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Another Battle in our Campaign.  Mike’s Romano British yet again took on Phil’s Picts and Angles in another of Arthur’s battles.  This time it was another one of the Twelve Battles of King Arthur: on the River Tribruit.

We used Mike’s official To the Strongest Battlemat and wooden counters.  Excellent.

The Romano-British deployed first with Arthur’s cavalry appearing on the right flank as soon as the East Angles had deployed opposite the Romano-British infantry. This meant the Pict spearmen had to deploy behind the East Angles in a long line starting from the far left flank. One unit was left out of command and hardly moved all battle whilst another ended up drawing it’s in command status from the Senior general himself so as to support the East Angles flank.

The East Angles and Picts advanced rapidly towards the Romano-British who kept a tight line and a skirmish screen of infantry. Then Arthur’s cavalry surged forwards but the Pictish spearmen held their ground. They then pushed the cavalry back who evaded in disorder whilst the infantry lines closed.

Arthur was able to rally his cavalry just before they were pushed off the baseline at spear point and they in turn charged the spearmen. This time the spearmen were in disorder as reinforcements raced to close any potential gaps. Javelin armed Angle skirmishers slowed the cavalry enough to give the spearmen some time to rally.

In the centre the East Anglian Warband Hearthtroop smashed through the Roman lines, slaughtering the proud First Legion and threatened the camps. To the far Roman left the Pictish cavalry had been skirmishing and harassing all this time supported by the King and his Noble cavalry. Eventually a break through came when the infantry became disordered from javelin fire and the Pictish cavalry finally stopped evading and charged. The British held but the cavalry could now move around to the rear and threaten the Roman camps too.

As dusk fell Arthur withdrew his shattered infantry forces and victory was awarded to the Picts who now had even more booty to take North as they turned towards Eboracum itself intent on further plunder.

Notes:  The Army Lists used were based more on the Late Roman or Post Roman Gallic lists than those in To the Strongest.  This was based on my reading for example the Warhammer Age of Arthur Supplement, the idea being a force inspired by a Leader of Battles and Professional soldiers still existing in some form along the wall in Coel Hen, Northern Britain.  So they were classed as Legions and Auxilia having some military training, living in Forts or Garrisons with access to old Roman methods and Manufacturing skills to provide arms and armour plus trade with Roman or post Roman Western Europe.  I would not have classed them the same should they be fighting the professional soldiers from the Eastern Empire or the height of Roman Britain prior to Macsen Wledig.

However I think this better describes them compared to untrained/ poorly drilled militia troops who are correctly described as just Javelinmen.  This makes quite a difference in the battle as saving on a 6 is much easier especially when facing cavalry and the extra manoeuvrability of the Legionaries also comes to play when making diagonal, sideways or rearward moves.  Compare this to the difficulties faced by the Spearmen or Warbands especially.  This led to a better game at least than simply brushing aside lots of militia with Elite Shock Armed Deep Warbands and Veteran Spearmen.  Next time however it maybe that the citizens of the Roman North need to defend their lands alongside Arthur’s Cavalry, especially with the loss of the First Legion in the Battle of the River Tribruit described above!

Mike and Phil played their first game of To the Strongest.  The battle was Arthur’s eleventh battle of Bregouin.

Mike played as the Romano-British against Phil’s Picts.  Phil deployed his spearmen infront of the British cavalry.

We used the battleboards marked out in 15cm boxes.

The Angles appeared to be reluctant allies especially the cavalry and left the PICTS to do all the work.  Eventually with to Romano British threatening the camps and the captured booty within the Picts decided to withdraw affording a minor but definite victory to the Romano British.  Congratulations Mike.  Both players enjoyed the new rules.

Arthur’s 11th Battle (Battle of Bregouin).

Using the To the Strongest rules I played a learning solo game of this Battle, which I set at Ribchester in Northern England in the Romano-British period.

The forces set out for battle. Picts and Angles to the East and British to the West. The road runs from North to South with the Watch tower to the North.

The Romano-British.

The Picts with the Angles on the Southern flank and the Pictish King and his cavalry held in reserve, light cavalry to the flanks.

The Roman line advances steadily. A unit of light archers gets carried away with its enthusiasm but fails to fire.

The Elite Romano-British veterans beneath the Banner of the Virgin Mary.

Artorius beneath the bear banner with his cavalry.

The Picts also advance rapidly. The unit of archers has succeeded in drawing out one unit ahead of the line of spears (being caught and Lost doing so).

The Pictish King rides to fill the gap and the Angle cavalry fail to move at all. A theme that gets oft repeated throughout the battle!

The lines close to the North as the British cavalry advance to the South.

As the spearmen clash with the Romano-British infantry a gap opens in the British line.

The British Elite though stand firm beneath their Holy Banner.

The British cavalry drive away the Barbarian cavalry (who evade). The Angle cavalry remain motionless whilst all this goes on around them.

Subsequently the Romano-British clashed with the Angle and Pictish cavalry destroying the former and driving off the Picts who evaded.  The Picts returned once on the Southern flank but then switched to the Northern flank once they were forced to evade again.  As the Romano-British infantry and cavalry turned North and began to envelop them the Angles turned to stave off this advance but were eventually surrounded.  To the North the British  infantry advanced towards the camp but fearing encirclement by the Pictish Light cavalry retreated again until a gap appeared which they exploited to turn the flanks on the Pictish spearmen.  With both flanks now threatened and with the losses mounting up the Pictish King retired from the field one last time:  no doubt leaving the Angles to their fate with little thought other than it will give him more time to make good his escape.

I really enjoyed this learning game of To the Strongest.  The card driven system works well especially for solo games.  I had ordered Blue and Red Dragon decks which I really needed as I kept mixing them up after each turn!

The Barbarians had attached leaders whilst the Romano-British were detached and this gave the latter a greater ability to be present when required as one would expect.  This actually makes a difference as the fighting starts up in earnest and towards the end it was Arthur’s presence alone which kept the infantry in place against the Angle Warriors.  I had not initially realised that warriors were deep in case those eagle eyed amongst the reader’s notice and again fixing this towards the end made an interesting difference.  The Angles with 3 hits stood a long time but were quite hard to move.  Of course the Angle’s constant ability to fail to activate even with their leader is present (Two Aces seems to come up a lot) did not help.  Their cavalry only moved at the end when the Picts had run away just in time to get hit in the flank by the Roman-British light cavalry who had travelled through the far North of the board and across the bridges to get there.   The combat played quickly and though I did need to look up a few rules like evade, interpenetration and diagonal moves a few times I think it will be fairly straight forward to play once familiar.  Both Arthur and the Pictish King took wounds in the fighting (being Heroic) but will live to fight again another day.

Certainly this campaign is not over as Artorius will now need to drive the main force of the Picts away from Eboracum and back across Hadrian’s and then the Antonine wall before the year is over and order is restored to the North.

StrongestRomanBarbarian2 Click to read the Army Lists.