Limes Campaign year two: To the Death!

Rome vs. Saxons

This Timotrix's Warband was on warpath for a vengeance! They had no plans to break through to loot, rape & pillage, they just wanted to kill as many Romans as possible - those barbarians!

Read on to learn what kind of bloodbath ensued!

Preparations

Built (& converted) and fast painted a priest and 4 Roman cavalry and a priest for the game:

I had spent my time units as follows:

• I had completed stables - cavalry! and a Villa (I have a mdf building to build for it)
• As preparations I had
• Reserves - in case I would have to deploy first
• Medicus - of course
• Intensive training, because I needed more HG
• A priest (Religious Advisor) to boost my Saga dice allowance.

My forces

I had focused more on building new frontier works and hence my army wasn't at it's maximum strength:

• Warlord
• Religious Advisor
• 2 X 5 Mounted HG
• 12 warriors with a banner
• 10 archers (W)
• 8 archers (W)

Timotrix had

• WL
• 8 HG
• 3 units of warriors 
• 12 levies
• 8 hounds (mercenaries)

The Game (pics now, report will follow)

Timotrix deployed his forces to his extreme left flank, except for the levies whom were hiding in the bushes. 

I countered this with my deployment; my mounted HG was in the extreme right, then 8 archers in the building and finally my command + 12 warriors and 10 archers.

Timotrix boasted, that he would slaughter my best men as sheep... in secret Timo nominated one of my HG unit as the target to be killed.

Round 1.

My first round focused on getting my 10 archers into a position and opening

fire on saxon warriors, managed to slay 4 of them with 2 volleys

One of my HG also shifted left. Barbarian levies moved out of the woods and rained stones at my archers, 1 fell.

Otherwise the barbarian horde didn't move too much; warrior unit depleted by my archery retreated and cleared the path for hounds...

Round 2.

I decided, that I wanted to have full "aerial superiority" meaning shooting and  used two moves to charge them levies with 5HG, slaughtered half of them, but them bastards dragged one of my "knights" with them.

As I knew that would happen, Timotrix then unleashed  his mercenary hounds at my HG ...

And after two rounds of melee both units were exhausted... one HG had fallen and 4 hounds lay dead as well.

Round 3.

Timotrix rolled his magical Saga dice and got a total of 7 horses (non common for Saxons). This meant he could only activate his warriors with "Storm breaks" and with Warlord's "Obey me". I can tell you he wasn't pleased... (you can also see the Saxon casualties piling high in the background)

I had moved my 12 man warrior unit up and charged Saxon warriors (ended as draw, both sides losing just one man). My other HG unit had also moved forward on the right flank - waiting for an opportunity to make a flank charge or to go for the Warlord. This was probably a mistake by me, because I should first have peppered Saxon HG with some arrows...

At least the exhausted hounds covered my other HG cavalry (they blocked the way).

Timotrix sent his personal guard against my flank move. A bloody fight ensued between the elites, both sides losing 3 men.

At least this had brought enemy HG within the range of my archers

in the building and soon they were showered with arrows

Round 4.

On Round 4. my right flank HG unit retre... erm, I mean moved to protect their liege lord. Enemy HG were peppered with more arrows from the building.

My large warrior unit were facing Saxon's last relevant fighting force: some 7 warriors and their WL. My warriors threw both insults and  plumbatae at them...

This naturally raged the barbarians, whom charged in with plenty of boost from the battle board. My lads held their ground!

Final Round (5.) Warlords in the thickest!

Our Warlords were now facing one another. As Timotrix was within L from Temusius, he couldn't move except to charge Timotrix. Hence my warriors had to first charge the Saxon warriors to drive them away from their Lord. This succeeded and then Temusius commanded them to join in to a charge against Timotrix, whom suffered a total of 5 hits... 

...even his defending fighting mode did not save Timotrix.

Saxon counters...

So Saxons had their last play to play... My HG unit at the left was the target of Timotrix's boast and more stones flew their way and one more "knight" was knocked down! I didn't use "Scuta" (see above) for this.

As I expected an attack against my somewhat fatigued Warlord! And it came in the format of 3 Saxon HG, whom had realized they had been lured away from their Lord and this had lead to him getting killed!!! They charged in and Temusius was having a hard time fending of all those blows! I first thought he was a goner as I rolled badly with my defense dice (even took 2 extra!). I was already mourning his fate, when I remembered in the last moment, that I had "Scuta" still on my battle board! With couple of rerolls and few brave warriors throwing themselves in the harms way, Temusius was just and barely saved! Hurrah!

Battle ended with both armies badly mauled. This was insignificant for the dastardly barbarians, but a heavy blow to my Romans! 

Well, at least I won the battle with 20,5 slaughter points against 13,5!

ROMA VICTRIX!

Fatalities after Medicus had finished his job

Saminius also won his battle against Mikkotrix's Picts 

Campaign impact: Barbarian determination dropped by 5 points in total

Roman Morale: 17

Barbarian Determination: 11