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Cromwell
03-24-2011, 06:23 PM
The idea behind this solo Campaign came from an interesting idea I read recently.
The Battle of Hastings was such a decisive victory for the Normans because not only did King harold die but so did his two brothers, Gyrth and Leofwine. The idea put forward was that if one of the brothers had survived then further more organised resistance may have been possible with nobles rallying to the dead Kings brother.

For this campaign the Normans have to kill all three brothers. Harold, Gyrth and Leofwine. If this happens in the first battle then a decisive victory would be achieved as at Hastings.

The saxons win if they kill William of Normandy at any time.

All elements eliminated in battle are sent to a reserve pool and both sides dice to return them to the ranks for the next battle. 4,5,6 and they return. Both sides are allowed one extra role only for any failures.

The DBA 2.2 lists for Saxons/Anglo Danish allow for 3 x Blade one of them being the General. For the first battle the general is obviously Harold. Nominate each brother as being attached to each of the remaining blades.

The campaign continues until all the saxon brothers or William are dead.

I played the campaign solo using De Bellis Solitarius for the battles. I controlled the Normans.

Terrain is set up as per normal DBA rules. It is possible to replicate the field of Hastings for the first battle. But be aware that the spears and blades on a ridge are very hard to dislodge (As was the case in the real battle).

When I played the campaign in the first battle the norman knights smashed through the Saxon Huscarl (Blades) shield wall killing Gyrth in the process. Those knights then turned on Harold who was isolated with only one element of Fryd (Spears) in support. Leowfine was fighting his own battle against knights and was seperated from any support.

Then Harold fell so ending the battle. Norman loses were one element of Knights. The saxons besides Harolds Huscarl element lost a psiloi element and Gyrth's huscarl element.

For the next battle the Normans replaced the lost knight element. The Saxons only managed to replace one blade element.

The second battle again saw the Huscarls fighting the knights and after very heavy fighting Leofwine fell thus heralding the close of Saxon England.

A very enjoyable campaign which was over quicker than I anticipated.

I was very pleased with the result and it gave real meaning to the two battles. Having the brothers attached to the blade elements personalised things very nicely.

Alan Lauder
03-25-2011, 09:26 AM
The idea behind this solo Campaign came from an interesting idea I read recently.
The Battle of Hastings was such a decisive victory for the Normans because not only did King harold die but so did his two brothers, Gyrth and Leofwine. The idea put forward was that if one of the brothers had survived then further more organised resistance may have been possible with nobles rallying to the dead Kings brother.

...

Terrain is set up as per normal DBA rules. It is possible to replicate the field of Hastings for the first battle. But be aware that the spears and blades on a ridge are very hard to dislodge (As was the case in the real battle).



Interesting report and a great idea - I will certainly be giving it a go.

I played my Anglo-Danes against my opponent's Normans last night and I lost convincingly - 1-5 against me. 4 of these were rear supported spears that became isolated due to poor pip rolls (and some dodgey generalship ;)) and were surrounded by knights with their quick kill ability.

Maybe I'm just scarred by the experience, but the idea of the 3-1 advantage of the Anglo-Danes in victory conditions gives me hope they come to the campaign with something like even odds.

Something for the winter nights to come.

Cheers,

Alan