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!.

Random Thoughts #9 - Tee totally and totally tea

 It has been a funny old year and it doesn't show any intention of changing.  Who knew that a health crisis would develop so rapidly and have such wide ranging impacts.  My main outdoor hobby historical re-enacting simply hasn't happened this season and because I have an underlying health problem I haven't been into the office since late February either.  As a result my social interactions have been limited, to put it mildly.  No wargaming shows, no Monday Night Gaming (on a Tuesday), no friends around to the house, no going away for re-enactment weekends and worst of all (or possibly best of all) no booze.  I'm not a big drinker (for a given value of big) it's not like I'm down the pub every night, or even most nights, but I do like a social pint when there is an event to go to, like a gig or a folk night and I do like to go to the beer tent on Sealed Knot weekends to catch up with old friends.  However part of the underlying health problem means I was prescribed new medication and I positively, definitely cannot consume alcohol while on this stuff!

Here's the really weird thing though I haven't missed the demon drink.  I tried some of the alcohol free alternatives and although some are actually very good indeed (I'm looking at you Heineken 0% Lager), but it turns out that I'd rather have a cup of tea.  It seems that I don't miss the booze so much as the company that goes with having a few drinks.  

At the start of lockdown I started to put weight on, like many others, but with the lack of alcohol and going on a low carb diet (which is made easier without the sugar content of Rum n Coke) I have in the last two weeks regained my pre lockdown weight.  All I have to do next is get rid of the rest of what I had put on over the last decade, which turns out to be rather more than I like to admit (cough...two stones...cough).  It would be easier if I was allowed to go to the gym (really, I'm not lying) or do vigorous exercise (I'm really not meant to) so I just have to rely on will power to get the pounds off.  But at least I don't have to worry about post pub munchies anymore.  It turns out that sugar is more addictive than booze!

Hello My Name is Elenderil and I'm a chocoholic!

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.

Making a wargames board part 3 Snagging and finishing.

I got side tracked from finishing the board off last week and only got back to it this weekend just gone.  I drilled the frames through on the long edges and bolted them together to ensure everything lined up and fitted snugly together.  This is one of those jobs where measure twice cut (or in this case drill) once is very much the thing.  It would have been easier if I had remembered to place all of the screws which hold the frame to the MDF table top the same distances apart.  What saved me was that I used 50mm deep battens and 20 mm long screws so that even allowing for 5mm as the depth of the counter sinks into the table top the screws only reach 25mm down into the batten.  That meant that I still had 25mm of the frame to drill into.  Live and learn as they say.

Framing all done.  Centre line battens are to help stabilise the end sections if they hang over the end of the banquet table a bit. 

Bolts help the sections butt up tight but mainly are there to stop sections moving apart in use.

I have bought 6mm diameter bolts with 50mm length.  So I drilled 8mm holes to give a bit of leeway. but I didn't really have any problems as the holes all lined up and the sections bolted together fine.  I do have some snags to deal with.  One section doesn't butt up as closely as I want.  This is either the batten not set square to the top so the bottom of the batten is leant outwards a little or the drill hole having to be tidied up a bit, but either way the application of a wood plane will sort the issue.

Some of the filler I used to hide the screw heads has shrunk and I need to add a second layer but that is a simple job to do before I apply the second coat of the green paint to the table top and paint the edging strip.  One more weekend's work should be sufficient to see it all done.  The only outstanding question is should I leave the table top the single shade of green or try to break it up a little?  I'm open to ideas here.

I haven't got it to the point of  gaming on it yet but while I was trying out the 6' x 4' combination I did deploy some 2mm ACW figures.  This was to give me a visual on the Altar of Freedom First Manassas scenario comment on this being a very large table for the small number of troops deployed, but it recreates the issues of command and control on the day.  I set up all the forces in the game's order of battle for First Manassas and it is clear that there is a lot of ground for them to cover.  Next step on that particular project will be to make the specific terrain called for to replicate the main features on the battlefield.  Some of my existing terrain can be used but there are some items I don't have or don't have enough of for the scenario.

You can see how lost the troops for 1st Manassas are on a 6 x 4 table

At the moment I have some Brigade models ACW small scale scenery buildings on the painting table.  These are slightly smaller than the figures and still wildly larger than ground scale but they work well enough in use.  I'm making some additional river sections especially for the scenario, first up are the numerous fords that allow crossings of Bull Run, then some additional hills.  More on those in coming posts.

Random Thoughts #8 - Anticipation isn't what I hoped it would be

The offending article, or should that be tempting?

Mrs E has been the sole shopper during the coronavirus lockdown period as I have tried to avoid contact with the general populace.  She is of the opinion that this is due not so much caused by social distancing as by anti-social tendencies!  So, not having been within the mystic portals of our local Tesco supermarket for some month's you can imagine my surprise when she brought home hot cross buns, in August!

Now I'm not complaining about being the recipient of nice toasted hot cross bun at all, I like a hot cross bun in it's season. Having them available all year round did make me wonder about the nature of anticipation though.  Once upon a time a hot cross bun was a seasonal delicacy available and enjoyed in the month or so before Easter and then gone for the rest of the year.  There was a delicious anticipation in knowing that the season of cinnamony and fruited goodness was about to dawn.  That is now denied to us but were they the better for being a limited availability treat or is a year around taste of springtime a welcome bonus and anticipation can go hang?

Anticipation or no, I will be eating these all year around, just don't get me started on adding chocolate chips in place of the fruit.  Biting into one those abominations when expecting fruit and spice and getting what is a sort of second rate chocolate brioche really does ruin the anticipation! 

