Ambush in the Welsh Borders

After the Napoleonic battle last week I quickly packed up for a game the following day. Loosely based on a recent scenario in WSS I setup a Dark age encounter. The Normans have pushed their control across most of the British isles building fortified buildings and castles as they go. In 1069 they are on the welsh border their occupation as much about intimidation as the collection of tax. The local Norman Lord has been on a 2 day march to collect Taxes from the local population. But the Welsh are not happy and a raiding party has been sent to take back the extorted money. Using Lion Rampant both sides have about points.

The Normans have the choice to split their force between those entering along the white arrow carrying the stash and a force left behind in the fortified house. The Welsh will randomly arrive from the two green corners. The Norman’s must escort the loot to the keep.

A unit of mounted knights and spearmen await the arrival of the escorting party who can be seen way off in the distance

The Lady of the castle awaits her lord and presumably some new sparkly jewellery ?

Welsh lightly armed spearmen rush in to block the road

The welsh have some light cavalry armed with (unlimited) javelins 😀

The escorting party begins to move along the road but more welsh appear from their right

More welsh light cavalry begin to harass the group so a unit of knights are sent to chase them off

Closer to the castle, knights charge across the stream to try and engage more welsh cavalry

By the church more javelins are used to stall the advance of the escort

The welsh also try to charge the castle but are blocked at the gate in a stand off

A cavalry skirmish at one of the river crossings

Infantry are now in place to block the road

Having chased off the welsh light horsemen the Norman knights are weakened and tired the Welsh commander takes the opportunity to charge in a try and finish them off

The other knights swing around the back of the welsh ! Ouch 

A stand off at the gate neither side wishing to charge in

The Norman bodyguard drive forward to open the road

They butcher the lightly armed welsh who will only stand on a roll of double six ….yeah 😀 they stand

The Normans charge to clear the gate way but are beaten back to they resume shouting at each other instead

Finally the Normans think the path is open enough to start moving the loot (which is carried on the pack horse) but the Norman archers are at risk from the welsh bodyguard.

To protect them the Norman Lord charges in…..

But he is then charged himself by the welsh lord 

…and cut down, luckily for the Normans despite the loss of their Lord the Norman force remains in the field

The Norman bodyguard is now clearing the way, although they are being closely chased by the welsh bodyguard

Things are now tight and the last welsh unit moves to block the road

But they are then charged in the back from the castle and cleared out the way. The Norma’s are now desperate to get to safety but are in danger of being cut off by the welsh cavalry

The Norman’s rush for the gates passing the loot over only to then be cut down from behind

A final volley of javelins from the welsh and although they hit home the Normans pass their final activation to get the loot to safety. A very tight win for the Normans as they only have two units on the table at the end, the archers and the unit who stayed for much of the battle within the stockade.

Phew a wonderfully close game that was great fun, each activation became key towards the end. FairPlay to the Normans they didn’t give up and squeezed a victory right at the end.

A few new purchases this week, and some painting but the only thing completed are these rubble piles from eBay shown here with a 15mm Stug for scale.

A trip back to Edinburgh for my Fathers funeral, we took the opportunity to stop in the lovely town of Jedburgh where we visited the small Mary Queen of Scots Museum in a house she once stayed in.

Some interesting history and some nice paintings as part of the audio tour.

Worth a trip if you are passing and it is free 👍

Thanks as always hopefully another game soon

Matt 😀