Here's the battlefield:
Yellow = an open field
Blue = sea
There was probably some other terrain, but none of it came into effect so I didn't really notice it. The battlefield is set with the Vikings perspective from the bottom, and the Scottish Rebels perspective from the top.
After landing from our longships we sent two units of allied cavalry off to the eastern flank and one unit of cavalry stayed by the coast. The (flawed) idea being to use the cavarly to deal with his skirmishers.
The army then deployed with two units of Huscarls side by side next to the cavalry on the coast. Three units of Freemen to the east of the Huscarls followed by a final unit of Huscarls. Our archers screened the cavalry on the coast.
The enemy deployed with a unit of spearmen on the coast screened by a unit of lighthorse. Two units of Thegns east of the Spearmen. 3 or 4 further units of Spearmen ready to occupy the rough terrain, and lastly more spearmen screened by skirmishers in the fields to the far east.
Phase 1 of the Battle:
Pretty much a non-event with some moderately ineffectual skirmisher shooting and feint charges by the cavarly to east and west while the centre moved against the Scots who occupied the terrain and refused with the Thegns.
Phase 2 of the Battle:
An impetuous charge by the cavalry on the east resulted in disaster with the spearmen winning the conflict and eventually pursuing into the flank of the huscarls just before the first unit of Thegns charged. A disaster in the making. Fortunately, the second unit of huscarls made quick work of the second unit of Thegns and pursued out of range of the bad combat on that flank.
In the centre the vikings realised that they had to attack into the rough terrain to force a win if at all possible.
Very quickly (and to everyone's surprise) the Scottish centre collapsed. This was aided by a unit of Scottish Light horse bursting through and disrupting one of the spearmen in the rough terrain and the general commanding a second unit dying in the impact phase. So, in quick order 2 units of Viking spearmen and the eastern Huscarls cleared the rough terrain of everything scottish.
Phase 3 of the Battle:
In the east, the Scottish skirmishers finally found the mark with their shooting and caused the French cavalry to withdraw in poor order. One of the units of Scottish spearmen advanced toward the flank of the Huscarls in the east. Unforunately the spearmen didn't manage to charge the Huscarls until after the Huscarls frontal opponents broke. This gave an advantage in two ways. Firstly, the Scotish spearmen went disrupted from seeing their friends break and additionally when the Scots finally DID charge the Huscarls were not fighting in two directions. So, it was disrupted Huscarls (for being charged in the flank) vs disrupted Spearmen, and unfortunately for the spearmen they saw the worse of this combat.
Things started to look up for the Vikings. The entire centre of the battlefield was theirs.
On the western flank the Scottish lighthorse managed to shoot up the Viking light archers causing them to break and one unit and on the east one unit of Franks were shot up to the point of breaking. This put the Vikings dangerously close to breaking with nobody really easily able to be caught.
The battle ended with the Viking camp being sacked by the Scottish lighthorse causing the Viking army to break.
The final phase of the battle seemed to take about 3 or 4 turns to get through. Mostly it was shooting and the Vikings trying in vain to catch the slippery Scot lights.
At the end of the battle the Scots had one unit of Thegns and one unit of Spearmen alive, but the skrimishers were pretty much un-touched which gave them enough resiliance to hang on.
It would have easily been the Vikings day had they been able to catch anyone, but as it turns out they couldn't.
A well played game by Keith.
Ian