Small but Perfectly Formed

I only have the edition of ADLG prior to the current one and other than a couple of games against Paul Dawson I haven't really played many games with these, or the current version of the rules.  However, I got to thinking (dangerous as always) that building a couple or three 120pt armies from my existing troops wasn't too much of a stretch after building a standard DBA Army.  This is also known as rampant expansionism, mission creep or a simple 'ooh shiny complex'.  The only issue I can see is the almost automatic urge to just add a few more options to cover all the bases to build a standard 200pt ADLG army.  Before you know it I could be up to DBM/DBMM figure counts!

The difference between the figure counts is less pronounced with cavalry heavy armies as these use a single base in both ADLG and DBA.  Infantry heavy armies with two bases for heavy and medium infantry in ADLG are where things really show up.  Lets have a look at the difference using a Late Imperial Roman force as an example (because it is somewhere in the middle as a 'combined arms force).

There isn't a great deal in the way of alternatives in the DBA army list for the Western Late Imperials.  Two legionary elements, three auxilia, two light cavalry and two cavalry (which include the general) are mandatory which covers 75% of the army!  The remaining three elements provide options as follow.  Firstly two of Auxilia Palatina or Velites (can be one of each), then lastly one from Clibanarii (3Kn), Catafractarii/Alans (4Kn), legionaries, bolt shooters, Lanciarii (3Bd) or warband .  So optional choices are limited.  For my last three elements I went with options of 1 x Auxilia Palatina, 1 x Velites and 1 x Catafracts (4Kn).  Oh and for what it's worth the Eastern Empires options are even less flexible!

Late Imperial Romans as a 12 Element DBA 3.0 army plus camp

Late Imperial Romans as a 200pt ADLG force with two commands

Next lets look at the ADLG version, I excluded Foederati (Huns, Goths etc) to make the comparison closer, My selection still only has 12 units. However, it looks bigger as it has separate bases for it's two generals and of course the heavy and medium infantry are double based. What is less obvious is that this army has two commands so it's more like Big Battle DBA, it also has a fortified camp which prevents Light Cavalry raids on it. On top of which it has paid points for special capabilities for some units.

The Final selections were; First command   a brilliant general, 1 x Elite Heavy cavalry (Impact), 1 x Equites Sagittarii Light cavalry, 1 x Elite Cataphracts, 1 x Equites Heavy Cavalry (Impact)1 x Elite Legionaries (Impact, Armour, Missile Support), 1 x Elite Auxilia Palatina (Impact, Missile Support).  Second command, an ordinary general,  2 x Legionaries (Armour, Impact, Missile Support),  2 x Auxilia Palatina (Impact, Missile support), 2 x  Light Infantry Archers.  Plus a Fortified Camp.

A better view of the ADLG army

ADLG differs from DBA in that it has a points based army creation system so it has those interesting moments of self doubt about making choices, just like the old WRG ancients army list quandaries.   You know, the should I make those Hun horse archers elite or take a unit of light infantry archers instead kind of thing, rather than the straight 12 element choice of DBA.   It also has special capabilities (as shown above) in some lists.  So the Legionaries above can have armour, missile support and elite status as options. Me being, well, me I have gone for armour and missile support for the Legionaries, impact is mandatory  For the auxilia again missile support and mandatory impact.  The mounted command also took the elite option for it's the infantry reserve.

ADLG has other things going for it too that I like, light infantry and cavalry archers actually shoot at stuff, and units degrade rather than die in an all or nothing way.  Why I haven't used the rules more I really don't know, as I do really like 'chrome' within the rules of a game and the extra figures gives the whole army a better appearance.  

Any way as a result of all of this thinking my painting table is now packed again, after I did really well in November in clearing stuff down.  The western gunfight figures are on the back burner (or is that the left side burner as per the picture), as masses of Baccus 6mm horsemen take centre stage. These are mostly Late Roman/Early Byzantine horse archers and Hunnic heavy cavalry who will be proxying as Byzantine Boukellarioi.  It's a good thing I like painting horses.

I haven't imposed the mess which is my painting table on you for a while!

The Moors are coming along nicely.  As usual I'm starting by building a DBA3 army but will probably extend to a small L'Arte De La Guerre (ADLG) army later.  In part this is because DBA and ADLG have different ways of depicting the different parts of the army.  

