DBA Special: III/24 Middle Anglo Saxon 617 to 1016 AD

 

(Phil's Anglo-Saxons: original photo)

This army now gets a gallery after the reorganisation and refurbishment of a number of Dark Age components, Saxons, Goths, Gepids etc. formerly featured together (here and here)

The army rephotographed:

 

Book 3 List 24a Middle Anglo Saxon for DBA V3

So just a word about the lists ... this is 'middle' Anglo-Saxon and comes in an early and a late version.  Earlier Anglo-Saxons (the Hengist and Horsa folk) are covered by list II/73 and are basically all warband but for a single Ps.  'Later' Anglo-Saxons are covered by Anglo Danish (the Hastings period) ...

So this is the heptarchy period and the wars against the Danes ...

The core of these armies is 'select fyrd' (Sp) ... the earlier list (a) hird (household troops) are warband and have a cavalry option, the later hird are 4Bd but lose the cavalry option.  In 11th cent.armies we usually call them huscarls.  I can do either but have tagged the army (a) because of the cavalry. Some of the figures have long shields which does, of course, suggest a later date.

 

(the command group are Donnington New Era figures)

 

(Donnington, Khurasan and Peter Pig figures)

 

(as above plus Museum, Gladiator, Irregular, Lurkio, Essex, Two Dragons, Chariot, Tabletop and Outpost)

 

I suspect most people will take the Spearmen although a shield wall of 7Hd has a lot of period feel about it.  You can have 4 of them in the Anglo-Danish.

 

(all Gladiator/Metal Magic figures although I think the rider is on a Mirliton horse)

 

(the kneeling figure is Essex, the attacking figure is Gladiator/Metal Magic)

 

(cavalry are Chariot Minatures, the foot are: 2 Metal Magic plus a Two Dragons and an Essex)

LONGSHIP CAMP

The original Anglo-Saxons were, of course, 'boat people', invaders and migrants from Northern Europe, and although we think of the Danes as the archetypal longship raiders, the English were always seafarers and the great rivers were the highways of Dark Age Britain - so I decided to give these Angelfolc a longship camp ... beached on a river or inlet to the rear of the battlefield.  That would be just off the table in most games, of course, and the ship will have been dragged ashore (and so just on the table edge) - it all makes sense to me.

 

The ship is one of those old Revell ones (regularly re-issued under various brands)  and - judging by the shields - is a little under 10mm scale.  I swapped the plastic sail for a spare, furled, Essex one.  There's an Essex and a Hallmark crew figure and a miscellaneous heap of supplies.

 

(longship with camp follower)

The camp follower, in this case, is just a Ps element with the base notched to accommodate  the mast structure.  I decided in this instance to match the basing to the rest of the land army (so it's just an army element sitting in the boat) rather than match it to the vessel - I guess a perspex base would be another option.

 

There's also a couple of basic 'baggage heap' camps which I recently added as we have a big game coming up and will need some extra baggage markers.  I bought these decades ago and I am sure they were from Peter Pig.  When Colours was at the Hexagon, anyway.  Drum roll: they have now been painted and have a job!

 

(Big Battle baggage)

BUAs

Also in the Anglo-Saxon box are a number of bua options which I will include in this gallery - a ring fort and some huts ... the huts can go in the fort or on my generic terrain templates to make hamlets ...

 

(scratchbuilt fort with a rock 'Barker marker' and some resin huts)

 

(generic cork tile templates serving as hamlets)

The gateway to the earthwork is an element wide.

 

This army is an ideal opponent for the Vikings although strictly speaking you should use the later variant (24b) 

28th February, Keresley Library, Coventry

MERCIA DBA/SOA UK DBA LEAGUE

I wasn't able to attend Patrick's new event in Market Harborough so this was only my second outing with the 2015/16 DBA League.

The theme was armies from the history of Mercia so I opted to dust down my Anglo-Saxons and take King Penda'a Dark Age Mercians, famous as you will all know for his battles at Maserfield and Winwaed.   A hundred years before his relative Offa built a dyke.

I took along the longship baggage element with its improbable lateen rig.   The Angles and Saxons were great sailors, of course, and first arrived in these islands which they made their own by boat.

The army's DBA terrain is arable, of course, and the boat must be presumed pulled up on an inlet from a river just off the board.

(Mercian supplies beached by a waterway - click on the pictures for a larger image)

I also refurbished an old earthwork to provide a fort ... Mercians seem to have been good a digging earthworks so I thought I'd throw one into a game.

With an aggression of 2, I didn't get that many chances (but it did get into play) ...

The interior is actually a 10mm Roman watchtower supplied for review a while back by The Baggage Train.  I've always been pleased with the look of this resin piece on the 15mm battlefield.

I suppose I should complete the round up by mentioning the ploughman figure I built to enhance DBA V3's iconic 'plough' terrain type.

