Romano-British for Dux Britanniarum

Turn five began with Saebert the Old moving his combined formation of Hearthguard and Warriors forward towards Garcianus and the remaining Comanipulares and Warriors.  The Saxon Missiles also moved forward, shooting at the British missiles but missing.  Peredur Constantine was then activated and used is two command initiatives to remove a point of shock from each of the Comanipulares and Warriors.  Over towards the farm, Berhthun the Devil detached himself from the fleeing group and moved to return to the fray.  Behind Saebert, Ceawlin collected the group of Saxon warriors who had fallen back from the earlier fight with Garcianus and combined them with his other group of Hearthguard.

This looked to be a turn of consolidation on the Saxon side.  They had received a check in the last turn and needed to redress their ranks and rally their troops.  But Garcianus had other ideas.  Sitting within the British abilities deck was a Carpe Diem card, a powerful ability that would allow a noble to play multiple cards in a single turn.  Garcianus saw an opportunity to strike at the Saxons whilst they were still disordered.

Using his first two command initiatives, Garcianus removed a further point of shock from each of the Comanipulares and Warriors.  He then used his last command initiative to play Carpe Diem and unleash a run of cards.  Audicia gave him a further command initiative which was used to charge Saebert’s formation.  Strong Arm inflicted shock on the Saxons, and Hero of the Age allowed him to double his number of attack dice.  Usually, this would increase his dice from 3 to 6, but because of Audicia, his command initiative total was 4, meaning that he would contribute 8 dice to the coming combat.

Despite all of this, the continuing impact of casualties and shock meant that the British advantage was not quite as pronounced as it might at first seem.  They rolled 19 dice to the Saxons’ 14.  Moreover, the Saxon blades were more deadly, making 9 hits that resulted in 3 kills, whilst the British could only manage 7 hits and 2 kills.  The result was that the last of Peredur’s warriors was wiped out and British Force Morale fell from 5 to 4.

Both sides were still in the fight however, and a second round was fought immediately.  This time the British rolled 16 dice to the Saxon’s 12.  The Saxons continued to show their quality.  Despite only making 2 hits to the British 7, the result was the same for both sides: 1 dead and 1 point of shock.

Despite the bloodshed, neither side had gained an advantage and a third round of combat commenced.  14 dice were rolled by the British and 11 for the Saxon.  This resulted in 6 hits for the British and 9 for the Saxons but neither side made any kills.  The amount of shock was greatest on the British Comanipulares and, down to three men, they were obliged to withdraw.  The Saxons were unable to follow up.

The retreat of the Companipulares had brought them into direct contact with Urien Cadwallader and his Levy.  This allowed Urien to rally two shock off the battered Companipulares.  The turn then ended in bizarre fashion when the British Missiles managed to kill one of the Saxon Hearthguard accompanying Ceawlin.