Limes

A little more than a week ago Robbie and myself got together for the start of a Dark Ages Saga campaign. I had played one previous Dark Ages campaign under the persona of Iohannes using the Dux Britanniarum campaign system, it was pretty complex but a lot of fun so when I saw that Robbie was looking for partner, I happily agreed.

Briefly, the campaign is a 6 turn event where the Romans try to withstand a number of raids by the barbarians. We set our series of games in Southeast Briton 40 years after the Romans have abandoned the island for good. Robbie wanted to play the Romanised Britons while I took on the Saxons. We started our campaign just as Vortigern's son Vortimer has betrayed the Saxons under the brothers Hengist and Horsa. 

We have gone with the process as laid out in Limes as well as using the Saga Age of Invasions sourcebook and Battle Boards. We were not sure if you could use Heroes or not but to add to the fun and the narrative we decided to add the ability recruit Heroes as laid out in AoI. Each turn in the campaign takes place in the spring of the year with both sides able to recruit troops over the next winter. The Saxons have a new warband each game while the Romans recruit their warband in the first turn, this initial warband remains in place and can suffer attrition but also can recruit new troops over the winter as well as build up their defences. The recruitment process is calculated by using Time Units (TU), the Saxons start by constructing their warband where every unit costs so many TU according to their composition. The more the TU's spent allows the Romans to increase their recruitment efforts. It is a novel process that I found quite attractive. To add in Heroes, we settled on a cost of 4 TU. Once recruited (and this can happen in any turn) that Hero stays as the warlord with all his associated attributes. Once the Romans have paid they have no further costs but the Saxons have pay for a Warlord (1 TU) each turn. We are hoping this does not unbalance the campaign but we will have to see. The Saxon player introduces a Stratagem  before each game.Additionally the Saxon warlord makes a Boast just before the game begins. Victory is declared when the Saxon's Resolve drops to zero

As you can see I used 6 TU in the first turn

The Saxon force was lead by a Warlord with 2 Missile Levy units as well as 4 Warriors units.

The Roman force was mostly mounted with 2 units of Mounted Hearthguard, 2 units of Foot Hearthguard, 2 units of Warriors and a Warlord with 2 Companions.

Reports

Limes Summing Up Raid 1

Saxons

20 Victory Points

Resolve stays at 10

Romans

15 Victory Points

2 Warriors Killed

Morale -2, now 8

I had a lot of fun and a few photos

Bardic Poem by Keredig