The battle on the river Glein.

My buddy made a river and wanted to use it, so we met for another WAB game. This time we played the scenario the battle on the river Glen from the the WAB supplement The Age of Arthur. We played at 1.500 points, me Romano-British, my friend Saxons.

I was the attacker so I reached the river first.

The saxons already at the ford.

My Dux with his Commanipulares crossing the river on the left flank.

On the second turn I crossed the river with all my troops but then the Saxons charged and stopped me in my tracks. Those Gedrihts are terrifying.

 

My unit of milites at the ford, with a Tribune and Army Standard, suffered four casualties and inflicted none, and then failed the morale test and fled, panicking two units more with them. The Sagitarii on the centre held and inflicted many casualties on the Saxons.

My cavalry on the left flank overrun a unit of Geoguth and another of slingers but suffered too many casualties to keep fighting and the right flank was lost, so we left the game here as a Saxon victory.

 

We love WAB but always playing the same opponent and with the same armies makes you want to play to something else, so next time we will probably play WWII.

WAB again

Well, this is my second battle of WAB, this time played with 1.500 points. 

My Romano-British at the bottom with all units deployed except for two cavalry units reserved for flanking. I thought of defending from the hill with the Sagittari on top of it but the Saxons deployed most of their army on the opposite side.

I decided to lure as much of the Saxon units as possible with my skirmishers, hoping my opponent would roll many ones on his warband activations while I wait for my cavalry on the opposite flank.

My cavalry arrived on the third turn and I hoped I could charge the back of the Saxon army while they were fighting my infantry units, but soon their archers in the woods started to fire at them.

And my infantry was still too far to engage them.

My archers finally walked down from the hill and started to move toward the enemy.

Saxons stopped moving and fire with all javelins and bows and I lost my first soldiers.

 But my skirmishers on the left flank made flee one of his Doguth units.

My other unit of Rustici and the Sagtitari rushing from the hill toward the left flank.

The Saxon cavalry was threatening mine and as I couldn't charge the enemy infantry, I moved it up the hill. The clash between the two armies was imminent.

Saxons finally charged my allied Duguth unit and one unit of Milites on Shieldwall. On the left my Rustici annihilated one unit of Saxon Duguth with their javelins, helped with some arrows from the Sagittari.

But two Saxon units of Gedrith with WS4 and Strength 4 plus light armour were too much for my poor Milites, and they steadly trashed my units turn after turn. Meanwhile, a fresh unit of Milites was trapped in the forest, unable to help his comrades.

It seemed that the battle was lost but suddenly my mounted Commanipulares charged down the hill and killed six Saxon riders in one go, and in their pursue they caught them and then charged on the flank of another unit of Duguth!

At that moment we had to stop the game and decided to call it a draw. I'm loving WAB and wondering why I didn't play it before.

First time with Warhammer Historical Battles

I never played WAB before because I have never had a 28mm historical army to play with, but I thought I could try it with the Late Romans I painted for SAGA and yes, I had enough for a 1.000 points battle.

We played with the supplement The Age of Arthur with my Romans versus some disgusting Saxons in a pitched battle.

Armies displayed. Saxons on top and Romans bottom. The Saxon army consisted of two units of Duguth and one of Gedrith with their general in it, plus skirmishers with slings and bows. The Romans had two units of skirmishers with javelins, two of shock cavalry and two of infantry with heavy throwing spears.

Movements after first turn. I moved forward skirmishers and placed infantry in line with the hill, while I positioned the cavalry to charge the Saxon's flank. Saxons move forward, and a unit of skirmishers with bows threatened my cavalry on the flank.

On second turn I only launched forward my two skirmishers armed with javelins to stop Saxon's left flank while I dealt with its right one. I placed my general close to the skirmishers to give them his leadership but this later proved to be a fatal mistake. Besides, later I also learned generals cannot use his leadership on skirmishers.

Saxons charged and my skirmishers fled into the wood, leaving alone their surprised general facing an unexpected charge. Oops!

The General lost the melee and took one wound, and also failed his leadership test and panicked. After that, all the units within 12" also failed their tests and panicked and fled, with the unit of infantry with spears almost exiting the board!

In my turn, all of them could luckily rally, but the general suffered another wound from enemy javelins. He was now with only one wound left.

But then the Saxons madly charged uphill and lost the melee two to three casualties. Far on the Roman's left flank, the cavalry had charged and put to run the Saxon skirmishers with bows and it was now threatening the Saxon exposed flank. Things started to get better for the Romans.

Charging Saxons had to move backwards and while I chased them I hit the left flank of their General's unit. I also charged with my two units of shock cavalry to the other Saxon unit.

I won both melees and the Saxon General's unit fled. On the other flank my two skirmish unit rallied and concentrated on the decimated Saxon unit while a fresh Roman unit moved forward in their support. This was turn six and we called it a day, with a marginal victory for Rome.

The game was tense and exciting, and we had so much fun that we decided to play another game as soon as possible, this time with 1.500 points each!