The Miller's Tale - Episode 13

Episode 13 - in which Mike finally gets to catch up with former Dux Brit partner-in-crime and rock god Andy Hawes, in a wide-ranging discussion covering everything from understanding bias in history to digging for Time Team at Sutton Hoo. This chat was recorded on the 12th June and has taken a little longer to edit than I really wanted, but here it is.

Useful links:

• Sutton Hoo
• Wargaming the Age of the Anglo-Saxons event (July 26-7)
• Time Team
• The Sutton Hoo 2024 dig parts 1, 2, 3 (on site), 4 (micro-excavation of the Bromeswell Bucket)
• Live updates from this year's dig parts 1, 2
• Book for Posh Lard 2025 here

And just to prove you probably have seen the Sutton Hoo helmet, here it is in all its glory...

 

State of the Compendium

Busy weekend with a gig for the band. Did some more work on the Compendium yesterday, so here's where we are. Today, mostly prep for club EGM on Monday.

Raids:
Done, ready for beta playtests

Revised Battle Scenarios, rest of Battles section:
Done, ready for beta playtests

Characters Section:
Non-nobles/hirelings section needs writing, rest is done.

Assorted imports from TFL Specials:
Done

Bibliography: 
part finished, more suggestions welcome :D

Sample Multiplayer Campaign:
part finished, needs a playtest for one concept, needs map

Campaign Progress flowchart/reference:
part finished (mostly needs a cleanup and making sure I haven't missed anything)
(Should this go on the back cover to match the QRS on the main rulebook?)

Collected faction progress charts:
British done, rest to do (basically to include stuff from Raiders, Compendium in one place)

Master Terrain table:
Raiders fortification values to calculate

Rules Clarifications:
Need Rich's check (or him to wash his hands of it :D)

Copyable Record sheets:
two more to do

Formatting, fillustrations:
Yes that is a word.
I'm formatting as I go, but I will do a final pass once done and I can figure out where to add fills. I may be looking for people with nice hi-res photos of Dux forces.

Index:
*whimper*

Working on the Compendium

I’m currently up with Anne in Lerwick for Up Helly Aa, visiting friends: you won’t see much blogging, but I’m attempting to wrap the Compendium this week and next (both of which I have off work). First on the list are working my way through Guy Halsall’s “Worlds of Arthur” and adding a campaign section o the Compendium based on some discussion on Facebook and some ideas I already had kicking around.

Bernard Cornwell and Dux Britanniarum

I have always felt (and I think Rich has said) that the world of Dux does fit in very well with the Bernard Cornwell "The Warlord Chronicles" series (as well as the likes of Rosemary Sutcliffe's "Sword at Sunset").

With that in mind, a couple of things:

First, fans of the Cornwell books may be interested, if they have missed it, in the announcement that Epix have bought the TV rights. The fact that this is being produced by the same team as did the BBC's recent "His Dark Materials" series gives me a certain amount of confidence in the result, as well as hope it should be better than "The Last Kingdom" adaptation.

Secondly, I've been working on the Compendium, specifically battles, some more, and added a new Cornwell-esque pre-battle option to those already available. Like all Compendium stuff, it will be optional.

A bit of Dark Ages research

I caught this on YouTube and have been watching it again (having seen it a first time when it originally aired).

Some interesting new archaeological stuff on the Age of Arthur, Saxon Britain and Tintagel, among other things, presented by the ever engaging Prof. Alice Roberts. Worth a watch, although there are a few places where it felt a bit dumbed down (like, tin in Cornwall is really not a revelation!), and I'm not sure how much it adds to the useful Dux Brit references, though I do wonder about a campaign where a Lord in Tintagel tries to strike East and reclaim some of Britannia as the attacker.

Battle Report - 30-Dec-2019 - Dux Britanniarum Battles

Ok. I think we have a winner here. But boy, my brain hurts. That required a lot of thinking, even just as the umpire.

