The battle of Billington Moor 798AD - The scenario

Following on from my post 'Do I do any actual wargaming' I mentioned re fighting Billington Moor to the MNGers and they seem interested.  Phil has 15mm DBA troops including Anglo-Saxons and Pre-Feudal Scots so we may be able to do something in 15mm rather than in 6mm.  Which means I now need to look into the numbers and make up of the forces with a view to having a couple of commands a side.  So big battle DBA (BBDBA) is looking favourite for this one.  The rules are DBA 3.0

Rather than getting too hung up on numbers I have decided to focus on the number of elements required and then amend the battlefield layout to suit.  Using BBDBA would normally give 36 elements drawn from the DBA lists with min-max numbers multiplied by three.  Each side is then divided into three commands of no less than 6 elements.  While DBA doesn't stipulate a maximum size for any of the command a bit of basic math tells me that it cant be larger than 24 elements and that this is probably going to be an issue for PIP allocations if a 24 element command is chosen. For this refight I am creating modified army lists to reflect the slightly different compositions of the two sides but sticking with the overall number of elements.

These lists are:

Middle Anglo-Saxon (Alderman Wada's Rebels)

• 2 x Generals (4Bd) one representing Wada as CinC
• 1 x General (Sp)
• 2 x Hird (4Bd)
• 1 x Fyrd (Sp) in effect a third poorer quality Hird unit
• 24 x Fyrd (Sp) or (7Hd) For each 2 x Sp selected 1 x 7Hd must be selected
• 3 x Archers or Scouts Ps or Fyrd (Sp)
• 3 x Archers or Scouts (Ps)
• 3 camps which can be massed together at one point (or the village may be considered the joint camp)

Middle Anglo-Saxons (King Eardwulf's Royal Army)

• 3 x Generals (4Bd) the King, Alderman Eardbehrt (Herbert). Herbert's son
• 6 x Hird (4Bd)
• 21 x Fyrd (Sp)
• 3 x Fyrd (7Hd)
• 3 x Scouts (Ps)
• 3 x camps which must be placed one per command (the king's camp counts as a double loss if captured)

As an aside I am currently having serious problems on my PC with posting photos between windows and blogger.  It seems to be an issue with memory overflow but I can't seem to get to the bottom of it.  The second I click the insert button on the blog the PC crashes and I find myself looking at the dreaded blue screen of death!  All pictures posted over the last half a dozen posts have been shipped out to my smartphone posted to the blog from there before I  return to the PC to ensure they are exactly  where I want them.  It isn't really an issue when its a photo as those are generally on my smartphone anyway.  Where it does become an issue is where I have created a map in a graphics program as that won't easily transfer to the phone.  Thus it was with the map for Billington Moor!

Scenic Ribblesdale.  The top of the map is North.  The village is 'Old Langho'  Billington is roughly south of there.

It would be probably accurate to add some scrubby woods in a thin band along the banks of the head waters of the streams as a scenic item but I wouldn't give any terrain effect to them.  The banks of the Ribble and Calder were probably not wooded.  At least not in this location.

The map is divided up into one foot squares.  The idea is that the defender is able to choose which 3' by 3' area to fight over by choosing the nine adjacent squares which will make up the battlefield.  No matter which area is chosen Wada's troops are the defenders and will deploy on the east side and Eardwulf will be the attacker and deploy on the west.  The Rivers Ribble and Calder are tested for passability separately to each other.  The standard DBA check is amended so that it is only paltry on a throw of 1, a 2, 3 or 4 makes it slow going and 5 or 6 makes it a slow crossing with effects as per DBA 3.0.  all other streams are 50:50 chance to be either paltry or slow going (DBA scores of 1-4 with no chance of the worst result of a 5-6 arising) The Roman road counts as a track (its not been properly re-surfaced since the late 4th Century after all).  The solid green is a steep hill and the green dotted areas are boggy ground.

If any one plays this out under DBA or any other rules I'd be interested in your feedback.