Chronica Iohannes: Massacre at Bovia

We had another game in our Dux campaign last Thursday. Adam elected to have a battle and this time we had lots of time so we played the full pre-game phase. It really was a lot of fun. Adam was able to increase his Fate Card Hand to 6 cards as well as increasing his Lord's Status to IV. I was able to increase my morale to 10 after a successful contest between my champion Uther and the Saxon champion Wulfric. The Saxons started with a morale of 7.

You can see a full battle report with photos on Adam's blog. Essentially again it was a frontal assault by the Saxons with some maneuvering on the Briton's left flank. The Saxon's advance was to my left. I was able to hold my troops together and quickly formed a shield wall with my levy. I kept my warriors in reserve and protected my left flank with my elites. This was a pretty successful strategy. I think we now found a frontal assault on a British shield wall is a pretty unsuccessful tactic. Adam did have some bad luck with his dice but the outcome was very much in favour of the Britons. I lost 7 men and Adam lost 25 men in a contested withdrawal. I ended up with a 7+ victory, thus the battle has been entitled the Massacre at Bovia.

We again made a few mistakes. Although I was unsuccessful in my attempt, I did try to have my elites form a shield wall with my levy, which the rules forbid. Supporting units in combat were also not brought into until the second round of combat which is wrong. We also have a tendency to misinterpret the rules at the end of the game. Adam felt that he had lost the campaign as his men needed d6+6 months to recover which brought him through the winter without money to pay his taxes. This was I found to be incorrect, as he can elect to have one more do or die battle. 

We did put together a quick Campaign House Rule to get ourselves out of this perceived dilemma. One of my Nobles Cadfael had been captured in an earlier raid so we invented a Ransom rule, which allows a Lord to ransom captured Nobles. Throw a d6, 4+ requires 2 gold as a ransom, less than 1 gold. Adam threw a 4, so I paid 2 gold to get back Cadfael. I had ended the campaign turn with 5 gold, so I used 3 gold to elevate my Lord Antoninus to a Legatus. I also was allowed to gain reinforcements, I skipped over the skirmishers and elected to go with 6 more warriors. I now have 4 nobles (which the rules allow) and have increased my men by 8 since the beginning to the campaign. I am unfortunately again penniless!