Amazons vs Britons

When you are facing an army that is bigger than yours, you can't afford to see your archers turn in a bad day at the office.

(The unit that performed is the rear unit at the top left of the picture, on the edge of the woods!)

Unfortunately, my Amazons have had two battles now, and the archers that form the core "strike force" of the army have failed miserably on both occasions. Today, one of their five archer units did their job, but the other four couldn't hit anything, and with the larger British army pressing in hard from the front, and closing in on their exposed left flank, their only choice was to withdraw and fight another day or die with their boots on.

They chose survival! Perhaps the Amazons of Greek legend wouldn't have been impressed with that choice, but there was nothing to gain from an heroic death on this day.

This battle was the final clash of the first round of my "Barbarian Nations" Tournament, with the winner proceeding to the semi-final round against one of the two Pict armies that have qualified.

These two armies were fighting over possession of a village, at the bottom right of the picture above. The Britons reached the scene first (from the right of the picture) and had just started crossing the bridge to enter it when the Amazon army appeared.

A short but (initially anyway) brutal skirmish developed between the Amazon Horse Archers unit and the Briton Light Horse - the Horse Archers did no damage with their bows, but once they got up close and personal it became quite fierce. The Britons were getting the better of the scrap when the Amazon Whelps (young girls armed with just javelins, trying to "earn their stripes" so they can be accepted into the main army) caught up with the action, and were able to help their horse archers out, and both sides elected to break off the fight at that point, having (both) received a bloody nose.

With their sheer numbers, the British warbands pushing through the wooded area in the middle of the battlefield forced the Amazon archers therein to back up, and with more warbands emerging on their flank, the Amazons realized that even if their archers did start hitting their targets, all would soon be lost. Queen Antibrote ordered the retreat, abdicated her throne and committed suicide having suffered the humiliation of two devastating defeats in a row.

The semi-final matchups see the Pict army of King Cynon face the Skythians of King Sakesfaris and the victorious Britons (commanded by Queen Brietta) taking on the Picts of King Morial.

Scheduling of these battles is still up in the air. They will both be larger scale battles than the first round encounters, and will therefore take more time to play. When I know what time I have available (work commitments) next weekend, I will decide whether to push on with this competition, or to start my Napoleonic Era tournament. (Again, eight armies competing in an elimination format tournament).