This army adds a cavalryman, a skirmisher and a pair of 'hird' warbands (the general and his personal retainers) to an 8 element shieldwall.  It doesn't do much singing and dancing but it sure is good at fighting enemy infantry.  

I was hoping to hold the line while breaking through with commander's (supported general warband) deadly fighting power.   Toughing it out against knights would likely be less productive.

The games ...

Game One: vs Sub Roman British ... cavalry and auxilia with some vulnerable blades ...

Game Two: vs North Welsh ... and a clump of knights to fear (it turned out with good reason) ...

Game Three: vs Feudal English ... could the spearwall get stuck into the archers (before the knights prevail) ...

At this, the half way stage, the set up switched and all games were with your opponent's army against your own ...

Game Four: with Anglo-Normans ... Charge!

There was now an interval for displaying the various armies before a 'best in theme' vote:-

Excellent ... my vote went to the colourful Anglo-Danish army (3 up, above)

... and then the wargames resumed for the final two rounds ...

Game Five: with Graham Fordham's Anglo-Norman ... Charge!... and ...

Game Six: with Martin Smith's Pre Feudal Scottish

This reverse phase went very well and I won all the games ... making 5 wins and a defeat (propelling me to a countback second place) ... and my cup oveflowed when the player vote picked my Mercians as the best of the bunch.

These were English style quick fire games and all mine were decisive (despite the preponderance of footsloggers) ... We had plenty of potential manoeuvre but everyone gamely got on with it.

Moments ...

(outflanked!  The Saxon commander leads from the centre of the line but the warrior on the right flank seems to be trying to draw attention to the enemy about to roll up the line !!) 

(from the rear - with the gear - a view of the shieldwall from the supply ships)

A great day out ... and a surprisingly elevated result.  Well done everyone!

Mercian DBA Results

SoA UK DBA League

WMMS next ... then more DBA at Triples

Why not join the Society of Ancients ... ? 

DBA Special: Anglo Saxons and some baggage.

 

DBA III 24 617 - 700 AD Middle Anglo-Saxon ... Wb Gen + 1xWb; 8x Sp; 1xCv; 1xPs.

I generally post some army profile pictures shortly after the DBA Open.   Although I went with the Gepids at the Open, I used these Angles at Eastern Front and against Ian the other day.  They are mostly Spear with a general and fanatical bodyguard rated as Warband.  This can be a lethal unit in an infantry fight but is very brittle in front of Knights (who'd want to be Anglo-Saxon if there's a Norman army at large?)

8 x Spears; Warband General; 1 x Warband: the Anglo line of battle ...

Figures are New Era Donnington, Gladiator, Essex and Chariot (about evenly matched) with one or two Museum, Tabletop, Two Dragons, Lurkio, A Touller, Outpost, Lancashire and Thistle & Rose mixed in for variety.  Not a bad collection for a 12 element army!

The general and personal retinue: the general's element and splendid standard are all New Era Donnington, the Warband are (L to R) Touller, Gladiator and Two Dragons.

I think the ranges mix well together.  I was particularly concerned that I'd not get away with the Two Dragons figures (which I pretty much bought by mistake) but they just about fit in.

I used 3 figures on the Warband element to make it more obvious alongside the Spears.  The general's element is obvious enough - but as usual I have clipped the back corners off.

 A Cavalry and a Psiloi ... are the eyes, ears, legs and wellies for the army ...

Chariot cavalry, the Psiloi being an Essex and a Gladiator ...

Camp Follower and Barker Marker ...

The Camp Follower is a Donnington model painted as some sort of indigenous painted warrior ('Woad Kill' as the English say ... and the Marker has an obvious mythical significance - the figures beside the rock are a super little vignette, I believe, by Thistle & Rose) ...

I have used my Longship Baggage with this army.   It has seen service right around the Medieval world over the years!

Baggage

Just to complete this 'eye-candy' post, I'd like to share some pictures of two recent baggage projects.

Gothic/Gepid Wagon Laager camp

This is just tidying up the Gladiator Miniatures wagon circle I have been using for some time.  I have put them on size-compliant base, and added a removable Camp Follower (the CF is that splendid little vignette from Essex) .. the left over wagons are available as singles to but up to these when I use the baggage for other games.

Roman Warship camp

 

This is the baggage for my coming Marian Roman army.  It will oppose the Spartacus Slave Revolt army, so plays to the 'who's bought up all the ships?' narrative ...

It is that old Heller model loaded with Irregular Miniatures barrels.  I have put a 10mm figure on the ship, a 15mm youth in the water and 15mm figures on the detachable CF element to try to scale some depth into the vignette.  I am pretty pleased with the resulting illusion.

The base is half MDF, half clear acrylic, and the ship has been pulled up onto the beach.   The shields are scavenged from surplus Chariot Miniatures figures to match the Chariot Romans I have picked for the army, and the other baggage bits are Baueda.

The Marine is Chariot and the wealthy Roman, I think, Steve Barber ...

