Twilight of the Britons – A Battle Report 3

I have some newly painted dark age heroes along with tons of new armoured infantry, plus an update to the rules, so it was time to play Twilight of the Britons again. Chris and Adam were willing to give it a go.

Summary: Good game and very dark age in flavour. Chris overestimated the ability of his dark age warriors to manoeuvre and got into a bit of a tangle. Adam’s Briton cavalry crushed the English flank guard and hit the Great Fyrd at the rear of English line causing the English shield wall to collapse.

Britons-308 English Warleader
Britons-308 English Warleader


The Armies

I went for circa 500 AD, Briton versus English, and 60 point armies (medium sized). I use the term “English” to cover the Angles (Ængle), Saxons (Sahson) and Jutes (Kentings) from Hengist and Horsa’s arrival in Kent (about 429), through their amalgamation as the English, until Norman subjugation. Technically, Chris’s “English” would have called themselves Sahson.

Adam got the Britons and chose an army strong in heavy cavalry and armoured heavy infantry:

Briton Army

  • 1 x Warlord: Epic(+2) Hero
  • 1 x War leader: Brave(+1) Hero
  • 3 x Comitatus: Epic(+2) Heavy Cavalry, Aggressive, Armoured, Undisciplined
  • 6 x Pedyt: Epic(+2) Heavy Infantry, Armoured
  • 2 x Peasants: Brave(+1) Heavy Infantry, Undisciplined
  • 1 x Javelinmen: Brave(+1) Light Infantry, Javelin
  • 1 x Archers: Brave(+1) Light Infantry, Foot Bow
  • 1 x Druids or Magicians: Epic(+2) Light Infantry, Curses
  • 1 x Christian saint or monks: Epic(+2) Light Infantry, Curses
  • 2 x Heroes; 15 x Units; 60 Points; Breakpoint 6

Chris had the English army and went for a bigger all infantry army.

English Army

  • 1 x Warlord: Epic(+2) Hero
  • 1 x War leader: Brave(+1) Hero
  • 2 x Hird: Epic(+2) Heavy Infantry, Aggressive, Armoured, Undisciplined
  • 4 x Select Fyrd: Epic(+2) Heavy Infantry, Armoured
  • 8 x Great Fyrd: Brave(+1) Heavy Infantry, Undisciplined
  • 2 x Archers: Brave(+1) Light Infantry, Foot Bow
  • 2 x Heroes; 18 x Units; 59 Points; Breakpoint 7

Table

I used terrain cards which gave a stream, large hill, small hill and large wood. I rotated the small hill and wood features to open up the middle.


Deployment

Then Adam and Chris rolled for who was attacking (Britons) and side edge.

Chris was defending and got the big hill so he deployed his Warlord there.

Britons-301 Deployment
Britons-301 Deployment
Britons-302 English Warband on hill under the Warlord
Britons-302 English Warband on hill under the Warlord

The subordinate hero on the flat.

Britons-303 English Warband on flat
Britons-303 English Warband on flat

Adam’s main warband was facing the English on the flat.

Britons-304 Briton Warband under Warlord
Britons-304 Briton Warband under Warlord

The Briton cavalry were on the Adam’s right.

Britons-305 Briton Warband with cavalry
Britons-305 Briton Warband with cavalry

This deployment left both right wings facing open space. The difference was that the Britons had cavalry on the open flank and the English did not.


The Battle

Both armies advanced on their right, as fast as possible. Obviously the Briton cavalry could go further.

Britons-306 Both sides advance on their right
Britons-306 Both sides advance on their right

Then both armies started to echelon further. Both Warlords split their warband into two and advanced one faster. The Briton Warlord advanced in the centre with half his warband.

Britons-307 Advances on right continue
Britons-307 Advances on right continue

The English were still going flat out on their extreme right near the stream, with the Warlord advancing cautiously off the hill.

Britons-309 English echelon forward
Britons-309 English echelon forward

In the centre the two shield walls slammed together with the right flanks of both armies curving in towards the centre.

Britons-310 Right flanks curve in towards enemy
Britons-310 Right flanks curve in towards enemy

Not all the heavy infantry were involved in this initial scrimmage and the English had weight of numbers.

Britons-311 Shieldwall on shieldwall in the centre
Britons-311 Shieldwall on shieldwall in the centre

But the Briton cavalry started chewing on the English flank. First to go with some light archers.

Britons-312 Threat of Briton cavalry start eroding morale of English
Britons-312 Threat of Briton cavalry start eroding morale of English

The unit of Great Fyrd behind them were more resilient, but clearly worried.

Britons-313 Briton cavalry threaten English Great Fyrd
Britons-313 Briton cavalry threaten English Great Fyrd

They quickly routed.