British (Carl) defending a river ford (again) against the Saxons commanded by Myk and Andrew, with AndyH co-refereeing.

Pre-battle phase. There was prayer, speechifying and drinking. Again there were ones rolled, and both Bibamus and Portentious Signs cards in the deck, and the Saxons had FM 9 and the British 5.  

The Saxons have crossed the river to head off the British reinforcements, while facing off against the British  companipulares on the ford.

The Saxons, however, have fallen prey to the Evils Of Drink, and Carl uses a Bibamus card to force one of the two groups of Saxon hearthguard to go off prematurely, as it were...

The results are painfully inevitable - one uncommanded group of elite against 12 men plus a Lord and champion. Amphora misplaced, and off they go, with a -3 FM hit as well.  

Over on the British left, a knock-em-down-and-drag-em-out fight between two Groups of Saxon warriors and a mixed group of British warriors and levy causes the levy and one of the Saxon groups to leave the field. 

Perhaps unwisely, the remaining Saxons chose to ignore the levy and go hit the other British shieldwall in the rear through a ruined archway.
Cue a lot of very careful rule-reading in the gaslit end of the rules to make sure we got this right, compounded by several cards being played including a Step Forth. It didn't, sadly, go well for the Saxons. FM down to 1. From 9, remember!

The remaining Saxon formation (Elites + Warriors) psych themselves up to charge the British levy by the archway. 

What\s really galling from a Saxon PoV is, they won the fight, with one Saxon unit well and truly routed and the other on excess shock... except they took a wound on their Noble. -1 FM. Game over.

All in all, another excellent game. AndyH, who as the saying goes doesn't have a dog in this fight (as I wrote the core of the scenario) thinks these work as a way of resolving battles that's an improvement over the pitched battle in the original rules, so we're going to test it a bit more, and then throw it out to the next layer of testers.

Battle Report - 28 Dec 2019 - Dux Britanniarum Battles

Whew.

That was fun and very satisfying.

AndyH has been here for the afternoon and early evening so we can figure out the new battles ideas for the Compendium. I've had the idea for how to do this kicking around since fairly soon after the idea for the Compendium was mooted, but it's been held off on playtesting, partly because I wasn't sure and partly because I wanted to get the raids tested. Ran my draft outline past Andy earlier in the week, and he basically thinks it's a goer, so we decided to give it a shot.

First battle - for a settlement.

The Britons are defending the villa. Pre-game phases results in force morale boosts for both of us, and me as the Saxons getting an extra Fate card in my hand, but otherwise little effect. 

The Saxons start to advance, aiming to get to the villa before word reaches the rest of the British forces. 

The Saxons amass, psyching themselves up to charge the British hearthguard. Unfortunately, despite having  six Fate cards to play with, I can't draw a Carpe Diem for love nor money, and perhaps unwisely, I hang back.
Unwisely, you ask?
See that unit Andy is pointing at? That's warrior cavalry....

See that empty space in front of the cavalry, and the bloody smear on the hillside? that WAS two groups of British warriors. Admittedly, the cavalry's on excess shock and not going anywhere else for a turn or two, but I have lost two groups with thoroughly mislaid amphorae, and a chunk of force morale.
Ow. 

At last. I get to wade in with this delightful fistful of goodness. 

Crunch. Andy's elites, the front rank, do not survive two rounds of combat, and leave the field....

...but not before he does this to me. Which leaves my big unit of mixed hearthguard and warriors in NO state to deal with the big block of levy you can see top right... my big unit has taken far too much shock to cope..

Game over for the Saxons, sadly. In go the levy, and it's amphora missing, byebye force morale.

Ok. Battle two.  The British attempt to retake a captured province by bringing the Saxons to battle over a river crossing. (Believe me, if you look up Nennius' '12 battles of Arthur', battles for river crossings were common as muck! 7 out of 12, in fact.) We dug out my unfinished river boards for this one.

