The Dark Ages Campaign - Mercia 798AD pre-battle set up

The real situation between Wessex and Mercia in 798AD was that in the post Offa period it was not a foregone conclusion that the Mercian hegemony was going to fall apart.  The Danes were not yet a major risk and the new Mercian King Coenwulf saw his job as re-asserting Mercian rights and privileges over their sub kingdoms to the South and east.  It seems that Mercian policy was to control all the English kingdoms South of the Humber and Mersey and to keep Northumbria weak.  Seen in that light their actions in the first few years after Offa's death make perfect sense.  In the real late 8th/early 9th century it was Mercia which acted as the aggressor against Wessex, East Anglia, Essex and Kent.  This was generally successful in that Kent, East Anglia and Essex seem to have fallen back into client state relationships , certainly they stopped issuing their own currencies and a Mercian was placed onto the Kentish throne.  In our real timeline the Ealdorman of the Hwicce fought and lost a battle against the Fyrd of the Wiltsaetan not a million miles away from our fictional clash.  Other than that there seems to have been a political settlement between Mercia and Wessex partially cemented by dynastic intermarriages, Beorhtric may even have been a Mercian appointed and supported king.

Which brings us nicely back to the campaign action in our alternative timeline. The clash is at a ford on the River Coln close by the small village of Wudiandum which is centred around a small monastery.  The Mercians are being run by the DBA solo rules with a few amendments made on the fly to cover the larger nature of this action.  The dice have determined that the Mercians shall deploy as far forwards as possible and with their three divisions as near to the centre of their deployment area as possible while still holding to a single battle line.  Their tactical choice is a neutral one for the centre and their right with the left being more defensive.  This will impact on the turn by turn options as the game is played out.  

The Mercian line up has their left held by Wrocensaetan and Hendrica with 9 elements.  The Centre is held by the Hwicce with 19 Elements and the right by the Maegonsaetan and Tomsaetan with 12 elements.  King Coenwulf is in the centre of the Hwiccan line with his Hearth Troop.

The Mercian Host

Facing them across the Coln are, in the centre, King Beorhtric and his Hearth Troop along with the men of Wilsaetan and Sumersaetan adding a further 19 elements to his command.  To his left are the men of Bearruc Scir and Dorsaete with 13 elements and to his left the men of Hamptonscir with 10 elements.

The West Saxon line of battle

The West Saxon line of battle above shows the labels I had to add so I can track losses by province.  The sharp eyed will note that I am having to use proxies as I just don't have enough Anglo-Saxon spears.  Even if Baccus had been able to stay open throughout the coronavirus epidemic I doubt I would have had the required numbers to hand as I wasn't expecting such a large action so early in the campaign!

This has the makings of a slugfest as there is little scope for tactical subtlety with these armies and neither side has a significant advantage in either troop numbers or types.  The numbers mean neither side will be easy to crack and there is little scope for turning flanks

The day dawned clear and it was midmorning when the two sides sighted each other.  There was a short exchange that almost counted as negotiation, almost but not quite.  Mercia demanded Wessex returned to its previous fealty claiming it had agreed to acknowledge Mercian over lordship.  Wessex countered by stating that agreement was personal to Offa and died with him and as the new ruler of Mercia had no link to the house of Offa they felt no need to submit. The Mercians called the West Saxons rogues and plunderers come to loot what they thought to be defenceless lands, the West Saxons looked disdainful and pointed out that the Mercians were only a little better than the Welsh they lived so close to and should know all about theft and plunder and that was the end of any attempt at a peaceful settlement.  God shall have to decide the right now!.