Slitherine

I did a play test this morning in HotSeat with The Dark Ages Mod (Alt Gameplay Mod) Anglo-Saxons v Vikings 9thC using Very Small armies and battlefield . . .



This is the deployment for the Anglo-Saxons. The command radius for all generals is 4 squares so you can get a maximum "in command" shield wall battle line of 9 units across. Given that the Anglo-Saxon army is 14 units altogether (2 hirdsmen, 2 Select Fyrd, 2 General Fyrd), there is a bit of a dilemma. To try and fight with a more extended battle line than 9 units means that some units on the flanks will be "out of command" and will not be as efficient; so the alternative is to buy an extra general and give up one of the Select Fyrd units. With a second general general, the Anglo-Saxons could deploy a longer line, or create a separate flanking force. I decided to stick with just the C-in-C and deploy in depth with the General Fyrd units starting behind the shield wall.

This one shows the 2 battle lines approaching each other. The Vikings have also not purchased any extra generals, but one of their huscarls has gone missing, presumably to be part of a mysterious flanking force (which I did not want to happen in this test). The Anglo-Saxon army has 3 more units, basically because the General Fyrd units are cheaper than the Viking standard Bondi units. Note that skirmishers and berserkers are not depicted as separate units in this mod. Huscarls and hirdsmen may mount up at the start but both chose not to. In the screenshot the Viking army is shifting its reserves towards the flanks to guard against being outflanked by the bigger army.


And this shows the two shield wall battlelines meeting. The Vikings had halted to run down the clock a bit on the flanking force turning up. The Anglo-Saxons pressed on into contact, even though they had a slight terrain advantage a turn previously, because they wanted to reduce the chance of the flanking force having an impact.

First blood to the Anglo-Saxons! The Bondi unit next to Viking general has "disrupted" on impact and weakened the Viking shield wall. Units either side of this "disrupted" unit will lose POA and CT bonuses next turn.


The advantage of having some units held in reserve is that they can take advantage of disruption in the enemy formation. Here an Anglo-Saxon General Fyrd contingent (the unit that was behind the C-in-C) is sent forward to join the shield wall, raising the possibility of getting a 2v1 combat in a subsequent turn. These are very powerful in the mod as there is no automatic cohesion drop for a flank attack, only a rear attack.

Erm, the flanking force has arrived . . .


Oh no, it hasn't . . .


And it never did! Whether it is the mod causing this, or a bug, I couldn't say, but the errant huscarl unit never appeared at any point.

Undeterred by the wayward huscarl unit the Viking army makes progress on both flanks where the Anglo-Saxon General Fyrd units are no match for the Bondi units, particularly the one that has Berserkers with it . . .

But the Vikings are not getting everything their own way as 2 more elements of their shield wall are "disrupted" and forced back leaving their C-in-C increasingly isolated. This disruption accelerates once units start to fall below 75% in strength and they lose -1 in CT checks. Very realistic, I feel.

However, the Vikings maintain their steady progress against the Saxon right flank causing it to collapse in a cascading rout . . .

The collapse of the Saxon flank is total and the Vikings are victorious (they didn't need the other huscarl unit after all!).

Just one screenshot for Schweetness101 to do with "adjacency" POA's . . .


Ignore the melee on the end with the disrupted unit, but then look at the 2 diagonally "adjacent" yellow units actually crossing over with 2 diagonally "adjacent" blue units. It is illogical to give them both POA bonuses for adjacency.

For Schweetness101

Screenshot 1

These units are moving diagonally across the map. They should not get the shield wall bonus as there is actually space between them and other units can pass through these gaps.


Screenshot 2

These units are also moving diagonally across the map. They should get the shield wall bonus as there are no gaps, but I imagine this would be very difficult to code and cause some anomalies elsewhere. Therefore they should not get the shield wall bonus in the mod either.


Screenshots 3 and 4 (one in next post)

These units should get the shield wall bonus as friendly units are adjacent and there are no gaps.

Screenshot 4

Another play test today and I have quite a few screenshots so I can go into some detail about what I think is happening, or might happen with some further tweaks. I am using the smallest armies on the smallest battlefield.

The first screenshot shows the Anglo-Saxon army in the deployment phase. The main things to notice are that they have just one general and his command radius is 4 squares so the battle line is 9 units across. The highlighted unit is the Select Fyrd and you will see it has a javelin bonus in brackets. Skirmishers are not depicted separately in this shield wall part of the mod but are added as a small +20 POA bonus (at the moment). This is to represent the initial volley of missiles that might have been thrown just before contact and during lulls in the melee itself. You can also see that the Anglo-Saxons have 3x hirdsmen units and one of them is deployed on the left flank rather than in the centre. The idea is that these hirdsmen may be able to match up against Viking bondi on the Viking right and disrupt their line. The risk is that they have weakened their centre to do this. The units in the second line are mostly Anglo-Saxon levies, the weakest troop type in the Anglo-Saxon army.


