Ancient Britain, Sacred Groves and a bit of Inter Tribal Warfare.

Last Thursdays games night was something a little different.
Glenn was to busy working to make the game, but a visit from Ian Willey from the The Blog with No Name
helped to make up the numbers.
We had been playing quite a lot of Naps over the last few weeks.
This was probably due to the fact that we have all recently swapped to 15's and now have some sizable collections already.
But last Thursday, we thought we would try something a little different.

As most of you are probably aware, the Ancient Brits usually get a good thumping from the might of Rome.
Pretty disheartening for the Celt players.
So why not have a bit of Celt on Celt action.
After all, they did fight each other before the Romans got here.
So, pre 55 BC or 43 AD when the proper invasion happened is the setting.
We each drew a Random Tribe from the Britannia book.
I got the Silures, Andy got the Cornovii and Ian got the Ordovices.
We trimmed the Tribal forces a little as we were limited with the units we could use.
Myself and Andy started in opposite corners with Ian deployed on the far edge fro us both.
In the centre of the table was a sacred grove.
This grove was out of bounds to all players bar the victor at the end.

The Sacred Grove awaits

My Warband

Andy's Warband

Ian's Warband

We were deployed and ready.
How would it play.
Hahahaha.
Lets sum it up with some pictures of the mayhem.....

I Move, Andy & Ian don't, the Grove is mine

A few turns on and me & Ian are Battling in out.
Andy still fails to move.
Crafty tactic.

Andy finally move as myself & Ian are slowly battering
each other.
Andy manages a charge on my cavalry and breaks them both.

The fight between myself & Ian could have gone either way, but
in the end it was myself that came off worse.
Andy slowly moves forward towards the action.

The state of play about 90 mins in.
Andy edges forward as Ian defeats my Fanatics and my last cavalry.
My Tribe is on the brink of being Broken.

Andy finally gets his Tribe to move, Teatime over.
My Tribe is now Broken and what is left leaves the field.

Ian just manages to re-form his line with what he has left as Andy
now swings his whole force forward.
My two remaining warbands beat a hasty retreat off the table.
My game is over, it's 9pm,
Rest, relax and watch these two fight it out.
Ian has lost half his troops, Andy's are fresh.

Ian charges Andy's warbands and with some super dice rolling
Breaks them both.
Andy launches his chariots at Ian, but the dice gods desert him.
With fails akin to his move dice earlier in the game.
The chariots are broken.
As the lines stand off, Ian launches an assault with his remaining cavalry
Andy & Ian are both now at breaking point. 

The result of this cavalry clash will determine the outcome of the game.
Who will be triumphant ?
Who will claim the Sacred Grove ?

The Answer is Nobody will.
Andy & Ian both broke each others Tribe in the same turn.
As they both fled the field, the Druids looked on in disbelief.
A Random Roman ??? was sacrificed by the Druids as the
Sacred Grove remained unclaimed.
I'm sure more Tribes will be up for claiming this honour in the near
Future.

A great, fun game that was something a little different from what we usually play.
Bad luck to Andy for the worst command rolls in a long time.
In the end it didn't work in his favour.
Bad luck to Ian, who after smashing my tribe gave as good as he got to Andy's.
Enough said about my feeble effort. I cannot make a saving throw, ever.

One thing did come from this though, we need more Celts, Warbands and Cavalry.
Soon my friends, very soon, the numbers will swell yet again...