Petty Kings

This week I had the pleasure of attending a local gaming event and participate in a top quality game put on by Ross MacFarlane (Battle Game of the Month Blog). Ross has put on lots of convention games and I invited him to put something on for our local group and give his next con game a test drive. Ross selected his 40mm Romano British vs Barbarians. The rules were written by Ross and were easy to learn and fun to play.

The scenario had a column of supplies trying to break through to a besieged castle. Marauding Huns were lurking in the wings and arrived to randomly to try and intercept the supplies. We had 4 players with Brent as the garrison commander, Martin as the relief column commander opposed by Mike the Barbarian and myself. Each army small contingent was lead by an characterful commander.

Roman escorts

 Wagon loads of goodies!

The Romans had 2 choices of how to approach the castle: longer and more open terrain or a shorter narrow track through a forest. They elected to push through the forest led by the escort commander who was the best fighter on the field.

Table with view of the castle





The Raiders arrived on the left and right table edges. Roman cavalry tried to drive off the infantry but only managed to slow them down. A unit of Hunnic horse archers managed to lead a unit of Roman Horse and Heavy Foot on a goose chase that removed them from their wagon protection role.

Raiders arriving







The garrison spotted their supplies coming in and sortied with their cavalry. Hunnish skirmishers entered the woods and did started looting wagons. The Roman knight defending the wagons found himself unable to catch the nimble skirmishers in the dense woods. Casualties mounted on both sides and the wagon train was being cut up.

Roman horse sortie from the castle



Roman cavalry raced from the castle to the defense of the wagons but were surprised by the appearance of Hunnic horse in their rear. They were caught between infantry and horse and cut to pieces including the garrison commanded getting unhorsed. The wagon train limped into the castle with only one wagon. Luckily for the Romans it was the mead wagon!

Wagon train in trouble!