After all their successes the Franks decided on mounting a take over of Britannia to add it to their continental holdings , a bit like an early day version of the EU except it involved blood and swords rather than ballot boxes and referendums. Problem was they didn't have quite enough man power so looking around they found some unemployed Saxons and itinerant Irish to help out. They offered to pay them from their winnings, it all sounded very dubious.
Faced with the barbarian invasion the Romans and Welsh were compelled to work together to defeat the hairy hordes. There's lots of quotes that may apply. strange bedfellows, lying with dogs and getting fleas etc but they had spent the whole campaign besmirching each other's reputations and now here they were fighting side by side (kind of).
The Saxons and Irsh proved unstable allies and were soon warbanding forwards. The Saxons received a bit of a rough handling from the Romans, their buckler shields proving scant protection against the arrows and slingshot coming their way. Soon multiple units were fleeing and the barbarian centre looked about to collapse.
The Irish had their fabled chariots and after recent debacles were determined to show what they could do. Unfortunately they launched themselves against the Dux Del Monte's finest. These weren't the finest because of combat capacity rather the Dux had kitted them out in a lot of expensive gear and they were hard to kill as the Irish chariots found out. Worse still as the chariots fled Del Montes boys showed they could run fast in their heavy gear and they caught and destroyed the pride of the Irish.
The Dux had also scooped up every peasent he could find, given them all a large shields and armour (spears were an optional extra) and prodded them forward towards the Irish. They had a kind of fly paper effect as Irish units warbanded against them and were unable to break them before eventually fleeing from the horde.
The Franks were doing their part admirably well. They fought the best the Welsh had to offer and after a long slog defeated them.
Problem was their unreliable allies were not so committed. Despite the Saxon rallies they eventually fled and the disappearing Irish left gaps for the Welsh trick pony riders to exploit and see off fleeing units before they could rally.
With the Saxons and Irish disintegrating the Franks had to give it up as a bad job and left the Welsh Romans to go back to bickering about who was key to the victory.
The Welsh claimed it was their expert horsemanship and trick pony riding wot won it whereas Del Monte noted with satisfaction it was his stalwart infantry that blunted the barbarian attacks and held out against the odds setting up the victory. We'll have to see whose bard has the best gift of the gab.
Great set of games, thanks everyone. The Weldh and Romans joint victors of the campaign for Britannia.
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