With the 1066 Stamford Bridge and Hastings games, published by Revolution Games, having gone out of print, Legion Games have become interested in doing a re-print, but they want ‘the other’ battle of 1066, Gate Fulford covering. Fellow designer Geoff Noble, who is also designing a strategic 1066 game for Legion Games, has stepped up to the plate and has created the third battle, using the same core rules.

As we get everything ready for submission to Legion Games, I am running through repeat plays of both Stamford Bridge and Hastings to make sure that everything is tight and that ambiguity is mitigated.

Today, Hastings takes its turn going onto the table.

Compared to the hack ‘n slash affair of Stamford Bridge, Hastings is much more of a slow grind, but when collapse comes, it can be quite catastrophic. 

With design, I have always felt that the player should be put in the emotional hot seat of the real commanders, so Harold will typically be sticking to the good defensive position of the ridge and hoping for nightfall and to hold out ……. ‘for one just more turn’ and the player should feel that pressure. 

William will be hugely frustrated by the lack of progress and likewise, as darkness looms, he will typically be sensing that ‘just one more turn’ should crack this line.  But who will be the first to push the other over the edge? Can the Shieldwall hold for ‘one more turn’? Will the Normans be so battered that Harold counter-attacks and sweeps down of the hill to finish off William’s army? Or will Harold’s casualties lead to collapse of his army?

There is a little bit of scripting going on here for the Norman army, as they are encouraged to open with arrows, followed by the infantry assault and only then use their cavalry to attempt to break the stalemate. Harold’s army is encouraged to just stay on that ridge, get the defence benefit of that slope and try to keep the front rank as ordered as possible …. even when that means using the less able soldiers from the rear ranks to fill the losses along the front.

We are using the historical scenario and so starting on game turn 3 (earlier start times examine alternative openings to the battle in ‘what if’ type scenarios).

Turn 3 - The opening turn begins a sequence of occurrences that give a strong narrative and through their escalation of effect, has the Anglo-Saxon player a little concerned from the outset.

The Norman archers open the game, but get a row of extreme results. This sees four of their archer contingents leave the game for ‘going out of arrows’, while also securing two disorder results on the shieldwall.

This disorder is immediately exploited by the Norman infantry following up to contact those weak points. The Anglo-Saxon line get a one-off opportunity to throw axes, stones and sharp pointy things, down onto the assailing enemy and this seems the best time to use it. They manage to disorder one attacker.

Then a shock, with two sixes being consecutively rolled, Norman infantry destroy two housecarl units and have to comply with mandatory advance after combat. The Saxon line is penetrated and with this early Norman success - has the tone of the battle been set?

Turn 4 - A total of three housecarl units have now left the game and the lesser armed fyrd in the second line are advancing to fill the gaps. Harold is uneasy.

Turn 5 - As housecarl casualties increase (5) more fyrd are drawn into front line positions. I don’t think I can recall a game of things going so badly so quickly for Harold.

Turn 6 - Oh No! Leofwine (Saxon) has attacked the Franco-Flemish (Norman allies) on the Saxon left, pushing into their line - but this is the only part of the battlefield where Norman archers are still active and they disorder the housecarl and kill Loefwine, causing two Saxon fyrd to suddenly rout ….. Harold’s left wing is collapsing!

Turn 7 - In desperation Harold leads a counter-attack to pretty successfully re-establish control on the ridge, but at high cost! The Saxon wings are crumbling and units have started to rout.

Turn 8 - Having regained the ridge, rather than consolidating with a reinvigorated shield wall, his men come off the ridge, breaking into Norman positions. For a moment, the Normans are stunned, with a couple of their contingents routing.

Turn 9 - Both sides are now brittle and tired. The battle starts to break up into knots of contingents from both sides, hacking and slashing at each other. Again Harold enters the fray, carving his way towards William’s position. This all looks like it could go either way.

Turn 10 - The inevitable clash between William and Harold sees Harold’s bodyguard of housecarl fight to the last man and Harold escaping to the safety of nearby fyrd.

Turn 11 - Harold suddenly found himself in the most exposed part of the battlefield, the collapsed left flank, being surrounded and overwhelmed by enemy foot and mounted troops. He fought to the bitter end, but to no avail, he died with his troops.

With one of army commanders dead, that brings a ‘sudden death’ end to the game. The scene looked so chaotic and all groups had suffered enough loss that now routs brought about by casualties were becoming pretty much automatic, that I thought I would just get a general impression of what victory points the side would have scored had it not been for the loss of Harold.

On paper, it was a pretty convincing win for the Normans at 91 points to 58.

Looking back, the seeds were clearly sown for this victory on turn 1, a situation that the Saxons should have been able to recover from, but they only need to lose four housecarl units before routs might start …. If you get a bit unlucky on the dice, and they did!

Even so, there wasn’t too much room for the Normans to get over complacent as that major Saxon counter-attack brought both Norman wings close to widespread rout - the attack just wasn’t sustainable. 

In this game if the big men (Harold and William) start to risk themselves in the fighting, then you know that side has problems. Overall a good outing for less than a couple of hours play.

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(Boardgame) - As part of the proof reading of rules for the Legion Games edition of the 1066 games (that will include the additional battle of Gate Fulford), Geoff Noble and myself are further play testing the three games.

