Bayeux Battle: Or This Rematch Went Right Bayeux I've really come to appreciate the old saying that history is written by the victors. Although only partially true, it certainly has been the case lately, as Alexander has heaped scorn on my tactics in a number of battles. (If my siege tower hadn't tipped over in the river, I would be eating pratties and ham in the castle right now.) The basic rules are a modification of my "Wrath of the House of Barca" ancient rules system, which I used again because I really like it and it's simple. Here, however, it was employed for man to man skirmishing, rather than on a unit v. unit basis. Add the chart modifiers to a roll of 1d10 and look at the attack results table to find the outcome of melee or missiles. We made up special rules for damage to the castle walls done by the bombards (1D6 turns to reload the bombard, which does 1D10 -2 points of damage to a wall section per shot, and which wall is breeched on a total of 20 points damage). The boiling oil had a 50% chance of killing everyone within a two inch radius of where it was poured. One man could ascend a ladder each turn, and fought at a -2 disadvantage against those already on the walls. The siege tower could be moved forward one inch for every two men pushing, up to a maximum of four inches per turn. It had a 50% chance of toppling over when it reached the river, and of course it did. This left my men with no way into the castle except for their few ladders, or the hope of breeching the wall with the very slow firing bombards. I opted for an assault with ladders. A handful of men did get in via ladders raised near the front gate, but Alexander had kept a reserve to deal with this contingency, and with the loss of my siege tower crew in the river, I didn't have enough men left to be successful. His crossbowmen on the tower walls picked off those the crocodiles didn't devour. (Why are there crocs in Merry Old England" Just another example of the English not fighting fairly.) We used small transparent plastic bingo markers (acquired from American Science Surplus) placed next to men or guns to show the status of reloading. Swords & Steel Charts Back to MWAN #111 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2001 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com