(viewed from seabord - all pictures enlarge if clicked on ...)

October 2012 Northamptonshire

Championship battles and local wargames

ARMATI
Of course, I'm sure I don't need to point out the irony in my post header ... as Will and I do battle using his collection of original Minifigs (strip) 15mm figures depicting armies of Late Bronze Age ...

We had agreed to play 2 back-to-back championship games with the same armies just swapping sides.   I understand Will had had a similar pair of games with Championship Organiser Barnsdale just previously.

Suffice to say that whilst the visitors lost the first pairing, I exacted revenge in the second.

(both armies Minifigs 15mm originally painted by Anthony Clipsom from Will Whyler's collection)

The first game was something of a smash and grab raid.  Will had over extended the somewhat more brittle Egyptian army, allowing me to make an attack with my right wing that had every chance to destroying the enemy before all his force could be brought to bear (Armati trans: the Egyptians were BP4, the Hittites BP5 ... from deployment, it was clear that the Egyptians had committed 4 BPs worth of key units on that flank, and without undue risk, I thought I could mount a pretty hefty attack on them without putting (all) five BPs of mine at risk.   As the Egyptians have many more bows in the army - and thus 'outshoot' me, I felt I needed to do this before the arrow storm took its toll) ...

(the marker indicates that the big bow block had 'reserve' status, ready to wheel as required)

Game Two was going to be a challenge ... I now took the Egyptians, which we had proved were the more brittle, and I had demonstrated that they could be taken out with a vigorous attack.   The sandal would now be on the other foot ...

I was determined to get the bow armed foot into play, and set up ready to range them in on where I expected the heart of the enemy force to be.    Meanwhile, varying my tactics, I set up a strong skirmishing force to soften up the Hittite wing on my right before any chariot clash could tangle me up.

(the Egyptian infantry - of whom I had great expectations ...)

On the left, I set up with an uncommitted division of chariots, correctly guessing that there might be some empty desert out there - and planning to ride around the open flank (general trans: we were using deployment screens, so some divination is required when setting up ... however, if there is some open space and you have troops able to respond to it, there can be tactical advantages that emerge).

(the chariot division with the green 'complex move' marker on it is Hittite and has just wiped out the end of the Egyptian infantry line - an enterprise from which they will not return: both units are now trapped as the Egyptian outflankers (top of picture) close in)

This game played pretty much to my script.  Nevertheless, with a lower Army Break Point, the Egyptians were always on the brink of sliding to defeat with every die roll.

The Hittite key units on the 'soften with skirmishers' wing were destroyed, and the two units caught in the flank trap made five.   The Egyptians, though rocking, were only two down, so the battle was won.  

The old warriors had fought well.   The vintage Minifigs didn't do too badly either!

DBA
A few days later, I put out a choice of Eastern Front armies for what I expected to be a couple of DBA games against Ian.   Actually, I had one of my very rare 'long' games ... which we played to a natural conclusion (we were level at 4:4, but Ian eventually won 5 [incl Gen]: 4).

(Sub Roman British: Gladiator and Peter Pig figures with the odd Essex and Chariot mixed in)

Ian chose the Sub Roman British - so I, somewhat rashly, chose, as their natural enemies, some near contemporary Middle Anglo-Saxons.   I say 'rashly' as these early English are somewhat embarrassed for cavalry, and the British Knight General looks fearsome indeed.

(several boat-loads of Angles, but just a single element with any horse power)

Some near centrally placed marshland meant Ian split his force into a 'spear' anvil and a flank raiding 'mounted' hammer.   His plan was to make me either break up my force so he could crush me with the Spears, or turn my flank should I try to keep together.

(seen from the British side)

Actually, I managed to foil the flank raiders and get them into a tangle in the tight corners between the wood, the marsh and the battlefield edge.

(seen from my side)

Although that had put me ahead, it did leave me slightly undergunned against the infantry unless/until I could get all the troops back in line.   Of course they are mostly infantry and the game was DBA - so that's a big ask.

The good news and the bad news with the Middle Anglo-Saxons is the Warband General and supporting element.  A very good chance of destroying Spearmen, but I could see Ian hovering behind the line with his Knight General.

(the crucial melee, general to general)

The inevitable could not be avoided: I had to put the general into combat to maintain the line.  He destroyed his opponents and followed up into the vulnerable gap ... and the British general then charged in and made the 'quick kill'.

Although I was still ahead at that point (so losing my general did not end the game) I could not get enough Pips to limp over the line and the rampaging British were able to mop the game up.   Appropriately, of course, this Dark Age confrontation was really settled by the two commanders in personal hand-to-hand combat - and you can't argue with that.

A very interesting game - and not the quick bash I was expecting.  We'll play the second game on another occasion.

It'll be Field of Glory before then, for me, however - at the Northern Doubles League ...

See the Society of Ancients at Warfare ...

Why not join in the Championship (it's just ancient warriors like us lot!): Society of Ancients Wargames Championship