Danelaw

[kronenblatt]

Danelaw - England, 865 AD

"I am Uhtred, son of Uhtred, and this is the tale of a blood feud. It is a tale of how I will take from my enemy what the law says is mine. And it is the tale of a woman and of her father, a king. He was my king and all that I have I owe to him. The food that I eat, the hall where I live, and the swords of my men, all came from Alfred, my king, who hated me." (from The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell)

The starting point is Britain in the mid-ninth century AD, divided into four rivalling Anglo-Saxon kingdoms with petty Briton remnant kingdoms in the west. Soon though that will change, with the "Great Heathen Army" arriving on British soil along the eastern shores, intent on conquering and occupying all of the Anglo-Saxon lands and reap their riches.

This AAR will use Schweetness101's Dark Ages Britain Mod with battles played by me in single-player, i.e., versus the AI. It will also use the Danelaw hop on-hop off tournament rules, albeit adapted to a single-player format (e.g., no mirror match). Should someone like to play the opponent sometimes, it could of course be interesting. Playing single-player with this mod is still more challenging, due to the potential anarchy charges and charge refusals which make it more difficult to plan and 'game' the AI.

Which faction attacking which, and whether I'm playing the attacker or the defender will all be randomly generated. In addition, force selection will be automated. Difficulty will start at III (Legate), to be increased by 1 if winning a decisive victory (i.e., -25 or less) and/or if winning twice in a row and be correspondingly decreased by 1 if losing decisively and/or twice in a row.

I'll play for as long as I'm entertained and enjoying it, taking breaks when I feel like it, and closing it down when the time is right or I'm constantly bored.

[kronenblatt]

Factions and Map

• There are in all nine factions (color coded on the map).
  • Vikings
    1. Norse-Irish
    2. Danes
  • Britons
    3. Scots
    4. Welsh
    5. Cornish
  • Anglo-Saxons
    6. Kingdom of Wessex
    7. Kingdom of Northumbria
    8. Kingdom of East Anglia
    9. Kingdom of Mercia

• The map covers a major part of mainland Britain, divided into 17 regions, with the situation at start as follows.

Attacks

• The Anglo-Saxon factions are all considered separate kingdoms.

• Even though factions belong to the same group, they are necessarily on the same side but may attack each other, e.g., Wessex against East Anglia and Norse-Irish against Danes.

• Once a non-Viking faction controls no regions, it is irrevocably eliminated and will not reappear in this tournament.

• Viking factions may always make attempts at gaining regions through landfall attacks.
  • Danes can make landfall attacks upon the regions of Bernicia, Deira, Lindsey, East Anglia, and Essex.
  • Norse-Irish can make landfall attacks upon the regions of Strathclyde, Elmet, Gwynned, Dyfed, and Dumnonia.

• If the same faction is both attacker and defender, a civil war takes place within that faction.
  • The battle must then be concluded with a decisive victory for either attacker or defender, in order for some of the faction's regions to not be lost to other factions.

Battles

• Scenario: Dark Ages Britain v1.6.

• Custom Battle.

• Scenario: Open Battle.

• Armies: as set out below, in "Armies and allies".

• Turn limit: 24 turns.

• Force size: Large (1600 FP for AI, with player's FP depending on difficulty setting).

• Map size: Wide (40x32).

• Map type: North European Agricultural.

Armies and allies

Main armies

• Danes: Vikings .

• Norse-Irish: Norse-Irish.

• Anglo-Saxons: Late Anglo-Saxons (note: without Mountable Fyrd).

• Scots: Early Scots.

• Welsh: Welsh.

• Cornish: Brythons.

Allies

• Norse-Irish and the Briton factions do not use allies.

• The Anglo-Saxon factions will use allies as follows:
  • Kingdom of Wessex: Brythons as allies.
  • Kingdom of Northumbria: Early Scots as allies.
  • Kingdom of East Anglia: no allies.
  • Kingdom of Mercia: Welsh as allies.

• Danes will use certain allies if they are attacking from or defending in the following regions:
  • Bernicia or Strathclyde: Early Scots or Later Picts as allies.
  • Elmet: Early Scots as allies.
  • Dyfed, Gwynned, West Anglia or Hwicce: Welsh as allies.
  • Dumnonia or Wessex: Brythons as allies.

Effects of battle outcome

• The side routing the enemy is considered the victor of the battle, and the routed side correspondingly considered the loser of that battle.
  • If the difference in casualties is 25% or higher, the victory is decisive, and otherwise narrow.

• If neither side routs the enemy, neither side is considered victor or loser for that battle and the battle is considered a draw.

• If the attacker's faction is the overall victor, it gain control over the defender's region.

• If the defender's faction is the overall victor, it gains control over the attacker's region (unless a landfall attack).

• In the case of a civil war, one side must win a decisive victory for the faction not to lose any regions to neighbouring factions, as follows:
  • If there is a draw, half of the civil war faction's regions (rounded upwards to nearest integer) are lost.
  • If there is a narrow victory, one third of the civil war faction's regions (rounded upwards to nearest integer) are lost.
  • Only neighbouring Viking or Anglo-Saxon factions (if any) can gain regions, and if there are none, no regions are redistributed.
  • Lost regions are distributed one by one (in alphabetical order) to the neighbouring Viking or Anglo-Saxon faction with the fewest regions at such point in time.