Pre battle phase. Pure comedy gold, this.

Andy (the attacking British): "I shall make a rousing speech." Rolls a 1. -2 FM, -1 Fate card.
Mike: "Hah. I shall ply my men with mead!" Rolls a 1. +2 FM, 2 Bibabums cards, -1 Fate card
Andy: "My priests will pray to God for success." Rolls a 3. No effect.
Mike: "I shall make a rousing speech too." Rolls a 1. -2 FM, -1 Fate card
Andy: "Ale for my brave warriors...." Rolls a 1. +2 FM, 2 Bibamus cards, -1 Fate card.
Mike: "Oh Mighty Odin, All-Father...!". Rolls a 1. -2 FM. 2 Portentious Signs cards.

Andy: "I think we've done enough damage between us. On with the battle."

The deck is loaded with Bibamus and Portentious Signs cards, Andy has Force Morale 9 and I have Force Morale 5.
Oh, and we both have a maximum of THREE Fate cards each!

Let's roll for deployment. Andy gets the maximum possible initial moves for his force, I get the minimum possible garrison force for the river crossing.

OK. Guess we needed to test the extremes of setup, right?

The Saxons square up across the river from the advancing British. Meanwhile in the distance, the Saxon relief force of warriors is massing trying to force a crossing.

Andy decides the time is right, and charges with  elites and warriors to drive the Saxons back.

Ok. Maybe not.
1" short.

So the Saxons charge in.
Somewhere during the two combat rounds of back and forth, I lose any remaining ability to roll dice.

The Saxons fall back with excess shock.
The British are about to follow up, and in the ensuing combat both sides will lose a unit to missing Amphora. Andy,. having 9 Force Morale, can afford this. I however, cannot afford to lose the THREE points off my 5.

So we're now facing each other, one unit of Elites on each side. 

Meanwhile, further up across the river, the Saxon warriors attempt to force a crossing against 2/3 their number of Levy in shieldwall. With a reasonable chance - I mean, face it, it's maybe 5" away, and they're rolling 3d6 -2 per dice for the river.

1,1,2.
Total move? 0"

On the other hand, maybe we could stay on this bank where its dry and make faces at each other some more.

Back at the ford, the Saxon elite reckon they should have a reasonable chance - the British they're facing are on even Shock and kills, so one kill will give them excess, while they've still got 5 figures and a scattering of Shock. Should be easy, right?

Wrong!!!

Andy takes 1 shock, 1 kill from my abysmal 3 hits. My dice seem to have hits and damage confused, and my Elites take insane amounts of shock and leave, Amphora thoroughly busted.

Force Morale 0. Game over and not a good week for the Saxons.  

Ok: so? Conclusions.

Did it feel like a battle? Hell yes. In both cases, we wound up manoeuvring into battle lines and facing off until our troops were psyched up enough to fight. It seems to fall into a style of combat that feels like it fits the period and the kind of battle that was chronicled.

Is it balanced? We tweaked a couple of setup rules, but then with hindsight they were dumb and I should have noticed them when I wrote them. Even in the face of extremes of setup rolls, crap combat dice and ridiculous pre-battle rolls (seriously, FIVE ones out of 6????) neither battle was a foregone conclusion. With a bit more guts and less waiting for cards on my part the first battle would have gone very differently,. and if I could roll dice at all for the last two turns of the second I'd potentially have or at least made Andy sweat.  So yes.

Was it fun? (the acid test). Oh my goodness, yes. So much so we're testing it again on Monday!

Battle Report - 23 Dec 2019 - "The Tax Collector", Dux Britanniarum

Playtesting with AndyM and a late-arriving AndyH...

The British warrior cavalry wind their way down the hillside to come rescue the tax gatherer...

...who has been yelled at to get the heck out of the village while his levy escort rank up in Shieldwall to hold off the advancing Saxon warriors. I actually blew a Step Forth to make sure the levy were in Shieldwall before the warriors could hit them.

