Here we are in the year 750, and from across the sea to the shores of England come the Danes. For this Danish invasion, Cliff Sayre handled the Danes, and Jim Butters, King of England, the Brits. I had discovered a number of Danish-like troops (all infantry: dismounted men @ arms, and archers) in my basement, and I was curious to see if they could hold their own against King Jim's mounted knights, foot knights, etc.
One long side of the ping-pong table was defined as the shore line, and on Bound 1, the Danes filed out of their ships. The only Brits to see them disembark were two units in a watch-tower in the middle of the field. Each watch4ower unit was composed of 3 stands... one unit of archers, one of men @ arms. Also lounging in the watch-tower was a courier, whose job it was, once an enemy had been spotted invading the shores of England, to run like the wind and spread the word that the dreaded Danes were arriving en masse. The courier had to reach King Jim's baseline... at which point in time, the King, together with an impressive array of retainers, would appear on the field.
To make things a wee bit more difficult for the courier, he had to deviate a bit and pass by the O'Toole farm and tell Mrs. O'Toole about the Danes, i.e., the courier couldn't simply head for the friendly baseline. Mrs. O'Toole was in charge of a 3-stand unit composed entirely of her sons, who would defend the O'Toole farm and its treasures (Mrs. O'Toole among them) to the death.
The watch-tower was perched on a hill, and up to the hill advanced the Danes, archers to the fore. When firing, each stand contributed 20 percent to the unit's total probability of hit (POH). Thus the 3-stand unit of archers had a basic POH of 60 percent to cause an impact to the target. The firing unit referred to the following chart:
----------------------------------------------------------
No effect
POH ----------------------------------------------------------
One stand to the Rally Zone.
Target unit receives a marker
1/2 POH ----------------------------------------------------------
One stand destroyed.
Target unit receives a marker
----------------------------------------------------------
With a POH of 60, a percentage dice toss of, say, 27, would result in one stand destroyed, and a casualty marker placed on the target. When a unit accumulated 3 markers, one stand was defined as demoralized and was placed in the Rally Zone. The Rally Zone was an off-board site at which stands could rally and attempt to join their unit.
Cliff Sayre's Danish archers proved extremely ineffective, but then again, so did the defending Brits in the watch-tower. I should note that the archer's basic 20 percent per-stand POH was reduced for target cover. for firing at armored troops, etc.
It took 3 bounds for the courier to reach the King's baseline, alerting Mrs. O'Toole in the process. When King Butters appeared, he had 3 Lord Knights in tow, and each Lord Knight was accompanied by a retinue.
Each Lord Knight's retinue consisted of: first, a unit of mounted knights, and second, three or four units of infantry. The rules set contained a table giving the number of units in the retinue, and each Lord Knight diced for his retainers.
During the 3 bounds it took the courier to alert the King, the Danes made a determined assault on the watch-tower. Several units arrived at the base of the hill on which the tower stood, and tried to erect scaling ladders (70 percent chance). Three ladders were erected.
Then the Danes tried to scamper up the ladders (70 percent chance) but on this first assault, not a single Danish unit was successful. It appeared the Danes were fairly efficient in constructing ladders, but needed more training in climbing them. The ladders were then thrown down (70 percent chance) by the defenders.
The Danes also closed with Mrs. O'Toole's boys at her farm. The O'Tooles fought like demons... they drove the Danes back. In fact, they drove them back twice. Mrs. O'Toole had fed her boys well.
In melee, the procedures called for one-unit-on-one-unit. Each side's lead unit could call for a supporting unit, but the support didn't actually engage the enemy... its presence provided an additional number of combat points because of the increased morale of the lead unit.
In each melee, a Combat Value table was referred to for determining the combat points of the involved lead units. Depending upon a percentage dice throw, for example, a stand of mounted knights could range from 20 points to 30 points, thus the 3-stand unit could vary from 60 to 90 points. An archer stand's value could vary from 10 to 20 points.
I instituted this variation in combat value so that not all melees had 'fixed' outcomes wherein the stronger units would always overpower the weaker ones. If one was lucky, a unit of relatively puny archers could put up a good fight against a unit of mounted or foot knights. The presence of a support unit added 20 points to the total.
After the total points of the lead units were determined, both units went to the chart shown on Page 1 of this article, the same chart used for the firing procedures. As usual, I purposely structured the rules so that once the players were familiar with the firing system, they were also familiar with the melee system. As I've said before, there's really no good reason for having completely different firing and melee procedures, when only one system will do. I have to admit , though, that, at times, I have violated this policy... do as I say, not as I do.
Back to the Danes
Back to the Danes. It took several assaults on the tower, several ladders erected, and several Danish units successfully climbing their rickety ladders, but the Danes finally overcame the tower's defenders and took possession.