The Dark Ages Britain Mod

The short list of important things to keep in mind though are the following:

• Anarchy and refusal charge: Units have a chance to anarchy charge (i.e., charge at its own initiative) and refuse charge now based on various conditions.

• Shieldwalls: Certain unit types (offensive/defensive spearmen, armoured heavy weapon, armoured impact foot) get an adjacency bonus to POA and CT checks, and defense against 90 degree flank attacks, if in shieldwall (adjacent to units of a similar type, see the mod page for a detailed description of this with pictures).

• Rebalancing: Some unit capabilities/POAs are rebalanced around anarchy, shield wall and other rules changes, including edits to warband Deep Impact, Light Spear (inf and cav), Lancers and Heavy Weapon.

• Limited ammo: Ranged units can run out of ammo (5 full and 5 half effect shots) but can also melee a bit more.

• Bows: Bow units, both Light Archers and Bowmen, can shoot over adjacent, same height, allied non-light infantry units that are not in combat.

• No free generals: All generals (aside from the C-in-C) must be purchased.

• Generals: Generals can move one square while in combat.

• Rally requires command: Units can only rally while in command.

• Combat speed resolution: Non-light infantry combat is somewhat slowed down, and cavalry melee is sped up.

• Cavalry fallback: Cavalry can fall back further.

• Cavalry ZoC loss: Cavalry enable loss of secondary ZoC of non-light infantry that they charge (even if falling back after charge).

• Shorter LoS: Decreased line of sight by half, i.e., to 10 tiles (from 20 in vanilla).

• Less disordering: Heavy Foot are only slightly disordered in rough terrain.

[kronenblatt]

Danes make a landfall attack upon Mercia (Lindsey), with me as Attacker.

This then means Vikings (1600 FP) versus Late Anglo-Saxons with Welsh allies (1600 FP) on North-European Agricultural.

Automatic force selection provided me with no additional generals (hope just a coincidence), while the Mercians got (or rather purchased) three. Starting situation as follows.

[kronenblatt]

A brutal battle ensued, where Vikings with its smaller numbers (3200 versus 4100 men) and no cavalry got outflanked and the situation looked grim but they managed to keep flanks somewhat intact while crushing the Anglo-Saxon centre. The Anglo-Saxon cavalry made no difference, just trying (but often refusing) to charge.

In the end, Vikings won 63-51 and conquered Lindsey.

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With the Vikings conquering Lindsey.

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The Danes again make a landfall attack, this time upon Northumbria (Deira), again with me as Attacker. Still Legate (III) difficulty.

This then means Vikings (1600 FP) versus Late Anglo-Saxons with Early Scots as allies (1600 FP) on North-European Agricultural.

To be continued another day...

[kronenblatt]

The Vikings were much more successful and methodological this time around, keeping their shieldwall and making good use of the terrain. The victory was set to 46-8 with the Vikings conquering Deira as well. And due to the two wins in a row for me, the difficulty is increased to IV for next game. (Although it seems that no generals are picked for me in the autoselection.)

[kronenblatt]

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In the last battle of 865 AD, the Norse-Irish (inspired by their eastern cousins) make a landfall attack upon Cornish (Dumnonia), with me as Defender this time. Governor (IV) difficulty.

This then means Norse-Irish (1600 FP) versus Brythons (1360 FP) on North-European Agricultural.

To be continued another day...

[kronenblatt]

The AI Norse-Irish (1600 FP) defeated my Brythons (1360 FP) 60-50, resulting in Dumnonia becoming Norse-Irish.

The Norse-Irish numbers proved overwhelming, and not even the (not so?) cleverly hidden Brythonic cavalry could make any difference, pinned down as it was on our right flank by 'simple' medium foot.

So one loss at Governor difficulty. One more and I'm back at the original difficulty.

[kronenblatt]

[kronenblatt]

Rumours abound over the war mongering of the Norsemen...

... Will they be the ones to attack? And if so, then which realm will be attacked?

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It turns out in fact that internal Anglo-Saxon rivalry sparks the first battle!

Wessex makes an attack from South Anglia upon Mercia's Middle Anglia, with me as Defender.

This then means Wessex' Late Anglo-Saxons with Brython allies (1600 FP) versus Mercia's Late Anglo-Saxons with Welsh allies (1600 FP) on North European Plain.

This time no AI but instead Schweetness101 will play the aggressor, hence, 1600 FP on each side. And it will be done in the new v1.7 of the mod, trying it out at the same time.

[kronenblatt]

The defending Mercians in the upper right and the Wessex aggressor in the lower left.

[kronenblatt]

Schweetness101's attacking Wessex army defeated my Mercian defenders 51-19 and thus gained Middle Anglia. Wessex is expanding, apparently on its way of uniting the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms into one, at least in the south.

It was a battle where Mercia couldn't make use of its cavalry and skirmisher superiority and where Wessex simply outflanked the Mercian left. Once rolled over, the centre fell apart too.

Many thanks to Schweetness101 for this game! Plus it means that version 1.7 of the mod works well.

[kronenblatt]

[kronenblatt]

Wessex continues its aggressive stance and now makes an attack upon Norse-Irish Dumnonia from the region of Wessex.

This then means Wessex' Late Anglo-Saxons with Brython allies versus Norse-Irish without allies on North European Plain (40x32).

If anyone is inclined to take one side of this battle, step forward. Otherwise, I'll do it against the AI.