...except that Mr Miller had a Strong Arm and some very good dice (and I really don't), resulting in one Group being wiped out and the other mislaying its Amphora. Force morale down to 4, given that the Noble took a wound as well...

And then it just got worse. The Warrior cavalry made it down the hill, but due to a bit of a logjam at the bottom, had to charge the approaching Saxon Elites over the corner of the temple ruin, which was -1/dice terrain...
First dice 1(+2 -1) . Second dice 2(+2 -1). Third dice (now clear of the ruin) 3(+2).

Well short.

Oh dear.  

A turn through the deck later. The Saxon hearthguard have charged the cavalry that are hanging around waiting for it, and AndyM has a Carpe Diem (and I DON'T have an Evade) so they have no escape, and they don't get double dice or Shock. It goes about as well as you'd imagine - Amphora lost, Force Morale down to 2.

"Oh, hi, AndyH. I've been running the British for you while you got here. Erm... your force Morale is 2, and you're down to a mixed unit of hearthguard and warriors and one group of Levy."

I'm probably off his Christmas list.

The British hearthguard/warrior unit has fallen back under the weight of yet another Strong Arm and multi-card attack - it's actually halfway down the hill around about the belly of the horse, but it won't stay on the slope :D
Meanwhile the remaining levy prepare to sell their lives dearly in an attempt to protect the tax gatherer's wagon.

(Note: had this been a campaign game, we as the British would have called it a day by now!)

And the levy manage to last a whole round of combat. Unsurprisingly. Amphora gone, Force Morale down to 1....

Redesigning the initial setup, so we don't have so many 'X in a village' variants... There's nothing fundamentally wrong with scenario balance, but I don't think any scenario would survive in the face of such awful dice rolling!

Battle Report - 16 Dec 2019 - "The Deer Hunt" Dux Britanniarum

We're on pretty much round 3 of play testing now - last one before things go out to the playtesters. Andy and I are going to have a go at the whole problem of battles on the Saturday after Xmas, but apart from that I think we've played every new raid scenario at least twice except two, and I'll work those in over Xmas too.

Last night was the deer hunt, and boy was THAT a doozy - it contained a bit of play for which I'm very thankful to Derek Hodge's compilation of Rich's answers to rule questions (which will be in the Compendium!). I think this one works really well. The key fun gotcha is that the startup instructions have a totally chaotic 'every unit and leader is chasing after the stag independently' thing where everything arrives semi-randomly, so units may be out of command or not grouped together sensibly. It was, I am assured by Myk (now turning into one of my regular playtesters to the extent he's borrowed the rules over Xmas!) and Colin, a great game...

The majestic stag (a very nice Warbases mini) poses atop a rocky outcrop before starting his run for safety. In the background a mix of British elites and levy try to work out what to do... 

Having escaped from a group of Saxon hearthguard, trailing blood, the stag runs into both factions' groups of missile troops, as well as a single unit of warriors with the Lord and his champion on both sides. Interesting random deployment resulting in two identical small forces in the same area :D

Ok. Pay attention, because this got... amusing.

British mounted warriors (with their noble) and Saxon elite with a level 2 noble), although initially the Saxons were about 12" back from this position.

Colin (British) gets the card for his noble. He's obviously going to charge, being cavalry with no Shock - he gets double dice and then double Shock if he does. Myk plays a Step Forth to interrupt, followed by a Carpe Diem and a Bounding Move to charge the cavalry, instead.

I point out to Colin that being cavalry, he has an ability to Evade being charged.

Myk (who is on the ball!) correctly points out that according to the writing on the Carpe Diem card, Colin can't Evade. Specifically, he can't use the Evade Ability of cavalry. He can however, use the Evade card he has in his hand (thanks, Derek!). So he does. Fortunately for the British cavalry, he rolls low enough to stay on the table, while still getting out of reach of the Saxons.

