My eldest nephew asked to play a battle of Hastings game so in record time we put away the Napoleonic game and set up appropriate terrain and laid out the armies. I put together the troops based on an infantry unit roughly being 800 - 1000 strong as standard, getting my figures from the Osprey Campaign series book. I checked quickly with the Hail Caesar army list 2 to ensure I had it balanced, which it roughly was.
For this game I did not worry about number of figures in a unit because my base sizes vary quite a bit having amassed my collection over time buying from many different sources. I instead focused on ensuring everyone had the right size frontage, a nice mechanism in the Hail Caesar rules.
The forces were as follows.
Normans
Duke William - command rating 8 (2d6 in combat)
1 x Norman Knight cavalry - standard size, ferocious charge
1 x Norman Retainer cavalry - standard size
4 x Norman heavy infantry - standard size
2 x archers - small unit, skirmishers
Eustace of Bolougne and William FitzOzbourne - Command rating 8 (1d6 in combat)
1 x Franco-Flemish Knight cavalry - small size
1 x Franco-Flemish Heavy infantry - small size
1 x archers - small unit, skirmishers
Alan Rufus - Command rating 8 (1d6 in combat)
1 x Breton Knight cavalry - standard size
1 x Breton Heavy infantry - large size
1 x archers - small unit, skirmishers
Anglo-Saxons
Harold Godwinsson - Command rating 8 (2d6 in combat)
1 x Huscarl - standard size, elite, stubborn, valiant
1 x Thegn - standard size
2 x Ceorl - standard size
1 x archers - small size, skirmishers
Gyrth Godwinsson - Command rating 8 (1d6 in combat)
2 x Thegn - standard size
2 x Ceorl - standard size
1 x Javelin men - small size, skirmishers
Leofwine Godwinsson - Command rating 8 (1d6 in combat)
2 x Thegn - standard size
2 x Ceorl - standard size
1 x Javelin men - small size, skirmishers
1 x archers - small size, skirmishers
The Game
Duke William set up as per history with his Normans in the centre, Bretons on the left and the Franco-Flemish on the right.
The Anglo Saxons |
The Normans |
The Norman right to left |
The Franco Flemish |
The Anglo Saxons on Senlac Hill |
Gyrth's men bottom, Harold middle, Leofwine top. |
Gyrth and hornblower. 2 old Citadel figures, now sold by Foundry. |
Leofwine raising his shield. An Citadel figure with axe and Leofwine is a Foundry figure. o |
Not surprisingly Harold opted to defend Senlac hill and with rude gestures towards William taunting him to come and have a go if he thought he was hard enough.
Leofwine's flank |
Close up of Leofwine's troops |
The Bretons led the way failing their command roll and staying still. Next the Franco Flemings advanced skirmishers to the fore, then finally William led the centre forward. His knights charged forward ahead of everyone else masking his skirmishers from shooting at Harold. This didn't stop the other skirmisher units who managed to disorder and cause casualties on the Gyrth's left wing Thegns.
Bretons nearest the furthest board edge. Leofwine's Ceorls turn to extend the flank. |
Scampering skirmishers |
Harold and Leofwine's troops look towards the distant Bretons and the oncoming Normans led by William himself. |
First blood. Gyrth's Thegns are disordered by William's archers. |
The Franco Flemish keep pace with William's troops. |
The Norman battle line at the beginning of move 2. |
Breton's not keeping pace |
Battlefield over view beginning of move 2. |
Close up of the Bretons. |
Battlefield from the left on move 2. |
Breton eye view of Leofwine's skirmishers. |
Duke William in red cloak. Not necessarily historical, well neither are the Anglo Saxon leaders, but he has a mace and can be easily spotted. |
William's troops |
The battle line just before Leofwine's Ceorls follow up there victory to stay in contact with the Breton knights |
Unhappy Breton knights on the right. |
Gyrth has turned a unit to flank to ward off the Franco Flemish, but now have their flank uncovered by the broken Thegns on the extreme left of the main Anglo Saxon battle line. |
Disordered Franco Flemish knights bottom middle of picture. |
The retainers fight on alone |
Gyrth's and Harold's joint charge should have rolled over the Norman retainer cavalry but they held. Duke William was still rolling bad command dice leaving the retainers fighting on there own. By now Leofwines Ceorls had over reached them selves, failing to charge home and then were charged by the Bretons. The Ceorls broke. The Anglo Saxon flanks had lost a unit a piece, with 2 routes needed on each flank to secure victory for Duke William. At this point the Bretons had lost their knights and skirmishers leaving only their infantry fighting. I'd decide that since the rule was more than 50% broken and I'd created a division with 2 units in it that this was allowed. The main Norman division and Franco Flemings had yet to engage, with most of the damage being caused by their skirmishers.