Each half-bound, the sequence ended in a phase in which both sides tried to clear the stands that had fled to their Rally Zones. A percentage dice toss of 50 or under was required to permit a stand to rejoin its unit. Sadly, for the Danes, a major portion of the tosses were unsuccessful, and a huge number of Danish troops died in the Rally Zone. King Jim was slightly more successful, but one of the British casualties was a stand of Mrs. O'Toole's boys, and we paused in our battle for a brief service honoring the lads.
The complete bound consisted of two sub-sequences... one in which the Danes were the active side, and the other in which the Brits were active. This entire 2-sub-sequence-bound was considered as consuming 4-hours of "battle-time". The baffle was defined to commence at 6:00 AM; the first complete bound therefore carried the "battle-time" to 10:00 AM.
The second complete bound ended at 2:00 PM, and the third at 6:00 PM. All fighting ceased at 6:00 PM, at which time the antagonists separated, and both sides sat down to a hearty dinner. Thus 3 bounds were defined as a full day's battle.
The sequence moved fairly rapidly. and I think we went through about 8 bounds, a little over two days worth of fighting.
The Danish leader, Cliff Sayre, during his rally phases, killed more of his own troops than did the Brits. Rarely have I seen such a run of unfortunate dicing results. Cliff is usually quite reticent during a game, taking whatever comes his way in a calm, philosophical fashion. But here, even Cliff was heard to say, time and time again: "Gee Wilikers!" as his dice throws continually betrayed him. Strong language for Cliff.
At the end of 8 bounds, two days fighting, we closed up shop. It appeared that King Buffers' and his three Lord Knights and their retinues of foot knights, men @arms, archers, and mounted knights would soon swamp the remaining Danes. But we gave a tactical victory to the Danes, despite their heavy losses, because of the way they tenaciously held on to the watch-tower, refusing to be driven back to their ships.
Second Try
The second play of this scenario occurred a couple of days later. Here Bob Hurst was the English king, King Bob Hurst the First, and I slightly weakened King Bob's forces relative to those I had provided for King Jim.
Whereas King Jim had had three Lord Knights plus their retinues in his army, King Bob now had only two Lord Knights and their retinues. This was done to even out the sides; in the first scenario, King Jim's troops far outnumbered the Danes, and when they appeared on the field, it was evident that , eventually, they'd flatten the Danish invaders.
The diminishment of King Bob's army didn't seem to make any difference... the result was still a resounding strategic defeat for the Danes (they had to retreat to their ships) , even though, once again, they hung on to the watch-tower for two days "battle-time".
In this second baffle, I played the Danish commander... one of my first actions was to assault Mrs. O'Toole's farm and try to drive the O'Toole boys back.
I mentioned that in melee, each side diced for the combat value of the stands in the combat. The chart looked something like this:
| Points per Stand | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Percentage Dice Throw: Mounted knights Foot knights Dismounted men @ arms Archers |
01 to 33 30 20 15 20 |
34 to 66 25 30 20 10 |
67 to 100 20 25 25 15 |
The O'Toole boys were classified as archers, lowest of the low, and I contacted them with a unit of my Danish men @ arms. In this baffle, the O'Tooles didn't show the enthusiasm they had displayed before... after all, they were simple farm-boys... and by baffle's end, I not only had driven them back, but I had decimated the entire O'Toole family. War is hell!
Remember that each full bound took 4 hours of battle-time... it took me about 3 bounds, all of the first day's baffle, to drive the English defenders out of the watch-tower. Then, for all of the second day's battle-time, I hung on for dear life as King Bob launched attack after attack on the tower.
King Bob had three units of mounted knights, each of three stands... these were his strongest troops and, while they weren't permitted to climb the tower walls, King Bob launched them against every Danish unit he could find outside the tower.
My Danes fought well, destroying one of his mounted units in the process, but the result was that the only viable units I had left were those defending the tower.
In truth, it wasn't me that destroyed the unit of mounted knights... it was King Bob himself. Some lucky dice rolling by my Danes in melee had sent a couple of mounted knight stands to the Rally Zone.
When rally-time came at the end of the bound, it required a percentage dice toss of 50 or under to have these stands return to the field. King Bob kept tossing over 50 on a considerable number of his Rally Zone tosses, in effect, wiping out his own men.
In these two scenarios, the Danes were not assigned any mounted troops... I assumed that their long-boats were crowded enough with men @ arms and archers, and there would be no room for horse troops. In our next battle, I'll assign to the Danes some cavalry... a contingent of mounted troops plus a Lord Knight dissatisfied with the current King of England.
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© Copyright 1997 Wally Simon
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