Britons-314 Briton cavalry charge and rout English Great Fyrd
Britons-314 Briton cavalry charge and rout English Great Fyrd

On the far flank the Briton clerics routed some English Hird. Clearly, for that moment at least, God was on their side.

Britons-315 Priestly curses route English Hird
Britons-315 Priestly curses route English Hird

Now the Briton cavalry slammed into the rear of the English shield wall. A unit of the Great Fyrd was first to crumble.

Britons-316 Rear of English shieldwall begin to fray
Britons-316 Rear of English shieldwall begin to fray

Then some of the Select Fyrd ran.

Britons-317 English Select Fyrd rout
Britons-317 English Select Fyrd rout

The battle had settled into a diagonal line with two focuses of action.

Britons-318 A battle in two parts
Britons-318 A battle in two parts

As a general approach, Chris was turning some of his infantry into the centre in an attempt to hit flanks of Briton infantry. This is quite a good tactic in DBA but didn’t work well in Twilight of the Britons. Turning meant his nicely aligned shield walls fragmented, and exposed his own flanks to more solid Briton formation.

Britons-319 Main battle is very confused
Britons-319 Main battle is very confused

The infantry fight looked pretty good for the English, but Chris couldn’t ignore the Briton cavalry lurking in his rear.

Britons-320 Briton cavalry now unopposed in English rear
Britons-320 Briton cavalry now unopposed in English rear

Then the Briton cavalry hit the rear of the English shield wall for the second time.

Britons-321 Long shot of battle
Britons-321 Long shot of battle

Select Fyrd near the hill routed.

Britons-322 Select Fyrd near large hiil rout
Britons-322 Select Fyrd near large hill rout

If you looked at the battle from a certain perspective the English still looked strong.

Britons-323 It seems the English penetrated into the flank of the Britons
Britons-323 It seems the English penetrated into the flank of the Britons

But actually the English shield wall was now totally surrounded by Britons.

Britons-324 But actually the English were surrounded
Britons-324 But actually the English were surrounded

The English got to their breakpoint. Win to the Britons.


Observations and conclusions

Adam: “Good game. Good dark age flavour”.
Chris: “I lost but I think it is a good system.”

High praise from the guys.

One of the players mentioned that it was nice to play the rules with smaller armies. As it happens these armies are bigger than previous games. Clearly the game flowed better.

The game took 2 hours, about the same as previous games. Nobody complained but this is still longer than a DBA game of 1 hour.

The guys were surprised that no generals died. Perhaps a natural 2 is too rare.

With these sized armies on a 4’x 4′ table, the deployment meant both right flanks overlapped the enemy. I’m worried this will become a pattern. If it does then I’ll probably introduce a rule from Tilly’s Very Bad Day to ensure all heavy infantry deploy in the centre half of the table (so in the centre 2′ on the 4′ table). That would ensure more of a dark age shield wall line up.

The English army list bugs me. We’ve got two types of good heavy infantry. The Hird are “Epic(+2) Heavy Infantry, Aggressive, Armoured, Undisciplined” but the Select Fyrd are only “Epic(+2) Heavy Infantry, Armoured”. I now think this is overly precise – this is 1,500 years ago – and I’m tempted to make all of them the same. All of the other armies only have one type of good heavy infantry. In the next version of the army lists I think I’ll categorise the Select Fyrd like the Hird.

I also discovered that a few of my poor quality infantry stands have armoured figures on them. I’m tempted to rebase to separate them. After all, the presence of armour is the only way to tell the difference in the heavy infantry.

Adam set up with his infantry facing the enemy. Chris did this as well, but tried to swing his infantry into the flank of the Britons. This might work in DBA but didn’t work in Twilight of the Britons. The English infantry became fragmented, could not support each other and ran out of space to recoil.

Getting hit in the rear hurts. That seems appropriate for the period. The game mechanism is getting charged in rear (with modest modifier), taking a hit so having to recoil, then failing to recoil full distance and taking an additional hit. That erodes units very quickly. We liked it.

The Twilight family of games differ from most wargames because a player’s turn does not include offensive combat. Combat is simulated by testing morale of defending troops, in the defending player’s turn. This difference is fundamental and always takes us a while to wrap our heads around it.

The subject of PIPs came up. PIPs are a command and control mechanism from the DBx series of games. Each army gets a number of movement actions determined by a die roll. The PIP system of DBA is fast and simple, so Adam wondered if PIPs would enhance Twilight of the Britons. My feeling is no, it would just turn the game into a pale DBA imitation. The command and control mechanism in the Twilight family are the actions, which allow more nuance and flavour as the cost of slower play.


Where to get Twilight of the Britons

Twilight of the Britons is available for Download (PDF).

2 thoughts on “Twilight of the Britons – A Battle Report 3”

  1. Looks good. What with my travel schedule and such, may be a while before the Fencibles get a game in. And we’re on track for a Napoleonic dust-up next, whenever that is.

    Reply

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