Battlefield overview. The Huscarls are disordered as marked by the white cotton wool. |
Same view but wider showing the Franco Flemish on the left flank of the Anglo Saxons. |
Leofwine's Ceorls fighting as Thegns fail to charge home and are charged in turn by the Bretons. |
William's knights supported by 2 infantry units wait for the right time to charge home. Right time being dice related. |
The first big melee. Both sides have a shaken unit marked with black cotton wool. |
Another view showing how the Anglo Saxons have curled their line. |
The retainers are pushed back disordered with their supports. |
Battlefield over view. You can see the Breton infantry moving the protect against the expected wheel of the Anglo Saxon battle line. |
Harold began his move with the Huscarls to charging the Norman battle line but with only one move barely edged off the ridge. Leofwine supported this move with one of his Thegn units joining the new battle line formed by the Huscarls. The rest of Leofwine's troops advanced on the the Breton infantry who held Williams right. The Bretons had till now escaped ranged fire due to poor Anglo Saxon command rolls to move in to range, and both sides taking each others skirmishers out in melee. If they can be broken with Williams division then the day is Harold's.The Bretons charge Leofwine's Thegns.
The Bretons broke. Harold needed to break 1 more Norman unit to win. William needed to break 1 more of Harolds division or 2 of Leofwine's for victory. Bad command dice and the rest of the Normans fail to move. The Franco Flemish can now clear Gyrth's shattered troops to again threaten the flank. The boys are fighting this to a knifes edge.
Harold charged in to the Norman infantry with Leofwine supporting with one of his Thegn units and Harold himself moved to the head of his Huscarls to finish this battle once and for all. Leofwines units that had advanced towards the Bretons seeing them flee halt their advance and move along the Senlac hill ridge to cover Harold's rear as he charged in.
Leofwine's troops move behind the main melee to cover the rear and flank. The Franco Flemish moving in from the left to join the action. |
Harold troops held on to continue the fight. Leofiwine's Ceorls moving to cover Harold's rear are broken. The Franco Flemish infantry move to be in charge range of Leofwine's Thegns who had failed to get in to a position to support there fellows who were now rushing from the battlefield. One of Duke William's infantry is shaken but passes it's test to fight on. If it had broken Harold would have won. Now if either 1 of Harold's units breaks or Leofwine's then William has won. Harold still has 1 of William's units to break.
Harold fails his command dice to move Leofwine's units with just the skirmishers coming to Harold's aid. I confess my memory fails me here as they could have moved up to support as an enemy within 12" rule. So I may be mixing the last moves up together. By now the tension and frustration of both sides failing to break the final unit was creating it's own confusion.
The Franco Flemish strike. Knights charge the Huscarl supports in the rear and Leofwine's Ceorls are caught unsupported as they try and cover Harold's rear and flank. |
Leofwine's Ceorls are defeated and the Franco Flemish infantry charge the Thegns. The main fight slugs on. |
The battle fought on and Harold won the combat. Could this be it? Before any break tests are made we rolled for leaders. Duke William was safe........ Harold falls at the head of his Huscarls. Was it an arrow? Technically not as you can't shoot in to a melee. Game over. To add insult to injury (death) the Normans passed their break test AGAIN!.
Harold is dead! |
The last positions |
Conclusion
Great game. As umpire I was utterly gripped by the ebb and flow. I thought the battle won by one side or the other more than once for it to be turned around again. The boys got frustrated trying the get the clear win, but with great dice William won.
I would definitely play the scenario again. I would balance William's flank forces more so that the fit in with the Hail Caesar lists for a 4 unit division. I also didn't give the Normans any light infantry using archers as skirmishers to meet that requirement in a division. If I do this I would give the Anglo Saxons more men. I definitely would still follow the numbers in the Osprey Campaign book but perhaps create more variety of units. For a game that, for me, was set up quickly it worked well.