Twilight of the Britons - Across the Channel - Twilight of the Romans

The Fencibles had our first in-person game since last summer, before Delta reared its ugly head. We played a game outdoors in Red Hook, Brooklyn on a third floor deck. Three Fencibles were unable to attend. Carl showed up to play and Andrew came by after work to kibitz. We were playing the new set of rules Twilight of the Britons by Steven Thomas with some help from me.  The rules can be found here.

The rules are designed to represent the invasion of Britain by the Anglo-Saxons and such. Being the ornery cuss that I am, the game was set on the continent between a Roman/Gothic force against a Frankish/other Gothic force. Also happens that those are the figures I have ready to rumble. A set of Dark Age rules should work on both sides of the Channel. With the base size we were using (a pair of DBA bases for a total 80mm base width) the table should have been 48 inches square. We settled on 36" square and deployed a full 5 BW apart. Carl opted for the Frankish/Gothic confederation and I took the Romans. Each side had 11 units, 3 heroes and 46 points, breakpoint 5 units/heroes. Dice determined I started deploying first and Carl moved first. It was an anodyne terrain set up. a wooded area on each flank and a small hill close to the center. We proceeded to forget a number of rules and misinterpret others, but still had a blast. 

Roman units: 1 Roman cavalry, 1 Gothic cavalry, 1 Hun light cavalry, 2 light infantry archers, 1 Orthodox Christian monk (light infantry), 3 Roman infantry, 2 Gothic infantry, 1 warlord and 2 heroes, about 3,200 troops.

Barbarian units: 3 Gothic cavalry, 1 heretical monk (light infantry), 7 Frankish infantry, 1 warlord and 2 heroes, about 3,700 warriors.

The game ended when Carl broke the Roman cavalry. The Huns had already routed, along with both Roman light infantry archers and the Monks, bring the total to the breakpoint of 5. His losses were 3 units to that point although at least two other units were one hit away from breaking. It had been close, though way too long. It turned out we had ignored a number of rules and mis-interpreted others. Being a co-author of the rules, my only excuse was it has been a while since I did that and proceeded to forget much in the interim.

The rules allowing the monks/priests (and druids and magicians for armies that have those) to curse enemy units with results akin to bowmen led to a lot of levity in the game. Think of the Latin lesson given in the film Life of Brian. Now conjugate the verb... And then we also supplied more prosaic curses of the local Brooklyn variety.

The game would have ended much faster if we'd played it correctly. The heat and alcohol consumption may have been a factor. Next time... Meanwhile, I ordered some more figures for each side, especially some monks and period-correct heroes. I used what extra single figures that could be found. The Warlord leading the Romans had a pot helm and a kite shield. He needs replacing.