With DBA there is a standard army of 12 elements which depicts the General, and his bodyguard, as one of those 12 elements and defines him as being a standard DBA troop type (with a bonus in combat).  ADLG on the other hand has generals either as a separate base that can be attached and unattached from any unit of the army or as an attached general permanently linked to a single unit (pretty much as in DBA).  On top of which many ADLG infantry units consist of the equivalent of two DBA elements.  That makes it easier (and cheaper) to start with the DBA version of an army, which is why I started where I have.  Come on you all knew I was a cheapskate!  ADLG also uses an army selection points system with standard games having a 200 point budget. There is a version closer to DBA army size using 100 or 120 points.  That said even at the lower point values an ADLG army is likely to have between 30 to 40% more bases than the DBA equivalent because of the infantry basing system.

Anyway back to the moors (cries of Cathy...Heathcliff in a strange North African tongue should now be ringing in your ears, No? OK maybe that's just me then?).  The General's element is now completed along with the additional infantry.  After some thinking and a query to the hive mind on TMP I decided to use Late Roman Heavy Cavalry castings to differentiate the General from his underlings...er... I mean brave fighting men.  I removed the Draco standard from the command figure group and replaced it with one based upon the Infantry standard.  Which may be wrong but at least it's a standard.

All the army to date, but...wait for it...there is moor to come

The general's element for DBA

As a final thought I realise that I should have created a Moorish army years ago, honestly the scope for puns is huge!  For a start they are almost all bare headed, not a cap to be seen, although I doubt many have been to Ilkley Moor.  I will leave you to work that one out. 😉

Or in this case 'The Moor the Merrier' or Mauri, it's the North West African chaps who are the focus of this post.  I was looking through my lead pile and realised that I had bought a couple or three packs of Moorish Infantry.  These were used for various Dark Age types like the Welsh Princedoms and Dal Radian Scots.  The castings are bare legged and only have a tunic so they can be pressed into service as any number of lower class skirmishing foot types in that period.  I have sufficient of those for the time being so I decided to use them as Mr Berry intended, well I had quite a lot of them more (or should that be moor) than enough to cover the DBA3 infantry requirements for a Later Moorish army.

With very little variation in clothing choices, which meant a restricted palette, painting looked like it was going to be easy.  White(ish) tunic,  some dyed cloaks dark skin tone and then just animal skin shields in a mid brown, hair in a dark colour and weapons.   Well at least it it looked easy!  Moors didn't have the really dark skins of Sub-Saharan Africans  so getting that shade right took a few goes and as for the white tunics....Arghh!  White is one of those colours which is difficult to shade (I really must try a contrast type white paint at some point) and it took me a few attempts before I came up with an system that I was happy with.

I started with a white undercoat courtesy of Halfords ever reliable rattle can automotive primer.  I pre-shading on that but didn't like the contrast it gave.  So I had a cup of tea and a bit of a think ( but didn't take off any handles or things what hold the candles*) and decided on a new approach.  I painted all the tunics in Vallejo Bone white which is more of a pale coffee brown and all the flesh in Vallejo German Camouflage Brown a darker mid brown with a hint of something else in the mix possibly blue.  Only then did I apply a thinned wash of GW Agrax Earth Shade.  After which I dry brushed the tunics in Vallejo Ivory and then picked out some high spots in Vallejo Pure White.  It sounds like a lot of work but it doesn't take as long as you might think.  Adding some variations between black and chocolate brown for hair and some pale brown for javelin shafts pretty much completed the main paining.  A coat of varnish and the final touch of silver for spear points and bronze to officers' helmets and that was job done.

A gratuitous close up so you can see the final effect on those pesky tunics

A few more Moors (sorry I couldn't resist it), there are more to come (sorry, not sorry)

As an aside, and I may already have posted about this.  I read something on a blog a while ago which has been a game changer in terms of brush care.  The occasional use of alcohol based hand sanitiser gel to clean brushes!  The gel means it sticks to the brush and it removes acrylic paint a treat, being clear also means you can see what is being shifted too.  It doesn't seem to damage the glue holding the hair in place, although I take the precaution of washing them out in warm water with a drop of Mrs E's shampoo in it afterwards.  After a second rinse they get a bit of hair conditioner then a final rinse and dry.

