Saxons II: No Mercy

 I couldn't make the club this week so to get my weekly fix I offered Kevin another game as he had intimated that he wanted to try some different tactics. He used the same army list as previously while I decided to beef up everything I could, so I had two elite Gedriht units and some armoured Duguth warriors, gone were the Picts.

We lined up unit by unit and I noticed that Kevin's right was weak, so I put a Gedriht unit opposite, the rest of the plan was to hold the centre until I was ready to attack while keeping an eye on my right. The Saxons do not have a lot of skirmishers, which I think is historical but it nevertheless is a bind on the wargame table, I had decided to take a bunch of javelin armed lights this time as they are always left behind for bowmen, I wanted to hunt enemy skirmishers with them.

Romano-British on the left, Saxons on the right.

The game started well, I took some missile casualties on my left while dishing out some on my right, I did manage to rout a large unit of bowmen with the javelins but it rallied later and came back for a time before leaving for good. My attack on the British  right went well although I failed to catch the routers which meant in essence that my unit here was out of action for the rest of the battle as it had to keep chasing the none too keen enemy.

The Saxons watch confusion in the British ranks.

Meanwhile Kevin had made a very successful assault on my right, I lost my light cavalry to his mounted Comitatus which then went on to charge in and over my Ceorls, this left one unit of Duguth facing defeat as its flank now looked very dodgy. All was not lost however, just as the British seemed on the cusp of victory I knocked out several more units in the centre and this time caught them, as in the last battle it was up to Kevin's foot Comitatus to hold so that he could polish off my right. Sadly for him the unit had already lost men to missiles and as my killers followed their king downhill they savagely cut down the British Dux's companions, the rout of their leader and his men allowed me to turn my reserves towards my dodgy right. I also managed to get the last initiative and go first, this meant it was all over for the British.

The British centre and right in trouble.

The javelin armed skirmishers had done very well, and they managed to stay alive as they used a small copse of trees to shield them as they advanced. Kevin's points poured into his mounted Comitatus actually worked against the Saxons as they really have no counter for this heavy cavalry and unless lucky enough to get decent infantry into them can only harass them for the duration hoping they fall victim to missiles.

I think our next game will be in two weeks or so with some luck, if Kevin's Greeks are ready then it will be time to march out the Twelfth, looking forward to that.