The Dark Ages Campaign - 798 AD a few additional rules and a battle

Things are moving along nicely and so far the mechanisms seem to be creating a narrative and a set of decision points that are not always those I would have tried for if I had an entirely free hand.  As each turn spans a 5 year period I have divided the activations in the order that they fell across the 5 years.  As the number of states left falls the number of activations will reduce as each state is drawn at random so as states become extinct then the number of activations will reduce, so I may have to find a different mechanism for spreading events over the turn's timeframe.

We now move on to the year of 798 AD with Strathclyde seeking to restrict the expansion and influence of Pictia by attacking Menteith.

The Strathclyde Welsh are led by their King Riderch II so as to be able to maximise the troops available.  He has raised the men of all three regions of Strathclyde for this expedition. The Picts are led by the Mormaer of Menteith backed up the Mormaers of Fib and strath Erin.  Both sides will form as a single command.  Where the king leads an extra element is added to the army to represent the King and his household troops.  The type will be chosen from the troop type available for any other general of that nationality.

By the way, I have decided that multiple combat commands will be used (each with their own Pip dice) as follows:

0-18 elements - one command
19- 30 elements - two commands
31 - 42 elements - three commands
43 or more elements - four commands

I will probably use the DBM or DBMM rules on dice allocation between Commands.  I'll worry about it if it happens.

The two armies are:

Strathclyde (Player Army)
General 1 x Cv (King Riderch)
5 x Cv (Including the 3 regional leaders Comitatenses)
9 x Sp
2 x Ps

17 elements - Break point 6

NB I have no idea what the actual equivalent title to Ealderman or Mormaer in Strathclyde was so I went with something vaguely Romano-British and will be calling them 'Dux'.

Pictia (AI controlled Army)
General 1 x Cv (Mormaer of Menteith)
2 x Cv (the other two Mormaer's household troops)
3 x LH
8 x 3Pk
3 x Ps

17 Elements - Break point 6

Terrain - Arable
The Picts have three gentle hills and a hamlet to place on the table.  I didn't use the random terrain selection rules from solo DBA amendments, instead I looked for the terrain that seemed most likley to assist an army with pike armed infantry.  Gentle hills are good going which Pike like as they can have the supporting rear rank bonus plus a second bonus if uphill.  Of course none of that is of much use if it falls badly!

Battle report in the next post.