The Ponies Attack! a Dux Brittaniarum batrep

Friday evening Dimitri and me played our final battle for this round of the TSA Dux campaign, as his Scotti raiders invaded my province of Dyffed.

The scenario we rolled was Burn the Watchtower, something I was very, very happy about as defending a perimeter is something I'm quit handy in.

The downside I faced was that my relieving force would be arriving on turn 3, meaning the raiders had two full turns to reach the pallisade and start the siege.  The upside was that with their Raider and Skirmisher heavy force, they aren't suited at all to actually attack a defended obstacle.

So three units of Warriors (I have five) set up in the tower together with a noble and lord, while the Wicca raised a (weak, I rolled a 5) Spirit Wall against the outside back of the wall for some further delaying action against his Raiders, the only three units geared towards trying to scale the walls.

My goal was to limit casualties, because if I got through this battle unscathed, it would mean my Levy would return and my force would be boosted with a further 18 troops over three units for the next campaign month.  Dimitri would probably try to keep his force to minimum losses, so the cavalry when they arrived would be trying to run down his skirmishers to disperse them, as I wasn't aiming to kill them but just remove them from the siege.  The units in the tower as such would have to hold out against his Raiders units until the surrounding forces where chased off.

The Raiders arrived on the left and right flanks, but didn't really get far on their movement rolls, his two units of cavalry (Skirmish for the one, Noble Cavalry for the other) moved towards my deployment point to try and hold up my arriving forces.

In the second turn, he moved those horses deeper, as his forces arrived at the tower, but combat wasn't really joined just yet.  My shieldwall had by then relocated to the side where his raiders where, and the skirmish missile attacks proved ineffectual, those 6s to hit together with the ignore first kill / shock (depending one was hit by skirmishers of missile troops) made them a solid obstacle to face.

And then turn 3 arrived, and with it my cavalry.  As they entered the field, it was time for some long range charges.  The regular warrior cavalry needed to roll 15 to charge the skirmish horses, and I went for it playing a Carpe Diem, so they would disperse as they couldn't evade... and did as such.
But not after moments before my firstly arrived missile troops had actually shot down one of the skirmishing horsemen.

The Elites with the noble would charge his Noble Raiders on a 16... and did so as well, causing the first combat of the game and drawing my warrior cavalry in as well.  His nobles lost the combat and withdrew an inch due to shock.  When his cavalry activated later in the turn, and unable to charge due to the 4 shock on them, they duly withdrew of the table to save their hides.

At the wall, the raiders, now formed in a solid mass of three units with noble, lord and champion, took on my two unit shieldwall with noble.  The 6s proved a difficult obstacle to overcome, as he lost a few raiders and accumulated shock, in exchange for no casualties and 1 point of shock on each of my units.

The next turn made it clear the attack was faltering, as his skirmishers felled one warrior with their missile attacks, but the lord took the raiders and withdrew from the wall to start reducing shock, and my units all linked up to form one large shieldwall of three units now including the lord and champion as well.  The cavalry units charged the skirmishers with another Carpe Diem, causing instant dispersal, while the regular horse chased off the missile troops.

We entered the final turn, and the elite cavalry dispersed another unit of skirmishers.  While I didn't had a Carpe Diem, I rolled a total charge of 12 for the needed 8 inch range.  But they fled an amazing 3 inch on their 3d6 evade move, and off they went as well.

At this point, Dimitri offered his surrender, and I accepted as I had no ambition for a huge win or risking troops against the Raider wall on the opposite side of the watchtower.  This meant I would win with +2, reduced to +1 after the calculation of the pursuit and retreat cards, which was good enough for me.

There had been barely any casualties in this battle, 2 men fell from my side, so those would be immediatly refreshed, and he lost only 4 warriors so they would come back as well, leaving our forces at the same strength as we began the engagement with.  I would gain a further 2 talents to add to my treasury, and gain another prestige point.  As a result, I'm now lonely at the top of the campaign with 11 Prestige, and the closest follower currently stands at 9, so Clustfeinad is carving out his own little legend now...

Now on to the next campaign turn, in which my army is largely expanded with the return of the Levy (I wonder how long they last this time) and further steps in trying to create a legend of my own...