Waelstowe – solo wargaming in the Dark Ages

Edwin’s men were now under great pressure from Sigurd who was spurred on to greater violence when news reached him that Halfdane and Harald had been felled.

Asbjorn then rushed upon Alfred and King Horek who were about to finish off the wounded Halfdane and Harald Klak

This is where things started to go wrong for Alfred, King Horek and the men of Wessex.  Their Victory Cards had been Onslaught (get into the opponent’s half) and Blood (felling more of the enemy Heroes).  I hadn’t thought it possible to take out Halfdane in one phase and had put in Onslaught without making any attempt to achieve it, counting on achieving the Blood goal in the second phase.  

So Alfred’s men were Demoralized at the start of the second Phase and King Horek then decided to flee – he’d clearly seen enough.  I then put the Focus Cards into the deck in such a way that Wulfhere would act first on my side and would act three times before my other Heroes Alred and Edwin.  I was hoping Wulfhere could take out Asbjorn before Asbjorn finished off Alfred.  My hopes bore no fruit.  Wulfhere couldn’t shake off the wounds he’d received fighting Halfdane and so could only order his men forward, rather than leading them.  

Although the Viking Shieldwall broke at least once, they reformed and broke Alfred’s shieldwall and drove off his Thegn. 

Over on Alfred’s right, Sigurd was pushing back Edwin’s men.  His Focus card gave him the decision to make about Reform or Charging (the right column is used if Sigurd starts his Focus adjacent to my forces).   

Fortunately for Edwin, Sigurd’s Shieldwall was broken so Sigurd chose to Reform.  It didn’t help.  Sigurd was the Focus again and now in Shieldwall, he charged and drove off all of Edwin’s men before himself cutting down Edwin.

By this time Edwin had been felled by Sigurd and then Alllfred, wounded, left the field to enemy.

That was how, King Harald Klak became King of Denmark, even though all know that Halfdane is his master, like Halfdane is the master of King Egbert of Northumbria.

Where to begin O prince?

‘Twas the year of Our Lord, 873 and the pagans had been punishing us for our sins for many a year.  Chief instrument of God’s punishment was Halfdane Ragnarsson.  In the last few years he had ravaged Northumbria burning the fair city of York to the ground and put his lackey, that Judas Egbert, on the throne.

In the spring of 873, King Horek fled to the court of my lord, King Alfred, having been driven from Denmark by Halfdane.  Whilst my lord had no love for such a pagan as King Horek from whose lands so many had sailed to plunder our land, he did take pity on him and gave him shelter.  It was I, O Prince that started to instruct him in the Truth that might save the poor man’s soul.  But it was not long before storm clouds appeared, and Halfdane along with a vile heathen called Harald Klak arrived with a great host at the borders of Wessex demanding that Alfred hand over King Horek. My lord refused and summoned Wulfhere and Edwin to his aid.  I went with the great host of Englishmen to the woods where Halfdane and Horek were encamped.  

This is what happened on that fateful day in Eastertide, 873.

Alfred was on our left, Wulfhere in the centre at a small hamlet and Edwin on the hills on our right.  Opposing us were Halfdane and Harald Klak in the centre, in a wood.  On Halfdane’s left was Asbjorn, on Halfdane’s right his brother Sigurd Snake Eyes.

Then Halfdane, Harald Klak, and their men burst from the trees and rushed upon us. In that charge I saw Halfdane’s hirdmen lag behind, scattered from their fellows in the wood. Yet neither Halfdane nor Harald faltered, but strode straight into Wulfhere’s shieldwall.

Halfdane was wounded from an earlier adventure, when he seized Hildisvini, the Boar’s Helm, from a troll in Sweden. When his card was drawn and he became the Focus of the tale, he had to choose: heal his wound or rally the warriors disordered as they left the wood. I decided, on his behalf, that he would heal.

His next action was to cry, “Follow me!” Yet only his bondir obeyed. The hirdmen, still out of formation, stayed at the wood’s edge.

The Event card, as ever, showed Harald Klak wading in beside Halfdane and between them they inflicted many hits on Wulfhere’s men, and Wulfhere himself was wounded (marked by a shield). You can also clearly see the Divine Aid—Devotion (marked by Undead Warriors)—granted to the English.

The English then fell upon Halfdane and Harald from left and right.  Edwin came down from the hill and attacked.

My King, Alfred, lead his men straight at Halfdane as well with King Horek beside him, eager to attack those that had driven him from Denmark.  

Halfdane and Harald Klak were beset from all sides

The rest of the Heathen army was still way behind.

Sigurd Snake Eyes, Halfdane’s brother then decided to act, attacking Edwin’s men that had come down from the hill.

After decades of wargaming, it dawned on me how much time movement of figures takes.

I also became fed up with the impact that precise positioning makes; in particular the way that this affects the types of battlefields that I wargamed on, but also how the battlefield looked after a few turns – the position of figures and units just didn’t ‘look right’.

So I started to ‘experiment’ with gridded battlefields.  But it had to ‘look right’.  Then it dawned on me that clump foliage, rocks, single trees etc. could be used to create an aesthetically pleasing gridded battlefield.

Waelstowe is a rules lite game I’ve been creating and modifying for a while now.  It is card driven, with the cards showing which Hero activates (is the Focus of the Story) and what actions he can do.  In the case of Non Player Armies, it has an ordered list of actions, and the human player (me?) works his way down the list choosing which are the most appropriate.

The game is chiefly about Heroes and the whole idea of keeping it rules-lite is to basically use the game as the ‘engine’ for creating stories – the cards and rules throw up the skeleton of a play, which I flesh out.  To help me get in the spirit of things, I invariably have some very early Gregorian chant playing in the background and some ale in my hand.

And that’s were it all went wrong for the Anglians. Wifrith’s men baulked at attacking this mad Welsh knight, so Wifrith himself rushed in, twice. Wilfrith lost contact with his Kinsmen and found himself alone against Hyffaid. Hyffaid, although injured by Wilfrith, managed to fell Wilfrith. At this point a large number of the Anglians ran off and the Welsh secured an unlikely victory.

It was also the end of Edmund the Elder, he’d lost his claim to Anglia.  So I decided to start with another main Hero.

Edmund then gets into a series of wars with the resurgent Welsh, lead by Hyffaid of Dyfed. God forsakes the Anglians and Edmund is captured and has to accepts Hyffaid as his overlord, losing claim to all but Anglia. Edmund rebels and drives out those Anglians that had thrown in their lot with the Welsh. Hyffaid responds quickly and corners Edmund at a small market town on the River Stour

I was the Antagonist (defender if you will) in a solo game against the south Welsh of Hyffaid. I’d lost a couple of solo games already against the Welsh, so I thought even harder about this one. I spotted the way the terrain had been set up and saw my opportunity. If I moved Edwin behind the woods, the Welsh were bound to advanced towards me and their formations break up as they entered the woods. Thus weakened I could send Wilfrith, Edmund’s right hand man to smash the disorganised Welsh.

Alfred the younger was slain in battle and Wessex descended into chaos. Edmund of Anglia, who has sheltered with the kings of Wessex fled to his homeland. Here he gather the demoralised Anglian nobles who had endured years of misrule. After driving out those who opposed him, Edmund gathered an army to drive Halfdane out of East Mercia.