softening them up first or going for the flanks. But Colin just had far too may skirmishers for me to be able to do that. At least not without clearing them out first.

One of the many things I did learn from this inconclusive battle (the points total to each side was damn near even, with one quarter and one banner each and nearly the same points value removed from the table) is that skirmishers really ARE far more useful in WAB than in WFB. I already knew this from conversations with other players (as well as games of Rome: Total War) but seeing is believing. I knew I was going into this battle short of skirmishers and it hurt me when I couldn't counter Colins very good quality skirmish line with my own( I was outnumbered 3 to one in skirmishers). In fact, those skirmishing archers of his very nearly cost me the game. First by taking away the knights Charge Bonus (they would have won the first round of combat otherwise) and then routing them a turn later.

In retrospect, perhaps I should have chased them off with my cavalry. However, using the knights in this way would have taken my generals high leadership away from the main battle line for at least a turn. All for the sake of a few hundred points of archers. If I'd done that they might never have gotten into the main battle at all, and that would be a considerable waste of nearly half my armies total points value.

I also learned a big Viking weakness: throwing spears are great in that first round of combat, (witness the effect on my Knights) but in a long drawn out fight, the guy with the thrusting spears will proabably win. Especially when you factor in that most Norsemen fight as Light Infantry. If it hadn't been for the Hirdsmen charging their flank and some bad dice rolling on my part, the Foot Milites would have wiped the floor with those Bondir in turn 6 and possibly even in turn 5.

Colin was also kind enough to break his usual habit and take some berserkers to show me how they work. He was right of course, they were too easy to counteract by sacrificing a few, cheap troops, even with Colins clear superiority in skirmishers. That's another one of my bugbears laid to rest.

Colin was a great sportsman throughout and really let down by his dice. He completely outmanouvred me, despite having an entirely infantry based forced. Turn 5 should really have been the nail in the coffin for me. It was Colins bad luck that kept me in the game, although I call it revenge for the poor marksmanship of my Coloni, who killed just three miniatures in six turns of shooting!!!. I also had my own share of bad luck, especially with saving throws. And in rolling a ten for my generals break test. Luckily though, the Knights were by this point too far away to risk breaking my Serjents as well.

He was very patient with my mistakes and even let me move my Serjents back a few inches when he explained that the distance a berserker charges is not affected by terrain penalties as I had assumed. Most significantly though, he pointed out the presence of my general within 12" of the Milites and happily admitted that I had passed my break test as a result. Thus, in speaking up he ensured he had held me to an honorable draw at the price of a less honorable victory. In the end, another turn would probably have won the Colin the battle. My Serjents were not in a position to charge the bodyguard, the Knights would have needed to spend a turn manouveing before they could charge into the fray and the stand on the hill could have collapsed at any moment. Colin might not agree, but if we played another turn he'd have won.

Thanks Colin, for a great game, full of excitement till the end. I hope to play you again soon: but this time you'll be facing his holiness Baldwin II, (the Dux's nephew) and the holy armies of the diocese of Caen!

Above: Colin ponders his next move as the Liberi move into charge range.