Maserfeld 641 is now available in MP!

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Design notes for Maserfeld

"Oswald, the most Christian king of the Northumbrians, reigned nine years, including that year which is to be held accursed for the brutal impiety of the king of the Britons, and the apostasy of the English kings; for, as was said above, it is agreed by the unanimous consent of all, that the names of the apostates should be erased from the catalogue of the Christian kings, and no date ascribed to their reign. After which period, Oswald was killed in a great battle, by the same pagan nation and pagan king of the Mercians, who had slain his predecessor Edwin, at a place called in the English tongue Maserfield, in the thirty-eighth year of his age, on the fifth day of the month of August."
from Bede Ecclesiastical History Book 3 Chapter 9

The precise location and terrain for the battlefield is unknown but it is thought likely that it took place near present day Oswestry, which was then probably in the territory of the Welsh kingdom of Powys. There is an ancient hill fort there, that later became incorporated into Wats's Dyke, and I have chosen to depict it as occupied by the Powys army at the start of the battle.

If these assumptions are correct then it means that Oswald and his Northumbrian army were invaders. Wikipedia gives the size of the armies as 1,000 Northumbrians against 1,200 Powys and 2,000 Mercians, although I am not sure where these figures are from. Given the disparity in size of the two armies I have used “historical licence” to portray the battle as a Northumbrian assault on the Welsh hill fort with the large Mercian force coming to relieve their Powys allies. I feel that is unlikely that Oswald would have engaged such a numerical superior force in open battle unless there had been some element of surprise involved.

Penda's brother, Eowa, is depicted here as being part of the Northumbrian army as historians think there was a power struggle between him and Penda for the Mercian crown.

Maserfeld = “marshy field”

Bibliography
Battles of the Dark Ages, Peter Marren, 2006.
Britain and the End of the Roman Empire, Ken Dark, 2000.
In Search of the Dark Ages, Michael Wood, 1981.
Viking Britain, Thomas Williams, 2017.
Warfare and Society in the Barbarian West, Guy Halsall, 2003.

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Updated version now available. The Welsh army has been strengthened a little bit while their Mercian allies have been reduced in size to compensate. The earthworks the Welsh are defending at the start are also made a bit more difficult to assault.