Historicon 2002 Is Over and History Will Never Be The Same

The Plan

The plan was to recreate the great battles of 1066 for the control of England. Anglo-Saxons, Vikings and Normans, along with their various allies, would battle across the table top for everlasting glory and a place in history. All three battles were planned for the new Saga Room (aka: The Limerock Room) Saturday at Historicon. In order, they would be Fulford Gate, Stanford Bridge and Hastings. We would showcase the MW rules, recreate history, and have a good time in the process. Well, as they say "Two out of three ain’t bad!"

We started the morning off at 10:00 am with Fulford Gate. Using the Campaign for England scenario book we laid out the table and mustered our troops. Harald Hardrada and the displaced Earl Tostig arrayed against the Northern Earls. Hey, Terry, are we really supposed to be going the long way? While the scenario book had the troops arrayed along the short side of the table with an "unfordable" river angled along the right flank of the Vikings to further confine the battle space, it might have been better to have turned the battle 90°, however, in this case we went with the book. Our first mistake.

We were one of the lucky ones and had the right number of people signed up for the battle, unlike Friday’s Renaissance Warfare battle which had 11 players for a 6 player game! Anyway, the battle opened with the Anglo-Saxon’s refusing to move from their positions and awaiting the Viking onslaught. Here is where our second mistake came into play as it took a good hour to hour and a half for the Vikings to cover the longwise distance. Even with what we thought looked like a generous set-on it was too long a distance to cover.

The battle finally opened with a Viking Archer Unit reaching a slight hill in front of the Anglo-Saxon right and proceeding to fire on the troops in front. Luckily for the Anglo-Saxon players, the troops were HI Thanes and Huscarls and the arrows fell harmlessly. After a turn or two of ineffectual fire, the Vikings again started to move up to close the distance on this flank. Meanwhile, the narrowing battlefield was giving the Vikings some traffic problems as the flanks were forced to move in and Harold Hardrada’s center command was a bit slow to move up.

On the Viking right flank a four-stand Unit of berserkers saw a tempting target in a UI Fyrd Unit and tried to angle across so that they would be in charge range. The Anglo-Saxon left wing commander moved his Thanes forward to intercept the berserkers and the battle was joined in earnest. The random roll was even at two until the Vikings decided to use a God Roll – six was the result. In response, the Anglo-Saxon commander also took a God Roll – One! When the charge roll also went the Vikings’ way, it was only a matter of moments and the Thanes were in full retreat! Unfortunately, it’s not easy for a close order Thane unit to outdistance loose order berserkers on the scent of blood and the Thanes were destroyed. In hindsight it might have been better if the units behind the Thanes failed their morale and ran as the berserkers proceeded to tear through the two UI Fyrd Units facing them over the next couple turns with no stands lost!

On the Viking left the Archers moved up to close range and started to take their toll on the Anglo-Saxon units facing them. After taking punishment for a couple of turns, the Anglo-Saxons "broke" and charged the archers to their front. The fight didn’t go the Anglo-Saxons way as even Viking archers can be tough in a fight being armed with Various and Shield as well as their Bows.

In the center, the long distance and the narrowing battlefield had delayed Hardrada’s command, which joined the battle late, just as in the historical encounter. They may have been late but they were the final straw. As the Viking Huscarls waded into the battle, the Anglo-Saxon center began to give way. With the Anglo-Saxon center under intense pressure, a stalemate to the right and their left wing in collapsing time was called. As in the historical encounter the Vikings had won but had the Anglo-Saxons done enough damage?

Again using the Campaign for England scenario book, the table was laid out with the River Derwent down the middle running lengthwise. In the middle of the table across the river was the Stanford Bridge. On the West Bank, the land is flat, while east of the bridge is a line of low hills paralleling the river. The river was shallow and fordable but counted as an obstacle and strengthened the Viking position. The ominous sign for the Anglo-Saxons, however, was that when we had counted the survivors from the previous battle the Vikings had only lost six stands total and no complete units! Would this be enough?

The bulk of the surviving Vikings were arrayed on the hills, Harald Hardarda in the center with his Huscarls surrounding him and the berserkers just opposite the Bridge. Two Viking units, one of archers, were south of the Bridge at the bank of the river forming the left wing. Tostig’s command was guarding the hills north of Hardarda’s command with his Huscarls and spearmen. Only two units of Vikings had gotten across the bridge, unarmored, to hold up the fast approaching Anglo-Saxons. The entire command of Eystein was off the board to the south (left wing).

