Saturday (First Day)

 The small War and Conquest weekend I had planned started with the arrival of Stewart for a bite to eat at about 0800, then Mike and Mark from the Leicester area at 0900 replete from a Premier Inn breakfast. Introductions were made and we got right into the swing of things, Stewart and Mike had a Roman clash (Stewart out of his depth commanding the Twelfth) while I faced off against Mark's Normans with my Patrician Romans. I have fought Normans a few times and have never beaten them, in fact I was pulverised on both occasions so I approached this game with some trepidation, my infantry were outclassed by the enemy, apart from one unit of Auxilia Palitina, however my cavalry were very good. Let battle commence.

I decided to attack on my left and hold back my right until I had sorted out the Norman flanking force, hopefully by shooting them to death, meanwhile if I could get near the massed archers I should be able to beat them in hand to hand combat. Things went well if slowly on my left, Mark's skirmishers simply would not run away and preferred to die where they stood, I cautiously moved up my one elite Legion only to have it charged by Normans on the hill. My boys stood like a stonewall, stopped, then beat the charge. Elsewhere my plan to shoot down the flanking cavalry was working a treat so I moved my centre up while keeping my poorest Legion back just in case.

Normans on the left, Patricians on the right.

With my cavalry now threatening the Norman right Mark threw caution to the winds and charged into my troops at the foot of the hill, I countered by charging my Bucellari into a weakened enemy infantry force which had suffered from the missile fire coming from the Huns and the bodyguard. Cavalry do not have a lot of luck in WAC and once again they took their sweet time to beat their foes but did manage it and ran them down like the dogs they are. Meanwhile Quinta Macedonica had beaten one of the archers units and turned to come back into the fray, my troops in the centre stood their ground in shieldwall and also vanquished the enemy. It was a Roman victory.

The end.

I was surprised at the result of this game as the Normans never managed to really threaten me and my troops fought very well, despite the cavalry not being too keen. My archers saw off the menacing Norman cavalry and Mark forgot the infantry on that flank for at least one turn as they were sitting under a wood, this basically meant they had no effect on the game

Stewart and Mike meanwhile looked to be having a desperate battle but Stewart lost out in the end, and Mike got a convincing win.

Romans left (Mike), Romans right (Stewart)

After lunch I lined up my Saxon Heptarchy against Stewart's Carolingians, I owed these guys a thumping after their last victory. I am fairly confident with the Saxons and again decided to lead with my left and then perhaps hit the enemy center while waiting to see what happened on my right, it worked in the first game. Things started well and sure enough I routed the right most Carolingian unit but they managed to run for the hills and escaped to rally later, this was an upset as I had to keep the victorious troops where they were rather than swing in against the enemy line. On the right I managed to shoot down the Carolingian cavalry but then made the mistake of sending my cavalry on a wide flanking move, only to find out the hill was difficult terrain and it was going to take me forever to get over it.

Saxons left, Carolingians right.

Just before it went to hell.

Now Stewart sent everything forward, my one time victorious troops were now routed by the returning enemy as was their support, my left had gone. My only bright spot was my harassed hearthguard under the King managed to hit some pursuers and rout them, they continued on into a second unit and beat them as well, but it was too little too late. Elsewhere my army fell apart, in a short while I had once again been trounced by the Carolingians and only the King, his Gedriht and the slowcoach cavalry remained.

 On the second table Mark fought Mike's Romans with his Normans, out of period but the whole weekend was a friendly. I think this was a hotly contested game but the Romans eventually came out on top, I was too engrossed in my own horrors to notice much.

Normans left, Romans right.

 So that was the first day over, one good win and one disastrous defeat, Mike had edged into the lead while the rest of us were within a few points of each other. We retired to the pub for the Recrimination Phase and moaned throughout about army lists and rules, as you do, we retired fairly early with all to play for on the Sunday.