Rob of the Britons v Rob of the Saxons

With my new upgraded warbands ready to take to the field I decided to play another by email War and Conquest game but this time using my Dark Age armies, no fancy troop types no fancy tactics just a good old fashioned slugfest with the last man standing being the winner. Rob Broom (Rob B) was once again happy to play but I wanted to sit this one out and offered the part of the Romano-British commander to mate Rob Martin (Rob M). Rob B of course is a WAC veteran while Rob M up until now had only played one game, he is however a veteran wargamer and I would keep him abreast of the rules. The Saxons chose two cavalry units and five battle formations supported by skirmishers and Pict mercenaries, the British although the larger army had not upgraded many of their formations and also took several untrustworthy Pedyt units with low morale to make a second line of battle, they did take two Comitatus units, one foot and one mounted led by the Dux himself, the Saxon king was surrounded by his hearthguard and noble Gedriht. From the deployment the Saxons were counting on an attack on the British left while Rob M seemed set on taking the hills to his front.

Sure enough the opening moves went as expected, the only thing which suprised me was the British moving their mounted Milites to the left flank, to me this meant the Saxon left did not need to worry about being outflanked or harrassed by the British cavalry and could possibly in their turn harrass the British right. The centre lines of both armies now found themselves facing each other from the hills, the Saxon flank attack had swept away some British skirmishers but left themselves open to the slingshots from more enemy skirmishers. The British second line was now moving in support of the main line. The battle had reached a crises and whoever got the initiative for the next turn would get a jump on the enemy, it was the Dux.

The British line leapt forward and although they had the advantage the Saxon King held his ground as did his young warriors close by, the Duguth along the line holding the hill with every advantage were unceremoniously swept away by Milites 2 in a shock to the Saxon line. On the Saxon left things also turned nasty as the Dux's Comitatus moving forward caused the slingers to run taking the nearby archers with them, on the extreme left the British archers also sent the Saxon javelins packing. It was now the Saxon's turn to take the initiative, the tormented mounted Geoguth rode down the slingers but meeting Peydt 3 was too much to ask and they dispersed, the remaining cavalry threw themselves against Milites 3 while on the left the Ceorls now moved down from their safe hill and the warriors of Geoguth 2 charged the surprised Dux and his escort. Just as it looked like the Saxons had recovered the Gedriht broke from the renewed pressure of the Comitatus and they died around their wounded leader. Things were not all bad however as both Geoguth units were fighting like Trojans and the rallied Duguth and javelin skirmishers had caused the otherwise victorious Milites 2 to rout.