War and Conquest Gaming Weekend

Right, it is that time of the year again, the hall is booked and fourteen or sixteen of us are girding our loins for battle, the finishing touches are being put to several armies for the big day, Phil Turner is busy organising our battles and trying to ensure armies fight like for like while Jenny no doubt is ensuring Phil provides a lunch which ticks all the boxes, any special dietary needs etc.

From the information I received last night we have three periods, Age of Warlords, Dark Ages and Classical, I am in the Age of Warlords section although we are always fully adaptable if things do not go to plan on the day. I am taking The Army of Vortigern, historically he is supposed to have been around in the 5th century and may possibly have been the Bretwalda or high king of Britain, as usual no one is quite sure, he may also never have existed. He is infamous for allegedly bringing the Saxons to England in the form of Hengist and Horsa the famous brothers, the Saxons then of course took over slaughtering everyone in their path. This is the old fashioned view and now as I said his very existence along with that of the two brothers is being questioned, and although there was indeed many battles the Saxon 'conquest' of England may have been more of an assimilation.

My army of course goes along with the old fashioned view as it makes it more interesting. I shall have one British leader, Vortigern and one Allied general to command the unruly Saxon mercenaries, I may find this a disadvantage as I would also like a lesser officer to give some backbone to my levies. The British will have one bodyguard unit backed by Milites and Pedyts with a couple of skirmish units, probably slings, I don't agree with how these are played in WAC but at the same time I don't want to be disadvantaged for my beliefs in a competition, no matter how friendly, it wouldn't be fair to my boys. The Saxon noble will also have a hearthguard along with at least one more unit of warriors, these will be a strike force as the Gedriht are exceptional troops, the others are slightly dodgy in that they have bucklers, these are good in close combat but no use against archers etc. my mercenaries will either do very well or do nothing. I will have at least one cavalry unit, but I will use it as a reserve not as a shock unit, I may regret taking only one. I still have a week left so will no doubt go back to this list several times but it won't change much from the above if at all.

I could have gone for a complete Romano-British or Saxon army but Vortigern has fought once and won once also no point in being boring and it's the playing wot counts. The initial line up came through last night and at the moment I am up against three Romano-British armies and one Western Roman Patrician, the latter destroyed my Saxons at Peterborough a few months ago under Andy Hawes so I am seeking revenge on these effeminate Romans with their lap dog allies albeit
this time they are under Jenny's control.