Cattle Raid
Continuing our campaign from the previous game Aesc once again sets out to raid into Rhegin. This time he is returning South from a successful cattle raid.
The Saxons enter the field of combat from the North, the Britons intercepting them on their way South to their ships on the coast enter from the South West. The terrain represents the South Downs with a once thriving religious community or Ecclesia with a ruined church, burnt down in a previous raid and an enclosed field where livestock once roamed safely.
The Britons were clearly alert and the Saxons managed just one short move to the South before the British vanguard under Julius enters the table. The levy of course lagging behind.
British Force Morale 5+3=8
Saxon 6. +1=7
Cards dealt.
Lords and troops they command and begin near to:
British Lord= Julius (Elites, Milites); 1=Amminus (Milites, Levy); 2=Vellocatus (Levy).
Saxon: Lord= Aesc (Hearth A); 1=Eastmund (Hearth B, warriors with livestock); 2=Paega (Warriors).
The game begins with the Saxons advancing down the centre of the table from North to south. Eastmund leads the elites ahead and Paega takes his warriors to the west of the woods and forms up a mass formation. Aesc brings up his elites and the warriors with livestock move to the east before moving south.
A Large shieldwall was formed by Britons in centre. Julius first advanced his units to block the route to the south and formed a shieldwall to await the reserves. Then Aesc and Eastmund formed a mass line opposite. Amminus with some good rolls brought up his units in shieldwall with the Milites to the fore and then later Julius brought the two shieldwalls together two form a large central line. Aesc attempted to close but the distance was too far. but his missile troops harrass the shieldwall from the small hill to the west.
Through the use of a Carpe Diem card Julius charges his shieldwall into the Saxon line and his Champion plays a Hero card to add some dice in the combat. This also allows Julius to overlap on both sides of the line and orevents Aesc from using all those attack cards he has ready. A long and drawn out fight ensues with the shieldwall very slowly pushing the hearthtroops back. The shieldwall advantage of preventing a kill making a real difference.
In an attempt to outflank the shieldwall the Saxons move South with warriors to the west of the woods and the hill. However the British levy close to block their advance and protect Julius’ flank. The Saxons attack but fortunately the British play a shieldwall braced card and though thrown back just about survive.
In the centre the Saxons abandon the livestock in attempt to bring the warriors into the fight. However they roll so low they fail to close!
Eventually Aesc and half his hearth troop are routed. Shieldwall holds. Animals are lost and running free away from the sound of battle back towards the British friendly edge. Julius attempts to close against Aesc now leading the remainung unit of warriors but he plays an evade card and retires towards the church.
The Saxons seeing that the day is lost retire from the field with the British holdingground rather than see more Levy killed. The Saxons have two retreat cards and the British just one. pursuit.
Saxons FM=5
OUTCOME
The British claim a small 2 point victory and both forces return home to recover their losses? About 14 for the Saxons mainly elites and about 5 for the British.
Saxons FM=2
My new Dux Brit rules and cards have arrived. The raiders expansion adds more options to field raiders from the barbarian lands against my beleagured Romano British. Very good they look too with lots of well produced art and plenty of story background to fuel interest. Hope to get these on the table soon.
Have ordered Battle of the Five Armies from Ares games.
Looking forward to this one as am a great fan of their Lord of the Rings stuff.
A sort of victory by Bruce against Phil, Mike, Andy and Darryl. He was the first to get to 12 influence by cashing in his cards right at the end. Was lots of fun with some great duels though Mike mainly beat up poor Darryl’s slaves in the arena whenever he could.
Bruce won against Phil, Darryl and Mike with a fine run at the end to steal the crown jewels before Phil. Darryl had the perfect ship and crew right at the end but was left behind.
Phil and Mike played Bolt Action. Phil’s Russians successfully attacked the fuel dump from the defending germans.
Six player BSG. Bruce, Darryl, James, Phil, Andy and Mike.
Daybreak.
The Fleet was off to a bad start and got hit by multiple Basestar Cylon Attack Cards right from the start. Also they never even seemed to pass the easiest of tasks. The pilots were not the most effective (Andy and James) and were heavily outnumbered and outgunned. Andy had a knack of destroying the Assault Viper and then the Vipers (reckless PC). This almost destroyed the carrier fleet by the end! Admiral Phil eventually exec ordered Bruce the Engineer into jumping with the FTL (was broken). He had it tactically planned but Bruce’s die rolls are legendary (one) setting the scene for every crucial human die roll to follow. Leaving 3 population behind they managed to jump straight into another Cylon Fleet. That kept happening.
So before they knew it the humans were in the red in every category and they were playing mutineer (Bruce) not sympathiser so that was no use! Mike was the new Baltar and Darryl was President Elena Tighe (treachery). Things went from bad to worse. Then James worked out Andy was a Cylon (honest) and put him in the Brig. However Andy refused to die in the brig and become a Cylon so that nobody trusted James. The humans still kept losing resources and getting battered by Cylons. They eventually jumped and the sleeper phase began. More Cylons?
The humans did manage to permanently destroy one base star and get 8 distance but fuel was really low with no scouts left to send out. Andy was still protesting his innocence and Darryl was a very ineffective President. So the Admiral declared Marshall law and with his trusty allies James and Bruce tried to make progress. Mike was trusty too but they just weren’t sure who the Cylon was. Could Andy have been truly innocent? Then James was a traitor? No! It was James, Phil and Bruce who just about saved Galactica from that Centurion who made it to the penultimate space on the track. James got him in the end just before he would have moved again! So surely these were the good guys? Or were they?
Any way the tests just got harder and harder and the resources kept dropping until the humans drew a card that meant at least one resource would definitely go to zero and it was all over.
It turned out Andy was indeed a Cylon and was using a new tactic to confuse everyone. The other Cylon then of course was Darryl and Elena Tighe. So well done to them for a truly masterful victory and playing cat and mouse with the poor hapless humans.
Mike, Phil, Andy and Bruce played this old favourite.
Mike was first out unexpectedly despite starting with Spain and Argentina. Phil got Germany through to the final against Bruce’s South Korea. Andy’s Netherlands only made it to the 3rd place play off against another of Bruce’s teams.
In the final round Bruce was not phased by having two teams to play for as he drew mainly 2 goal and 1 goal cards. Phil only drew attack and defence cards. So South. Korea won the World Cup beating Germany 4-2 in the final.
Well done Bruce who grabbed 3rd place too!
We played the Firefly pirate expansion with the Pirate PvP quest. Phil took an early lead by picking on Andy to grab Goal tokens but not as much money as he needed. Bruce and Darryl carefully built up their forces, biding their time. Mike then picked on Phil and stole his hard won tokens to claim Victory.
Not sure about the Pirate expansion. Certainly this scenario was all about being mean which is kind of hard in a building game. It feels like kicking down people’s sand castles. Perhaps a different scenario will make it less of a problem.
Mike, Phil, Bruce, Andy and James the Younger.
We played Phil’s Waterdeep game with the Undermountain expansion. Phil had been practicing on his ipad but only narrowly avoided coming in last place. James beat Bruce in a winning tie to claim Victory. Well done.
We also played sharks and swimmers game called Get Bit which Phil won and a Tides and Sheep game and finally a game of Bluff both of which Mike won.
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