Meanwhile back in the Dark Ages - Mercia 798AD

Its been a while since I last returned to the Dark Ages campaign. It's the downside of a solo campaign, my opponent tends not to pester me if I side-line things for a while!  In case you had forgotten the last post was >here<.  Wessex was feeling feisty and the Witan approved a plan to to test Mercian resolve by attacking Hwicce, a Mercian province across the Thames from Wilsaetan.  King Beorhtric considered that Mercia would be in flux following the death of Offa and that they would struggle to gather a large force to defend against his incursion.  He was wrong.  A few miles beyond the Thames he finds himself facing a significant Mercian army commanded by this years Mercian King Coenwulf (they tend to change quite rapidly post Offa, I blame the Danes).  This is a significant moment  as its the first time two Kings have faced each other across the battlefield in this campaign.  Both have brought a significant amount pf their manpower to bear and a serious defeat here will have a significant effect on troop numbers along the Thames Valley and for the Mercians the Welsh Borders for the next few years.

The forces are will be drawn up on the new "Acme Table Topper of Tactical Ineptitude" (TM pending) aka my new wargames table in 4 x 4 configuration.  The game is being played on a larger than normal area as the armies are BBDBA sized and "I have a table and I'm gonna use it" mode has been engaged.  The layout was experimental and didn't use the DBA terrain rules as I wanted the table’s first run out to look pretty!  The fields are just cosmetic and have no terrain effect the only 'true' terrain consists of a village, two hills (one gentle and one steep), the river, two woods and an area of boggy ground.  The village buildings are all from 2D6 miniatures and everything else is scratch built.

The Battlefield

Wessex has brought the men of Wilsaetan, Bearruc Scir, Hamptun Scir, Dorsaete and Sumersaetan almost their entire strength is here.  Facing them are men from Hwicce, Maegonsaetan, Tomsaetan, Wrocensaetan and Hendrica.  Which may make more sense if you check out the campaign master map at  https://elenderilsblog.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-dark-ages-campaign-some-background.html 

I will be using the Solo DBA amendments to run the Mercians, so tonight's job is to determine their deployment and tactical stance.  The West Saxons are already deployed in three bodies which is done before seeing the AI controlled force so as not to gain any unfair advantage.  I'm calling the other side the  AI but it is all done on dice and charts although it's not impossible that the dice may well be tactically smarter than I am.

More in a short while.