WAB Battle Report - Saxons versus Arthurians

Setup, prior to first turn

This article discusses a Warhammer Ancient Battles (WAB) game that took place at Great Hall Games in Austin, Texas on 2005/05/30. Kevin Dunn and the Saxons battled Dan Becker and King Arthur's Late Romans in a 2000 point battle for western England sometime in history after 540 and prior to 900 A.D.. (Click on the photos for a larger view.)

WAB is a game in which opponents pick an army from army lists based on a point cost for the figures and their options. The figures are grouped into units that move, shoot, and fight in close combat. Units give and take casualties and test morale until they win, flee, or are annihilated.

This photo shows the pre game setup with Arthurians on the left and Saxons on the right. The Arthurians have a heavy cavalry and two light infantry units near a steep hill toward the top of the picture. In the center is a heavy infantry unit on a hill. At the bottom are a light cavalry, light infantry and skirmishing bow unit. The Arthurians are from the Late Roman list of the Armies of Antiquity rule set.

The Saxons have a small bow, heavy cavalry mercenary, and ceorl unit near the top of the photo. In the center they have three large units made of mixed thegns (heavily armored, upper class figures) and ceorls (no armor, lower class figures). At the bottom right near the woods they have some javelin and bow skirmishers. The Saxons are from the Wessex list of the Shieldwall rule set.

Turn 1, Saxons move

Arthurians win the toss and elect to have the Saxons move first.

Immediately the heavy Saxon center units (thegns and ceorls) do double-time march moves forward. The skirmishers on the Saxon right also advance and take up a position beyond the trees.

It is clear the heavy Saxons center units are scrapping for a big fight.

Turn 1, Arthurians move

Arthur responds by moving skirmishers to the top of the hill on the Arthurian right near the lower center of the photo. The heavy cavalry swings left around the steep hill at the top left of this photo. The light cavalry with kontos (long sharp pikes) swing right around the hill at the bottom center of the photo. For the most part the infantry remains in place waiting for the Saxon advance.

It is clear the Arthurians are performing a pincer move on the flanks.

Turn 2, Saxons move

On the second turn the Saxon skirmishers move forward and inflict a few causalties on the Arthurian skirmishers on the hill near the center of this photo. The Saxon heavy units in the center keep racing forward at double-time march move. The heavy Saxon mercenary horse turn right, expecting some cavalry coming around the steep hill at the top of the photo.

Saxon earls, standards, and musicians are integrated into the units, leading from the front of the battle line.

Turn 2, Arthurians move

The Arthurian cavalry continue their pincer moves with horses on the right and the left continuing round the flanks The Arthurian skirmishers on the hill have inflicted many casualties on the Saxon javelins, causing them to retreat back to the woods. With their leadership rating of 5, the Saxon javelins may never come back.

Aside from a light cavalry moving to the steep hill on the left, all Arthurian infantry hold in place.

Arthur, detached from all units, leads the left flank and is seen behind the units at the upper left of this photo. Sutton Hoo man, the Arthurian standard bearer, also detached, leads the right flank at the gentle hill at the lower center of the photo.

Turn 3, Saxons move

The close combat begins! Saxon heavy cavalry mercenaries charge the Arthurian heavy cavalry at the top left of the photo. The outcome is tied, but the Saxon trumpeter kicks in. The cav fail their break test and flee. The light infantry on the steep hill seeing their heavy cavalry in retreat, also take a break test and fail, and head for the nearest exit.

On the Saxon left flank, the skirmishing bowmen take out an Arthurian light cavalry on the right side of the photo.

Turn 3, Arthurians move

King Arthur manages to rally the heavy cavalry and the light infantry on the left flank on the upper left in this photo. The rest of the Arthurian infantry back up or remain in place for the inevitable shield wall battle to come.

On the right flank, the Arthurian light cavalry charge the Saxon bowmen, breaking them, and causing them to flee. The Arthurian skirmishers on the hill cause more damage to Saxon skirmishers below.