The main Anglo-Saxon army was arrayed on the west side of the river. Harold Godwinson’s Fighting Man Banner was in the center surrounded by his Huscarls who were still mounted from the march north and counted as HC with spear/shield. The remaining troops were mainly whatever Fyrd and Thanes Harold had collected as he rushed north.

The battle opened with the Anglo-Saxon right pushing toward the river, mounted Huscarls moving south to flank the Vikings across the river. The mounted Huscarls in the center maneuvered to launch an all-out attack on the unarmored Vikings and proceeded to run into each other causing a traffic jam! The Anglo-Saxon left moved more tentatively, seemingly content to hold Tostig in position. All the while the Vikings sat still waiting for the onslaught.

The Anglo-Saxon center straightened itself out and launched an attack on the right hand Viking unit but with only one Unit of HC. This was not enough and the UI Vikings held! Next turn three more units of mounted Huscarls attacked the Vikings and the Vikings locked all of them! Meanwhile the left hand Viking unit was yet to be engaged. Finally, third time was a charm, as the combined weight of four Units of HC was enough to push back the left hand Viking unit and the right hand unit was finally attacked by a unit of Thanes and also was pushed back.

At about the time the center was finally getting the upper hand on the stubborn Viking, the Anglo-Saxon right launched itself at the two units forming the Viking left. Unfortunately, the troops leading the charge were the mounted Huscarls. Trying to attack across the river with both the delay in movement and the lack of charge bonus (the river was an obstacle) doomed the attempt and left HC units either short or making no impression against the Vikings. (The Anglo-Saxon general had critically failed to cross the river below the Vikings and, therefore, his charges were across the river and did not count to the flank.)

The Anglo-Saxon left was still very tentatively moving toward the river. However, they had sent a unit of mounted Huscarls toward the center to assist with handling the Vikings.

Finally, the Vikings started to stir. The berserkers moved toward the bridge as it was apparent the Vikings across the river were just about spent. The Vikings on the right began to come down form the hills to challenge the Anglo-Saxon left if it tried to cross the river. And there, way to the south, the head of Eystein’s columns could be seen. If the Anglo-Saxons were going to duplicate the success of their historical counterparts they had better hurry!

It took two more turns but the center finally broke the Vikings, first the right hand unit and then the left. Sometimes success is the seeds of failure, as the pursuit of the right hand unit left a unit of disordered Thanes in charge range of the berserkers across the bridge and we’ve seen what this unit of berserkers can do! Meanwhile the Anglo-Saxon right continued to try to cross the river and come to grips with the Vikings on the west bank to no avail. Casualties mounted and the Anglo-Saxons were definitely taking the worst of this fight. While on the left the Anglo-Saxons had finally crossed the river to confront the Vikings .

The end was quickly approaching, the berserkers charged the bridge and routed the Thanes slamming into a unit of Fyrd behind. The Anglo-Saxon right was making no progress against the Viking left and was about to be hit in the flank by the fresh troops of Eystein’s command. On the left, while the Anglo-Saxons were fresh, they were facing well-entrenched Vikings in shieldwall. When time was called, not only had the Anglo-Saxon’s failed to crush the Vikings but it was the Anglo-Saxons who had taken the brunt of the casualties!

History was changed, there would be no Hastings. With Harold’s’ Army decimated the Normans would land in Pevensey and take the south of England almost unopposed while Harald Hardarda’s "six feet of good English soil" would grow to include York and all of the North.

With the Vikings victorious and less than an hour till the third game we had to quickly re-write history and the result was….

It has now been two years since Harald Hardarda and William the Bastard split Anglo-Saxon England between them. There has been an uneasy peace as both Harald and William consolidated and strengthened their respective areas, however, this peace will not last forever.

Harold Godwinson, the Anglo-Saxon’s "true" King, tried for a while to harry William in the South but to no avail. With the losses inured from the two failed battles of 1066 the Anglo-Saxons had no fight left. The last Anglo-Saxon resistance died to a smoldering ember last spring. Meanwhile, Harald Hardarda had brought the independent minded Orkney Jarl to heel, strengthen his ties to the Dublin Vikings and overawed the surrounded Scots. He was truly the King of the North. With no more land left to reward Williams’ retainers in the south, and the Vikings now eyeing that rich land for plunder and profit, the inevitable is about to happen.

