Can Publius Decimus Barbula and his ragged Rheged warband stop the Irish Raiders from crossing the bridge with their ill-gotten gains?
The Prologue:
It is the Season of Plenty, in the Year of Our Lord 476 AD... Conchobhar, the Warlord of Dal Riatta, and his sinful host are returning to the North, from a savage raid upon the lands of Dun Rheged. To reach safety, they must first cross the River Brunneis, at the bridge near the border watch tower, which stands close by the Villa Lurkio. et sic incipit!
The battlefield... the Villa Lurkio on the right, the border tower on the left and the wooden bridge over the river, across which the raiders must pass to escape with their plunder! The loot!
Conchobhar commands the right of the Irish line, including both groups of Raider Warriors and the slingers.
On the left, Oengus the Witless commands the javelinmen, who are pouring out of the woodland.
Opposing the Irish, on the Romano-British left, Verax holds the bridge with two groups of Pedyts and the Limitanei.
Barbula and the Commanipularis, of course, have spent the night in the comfort of Villa Lurkio and are, consequently stuck out on the right, nowhere near the vitally important river crossing!
An interested onlooker observes from the border tower.
Conchobhar opens proceedings by sending his light troops ahead to disrupt the close order formations adopted by the Romano-British defenders.
The first defender falls under a shower of Irish javelins, but the doughty Pedyts hold fast.
Barbula realises that his elite troops are a long way from the critical area and begins to get them moving towards the action.
The Commanipularis catch a group of Irish javelinmen flat footed and cut many of them down before they can react... Irish casualties begin to mount and they are soon approaching the first break point.
Connchobhar reacts with lightning speed and switches his mixed weapon armed raiders to the left to take on the Commanipularis. However, the Commanipularis' "Wall of Spears" trait leads to three of the raiders being cut down before they could launch their furious assault.
Meanwhile, the javelin armed raiders hurl themselves fanatically against the Pedyts defending the bridge.
Fearing that his command is about to be overwhelmed, Verax orders the Limitanei to break ranks and drive the Irish javelinmen away. The Irish suffer more casulaties and the casualty numbers continue to rise worryingly.The Limitanei manage to reform their ranks into close order just in time, as the Irish raiders turn and launch an all out attack. The raider's vicious trait pays dividends as they roll two 6s which double up the casualties amongst the Limitanei.The Limitanei are reduced to half strength and stalled and, their fatigue reaches catastrophic levels.Hoping to stem the tide, Verax orders his second unit of Pedyts across the bridge.With defeat seemingly inevitable, victory comes from a most unlikely source; the lowly slingers bring down two more Irish javelinmen and the Irish are forced to take a Force Break Test... two of the three rolls fail and the Irish are forced to flee, leaving their loot behind them!Just under three hours of nail-biting drama... had the game gone on to the next turn, the Irish would probably have snatched a victory, if the javelin armed raiders could have launched another all-out attack against the Limitanei.The Irish have the potential to be an un-stoppable force with their Warrior Raiders. I fielded two units in this game, one with Mixed Weapons, which, with the Combined Arms and Vicious traits makes them a nightmare to face... the Combined Arms trait means they can re-roll any 1s or 2s on their to hit roll and the Vicious trait means they not only score double hits with 6s, but the enemy get a -1 Save Modifier on them to boot! The second Warrior Raiders were armed with javelins, which means they don't get the Combined Arms trait but they still have Vicious which potentially increases the impact of the hits on those 6s in combat.
Where things fall apart a little for the Warrior Raiders, is that the Romano-British Commanipularis and the Limitanei both have "Wall of Spears", which gives them the opportunity to strike first when they select Hold in an attack. Because the Warrior Raiders have a Save stat of 6+, they are very likely to suffer casualties before they can use the advantages they have from their own combat traits.
Does Clash of Spears work in the age of Arthurian wargaming? Based on this little encounter, it most certainly does and I can't wait to get these warbands back out on the dining room table for another encounter. I think the stats are about right; the Romano-British have lots of defensive qualities and are best used in close order and the Irish certainly need to be handled aggressively, using their withering fire power and their powerful but vulnerable Warrior Raiders. Next time, I'll have my Irish cavalry on the table and, probably, a mounted commander, while Barbula will be reinforced with a group of archers and maybe even some cavalry of his own.