* For the education of younger readers go look for Bernard Cribbins' song "Right Said Fred".  It's a tale of the trials and tribulations of two removal men.  As an aside we had a second hand upright piano when I was very young that had both handles and things what held candles!  Life eh?

Edited 24 November 2024 to remove some typos I spotted

 A number of years ago I added a plea onto the Baccus forums for the esteemed Mr Berry to create a range of early Byzantines so I could replace my venerable Irregular Miniatures army.  At the time the response was that it may happen but not in the immediate future.  However, I wanted a Byzantine army, specifically one for the 5th - 6th centuries, so I decided to proxy other Baccus figures to that very end.    Sassanid regular infantry had a suitably large shield so I started there and though I say so myself they don't look too bad, yet they were not perfect.  In my mind's eye I had an image of the old Hinchcliffe 25mm figures but in glorious 6mm, but needs must and all that.  At 'The other Partisan' last month I bought some of Mr B's Hunnic Noble to serve as, well, Hunnic Nobles, but also to proxy for Boukellariioi for Belisarius or Narses.  This week in a fit of enthusiasm I started to work on a second unit of Skoutatoi.  No sooner had I started then 'bingly bong' goes my mobile phone to alert me to the fact that Baccus 6mm have launched a new range for a new period.  Yes you guessed it the period is 'Late Antiquity' and the range 'Early Byzantines'.

So this is the cause of my mixed emotions the infantry are exactly what I was dreaming of but I already have proxy troops for that role.  I almost wish that they were not what I wanted, but the entire range is perfect!  Damn you Mr Berry, now I think I may be falling prey to some form of compulsive behaviour disorder.  This is caused by knowing that the exact figures I want are out there so my lovingly proxied Sassanids are no longer ticking the right boxes.  I must have proper Byzantines, I need proper Byzantines!!!

Not 'proper Byzantines' but I was happy with them until.....

Proper Byzantines!  (image from the Baccus 6mm catalogue)

 Its been few weeks since I did any updates on the Dark Ages campaign.  My focus has been elsewhere mostly on painting figures and for the last week or so on pushing on with the ECW rules.  I'm hoping to be able to post a rules update in the next couple of days as I have made some substantial progress on that project.

Meanwhile back in Dark Ages.  I have decided not to fight the small unbalanced campaign actions in every case.  So the Devet v Seisyllwch battle will be solved by the simple expedient of Devet accepting it's new status as a client or sub princedom of it's larger neighbour.  I have rather a lot of time to cover within the campaign and if I want to get to the end I'm going to need to speed things up.  Plus it lets me get to the more interesting table top encounters.  So Devet falls without a fight and the game rolls onwards.

Looking back at the list of events for this turn, we now move on to the last event of 799AD.  Northumbria attacking Strathclyde by striking into Rheged.  

By 799AD Northumbria's power was concentrated to the east of the Pennines and that is how the game is set up.  The North West was contested ground under Strathclyde Welsh influence (if not outright control) in Cumbria and loosely Northumbrian in the areas south of that.  The nature of government in Northumbria at this point was such that central authority was often lacking and control ceded to local leaders who made their own way without much thought, or care, for who the king was.  It was only where a strong king arose that this changed and historically that didn't happen very often.  

In modern terms Northumbria was a failed state.  There had been a generation of in fighting between rival branches of the royal line over which line should sit on the throne and this continued right into the mid 9th century, when one claimant allied himself with the sons of Ragnar Lothbrok.  Lets just say that it didn't end well. If you have read the Last Kingdom books or watched the TV series based upon the same you will have come across them as leaders of the first wave of Viking invasions.

Looking at the available forces in the game The Strathclyde Welsh can assemble the men of Galloway, Strath Clut and Rheged itself.  While Northumbria can count on Lothene, Berneich and possibly Cumbre.  I say possibly for Cumbre, as I have designated that region as disputed but occupied by Northumbria so the Cumbrians will act as allies and may be unreliable.

The available forces will be maximised as both kings are present so the line ups look like this:

Strathclyde

Strat Clut: King (Cv), 3 x Sp (reduced by battle losses)

Rheghed: 1 x Gen (Cv), 3 x Sp (reduced by battle losses)

Galloway: 1 x Gen (Cv), 1 x Cv, 3 x Sp

Strathclyde is carrying losses from the clash with the Picts earlier in the turn so are only able to turn out 13 elements.  They cannot deploy in two bodies as they don't meet the minimum element count  I set in the rules to do so.