Turn 4, Saxons move

The heavy cavalry on the Saxon's right flank charge the Arthurian heavy cavalry again. Once again it is a tied outcome, but the Saxon trumpeter blairs the horn, The Arthurian cavalry breaks a second time and flees off the board. The Saxon cavalry pusues almost off the edge as well.

In the center, the Saxon thegns and ceorls are in range to heave their javelins. They connect and cause casualties on both light and heavy units in the center.

Turn 4, Arthurians move

The Arthurian flanking manuever is looking grave at this point. The left side has fled and the right side has just made their turn. Are they out of time?

The two light infantry on the left decide to charge the Saxon thegns and ceorls. Unfortunately it is too far - one of the units does not reach the enemy. The Saxons pound the Arthurian light infantry unit and cause them to break and flee with many casualties.

Turn 5, Saxons move

Now the Arthurians are collapsing. The Saxon infantry connect in the center. The Saxon right flank crushes the Arthurians with additional cavalry at the top left of the photo. The Saxon center unit breaks the heavy Arthurians center unit and causes them to flee. And the Saxon left locks with the Arthurian right near the center of the photo.

Turn 5, Arthurians move

The Arthurian light cavalry continues to charge, but cannot connect. The Arthurian skirmishers attack a Saxon flank, but they are driven off. With many units defeated, and many Saxon units still ready to fight, the Arthurians conceed defeat. With no hope of restoring Gaellic to this part of Britain, the farmers are forced to speak the Germanic language of the conquerors.

Lessons Learned

As this is only my second game of WAB, I enjoyed the game and learned quite a bit.

1. Standard bearers and musicians can often turn the tide of battle. In this game, they often tipped the scales and caused the enemy to break and flee.
2. The Arthurian pincer move did not work out as expected. The cavalry were delayed or too occupied to cause any flank attacks.
3. The Saxon thegns and ceorls controlled the board. They had no trouble racing across the field. Perhaps small skirmish units would have slowed them down and prevented them from doing the double-time march move so often.
4. Safety in numbers. The Arthurian units should have been closer together to provide better line ups and more coverage of the Saxon shield wall.
5. Unit shape. The Saxons units attacked one on one, having a 7 by 4 (28 figure) unit attack a 4 by 4 (16 figure) unit and thus having the dice rolling advantage. The Saxons benefited from 3 or more rank bonus while the Arthurians were limited to 2 rank bonus. The Arthurians should have spread out more, perhaps a 5 by 3 or 6 by 2 unit, to get more units into contact and make the throwing spears move effective.
6. Mike B on the WABlist Yahoo group suggested that placing King Arthur with the heavy cavalry would have given extra attacks and would have tipped the left flanking maneuver in favor of the Arthurians. Similarly, placing the Sutton Hoo Man standard bearer with a stronger infantry center would have helped out in those battles.

Related Reading

• John Morris' Age of Arthur - a fantastic account of the true Arthur, scourge of the Saxons, and the military, economic, social, and religious forces of the Dark Ages in Britain.
• Nennius (Arthurian Period Sources) - the original accounts and writings of King Arthur's time. Compiled by John Morris.
• Richard Abels Alfred the Great - read about one of the most famous and intriguing Saxon kings.
• Michael Wood's In Search of the Dark Ages - engrossing accounts of Boudicca, Offa, Alfred, Ethelred, William and others. The most interesting Dark Ages people.
• Offa's Dyke North - stroll the Briton/Saxon boundary that still exists today.
• Offa's Dyke South - stroll the Briton/Saxon boundary the super-highway engineering project of its time.

Nevertheless, it was fun watching all units take each other on. I hope you enjoyed reading the details of the battle and seeing photographs of a bunch of thegns. More miniatures-related articles are at Dan Becker's Miniatures and Models site. Thanks for stopping by and reading about my miniatures.