Friday Night Games: Battle of Hastings, Week 3

Friday 25th April saw the last part of the epic 28mm Battle of Hastings game played out at Mikey's place, umpired by Mike W, using his home brew rules  and with Steve & John commanding the Anglo-Danes and with Dave & Rupert commanding the Normans.

Norman line (right) attacjing the Anglo-Dne son the hill

On the first turn of the evening the Anglo-Dane swere able to play an event card on the Normans which in effect forced William to impetuously attack the Anglo-Danish lines at the head of his cavalry.

Just visible on the right of the picture is William with his 'Two Lionsi standard at the head of teh Norman Cavalry, Haraold is on teh hill with his Dragon Standard

The issue for William is that his horse had to make contact with the Anglo-Danish line and to do so he had to force his way through his foot units to his front, which he did so but put them into a disordered state.

William leading his horseinto the fray

The ensuing melee raged for a number fo turns before the Norman hrse was forced to retire back through their own foot yet again, however, William survived the experience despite a number of his bodyguard sacrificing themselves to protect his royal persoange!

Suddenly a gap in the front line!

Retiring and disordered Norman units 

With their lines in some disorder and facing a final time out option to re-organised and with pressing time to get any victory the Norman commande elected to retire back to their boats in Pevensey Bay, to either slip away or to confront the Anglo-Danes on more advantageous ground.

William retiring form Hastings

Friday Night Games: Battle of Hastings, October 1066 (Week Two)

Friday 4th April saw us continue the Battle of Hastings game at Mikey's house. We had a slight change in the teams, in that John & Nigel were unavailable, so that left Steve to hold the Anglo-Danish fort, abley supported by guest player, Jimmy.

The battlelines seen from behind the Anglo-Danish left flank, where Leofwine's forces opposed those of Count Eustace

The centre line, where Harold faced off William and his half-brother Odo

And the right of the Anglo-Danish line, where Gyrth's forces faced Alan of Breton's men.

The Normans continued their assault on the hill, with massed bow fire at short range but ended up with little to show for it.

Meanwhile, their infantry units closed to assault the defended hill. Theae assaults were generally met witha shower od throwing weapons and then ashirt sharp fight before the Norman units backed away.

Normans, lead by Odo attack the Anglo-Danish center

Eustace's men attack the hill

In the center one such fight became a prolonged affair, with a unit of armoured Nirman infantry, slogging it out with a unit of armoured Select Fryd. This struggle continued through out this week's game.

As do Alan's...

Else where on the flanks, Eustace and Alan Sent in units with varying degrees of success, all ultimately being pushed back.

The battle rages on

Surprisingly, in the Norman centre, Odo was deployed to lead the infantry assaults on the hill. He battled for several rounds before taking a hit that he could not recover from. Odo  fell  along with his white horse and one of the central Norman units recoiled from the fight in disorder, to be followed the next turn by two other units, relieving the pressure on the Anglo-Danish lined.

More glimpses of Odo fighting in the centre

The Normans played a tactical card and forced one of Leofwine's Select Fryd units to impetuous charge down the hill, chasing a retiring Norman unit. They were quickly pounced upon by nearby Cavalry units and a melee ensued.

More fighting, a Norman unit is forced to retire (yellow marker)

Alan begins re-organising his lines as units break off the attack

On the Anglo-Danish right  things were getting tight as well, Alan was lining up his Bretons to make a co-ordated attack and in the fighting leading up to this, one of Gyrth Godwinson's commanders, Edward, was slain but the defenders held their nerve.

The fighting in the centre continues apace

An impetuous charge by an Anglo-Danish unit off the hill ...

...and Norman Cavalry edge in to attack...

Odo falls in the centre and Norman units react accordingly

The Norman horse pounce upon the impetuous Anglo-Danes

Alan's archers & crossbowmenmass on the extreme right of the Anglo-Danish lines

View of the fighting line form the Anglo-Danish right flank

The same from a higher view point

So all to play for in Week Three, scheduled for 25th April, next two weeks we journey to Rupert's for a WW2 game being put on by Mark.

Friday Night Games: Battle of Hastings, October 1066 (Week One)

Friday 28th March saw us conviene at Mikey's to fight out the Battle of Hastings in 28mm scale. The game was organised by Mike W, using his figure collection and rules, Mike also umpired the game.

Anglo-Danish General Fryd on th right of their line

The Anglo-Danes were led by John (Harold Godwinson), Steve (Gyrth Godwinson) and Nigel (Leofeine Godwinson). Pitted against them, leading ghe Norma's were Mat (William 'the Badtsrd'), Dave (Bishop Odo aka 'Knuckles') , Rupert (Count Eustace 'the Useless') and Mikey (Alan of Breton aka 'Alan the Bumkin'). Note Mat really got into the role of William and ruled his team with a rod of iron and a Savage tongue! 😀

The Anglo-Danish line

The Norman left

Both sides lined out their troops, Anglo-Danes first, as they held the defensive lines on the hill. Harold in the centre, Garth to his right and Leofwine to his left. Troops were in shieldwall formation with reserves to the rear over the crest of the hill.

Norman Centre

Normans advance - blue counters are ammunition supply for missile men

Norman Archers prepare to fire

William took the centre  commanding the army and the Normsn Cavalry. Odo commanded the central infantry whilst Alan placed his Bretons to the left and Rupert placed his Feench to the right.

Alan and his cavalry contingent

As expected the Normans lined up with Archers and Crossbows to the front, followed by infantry and with Cavalry to the rear.