Making a wargaming board part 2

The MDF boards have all been framed which took the warpage out a treat.  Edging has been added to provide a small lip above the table surface to  prevent things like dice getting knocked off the table.  All the edges butt up nice and tight.  So far so good.  Next comes the painting of the surface.

Although I intend to use a cloth much of the time a coat of paint does two things, firstly it seals the MDF, which if I'd thought to do in the first place would probably prevented the warping.  Secondly it provides a base colour in case a cloth doesn't cover everything or I just want to get troops on a table with the minimum of setting up fuss.  So it was off the B&Q for some green paint, but which shade of green?

Green is a tricky colour to get right.  As its the predominant colour in our natural environment our eyes have evolved to distinguish really subtle differences in green's tone and shade. I settled on a shade made by Valspar called 'Absinthe Dreams' which is one of those shades that the store mixes for customers on the spot.  It's a good match for a generic grass green.  Now comes the bad news; its paint so it is all one shade, 'cos paint's like that.  Real world ground cover isn't all one shade, cos the real world is like that and the two don't really match up.  Having a table top all one shade of green simply doesn't look right.  It needs breaking up which I suppose is why many people use flock over terrain boards.

Look at the variation in shades of green in this photo of Cumbria from the BBC

The problem is made worse by the helicopter general effect.  By that I mean that when we look at our game tables we are looking down as if we were hovering over the battlefield.  We see what pretends to be a large chunk of landscape from a long distance (based on the scale of the terrain) which means we expect to see variation in the vegetation, pretty much as shown above.  Now my board looks like this after one coat of paint.

I have created a board of purest green, but it's not much like the photo above is it? 

I'm going to give it a second coat and then put it up as a three section 6' x 4' board and try out the look with some scatter terrain before I start trying to break up the green.  There are still a couple of things to do.  In no particular order I need to paint the sides which I will probably do in a pale grey and I need to drill holes through the frame to allow the sections to be bolted together.  I will probably do that tomorrow.

By the way Chez Elenderil doesn't normally look as messy as it does in the above photo!  This is the scene at the end of week four of building work to convert what was originally an outside toilet and a store room into a shower room. The rooms now open into the conservatory rather than the garden and for the last month the builders have been cutting and sawing, plastering, digging up concrete floors , drilling through brick walls and other Bob the builder style stuff, all of which makes dust and mess.  And that is my excuse, honest.

Making a wargaming board

In 50 some years of gaming I have played games on the floor, on various domestic tables but only once have I had a bespoke gaming board,   It was awful and I'm not just saying that, look for yourself.!

After the contours came off - ugh that green...just ugh!

I built a set of contoured  boards to create a 3D table for Bussaco (my only serious attempt to get onto Napoleonic's)back in 2007.  I ultimately only used a part of the full four part board and I only used that the once.  As a result four 2' x 4' MDF boards have sat unused in a succession of garages and sheds for over a decade.  I stripped the polystyrene ceiling tile hills off the boards and last weekend I started work on the gaming board.  I have two 6' folding banquet tables that I bought about 5 years ago for gaming use, which will be the supporting structure for the new table.  I intend to lay the boards over these for games so all I need to do is create the table top.  The plan is for everything to pack down into a small space when not in use.  The four boards will slot together and of course folding banquet tables fold up.

Here is how I did it, and trust me If I can do this anyone can do it.  It helps to have the right tools but it doesn't require a huge amount of skill.  On the subject of tools I used an electric drill, an electric screwdriver, some clamps, a mitre saw and block and one of those trigger gun applicators for the tube of glue plus an adjustable try square and a tape measure.  So not beyond the average home toolkit I don't think.

The MDF boards were pretty badly warped so I needed to use timber battens to pull them back into shape.  Fortunately I have a builder doing some work in the house at the moment and he kindly cut the battens to length with his chop saw which saved me a job.  If you want to avoid this most Do It Yourself stores will cut any  timber you are buying from them. I didn't bother mitring the joints at the corners of the boards.  Simple butt joints are fine for the frame.  I used 1" x 2" timber for this and glued the battens in place with 'No More Nails' one batten at a time.  I clamped them in place and them drilled pilot holes and screwed the battens into place (Screw and glue as us experienced woodworkers call it 😜) 

You can see the warping in this shot of a clamped batten

I remembered to countersunk the screwheads to keep them below the finished table top.  Lastly I used timber architrave to create a lip around the side of the table top.  If I use rubber mats under my drop cloth that will stop it sliding off the edge..  I have done that around three sides of the first board, I will be doing the same around the short ends of the next two and again around three sides of the last board.  That way I can alter the length of the board to create a 4' x 4' up to a 8' x 4' playing area as required.  Altar of Freedom only needs a 6' x 4' at most but as I had the extra MDF board why not go for it.

I filled the counter sinks with filler once the battens were screwed down and the glue dry

You can see how the boards butt together in the photo above.  I need to drill holes through the frames where they butt together so I can bolt the individual boards together.

Mrs E was very impressed that I was doing DIY especially as I was using grown up power tools and no trips to A&E were required.  She was less impressed that it wasn't anything she thinks of as being useful like a shelf!

Look I still have all my fingers!

I have a one litre can of a nice leaf green acrylic emulsion I got mixed for me at B&Q which I will paint the table top in.  The previous horrid mint green is safely hidden as the underside of the new boards.  To finish I need to find some of the builder's insulation foam that doesn't have plasterboard glued to it for use as formers for hills and make some more canopy woods (a lot of canopy woods) and I'm all set.