By Keith Venables
This list covers English armies from the Danish conquest of 1014 to the end of effective resistance to the Normans. It effectively combines elements of Anglo-Saxon and Viking armies.
English armies of this period usually comprised two or three main elements. The first are the Huscarles (or housecarls) - the leading nobility and their professional, usually Scandinavian, troops. These usually fought as heavy infantry equipped with two-handed axes, but occasionally fought on horseback, especially if pursuing mounted enemy.
The bulk of the army was made up of the Fyrd. This was a levy, theoretically consisting of all able-bodied freemen. In practice the Fyrd was divided into two:
The Select Fyrd consisted of the lesser nobility or richer peasants, who seved on behalf of their neighbours. The Select Fyrd were generally equipped with helmet, shield and mail corselet, and fought with spear and sword. The Select Fyrd was expected to serve anywhere they were needed, and there were heavy penalties for failing to answer the levy or desertion. Both Select Fyrd and Huscarls would usually ride to battle but dismount to fight. One at least one occasion the Select Fyrd attempted to fight mounted, with disastrous results.
The Great Fyrd was the bulk of the peasantry. It would have had little in the way of training and would have been largely armed with whatever weapons could be improvised. It was only expected to serve in its own shire and was rarely called up except in emergencies.
Tactics were extremely basic, consisting of the shieldwall and not much else. The whole army drew up in a single phalanx with the best armed men at the front, and then either advanced steadily or stood its ground. On some occasions the shieldwall may have formed up in several divisions, but these probably just deployed in line. Outflanking moves, or any other tactical manouvres seem to have been almost unknown.
Little use was made of the bow, such archers as there were probably being positioned behind the shieldwall, shooting over the spearmen.
The DBA list is:
| 2 x 4Bd | Huscarles |
| 1 x 4BD or 3Cv | Huscarles |
| 8 x 4Sp | Fyrd |
| 1 x 2Ps | Archers or Skirmishers |
My feeling is that the option for cavalry is a bit generous. Armies of this period very rarely fought on horseback, and often drove away their horses before battle as insurance against flight. When they did fight mounted they weren't very good, and if you do use cavalry I would recommend using a grading system and rating them as "inferior" or "poor".
There is some evidence that when fighting the very mobile Welsh, the Huscarls may have used lightened equipment, possibly making them more akin to warband.
The official enemies for the Anglo-Danish are Welsh (#92) (note that Welsh in this period did not have longbows), Norman (#102c), Viking (#106a), Pre-Feudal Scots (#111) and other Anglo-Danish. Other plausible opponents would include Later Frankish(#102a), Breton (#102b), and Norse Irish (#112).
Historical tactics against all opponents consisted of the shieldwall, and this usually works fairly well in DBA. I usually deploy in a single group, with the Spears double-ranked, and either put the Huscarls in the middle or alternate Sp and Bd:
[ Sp ][ Sp ][ Bd ][ Bd ][ Bd ][ Sp ][ Sp ]
[ Sp ][ Sp ] [ Sp ][ Sp ]
OR
[ Sp ][ Bd ][ Sp ][ Bd ][ Sp ][ Bd ] [ Sp ]
[ Sp ] [ Sp ] [ Sp ] [ Sp ]
The Psiloi can either be used to extend the line, placed behind one of the Bd, or used to garrison your camp. The general should always be Bd.
The weakness of this deployment is the shortness of the line - opponents will usually be able to overlap you. Its strength is that it's difficult to beat with a frontal assualt, although Norman Kn can make a nasty mess of your blades.
The Welsh can be difficult to beat because you can't catch them! They would obviously have an advantage in difficult terrain, which should be avoided as far as possible. Battles against Normans tend to be over fairly quickly, either their Kn sweep away your Bd, or your Sp skewer the Kn. Norman Cb can also be irritating if they can disrupt your shieldwall. If fighting Vikings, Scots or other Anglo-Danish the battle tends to degenerate into a slugging match between the two battle lines. Whoever gets the best dice will win.
Always watch your camp. This is one of the slowest armies around, and it is silly to let your opponent get 2 of his kills by slipping a more mobile element round the end of the line and grabbing your camp. Using the cavalry option to give a mobile reserve would be useful here.
In some ways this is a good army for a beginner because it's simple to use. You just line them up and march them forward! On the other hand, you can't do much else with it, certainly not if you want to use historical tactics. I can't imagine Anglo-Danish being anyone's favourite army, but it's difficult to beat with historical enemies, and in my experience can usually reverse the result of Hastings!
Battle of Hastings scenario (with historical links).
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My thanks to Keith Venables for contributing these notes. Comments, questions or suggested additions to this page can be sent to Chris Brantley, brant@erols.com.
Last Updated: Nov. 29, 1998