Northumbria

Lothene: 1 x Gen (4Bd), 3 x Sp, 1 x Ps

Berneich: King (4Bd), 3 x 4Bd, 7 x Sp, 3 x Hd, 1 x Ps

Cumbre: Gen (Sp), 1 x Ps

Northumbria has maximised the available troops so as to be able to have two commands and is fielding 22 elements.  They will field The men of Berneich as a single command and merge Cumbre and Lothene into a second.  As a disputed territory Cumbre will count as allied and may not be reliable on the battle field. 

"Right settle down and listen up,  here is the plan.  We outnumber them almost two to one so they either have to hit us hard and fast before we have the line properly set up or they will want to defend and use the ground to their advantage.  If they attack their initial charge is a problem but if we stack the spearmen deep we should be able to absorb the impact.    

Moravin, you have the larger command so act aggressively, I'm putting you out on the right flank with Mar.  You have the majority of the mounted lads so if you get a chance to get around their flank, take it. Especially if you see a chance to attack their camp.  Nothing like having your women attacked to take a man's mind off the fighting eh?  

I will be in the centre with the rest of the Army, so that's you three, Strath Erin, Athfotla and Monath.  Your boys will hold the centre and cover our camp.  Nothing too clever required there, I think we can hold back in a defensive posture and see how things develop on the right.  If they attack us then all the more space on the flank for the mounted lads to use.  I'm pretty sure their entire strength is in the field against us but I'm not ignoring the risk of them trying to land behind our flank from boats.  Moravin the beach is on your flank so have a think about about what you might do to cover that eventuality will you. 

Everyone happy?  Excellent well grab what sleep you can and we shall see what the morning brings."

Or as the dice rather more prosaically gave me; place the camp as near the centre line as possible and behind any available bad going.  Command 1 (The King with  8 elements) deploy in the centre with a defensive stance.  Command 2 (11 elements) deploys on the right flank and takes an aggressive stance.  Pike form up two deep if facing warbands.  Fastest troops deploy on the end of the line.  

The Scots have 11 elements to deploy including the King.  There is nothing to loose and a defensive strategy just will not cut it.  The Scots will probably never have more men in the field than they have today, so they have to take the fight to their Pictish cousins.  Accordingly I have decided to go with a littoral landing.  That will be on the Pictish Right which it turns out are under orders to be aggressive and so with any luck it will land behind their flank.

The Scots briefing is an altogether more downbeat affair.

'Alright then sit down and take a drink it may be the last one you get from me.  You all know the Picts outnumber us and have a point to prove having had a beating from the Strathclyders of late.  They have crossed the mountains to get at our heartlands so I doubt they just want to talk.  Tomorrow is going to be bloody, the only question is whose blood will be on the heather?

We don't have the luxury of giving up this ground and there are no reinforcements coming. What we do, win or loose, we do with the men we have, here, at this place.  They will come on fast and that is our one advantage as it will give us the option of turning their flanks.  I will have the main body but  you Comgail,  you will lead a small group to land on the beach behind them.  Hit them in the flank or rear and hit them hard.  Make them rue the day they came to Dal Raitia.  You will be the hammer, we will be the anvil and between us I intend to crush them.  Now go see to your men, tell them of certain victory on the morrow and, remind them that they are fighting for their homes and families.

The Day of Battle

'The day of battle  dawned and looked set fair so the fight commenced almost immediately. Our landing party sprang into action as soon as the Picts were in reach and charged up the beach into the end of their line.  Two units of Pictish light horse turned to meet the threat.  Meanwhile our main line advanced as quickly as they could but it was clear that the landing party would be on their own for a wee while.  We could tell that the attack from the beach had the Picts rattled as their advanced stopped dead on that flank.'  

1. The armies deployed -landing party ready to storm up the beach!

A good opening pip score allows the out of command littoral landing to get into contact with the end of the Pictish line.  In their turn both Pictish commands get abysmal pip scores and low aggression scores meaning that the right hand command who are meant to be moving up stall as their flank units have to deal with the Scottish attack. The left hand command does manage to advance to occupy the boggy ground to their front.  This was repeated for the next two turns where the Picts consistently rolled single pips for both commands.

