Roman Civil War Intrudes on Gododdin

The men of Gododdin march to engage the two Roman invaders on the far corner of the board

Due to so much going on on our chosen weekend, we had only three players for our monthly Saga day at The Guard Tower East, today. The two mainstays of Saga in Columbus -- Andy Swingle and Steve Phallen, were both waiting when I arrived. We chatted for awhile, and then when no one else showed, decided to try a 3-way battle. Luckily, "Battle Royale" in the book of battles supplement has rules for three players, so we combined two 3'x4' mats into one 6'x4' one, and selected our armies.

Andy's Byzantine Roman army included a Legendary, heavily-armed cavalry unit (on hill)

I was playing the "Welsh" list, continuing the tale of Lord Gwendawg and his victorious (at least in the past) retainers. Andy chose the "Last Romans" list from the Age of Vikings book (representing the Byzantines), while Steve chose the Roman list from the Aetius & Arthur book. So, it was Romans vs. Romans vs. a list that used to be called Sub-Roman British in the old DBA days. The deployment sequence is clever, with a player choosing one of his units and placing them anywhere on the tabletop not within a Medium Move of an enemy unit. He then nominates one of his opponents to deploy a unit, who then does the same.

Andy and Steve's forces were deployed close to one another and were soon slaughtering each other

I deployed my units to essentially hide, out of sight. One of Steve's Roman units was a ballista, which is deadly against my large units. The effect is that my force was gathered in one corner of the board, while Andy and Steve were much more aggressive and intermixed their forces at short range, mostly in the opposite corner. I would have a long trek across the table to engage them, by which time the two would be savaging each other, suffering grievous losses. The movement system is equally clever, with each player having six markers (surrendering one after taking its turn and moving all of its forces). After finishing, the moving player nominates which of his opponents moves next (but it cannot be one with fewer movement markers left than the other).

Another look at the original deployment - the only enemy close were archers in the barn, top left, and woods, top right

Andy started off concentrating his forces better against Steve, though each kept one unit of archers to hold off the forces of Gododdin. It seemed he would make short work of Steve's troops, but Steve deftly turned the tables on him. Soon, it was Andy's forces who were dwindling. Meanwhile, we kept up a steady advance, bypassing the unit of Warrior Archers that Steve had left in the strongpoint of stone barn. Andy's Levy Archers were our first victim. After inflicting minimal casualties against them with our javelins, one of my 12-man warrior units charged in using the "Wild Charge" ability (which provides a bonus 6 attack dice). The men of Gododdin all but obliterated the archers, with one sole survivor fleeing deeper into the woods.

The tidal wave of brave men of Gododdin about to fall on the depleted Roman forces

Affronted, Andy's Warlord charged my own Levy javelinmen, who inflicted two fatigue on him before falling back. As he was in the middle of several of my units, it was obvious he would not survive his rashness. The Byzantine warlord went down under a hail of Gododdin javelins. Meanwhile, my mounted hearthguard (8 figures strong) and my own Warlord were hurrying to close with Steve's Romans before the game ended. Biding his time, Steve advanced his foot hearthguard unit towards my mounted ones, but had forgotten about the Welsh "Our Land" ability. This allows us to move or charge in reaction to an enemy move. The mounted heroes of Gododdin crashed into the elite foot legionaries. Bad dice kept the casualties equal, driving us off, but we followed up the next turn with another charge which eliminated the Romans.

To close at the battle, Lord Gwendawg charged the Roman Warlord and rode him down. Both enemy warlords had fallen to our javelins and swords. Most of my force was remaining, which also counts towards victory points (along with how many charges you launched), so Gododdin was declared the victor. I honestly think it was mostly due to the two of them wounding each other so savagely, allowing me to come in at full strength and finish them off. Granted, I felt I used my Welsh Battle Board well and augmented my superior numbers with key abilities.