This second screenshot shows the Viking deployment (I played this in HotSeat). They have also gone for one commander but have concentrated their huscarls in the centre, with one huscarl unit in the second line hoping to benefit from any push backs achieved by the huscarls in front of it. The bondi unit on the extreme right flank of the Viking line has a +50 POA berserker bonus. Berserkers are also not represented as a separate unit in the mod as it seems they were most likely deployed right across the battle line in front of the bondi. The mod gives the possibility of purchasing a bondi with beserkers unit for a few more extra points to represent a great concentration of berserkers in a particular part of the battle line.


And the third screenshot shows the two battle lines approaching each other. Even though neither army has a terrain feature to anchor at least one of their flanks on, there is no advantage to spreading out and trying to get an overlap because of "out of command" radius penalties. It make much more sense to deply extra soldiers behind the main battle line.

This screenshot shows the first set back for the Anglo-Saxons on the right of their line. One unit of Select Fyrd falls back after contact with a Viking bondi unit.


Here you can see that one Anglo-Saxon unit has not moved into contact with its Viking opponent. This is because it is a Select Fyrd unit and the Viking unit facing it a huscarl unit. So delaying contact for one turn might give a bit more chance for other Anglo-Saxon units to take an advantage somewhere else in the battle line and may slightly delay any problems for this rather outclassed unit. Remember the Anglo-Saxons deliberately weakened their cetre to have more counterplay on their left flank.


The Anglo-Saxon general unit has a fairly dreadful impact phase result, but passes the CT check and stands firm. If you look at the calculation you can see the unit gets a +1 bonus for "Both Flanks Secured", which is the new shield wall bonus kicking in.


For Schweetness101 - you can see that I can still move my general to a second unit here even though the leader has already been in one impact fight this turn.

Here you can see an indecisive melee between a Viking bondi unit and a Select Fyrd unit. Notice in the Combat Log that the the bondi unit gets a +40 POA "Adjacency" bonus (really the shield wall bonus of +20 POA for each flank) while the Anglo-Saxon unit fighting it only gets +20 POA because the unit next to it has been pushed back in the previous impact phase.


The unoccupied Viking bondi unit at the end of the line decides to stay in formation and engage the Anglo-Saxon unit to its diagonal right, rather than move forward where it might be engaged by 2 Anglo-Saxon units next turn. Even though this means it has to turn 45 degrees to fight it will still retain its shield wall bonus next turn. The Vikings have decided to move the huscarl unit that was in reserve in the centre over to the right flank in case the Anglo-Saxon hirdsmen there start to make progress.


The right flank of the Anglo-Saxon army looks secure at the moment with two levy units in reserve.

The Viking bondi unit that decided to stay in formation rather than advance is pushed back after a melee round!


On the other flank, the Viking huscarl unit has now moved across in time to protect the bondi with berserkers unit that has surprisingly been pushed back.


But then another Viking bondi unit on that flank is "disrupted" and pushed back by the Anglo-Saxon hirdsmen who have been specifically deployed there to gain an advantage. But notice in the centre that the outclassed Anglo-Saxon Select Fyrd unit that is fighting the huscarls has been disrupted.

Here the Select Fyrd unit that was behind the battle line can move up and get a 2v1 against the bondi unit that is directly in front of the Viking huscarl unit moving across to support that flank. The Anglo-Saxon attack here is going well and the Viking shield wall is giving way. But will the Anglo-Saxon centre be able to hold with a disrupted unit already?


Disaster!! The Anglo-Saxon commander has been killed!!


A further disruption on the Anglo-Saxon right. Things are suddenly looking very bleak. But the score is still 0-0.

Immediately, the loss of the commander has an impact on the cohesion of the Anglo-Saxon army. Refused Orders!!


A view right along the battle line. The Anglo-Saxons have made limited progress on both flanks, but their centre is in danger of collapsing. The decision of the Vikings to centralise their huscarls is paying off.


One small ray of hope for the Anglo-Saxons on the left where they hoped from the start to break the Viking line. A Viking bondi units rout and they lead 9-0.

It is starting to look grim now for the Anglo-Saxons as their shield wall disintegrates and they have no commander to help with rallies.


You can see here from the Anglo-Saxon side how broken up their position is. The hirdsmen in the centre are now on their last legs.


Just one area of relative success has been on the Anglo-Saxon left, where they have managed to encircle the every end of the Viking line. There is no automatic cohesion drop for flank attacks in the mod but they still get a hefty +POA bonus. Unfortunately for them, the Viking huscarls, who are still relatively fresh having been deployed in the second line at the start, hold comfortably.

The end. The Anglo-Saxons are mostly running, apart from a small cluster on their left flank. These would be doomed too if the battle continued. 67-28 to the Vikings.


The Viking plan of a solid centre won the day, whereas the Anglo-Saxon idea to try and wreck a Viking flank had some success, but was not decisive.

Any comments?

This mod needs to be updated to be compatible with the current build of FOG2; the current version crashes the game when run.

Regards,

Karvon