Ok. I think we have a winner here. But boy, my brain hurts. That required a lot of thinking, even just as the umpire.

British (Carl) defending a river ford (again) against the Saxons commanded by Myk and Andrew, with AndyH co-refereeing.

Pre-battle phase. There was prayer, speechifying and drinking. Again there were ones rolled, and both Bibamus and Portentious Signs cards in the deck, and the Saxons had FM 9 and the British 5.

The Saxons have crossed the river to head off the British reinforcements, while facing off against the British  companipulares on the ford.

The Saxons, however, have fallen prey to the Evils Of Drink, and Carl uses a Bibamus card to force one of the two groups of Saxon hearthguard to go off prematurely, as it were…

The results are painfully inevitable – one uncommanded group of elite against 12 men plus a Lord and champion. Amphora misplaced, and off they go, with a -3 FM hit as well.

Over on the British left, a knock-em-down-and-drag-em-out fight between two Groups of Saxon warriors and a mixed group of British warriors and levy causes the levy and one of the Saxon groups to leave the field.

Perhaps unwisely, the remaining Saxons chose to ignore the levy and go hit the other British shieldwall in the rear through a ruined archway. Cue a lot of very careful rule-reading in the gaslit end of the rules to make sure we got this right, compounded by several cards being played including a Step Forth. It didn’t, sadly, go well for the Saxons. FM down to 1. From 9, remember!

The remaining Saxon formation (Elites + Warriors) psych themselves up to charge the British levy by the archway.

Whats really galling from a Saxon PoV is, they won the fight, with one Saxon unit well and truly routed and the other on excess shock… except they took a wound on their Noble. -1 FM. Game over.

All in all, another excellent game. AndyH, who as the saying goes doesn’t have a dog in this fight (as I wrote the core of the scenario) thinks these work as a way of resolving battles that’s an improvement over the pitched battle in the original rules, so we’re going to test it a bit more, and then throw it out to the next layer of testers.