Thursday 11 July 2013

"To Britain's Shores" - Chapter 10 - Fen Raiding

"Were you trying to get yourself killed?" It's Ecgwine, clearly less than happy with his woman.

"You can talk. What in the Christ's name were you doing charging back into the Praefectus' [1] men?" Lavinia. it would appear, is no less upset. "Especially after he'd already taken down most of our Gedriht. You're good. Not immortal."

For a Briton, she doesn't make a bad fist of the Saxon word for hearthguard. Ecgwine stares at her, blinks. Shakes his head. Quietly. "I though he'd killed you all."

She blinks. Sighs, reaches up and lays a hand on on his cheek, wordlessly.

Ah, me. Young love. I manage a smile, despite being bone-weary. I can hardly blame either of them for looking for an oultet for their frustration, either, Today was.... hard. On all of us.

The little village on the edge of the fens looked easy pickings, especially since we'd managed to sneak most of the way past one of the British watchtowers before they spotted us, and Beornwulf and his warriors were in the village almost before the main force of the Britons got anywhere near us.

It should have been easy. 

Should have.

The British Praefect seems to care a lot about that village. Those damn Britons would not lie down, despite Aelftric's first charge, and Ecgwine proving himself more than competent to deal with their little man and his warriors. We fought, and fought, and fought again, till both sides were just about dead on their feet. And in the end, they prevailed, as with their final charge with the remains of their hearthguard they broke Ecgwine's war band, and, damn them, killed Theobald.

Theobald's been with us longer than just about anyone - he had Ecgwine under his wing and talked some sense into him the first year we were here in Britain, and his grizzled grey hair hid a warrior's cunning, someone Aelfric often turned to for an opinion. 

Bastards.

Tonight, we get drunk, and light pyres for him and the others we lost. Tomorrow? We start planning afresh. Those Britons won't get away with this forever.

[1] Yes. They finally found out Andrusius got promoted. :D

8 comments:

  1. Beautiful terrain. I love the village.

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    1. Thanks! The buildings are Andy's and IIRC largely from pmc.games on eBay.

      I'd be happier with the terrain pieces if I could find suitable thin basing material that didn't warp when PVA'd - see the hill :D

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    2. Thanks. I found them. Currently they have lovely 25mm church. Not my scale but still nice. I see what you mean with the hill. Have you tried treating the wood with an automotive primer on both sides before using it as basing material?

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    3. It;s not wood, but either plastic card or foam board :D

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  2. Nice piece of writing! Beautifully understated. I have about 23 usable photos and tomorrow evening my wife is out galivanting with frends, so my full write-up, both in role as Publicus Librarius and with a few comments and observations about the game should appear on my blog sometime in the evening!

    What a cracking game...I'm still buzzing about it actually :-)

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  3. sounds like a real ding dong fight, cant wait to get into Dux B myself I have my saxons all bought just need to make them and paint them...
    Peace James

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  4. It sounds like quite a scrap! Oh, yet more temptation to buy Dux...

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  5. Great pics with a wonderful looking terrain! ANd very nice report!

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