Today I am putting Stamford Bridge on the table. Compared to the slow grind affair of Hastings, Stamford Bridge is pure hack ‘n slash. There is a brutality to the action in this game and casualties build at an alarming rate. Who will be the first to push the other over the edge!

To reflect the time that it took Harold to clear the west bank of the River Derwent and form up on the other side to face the Viking army, there are some initial movement restrictions to the Anglo-Saxon army. There is also an optional rule to swap out some of the Housecarls for mounted Housecarls, which do get to move early, though I am not compelled by Snori Sturluson’s (writing in 13th Century) suggestion that Harold deployed cavalry and so today, everyone is fighting on foot.

Turn 1 - Viking archers start moving out intending to extend the flanks.

Turn 2 - Anglo-Saxon archers follow suit. The front line of Saxon Housecarls hold their centre back, while moving out on the two flanks to engage the Viking shieldwall. In the system, the fighting value of the frontline Hirdmenn troops are unknown to either side, they are flipped face down, representing that some of them have left their armour back on their ships …. but which ones!

I don’t think that I have ever witnessed such bad die rolling, with four out of the six attacks rolling 1’s (very bad for the attacker). The Vikings take full advantage of the situation and counter attack on the flanks. The Saxons just about hold, but an archer unit on the left goes ‘out of arrows’ and all three archer units on the right are swept away!

Turn 3 - The Saxons stabilise the line and on their right, Waltheof leads a counter-attack, rescuing the flank. One Saxon Housecarl unit breaks into the shieldwall, but is contained and removed from play, forcing a moral check on those adjacent Saxon units. Harold has already lost 4 units, a D6 is added to that number, only a result of 6 (to make 10) can cause a local rout ….. a 6 is rolled! The first routers of the game are two Housecarl units. The Housecarl desperately need the Fyrd to move up and fill the gaps in the line.

Turn 4 - The hack ‘n slash starts and both sides take heavy losses and gaps open and individual units drive into the flanks of others. Gyrth, fighting on the Saxon left is taken by surprise in the flank and dies, causing more local routing.

Turn 5 - The Orri reinforcement (Viking) enters the battlefield. This is the part of the Viking army that had been left behind, 10 miles away, with their ships. They have run all the way to the battlefield and arrive pretty much exhausted. It will take a couple of turns for them to contact the Saxons, who are being forced to fall back towards the strategic bridge crossing on the River Derwent.

Waltheof dies fighting on the Saxon right. I am seeing 7 Saxon units with rout counters on them fleeing ….. that tells its own tale of where this battle may be going!

Turn 6 - Things are so serious that Harold takes his bodyguard of Housecarls and attack in the centre. Tostig (Harold’s brother, but ally of the Vikings) takes this moment to attack Harold. His bodyguard fight to the last, but Harold escapes to another nearby Housecarl unit.

Both lines now have gaps and a Housecarl unit sees an opportunity to slip through the enemy line and strike at Hardrada (Viking King), who carelessly has stood away from friendly units, the King falls! (As happened historically, when notably the Vikings fought on). 

Turn 7 - (system rule - from turn 7 onwards, due to sheer exhaustion, any of the Orri Reinforcement that disorder or rout, cannot recover to good order). The Saxons fall back, but a determined Tostig again attacks Harold, but Harold holds the line.

(System rule - once per game, the Orri Reinforcement can call ‘Berserker Rage’, when all of their good ordered Hirdmenn get a +1 in attack. This is to represent what became known as Orri’s Storm, when the reinforcement attacked with such ferocity that the Saxons came close to collapse). The Vikings use this turn to make those attacks. Of course some of the Hirdmenn themselves become disordered and under the exhaustion rule those units will not be able to recover and so lose their offensive capability.

Turn 8 - As the Saxons fall back, Harold is assailed by both Tostig and Orri, each with their bodies of men, but with a charmed life he escapes back and joins a band of Fyrd.

Turn 9 - A decision needs to be made, should Harold personally counter-attack the now exposed Tostig? No … for Harold to advance and give up his present position, would expose the bridge to Viking attack..

Again Tostig and Orri launch an assault on Harold’s position and again Harold holds, though Tostig dies, his unit routs as does Orri’s contingent ….. amazing! I thought Harold after his run of good luck had just about had it!

Turn 10 (final turn) - The Vikings continue to press, but their momentum has been lost and the Saxons are able to hold their line - the bridge crossing and Saxon line of retreat is secure.

It was pretty obvious during play, that despite Harold’s heroic example, the Anglo-Saxons were getting the worst of it and they found it pretty difficult to recover from those initial heavy losses on their opening attack and the Viking counter response. Totting up the victory points confirmed it, a clear Viking Win (non-historical).

With Harold still alive, the Vikings might well assume that at some point Harold will return with a new army ….. but what wasn’t know by either side was that in just a few days time, William of Normandy would invade the south coast and Harold would be needed to deal with that emergency (Hastings).

Well that was a thoroughly enjoyable game, enhanced by quite a lot of leader involvement, from which the dice gods could quite easily have seen the end of either Harold or Orri. As it was, the two Saxon commanders Gyrth and Waltheof died, together with King Hardrada.

Commanders enhance a units chance of recovering from disorder / rout, so their loss will see more persistent disorder as well as their own +1 combat modifier being lost.

It can be quite counter intuitive to attack when you are are your knees, but taking opportunities of inflicting casualties on an enemy that may be exposed is the only path to victory. 

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