End of Myk's activation, and the British get their turn back, And obviously enough, charge!

As you were, I guess, apart from several cards being used up!

The first round of combat between the cavalry and the Saxon hearthguard was a draw, due to some very lucky dice rolling on Myk's part as the Saxons. The second round? Not so much, as the British cavalry aren't getting the benefit of doubled dice and Shock - you really do have to get in and get in hard, because cavalry are no good in continuous fights. They fall back on excess shock (and were very lucky not to lose their amphora).

Meanwhile, over by the stag, it dies, full of arrows. The Saxon warriors advance to cover it, the British warriors charge them, and manage to just win a very bloody fight.

Meanwhile the British on the hill (a mix of Levy and Elite) are about to charge the Saxon Elite, with the Saxon Warriors (with the wolf banner) are coming to grab the stag.

The Dead Marshes, bottom left - as good a place to put casualties as any, I guess :D
Just out of sight, the mixed British group has managed to make the Saxon Elite fall back through the group of Warriors.

... and a bunch of uncommanded Saxon Levy rather fancy their chances against the rather shocked and wounded Elite - they're literally hanging on by the skin of their teeth in both groups.

We got through about two more turns from there - the British warriors managed to grab the stag while everyone else was distracted in a whole mess of grubby little combats between the wood and the marsh in the middle, and hightailed it past the barrow with a group of Saxons in hot pursuit.

It was (had we had time) probably going to come down to order of activation and who had the better hand and better dice rolls, but it being 10:30 we had to start packing up.

A brilliant game - one of those where umpiring is a joy (even if I say so as the scenario writer) and the players (thanks Colin and Myk!) had fun too.

Sarissa Dark Ages Granary WIP

Managed to find half an hour over lunch to knock this together yesterday. Nice simple kit - everything fits very nicely.

I shall find some spare flannel to thatch it, and am debating whether to add some split coffee-stirrer timbering as well.

Battle Report - 2-Dec-2019 - Dux Britanniarum "The Boar Hunt"

More playtesting - most scenarios are on their second round of testing for flat out brokenness and unbalance now, and seem to be going well.

[There is a question for folks who think they have their head round Dux combat at the end of this post - comments appreciated.]

For giggles (and because Carl had just finished painting them) I let Carl and Myk take a Gwŷr y Gogled force from Raiders, which basically meant his normal 6 elites (or warriors) could be replaced with 4 equivalent Shock Cavalry. Or Mobile Threshing Machines, as we prefer to call them.

If you've never done this before, my advice as a Saxon would be not to face them with a force you're at all fond of until you've figured out some tactics ;D Things to be aware of:

• Move 3 x (d6 + 2)
• Double all dice if charging into combat - no that is not a misprint: and Rich has clarified that as figure out all your dice bonuses etc, and double the lot
• Double all Shock handed out if charging into combat.

Now sure, there are only four, plus (one assumes) your Lord, plus his Champion. But that alone is nine dice before adds, and the adds go on before the doubling, so if (say) you have a dice for being better than the warriors your hitting, and a couple of dragon-suited cards (including the Hero of the Age you get dealt to start with as a Briton which makes your Lord roll 6 dice in combat) you're potentially rolling 2 x 14 or 15 dice. And if you're lucky enough to have played Artorius, you're hitting on 3s.

Ouch.

AndyM and Rob's warriors were testament to the fact that that hurts.

However, they do have certain disadvantages:

• They're one Group. So all defensive attacks go on them.
• No shieldwall (obviously)
• They can't charge if they have any Shock on them

They can evade if charged, but it costs them a point of Shock 

They risk becoming unhorsed (essentially a 50% chance of not) in difficult (-3/dice) terrain

If you face them down with two groups of undamaged Elites, you'll be throwing 17 dice (with Lord and Champion). Statistically (i.e. if you're not AndyM) that should mean around 8 hits, one kill and 2-3 shock. You'll be taking about 10 hits per group worst case if they charge you, so 1-2 kills, and 3-4 shock per group. You will lose, but with average dice rolls all you'll do is fall back. And they won't be able to follow up next round with any shock on them, remember.

