The Prelude to the Great Barbarian Conspiracy.

Once again the Marshal Petain Gentlemen's Club came to grips with Dux Bellorum, using figures last seen during the 1980s.  The forces of barbarism represented by the alliance between myself and Quincy, the Petain's chairman for life, against Quilpius Maximus and his sidekick Richard.  

Taking up my character in the Saxon guise of Tossa, son of Vank, I lined my boys up.  Having taken an all warrior army that was about all I could do with them.  With four x 24 points armies on table I had taken a unit of foot companions (the Vank-Guard) two units of noble warriors and three of ordinary warriors.  The Romans pointed out that this lot were probably going to be uncontrollable.

The Picts of the McWhitmore, Thane of Pelton, took the right flank,  with the Romans of Quilpius Maximus on a hill opposite.

I took the hill on our left, knowing that I would be launching army across the table, or more precisely that it would be launching itself.  Tossa took the central position with his Vank-Guard and a line interspersing nobles and ordinary Warriors.  I would be able to control the army as a group, until I was close enough to release them.

The Picts chose some interesting options here, Shieldwall, skirmishing cavalry, skirmishing archers.  Facing an enemy perched on a hill to his front he had it all to do.  

The Colonial Power also relied on Shieldwall, but would also use effective cavalry.  This however is not DBM, and cavalry are not necessarily the killers they are in some games.  That seems right to me, even though my current project is a Norman army.

The McWhitmore placed his archers out in front of his lines.  Compared to Tossa and his boys the Picts put on a slick deployment.  Clearly he knew what he was doing... or so we all thought...

Certainly he deserves the traditional Petain acolade for a good looking deployment... "lines, lines, lines..." 

The cowardly Roman Quilp placed his whole army on his hill.  I looked on with envy. .. He allowed his colleague to deploy on the flat ground to his right, and it was this wing of the Romans that would be my target. 

Opening moves, and I went at them in an outrageous charge across the table.  Onlookers wandering past looked a little disconcerted, since the Romans did not move.  They probably also misunderstood the McWhitmore's use of cows for his leadership points. (He had promised to replace these with sheep, but then again he is a Pict!)

At this point I must also report a rules interpretation that the Romans (wrongly) insisted on.  Under Dux Bellorum Warriors may make an uncontrolled charge, and dice to fail that charge if they do not want to make it.   With all of us unsure of the rules I diced, even though I wanted to charge, and the result was a unit of Warrior foot left hanging about in my rear.
Note to self... keep an eye on that unit.  Those boys were not true Sons of Vank, and did little for the whole battle.

Two of my units went after the Roman Cavalry.  I was expecting this to fail, but they hit him repeatedly, causing him to break off.  

On the right the Picts brought up thier bows and tried the Senlac Hill tactics.  The problem is that this takes time, and that the Romans had used a Synod of praying priests to add Leadership Points.  Whilst his brave colleague took on the wild and vicious Saxon warbands, Quilpius hogged all of these Leadership Points to negate the effects of the Pictis shooting.

This meant that the Picts were not going to be able to do much on that flank, and the Pictish light cavalry were switched to reinforce the success on the right.

The fight on the right continued.  The Roman cavalry was very well handled, tying up  two of my units, and then swinging onto the flank of my line.  The Saxons were winning however, smashing through the Roman shield wall.  

The push and shove of the rules impressed me.  They have the feel of Dark Age war.  I think that there are still subtleties in these rules I've missed, but this was a really good game with a good look in terms of figures.

Tossa will march again.
Old Vank would be proud of us!