River Battle - Campaign Game 2

For the second game of our Dux Bellorum campaign, Dave and I decided upon the 'River Battle scenario from the rulebook, details of which can be found below:

Scenario - River Battle

• Details as per the scenario on p58.
• Deployment as per p18.
• The River was not classed as deep, thus allowing for a more fluid battle.

For this game Dave decided, rather reluctantly, to drop the Killer Sheep and Wardogs, opting wisely to spend his 4 S&T points on an extra 2 points of Leadership. Having seen the effects in previous games, this almost gave the Irish parity with the Welsh. 

 

Deployment

Both sides deployed for battle.

The Irish have their skirmishers in the woods on their right flank, with a large cavalry force on their left.

The Welsh have skirmishers on both flanks and the Monks in the centre for divine intervention.

 

Turn 1 Irish - 8 LPs Welsh - 9 LPs

The Irish were the Agressors and got off to a good start, with all units moving bar the cavalry, which Dave had declared as his strategic reserve. Obviously they thought that being in reserve meant that they shouldn't move! For the Welsh the pattern was similar, except that the Monks remained praying at the foot of the wonderous cross.

The Irish skirmishers push on through the woods, to try and turn the Welsh left flank. In response the Welsh sent a lone skirmishers unit to try and slow them down.

Turn 2 Irish - 8 LPs Welsh - 9 LPs

In essence a repeat of Turn 1, with the Irish cavalry and Welsh Monks refusing to move, leaving both of us cursing said units.

The Irish line holds its shape, whilst the Welsh one breaks up to deal with the developing threat to its left flank.

The Irish horse in the background are not playing ball, whilst the Irish skirmishers are really disrupting the Welsh line, just by their presence.

Turn 3 Irish - 8 LPs Welsh - 9 LPs

Things really hotted up in this turn. The Irish horse had obviously been lulling the Welsh into a false sense of security, as they rolled a double 1, promptly charging right across the river into the Welsh horse. Shooting by the skirmishers was ineffective on both sides. However a mass of uncontrolled charges erupted from both lines, the result of which was the loss of 2 Irish Noble units with the Welsh having sustained lots of hits, but no losses.

The Irish horse charge home.

Battle is suddenly joined.

Leadership points are carefully placed.

The Welsh sustain lots of hits, but crucially are in a position to turn the Irish left flank.

Turn 4 Irish - 6 LPs Welsh - 9 LPs

The battle continues to rage, with the Irish turning in on the Welsh left flank, but critcally the Welsh have turned the Irish left flank, with the Irish losing another unit.

The centre generally holds, bit both flanks are being threatened.

The Welsh left flank manages to hold, but the Irish one has been turned. The Irish horse have been unable to destroy their Welsh counterparts and are now threated to the flank and rear by Welsh foot units.

Turn 5 Irish - 5 LPs Welsh - 9 LPs

The battle reached its bloody climax, with boths sides taking significant losses. The Welsh Monks kick things off with a blunder, resulting in the loss of a skirmish unit on the left flank. In the cavalry clash, both sides lose a unit of horse. The slow attrition that the Welsh have suffered in previous turns finally tells, with them losing 3 units to the Irish 1. 

This put both sides on a break test, which the Irish failed and the Welsh managed to pass.

The bloody end...

...with the Welsh just managing to hang on.

Post Game Thoughts 

Once again another great game, that could have gone either way at the end, even with the possibility of both sides routing off the table. So as always a few post game thoughts:

• Not having the river classed as deep made for a much more enjoyable game. It allowed both sides freedom of manouevre, but still restricted the horse units.
• Not having a hill made the game more fluid, as neither of us were fixated upon one piece of terrain.
• Leadership points are proving to be the most useful thing as far as Strategy and Tactics are concerned. Once you start to get behind on these, it is very hard to come back in the game as the opponent can dominate the combat area.
• Lose a flank and you lose the game. A simplistic view but the loss of the flank tends to be critical, unless you can realign quickly.
• Again I had one turn, Turn 3,  of some very lucky die rolls, leading to the loss of 2 Irish Noble units. Dave on the other hand had poor die rolls in his cavalry charge in the same Turn. If I had lost my cavalry, his horse could have rampaged into the Welsh rear, which would have greatly affected the outcome of the game. On such little things do games turn upon.

So with another Welsh win, the next game will be 'Dawn Attack', which should favour my Welsh as not only will I have more points to play with, but the Irish will only have 1 leadership point on Turn 1, 2 on Turn 2 etc. Dave will also only have 3 S&T to play with, so has decided to call upon his wardogs again.

Things are moving nicely towards a natural finish for this campaign, after which we are most likely to move onto Black Powder in some form or other.