'We couldn't believe that the beach attack had thrown the enemy into such confusion, we could see that the fighting was muckle fierce on that flank and one group of Pictish light horse was soon destroyed.  The rest of that wing seemed incapable of reacting to the attack.  Our main body continued to push forward towards the enemy with our wilder tribesmen leading the advance.'

2. Picts in a pickle - down one LH already

I roll two dice for each Pictish command the large dice is the aggression for this turn the smaller the Pip score.  The aggression roll is adjusted based on the starting aggression and the pip score.  The photo below shows just how bad the Pictish rolls were!

3. On the defensive. Awful dice mean the Picts cannot put attacks together!

4. It looks better than it really is for the Picts (on the left here)

The terrain is helping the Scots.  The aggressive Pictish right wing has to overcome the flanking attack and get through the woods to to turn the Scot's left.  The other flank, which is wide open, is facing the defensive Pictish wing who are less likely to take advantage.  The boggy ground is doing nothing to slow either side but it is preventing the Pictish spearmen gaining the rear support bonus  Fast Pike would gain in clear terrain.

5. The Scots have a decent defensive line at least

It isn't until turn five that the Picts get a decent pip and aggression roll and with the Scots racing forwards to the attack with their main force it isn't a moment too soon.  They bring more troops up to the fight on the right wing and push forwards in the centre where the two lines come to close combat.  There the fighting leads to a first casualty for the Scots and the usual confusion as the neat lines dissolve.  At this point you would have thought that things are about to improve for the Picts, they are in contact all along the line and should be able to bring the advantage of numbers to bear.  You might have thought that but, the dice gods really have it in for the painted people and in the first combat they loose another unit.  Even worse this is from their right wing command which pushes them over the edge into demoralisation.  There is a single ray of hope now as a second scots unit was destroyed in the combat round, so the Scots are edging closer to their break point. 

6. A turn later and the battle is slipping away from the Picts

The next couple of turns have the Picts attempting to keep their right wing on the table by using pips to force unit's hold their ground.  Because they are demoralised that wing can't do anything but hold or retreat and it takes a pip to have a unit hold in place, they can't initiate combat although they can defend.  Their biggest problem is that if they hold the units closest to the edge of the table in place then those who are pinning the Scot's beach landing in place have to retreat and that opens the way for a camp run.  On the other wing I successfully override the standing orders for a turn and send a Pictish light infantry unit sprinting for the Scot's camp but with my Scot's cap (should that be bonnet?) on I counter that with a Scots light infantry unit in the following turn by bringing close enough to pin the Picts in their threat zone.

7. Although the Picts' left is holding men a streaming to the rear on the right wing

Things are looking bleak for the Picts now as the only command that can act has defensive standing orders so is going to struggle to advance to combat.   Poor dice rolls on the other wing are allowing units to head to the rear there.  Although the Pict's have managed to get into a good position for an attack the defensive stance stops them from capitalising on it and I failed the override dice roll for them.  A poor pip roll for the demoralised command sees four elements leave the table and that is game over.

Although not particularly heavy, the losses will have an impact on both sides the Picts have lost three elements and the Scots two.  At least the King of Picts was able to escape the disaster.

The Pictish chronicles simply recounts 

'The fury of the Scotsmen knew no bounds'

This game taught me a few things about these troops.  Fast pike are capable troops but only if well deployed the +3 rear support bonus would have made a huge difference had I been able to use it.  It was only the poor initial deployment that worked against them and I should have redeployed the line to get them into good going.  The terrain made no difference to movement for the infantry as both sides have fast foot or solid auxilia who are not slowed in bad going.  Still the Picts are not going to let a little thing like two defeats in one turn change their ambition and they will be be back.

With the dawning of 799AD comes new strife. It's in the North in the lands of the Picts and Scots where a dispute over the little travelled region of Comgail has erupted into armed conflict. Although nominally allied under a single family in reality there are different clan allegiances within the ruling blood lines and it is by no means certain which line of descent will rule North of the Forth- Clyde line.  The Pictish side of the family have decided to strengthen their hand or at least weaken the Dal Raidian side

The Picts have assembled a royal army led by High-King  Caustantin mac Fergus which extends the area they can recruit from.  The Dal Raidian Scots have a much smaller recruitment base but are assembling every fighting man they can muster under their King Taidg mac Donncoirce.  For this clash the forces arrayed are as follows:

Pictia will have two commands.  King Caustantin has the first command of 8 elements and the Mormaer of Moravin commands the second made up of 12 elements.  These consist of:

• The King (Cv) plus 1 x Cv, 4 x 3Pk and 2 x Ps.
• Mormaer of Moravin (Cv) plus 1 x Cv, 2 x LH, 5 x 3Pk and 2 x Ps.

