The King is Dead - Long live the King

Second Game of The Saga Limes Campaign

Preparations - painting reinforcements

As always, one has to paint some more troops for a game: my warlord was not finished and as I knew there would be a winter assault with max move of S (4"), I of course painted more warrior archers for Rome. As I only had few evenings to paint I did some speed painting for the archers: grey spray undercoat, base color with desert sand spray, added browns, skin and red, #washes with Agrax earth shade and Reikland Flesh. Then two rounds of highlights and picking out the details.

Preparations - reinforcements and frontier works

From my Watchtower I was able so the evil plans of barbarians:

Winter Camp options:

Find the Chief, Recruit the Elites, Assemble the Tribes, Mercenaries, A People at Arms

Stratagems: Dawn Attack, Mist, Massed Assault, Major Assault, Winter Raid, Coup de Main 

This meant, that barbarians would start, I would only roll 4 saga dice for the first round and shooting distance would be 6" (FR) and everybody, except the dogs would only move 4"

My army had been pretty badly mauled in the last year's raid, so I had to rebuild, hence I called for help (lost 2 points of Morale (which was easy to afford) and got 2 recruitment point. So I was able to

• Train 3 Hearthguards and X warriors

I also wanted to be able to get some cavalry and started building a stable. Last points were spent on a medicus - lesson learned from the first game!

So after this my warband consisted of

• Warlord
• 7 HG on foot
• 31 warriors 

Deployment

Timo had learned his lesson and this time he had larger units: 8 HG, 12 levys, 8 dogs, 12, 8 and 4  warriors. They formed a solid battle line with their new WL on the left in the company of his HouseholdGuard.

I had my 2 X 10 archers in both flanks (in the building on the left), 7 HG, 11 warriors with a standard. Barbarian King boasted, that they would slay all my elite legionaires, bah!

Round 1.

Barbarians had stolen the initiative (I guess we didn't expect them to be crazy enough to attack during the winter) and their shieldwall started moving forward...

I only had 4 SD to roll and failed badly: I wanted to shoot a lot with my bows, but only got 1 die, that I could use for warrior activation, hence I needed to make my only shooting action count!

So I used my Warlord to move my right flank archers and then used "By this sign"for shooting. 4 Saxon warriors toppled into the snow... yeaah!

Round 2.

So I wasn't able to shoot the damn dogs and rapidly they charged my HG

Whom of course drove them away, but suffered two fatigues (doggie speshul rule). Doggies charged again (exhausting themselves) and were all put to the sword, BUT they again donated 2 fatigue to my HH, whom were now exhausted!

On the right flank pissed off Saxon HG charged my archers twice and wiped them out - 3 HG were killed in the progress.

Saxon HG were now quite close to my table edge... damn!

The large Saxon warrior unit pushed through the forest (move was 4" anyway) quite boldly; they  were now facing my 7 HG (whom were exhausted), WL and 11 warriors.

Saxon perspective

Round 3. Counter charge!

It was time to strike back... I pondered for a moment, whether to after the Saxon HG, but as my WL was too far from them and close enough for 1 move charge to the large warrior unit, the choice was easy... follow me boys! I boosted the attack and soon 7 Saxons were staining the snow red!

This really dented the Saxon fighting capability

Round 4.

Suddenly Saxon slaves (whom had done nothing so far) dashed towards my lines... my archers were watching and preparing...

While the Saxon King was taking a nap, my Warlord and warriors finished the blunted Saxon warrior unit... their King was shocked as he woke to see my forces emerging victoriously from the forest!

On the right flank my archers charged the levies (Jeers was activated on the Saxon board, so no shooting) and butchered half of them (needing 2's to hit). Those slaves fought hard anyway and dragged 5 of my warriors with them!

5th Round

Timo had been calculating his odds and they looked a bit grim... his HG had dashed to the table edge (palisade presenting) and now exited. His King commanded his warriors to attack my warriors, whom survived the fight through defending, Scuta-ability and the boosted save in the forest.

On my turn I countered, drove the last surviving Saxon warrior away and then charged their King. He used the hapless warrior as a human shield and survived...

Last man standing...

Round 6 - To kill a King

Brave Saxon King charged my WL twice, but neither yielded...

On my turn I charged him with my WL and my warriors,

boosting them with Ardor... it was over fast.

Only Saxon unit still in the field wondered, should we stay or should we go...

Final standing:

ROMA VICTRIX!

CONCLUSION

• 21 Roman warriors and 1 HG as casualties, 28 Saxon warriors (8 dogs), 3 HG, 6 levies and ONE KING as casualties
• 6 levies and 5 HG made it across my table edge
• Final score 22-11 for ROME!
• As the (now dead) Barbarian King's boast didn't keep either, his determination dropped by 5 - INTO ZERO
• Thus ending the campaign in ROMAN VICTORY 8-0  
• We agreed to recruit two more players and start anew. I'll write later how this will balance the campaign a bit...

Victorius Roman Centurion Teemusius