War and Conquest Gaming Weekend, Part 2

The Saturday evening get together at the bar was even more robust, everything is robust these days, than the previous night as we lamented, laughed and joked about the performance of the players and armies, needless to say the dice gods came in for more than their share of stick. Because of the poor standard of food on the Friday I got the main and sweet, and surprisingly the Belgian waffle with salted caramel ice cream was the perfect treat to round off a great day.

Sunday dawned a beautiful sunny day and a few of us got to the hall early and enjoyed sitting in the sunshine waiting for Phil the Key. My first game of the day was against my son's Carolingians, it is a work in progress and he had to borrow some of my Dark Age troops to make up the numbers, I was hoping they would not put up too much of an effort against their boss. Like the Romano British this army had some really good cavalry and some excellent infantry compared to my Saxons, this was another reason I had mounted those Gedriht, to get at least one lot of decent cavalry.

Both sides glower at each other in true Dark Age fashion.

Although Stewart has suffered some defeats recently he has one unit which always manages to perform well and march off the battlefield with its head held high and taunting my victorious troops, this was my chance for revenge, I was looking across the sacred ground for their banner. I had to take the centre of the table and once deployed I saw it was going to be a struggle, it also looked like my flanks could be in a bit of bother, especially my right where not only was there Carolingian cavalry but they were supported by a large battle formation of foot. As the centre of both armies advanced the first actions began on the wings, on my left I managed to get rid of the skirmishers to my front which left our two cavalry units glaring at each other for the rest of the battle, I was not going to attack uphill and Stewart was not coming any nearer to my supporting skirmishers. On the other flank Stewart sent his cavalry into skirmish and advanced, this was a mistake, as my cavalry also had javelins and my slingers in the wood outflanked him, the bold cavalry were quickly withdrawn leaving bodies at the foot of the hill. The main event in the middle had my guys in shieldwall while the Carolingian centre left crashed in, it looked like it was going Stewart's way, one unit lost its shieldwall defence while the other broke and ran, my spirits began to sink, now his favourite elites flung themselves at mine, would this be the end. No, it wasn't, my routers outdistanced his pursuit and did so twice more taking the enemy to the table edge and away from the centre, a frustrating outcome for Stewart. My other unit despite all the odds held on, turned things around and won the melee taking out their opponents, this left only the grudge match in the centre. I killed ten of that infamous unit and it still stood, talk about hard, however it was only a matter of time as they were whittled down by my bodyguard, they broke and ran and received no quarter, they would never forget this dreadful day. I now held the centre and Stewart had no one within reach to contend it, it was a Saxon triumph and a score of 39/7.
 

The Saxon army prepares as the baggage handlers have some refreshments.

The grudge match is well under way and the Saxon king adds his support.

After lunch I faced new player Mike Nursey who had brought along his Dacians, despite not playing WAC before Mike is a seasoned wargamer and his army had given me nightmares at the thought of fighting it. Mike formed up with a nice line of infantry and his heavy cavalry, with bolt shooters, skirmishers and horse archers on his right, his left was guarded by one lone unit of horse archers. Mike had to deploy first which was a change from me doing it, I had had to deploy first in one of the games on Saturday and in many others previously. I put my archer unit on my right as I was confident the horse archers would not stand up to massed fire, then it was a solid line of legionaries with the Auxiliaries in their usual flank position. My right was also heavily supported in order to counter Mike's, I had my heavy cavalry, horse archers and my excellent Lanciarii, if you don't kill these guys early on they can be very dangerous as they are armed to the teeth for light troops. I again had to take the centre, I chose this over raid and paid a Strategy point for it, the Romans are not a raiding type army and I like a good fight. Mike was being cautious and I could have moved straight for the objective and then advanced forward of it and even if Mike had attacked he wouldn't have been able to get near it in one move, but I decided to hit that right flank of his first.

Dacians on the left, the Twelfth Legion on the right.

As the Dacian skirmishers advanced on my left I took some casualties, the Lanciarii especially but nevertheless they charged into the wood and routed a larger unit of javelins, I threw a long range charge into the horse archers and this drove them off as well, I now brought my cavalry forward but kept the cataphracts back to menace their Dacian counterparts who were now moving forward. On the right flank I drove off the cavalry as planned and moved on Mike's flank as he crept slowly forward. Now the Lanciarii again charged and dispersed the javelins and went straight up the hill into the bolt shooters and speared their crews, they then became a menace to the rear of the Dacian line, great stuff. My cavalry also had great success and destroyed their counterparts, the Legionaries did the same to Mike's brave infantry, I could do nothing wrong, the Gods had been listening. It was a very one sided game as my dice throwing was pretty amazing and Mike's was the opposite, I even caught myself feeling sorry for him, man up Anderson you are fighting for the glory of Rome! Mike was left with no option and threw the towel in, this meant I could not claim the objective and it ended 25/7.

Mike's Dacians.

The Thunderbolts ready to strike.

Two very good wins for me and my overall score took me to fifth place, winning and losing is not important during this weekend and the scores are only to add a bit of spice to the games, if anyone does take it serious they are missing the point. Adam Poole (Romans) was the top scorer with Jenny (Celts/Vikings) second, Gary Stark won best painted army with his lovely Republican Romans and young Tom got a prize for putting up with a bunch of adults and his enthusiasm for the game. I got the booby prize, not for my generalship but for leaving all my gear behind on the first day, as I said, it's not serious.

The back slapping part is coming up so you can look away now. Thanks to Phil and Jenny for organising the day, thanks to Dave, Tom, Stewart and Mike for the great games, and thanks to everyone else for turning up and making it a great weekend. Roll on November.