While Dal Raidia is fielding a single command of 11 elements commanded by King Taidg

The King (4Ax) plus 3 x 4Ax, 5 x 3Wb and 2 x Ps

This is the second outing for the Picts in this campaign turn and losses from the earlier fighting have reduced their numbers.  Strath Erin is still recovering from casualties suffered against the men of Alt Clut.

The Dal Raidian Scots will be the defenders and will choose the terrain.  The dice gave me the Scots so I can determine the terrain without using the solo rules.  Their home terrain is Littoral so I chose a waterway (compulsory) a difficult hill, a marsh and a woods.  It will look something like the image below.  Picts deploy on the bottom edge Scots on the top.

It will look something like this.

In reality we don't know for certain who was king of Dal Raidia at the turn of the 8th Century.  the Annals of Ulster give names but these may have only been kings of the Irish Dal Raidians.  Still I needed a name for the campaign so King Taidg mac Donncoirce it is.

Its the start of the third hour of this battle (in game time).  The Mercian shield wall pushes back in the centre but make little headway.  They are slowly and methodically setting up a shield wall on their left and have rushed what troops they can towards the river bank on their right.  It would help if they could roll well just once.  The West Saxon reply is to keep the meat grinder going in the centre and to push more troops across the river on their left.  On their right where they really need to disengage they roll 1 pip!  It's not just the Mercians the dice have it in for.  The only good news for the hard pressed West Saxon right is that the Mercians just can't get a decisive attack in to push the command over the edge, all they achieve is a series of recoil results which helps the West Saxons by opening up some space between the lines. 

1. Fighting on the river bank as the Wessex Left command attempts to cross

2.  It's soon more than a toe hold, but the Mercian defenders look to be ready for the onslaught

Once the West Saxons are over both sides face off against each other but the Mercians are soon on the back foot.  How are things over on the other flank?

 

3. On the Mercian left things look better, for the Mercians!

With a couple of good dice rolls in succession the Mercian left wing recovers from it's earlier confusion and continues to advance.  The West Saxons seem to have the same problem the Mercians have on the other flank.  They are slowly pushed back but the Mercians just can't seem to get their act together and fight as well as they manoeuvre.

4. The king glances towards his threatened right flank

The centre is getting messy with recoils on both sides fragmenting the shield wall.  The Mercian's manage another kill here but its anything but decided as yet.

5. The central commands pushing and heaving

The West Saxon right proves remarkably resilient and despite being one element loss away from demoralisation hangs on in the face of repeated Mercian attacks.  All the Mercians can do is create recoils.  This goes on for another four turns until they manage to hard flank an isolated Wessex spear element.  This tips the West Saxon command over the edge.  Now they are demoralised and all the Saxon Sub General can use his pips for is to hold elements in place. Where he doesn't have the pips to hold elements in place they flee towards the rear base edge each turn.  Even then he gets decent pips and manages to fight a reasonable withdrawal action.

6.  See that gap between the two units facing each other?  There were West Saxons there a moment ago!

The fight in the centre continues to be a mess.  The threat zones prevent any serious reorganisation of the front lines and overall the West Saxons are getting the better of things.  This continues until the Mercian centre is one element away from demoralisation with the West Saxons nowhere near that state.  Both sides are throwing their reserves forward but the Mercians are trying to fill holes in the line while the West Saxon's are hunting for overlaps.  The two Kings are both in the thick of things now and in danger of getting isolated.  They tend to have the better of combats because of the plus one for a general in combat and as they are blades they pursue while any spear elements around them don't.

As the Mercian left continues to push the demoralised West Saxon command facing it slowly backwards options for detaching elements to go to the aid of the beleaguered centre start to present themselves.  However on the other wing a disaster is unfolding.