A view of the general Norman advance along their lines

Normans archers reach the foot of the defendeed hill

Norman foot closing behnd the archers

The Normans had 36 turns to destroy the Anglo Danush Army and kill or captur Harold and his brothers. If William was killed or captured  the Anglo-Danes win. Any other result is a draw  leading to a possible final showdown at the Medway Crossings or at Pevancy Bay  depending on who did best in the draw results above.

Anglo-Danes ready to receive

Archers pour fire on the defenders but to little effect

Week One started with a Norman advance followed by their infantry. Norman missile fire started at long range but then closed to short range but achieved little, other than driving off some Anglo-Danish skirmishers. A final full volley of arrows did drive a unit of General Fryd off the hill  before the Normans ran out of arrows

Archers in action

On game turn 5, William called a time out and pulled his lines back to the base line  resupplying the archers and assessing the impact of his fire power.

Normans call time out and reset to base positions to re-supply archers

The advance begins again 

Anglo-Danes re-aligned and waiting again

The Anglo Danes took the opportunity to reorganise and replace the unit of General Fryd in the line.

More Anglo-Danes

More missile fire

The Normans started over again  this time marching their archers and crossbowmen in to short range before letting rip with their missiles. This proved quite effective, and as a result drove Gryth's General Fryd shueld wall off tge far left of the hill linse by turn 12.

Norman infantry close for second time

Manwhile on the Norman right the French, began ascending the frontal slopes and trying to directly engage enemy skirmishes.

Another view...

At this point, 1/3 through the battle we broke off until next week.....

Friday Night Games - Battle of Stamford Bridge (Week Two)

Week Two of the battle saw the usual change in commander assignments, according to player availabililty. The Anglo Danes were again lead by John, playing Harold Godwinson, alongside Phil who continued playing Edwin of Mercia and they were joined by Steve who took on Mocar of Northumland's command.

On the Viking side the leadership team remained unchanged, with Rupert playing King Haraald, Dave playing Tostig Godwinson and Mat plating Eystein Orri.

The procedings picked up from the end of Week One, with the Ango-Danes engaing the Vikings along the length of their line. I'll leave the photos to explain this set-up.

Early on Week Two, on the extreme Viking left flank, a unit of Huntingdon Mounted Selct Fryd battles with Eystein Orri's Bondi and Archers, the horse is forced to retire and they stay out of the fight there onwards

Opening moves on week Two see Steve replace the mounted Slect Fryd with infantry units in the attack on the Viking left flank. What had seemed to be a staright forward task was complicated by the continued arrival of units belonging to Eystein Orri on that flank.

Luckily for the Anglo-Danes the cramped positions on that flank, left little room for Orri to deploy his men to greater advantage and as time progressed the rolling collapse of the Viking left flank gave all Viking commanders increasing cause for concern.

Bottom left we can see Harald Haraada and his bodyguard in the front line fighting the advancng Anglo-Danish Wessex men. To Harald's right are a unit of Hirdsmen, both are fighting Wessex Select Fryd.

A small unit of Berserkers have caught an Anglo-Danish General Fryd unit in their flank, these unfortuneate Frydsmen are also facing Viking Hirdsmen to their front.

On the Viking right units from Tostig Godwinson's alliance of English rebels and Viking allies were in trouble, hard pressed by Harold Godwinson's Wessexmen. after an hour or so of fighting Tostig fell, quite possibly to the axe of his brother Leofwine - but confusion in the battle and passage of time have blurred the memory. For certain each brother was in the frontline fighting each other.

To the right of Harald Haraada's position we we can see Tostig Godwinson with  his bodygaurd and Hearthgaurd fighting in the line, with allied Frankish spearmen to their right. They are facing Wessex Select Fryd and Housecarl units

With Tostig' death and the gradual crumbling of the Viking flank, the overall Viking postion became more and more difficult, yet Harald and his men held on. Even the remnants of Tostig's Hearth Guard surrenedered when facing the overwelming odds but Harald fought on.

Later Eysein Orri, slipped away from the battle, (well Mat had reached his curfew time!) with a view to readying the fleet and allow Harald to get away.

Disaster strikes to the extreme right of the Viking line when one of the flanking mounted Select Fryd from Huntingdon are able to force the defendng Enlish Rebels, under Tostig Godwinson to retire. The horsemen follow-up and catch the foot and inflict even more casualties, turning the retirement into a near rout. Centre can be seen the mounted figure of Earl Waltheof of Huntingdon.

A view along the battle line, from the Viking left to their centre right, in the center we can see Earls Wlfred and Earl Godfred of Auchenforth, both sb-commanders under Earl Morcar, leading the fight against Eystein Orri's Viking re-enforcements

In the end Harald and his battered forces spotted a lull in the fighting and used this to order his men to withdraw in an ordered manner, heading back to Ricall to board their ships and return to Norway and lick their wonds.

Harold Godwinson, seeing this did not persue, knowing that he had other battles to fight - possibly in the very near future!

Back on the Viking right flank,  after Tostig's death and the loss of the English Rebels, the unit of Scots spearmen is cut-off and surrounded. The Scots, seeing that they are totally outnumbered and face slaughter - lay down their arms and surrender.

The continuing collapse of the Viking left flank is caught here in this photo.

Next outing we'll see the entry of William of Normandy and his allied forces at Hastings, looking to enforce his claim to the English throne. Will the Godwinsons prevail or will the battle go the way of history. Stay tuned  to find out!