Interested in comments from folks who've used the Gwŷr y Gogled force more than I have as to how to deal with those cavalry.  As far as I can see one way to deal with then would actually appear to be to dance around with your Harassing troops and try and keep Shock on them as much as possible...

So what happened last night, I hear you ask.... well....

Ready for battle. The boar is off in the woods to the right, and the Saxons are hearing the echo of hoofbeats....

Warriors vs Warriors. A win to the Saxons after a couple of rounds, although the Saxons have just noticed the looming wall of horseflesh and are looking worried... 

The Shock cavalry decide the Saxons aren;'t worth the effort, and start on a long arc round the stone circle to come round behind the rest of the Saxons....

Meanwhile, the boar is unconcernedly rootling up truffles in the far corner of the wood, since no-one seems to care about him. As a playtest of the Boar Hunt scenario... mmm, not so much :D

Some while later (I was having too much fun to take photos) one lot of Saxon levy have been chased off, one lot of Saxon warriors likewise, and here come the Companion cavalry, into the Saxon hearthguard,  'cause... frankly, we wanted to see what would happen.

What happened is Andy and Rod rolled dreadfully, and the Saxon elites retreated. :D

As an aside, if you've got this far, one other thing I discovered, as I've been trying very hard to get the rules scrupulously right (it's very easy to fall into bad habits, like, for example, AndyH and I getting combat result calculation wrong for several games - he says that's how Rich taught us, me, I dunno!)

A very useful tactic as Britons, given you only have one unit of Elites, is to rank up Elites in the front of a shieldwall with Warriors in the rear (or ditto with Warriors and Levy). If you do this, the movement restriction is based on the front rank AND the front rank ONLY takes casualties in melée. This is both good and bad - bad in that it concentrates the damage your opponent does on just the front rank, but good in that

1. it makes you pretty much immune to Goad
2. the first kill gets soaked by the shieldwall
3. you're harder to damage (because you're the better troops of your formation).
4. your opponent counts as facing the front rank for determining if he gets extra dice

The slight awkwardness is what happens if the front rank has to fall back. I got a bit confused about this at Steel Lard, but I think I now have this straight:

• If the front rank fall back 2" or less, the rear rank can fall back with them if it wants (as per Excess Shock on p54 of the main rules): no loss of Formation or shieldwall, but your front rank is still the better troops, is still somewhat damaged and Shocked
• If they fall back more than 2", as I see it:
• they will (and clearly, in fact, must) interpenetrate the rear rank (see p39 of the main rules - "Troops retiring due to excess Shock will ignore some of these restrictions, see Withdrawing through Friendly Troops on page 55." I would assume this rule also applies to falling back for any other reason due to a combat result - the wording on p 55 is not entirely unambiguous.)
• as a result (p 55) the rear rank takes one Shock per excess Shock that the front rank has (plus one Shock per quality level difference). Obviously, also, because the front rank has fallen back > 2" the Formation and shieldwall are broken

Uff. It does make sense if you apply the rules in order, carefully. Comments very much appreciated on this one

Thanks as ever to my loyal playtesters, Myk, AndyM, Rod and Carl!

Battle Reports - 23 Nov 2019 - Dux, Steel Lard

Back from Steel Lard sufficiently late and tired having got up at 6am to be on the road for 7 that you weren't getting an update then!

AndyM picked me and a lot of terrain boards up at 7am, in his nice spacious Audi, and we caned it up the A1 and across to Sheffield in plenty of time to set up for Game 1.

First raid scenario - Coastal Raid. This is the third time I've play tested it, and like the other one I ran, I decided not to do random terrain placement so I could get a feel for how a roughly balanced setup plays. I'll probably run it a couple more times with settings at the more extreme end of random to se if they need tweaking.