No one seems to know what sparked the final confrontation, a perceived slight, a border dispute, a sign of weakness in one side or the other but in the fall of 1068 both sides were on the move. Up from the south rode the Norman Knights with their allies to claim more land and titles and down from the north swarmed the Vikings to lay waste to the rich southern lands. They met in the Midland’s, the Vikings again arrayed on a line of low hills with rough, wooded terrain guarding both flanks. The Normans facing them from a flat, level plain ideal for horsemen.

Again, Harald Hardarda was in the center surrounded by his Huscarls and Thanes. The Raven Banner waving in the wind. The berserkers were drawn back to hold them for the right moment against a mounted foe By some twist of fate, Tostig was still alive and in command of the right with some Vikings, Thanes and his own Huscarls. On the left was faithful Eystein with a token unit of UI Scots spear and a few UI Anglo-Saxon’s Fyrd, stiffened by his own Huscarls and some Vikings and Thanes.

On the Norman side, William held the center with the Norman cavalry screened by archers and a few foot, however, no Papal Banner flew as the Pope had withdrawn his blessing from William’s endeavor. On the Norman left, across from Tostig, were the Bretons again with more archers and foot screening the cavalry. To the right was Odo commanding the French Cavalry with more archers and foot in front.

The battle opened with the entire Norman and French cavalry of the center and right moving off toward the far right flank. The archers and foot moved up to hold the Vikings. On the Norman left, the foot moved up and the Breton cavalry maneuvered for a gap in the line. This general movement, the archers moving up, the center and right cavalry moving toward the far right flank and the Bretons now angling left continued for a few turns. The Vikings sat passively through all this waiting for their moment.

Finally, the Norman archers were in range and started the battle proper. Hi Vikings in shieldwall, uphill, however, are a hard target and the Norman arrows fell harmless. The archers continued to close the range hoping to have some effect. By this time the entire HC force of the Normans and French were concentrated on the right flank with only a thin line of archers and a few spearmen holding the center with William temptingly behind. And still the Vikings sat waiting. After a few more volleys a few of the arrows found their mark in the unarmored Scots. Would they charge?

On the left flank of the Normans, the Breton Cavalry continued their movement and seemed to be making for a gap around the woods to flank the Vikings position while the foot held the Vikings on the hill. Would they get there in time? Lacking archers on this flank very little was happening. On the right flank a large body of cavalry sat motionless while a smaller body maneuvered to a position from which they could charge.

Up to now the battle had been one of maneuver by the Normans and passive waiting by the Vikings. It was soon to change. The Scots in the center had had enough and charged the archers to their front. Unfortunately, the archers took a further toll and the Scots lost a stand and were disordered before they made contact. The next turn saw them break and head for the rear. At the same time the Scots were breaking, the Vikings were finally moving forward, charging to support the Scots spear. It was now that the French cavalry on the right finally charged with disastrous results. The Vikings held all along the line and the HC was disordered or worst. On the left the Vikings came down off the hill to get in position to charge the Norman foot next turn.

The hole in the Viking line caused when the Scots broke was now filled by the berserkers, with predictable results. Charging Fanatics against UI Archers is not a fair contest and the tide was moving against the Norman’s in the center. With the Norman center under pressure and the first wave of HC on the right flank in serious trouble, time was called.

The bright spots for the Normans was the Bretons on the right had found a seam and were in position to charge Tostig on the hill and that there was a second wave of HC still unengaged on the right. On the other side, the Vikings were in control of the center and had extracted a heavy toll on the Norman’s in casualties. We decided that this battle was a bloody draw. Both Harald Hardrada and William the Bastard would retire to nurse their wounds and plot revenge. The war for England would go on…

I would like to thank both Paul Schneider and Jim Bleed for the use of their figures and the help they provided in running the demos. Also, of course, Terry Gore for his figures, support and rules interpretations when things got sticky. Finally I’d like to apologize to anyone who fought in these battles and does not recognize their parts, time and just the shear volume of information coming at you during a demo leaves one a bit hazy on some points but I do hope the general feel comes through.