7. The Mercian right: a lone element of spears is in deep trouble attacked frontally and in flank

Over the last few turns the Mercian right has taken steady casualties until it is only one element away from collapse.  The West Saxons exploit the gaps created by defensive tactics and low pips and pounce on an isolated element of spears. Unbelievably the dice off is a draw on the first round and it is in the following Mercian combat round that it is killed.  The command is now the second to become demoralised.  The next two turns are inconclusive the centre has no decisive fights but gaps are opening up and the Mercian left is slowly hooking around onto the exposed flank of the West Saxon's centre. 

8. The Mercians teeing up the flank attack against the centre

It takes a while for the Mercian left to move into position against the open flank of right flank of the West Saxon Centre.  Part of the command is shadowing the fleeing West Saxons (aka not enough pips to bring them over to join the preparations for the attack).  In the centre of his command I imagine that King Beohtric is having a Wellington at Waterloo moment "Give me Bearruc Scir or give me dark" kind of thing. and the day is dragging to a close after close to 4 hours fighting but dark is still a ways off.  However over on the West Saxon left the men of Bearruc Scir and Dorseate have finally broken the Mercian command facing them and a racing through the woodland to the aid of the central command.

The Mercian assault goes in, but trouble is brewing at the other side of the field

Things are now very close the Mercian left made up of the Fyrds of the Wrocensaetan and Hendrica slam into the open flank of King Beohtric's centre In the first moments of the attack aa west saxonlight infantry element is destroyed and the end of the line is forced to recoil.  It is only the fragmented nature of the line that prevents major casualties as there are no units to the rear of the recoiling troops for them to break against.  In the West Saxon turn the dice are kind to their left wing but less so to the centre command where a paltry one is rolled.  I use this to pull the King's element back thinking he may be needed to help bolster up the right flank.  Both central commands are at breaking point one element away from becoming demoralised and ending the game.

The end of the affair but both sides have suffered heavy casualties

Which brings us nicely back to the campaign action in our alternative timeline. The clash is at a ford on the River Coln close by the small village of Wudiandum which is centred around a small monastery.  The Mercians are being run by the DBA solo rules with a few amendments made on the fly to cover the larger nature of this action.  The dice have determined that the Mercians shall deploy as far forwards as possible and with their three divisions as near to the centre of their deployment area as possible while still holding to a single battle line.  Their tactical choice is a neutral one for the centre and their right with the left being more defensive.  This will impact on the turn by turn options as the game is played out.  

The Mercian line up has their left held by Wrocensaetan and Hendrica with 9 elements.  The Centre is held by the Hwicce with 19 Elements and the right by the Maegonsaetan and Tomsaetan with 12 elements.  King Coenwulf is in the centre of the Hwiccan line with his Hearth Troop.

The Mercian Host

Facing them across the Coln are, in the centre, King Beorhtric and his Hearth Troop along with the men of Wilsaetan and Sumersaetan adding a further 19 elements to his command.  To his left are the men of Bearruc Scir and Dorsaete with 13 elements and to his left the men of Hamptonscir with 10 elements.

The West Saxon line of battle

The West Saxon line of battle above shows the labels I had to add so I can track losses by province.  The sharp eyed will note that I am having to use proxies as I just don't have enough Anglo-Saxon spears.  Even if Baccus had been able to stay open throughout the coronavirus epidemic I doubt I would have had the required numbers to hand as I wasn't expecting such a large action so early in the campaign!

This has the makings of a slugfest as there is little scope for tactical subtlety with these armies and neither side has a significant advantage in either troop numbers or types.  The numbers mean neither side will be easy to crack and there is little scope for turning flanks

The day dawned clear and it was midmorning when the two sides sighted each other.  There was a short exchange that almost counted as negotiation, almost but not quite.  Mercia demanded Wessex returned to its previous fealty claiming it had agreed to acknowledge Mercian over lordship.  Wessex countered by stating that agreement was personal to Offa and died with him and as the new ruler of Mercia had no link to the house of Offa they felt no need to submit. The Mercians called the West Saxons rogues and plunderers come to loot what they thought to be defenceless lands, the West Saxons looked disdainful and pointed out that the Mercians were only a little better than the Welsh they lived so close to and should know all about theft and plunder and that was the end of any attempt at a peaceful settlement.  God shall have to decide the right now!.