The table. Longboats are Revell (cut down to a waterline model by Andy, who'll be along later to explain how tricky this is!) and Adrians Walls resin (on loan from Carl at our club)

The British levy, having raised the alarm, do what any sensible shield wall would do, and wait upslope for the Saxon elites.

...who do a lot of screaming, yelling and banging spears on shields before charging up at them. The levy actually survived  two rounds without losing their amphora, took out the Saxon champion but did lose their leader and just barely suffered excess shock.

So the Saxons decided they could safely ignore the levy and headed for the village, where their warriors were already advancing.

The British levy, by dint of a Rally card and some support from their own slingers manage to survive the very annoying Saxon archers without going into excess shock again...

Meanwhile, the Saxon levy decide they're not going to face the British warriors on the upslope, but instead skirt up and round the hill...

Here come the British heartguard, while one of the Saxon leaders decides to do some quick looting....

Saxon archers driven off, the British slingers head inland while the levy hang around by the Saxon longships to provide a roadblock... (still on lots of shock with no leader around...)

The Saxons fall just short in their attach, so the British counter-charge...

...and drive them back..

The British turn to fall just short, before the Saxons  (having rallied off a fair chunk of Shock) manage to use a rather nice hand of cards to make a fair mess...

...while their hearhguard are now upslope of the British warriors.  You will note fleeing British hearthguard in the background!

British warriors driven back, half the force defending the village itself driven off.
Saxon victory.

For game two, I decided to test out the Treasure Hunt raid scenario again. Again I set the table, rather than allowing a random scenery layout, partly for testing balance and partly because it made for a prettier table.

Six 'random' treasure locations: the willow island in the marsh,  the rocky outcrop, the ruined Roman temple, the fallen Roman column in the wood, the barrow and the stone in the woods (that did have a sword stuck in it till it broke off!). 

Early scrap right in front of the barrow (really glad I took the time to finish that on Friday!) 

Battle lines are drawn. The British are consolidating on and around the barrow,. the Saxons have just about fallen over a ruined Roman column in the woods....

The two hearthguard units face off. Meanwhile the  British slingers find a nice vantage point atop the barrow to shoot over people's heads. 

"Olaf? What's that you've found?"
"I... uh. Don't know. Some kind of round thing with ends that unscrew. Has Roman runes on it. Probably not important."
Britons; "It's a SCROLL, YOU IDIOT, Don't trash it!"

There's a bit of a scrap going on beyond the woods that drives away some British levy. Which is just fine by them as they'll go looking for treasure...

The prelude to a perfect piece of card play (and the middle of a rather complex piece of 'ok, just how do we resolve this according to the rules?'). The British hearthguard,  which were forming the front rank of the unit in the centre, have been shocked enough to fall back a couple of inches. Not enough to break the formation, but they are pretty much in contact with the small group of Saxons behind them, which kind of a) makes this a rather confused ongoing combat and b) means that this is, as the saying goes, Going To Hurt. A Lot, as, with a Carpe Diem, if the Saxons warriors activate they get to do the British a lot of damage with a rear attack.

Except that the British Lord activates first, and lo and behold, he has a Disengage, which gets him very very nicely out of what was a pretty sticky predicament.

My memory is sketchy as to what happened next, except that the Saxons took a fair force morale hit somewhere, and we wrapped it up as a British win. 

Note to self: need to think about exactly how the whole business of shieldwalls where the front rank is elites and the rear warriors behaves when the front rank's morale starts breaking. because it can get a bit complex.

So, that was my bit of Steel Lard. Some very pretty tables around,. which I didn't have time to take pictures of - check the hashtag #SteelLard on Twitter for pictures of the games, as well as the alcohol-hazed proceedings both before and after. Thanks to all my players, to Andy for the lift and company, and Tom for organising a fabulous day. We must do it again.