The Battle of Scrobbesburh

Last Wesdnesday my usual game at Dice on the Hill was cancelled and I was therefore able to fight a 'proper' wargame with Richard Warson, who is usually the duty manager at Shrewsbury House on Wednesday evenings.

Richard has a large collection of 28mm Anglo-Saxon and Viking figures and so we chose to fight a wargame using them. He provided the figures and the terrain and I provided the rules ... which were heavily based on the Ancient rules in Donald Featherstone's book WAR GAMES.

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The Battle of Scrobbesburh

The local Anglo-Saxons thane had revived news that a large band of Vikings had landed nearby and so he gathered together the troops available to him and set off to intercepts the invaders. His force included his own household troops, two bands of local militia or Fyrd, a small group of archers, and an even smaller group of lightly armed skirmishers.

The Anglo-Saxons.

The Vikings - who were led by Ragnar Shortbeard - comprised three groups of Bondi and a small band of skirmishers. They had already laid waste a couple of small farms and were on their way towards their next target when they saw the Anglo-Saxon force coming towards them. Both side formed battle lines and prepared to fight!

The Vikings.

The battlefield at Scrobbesburh. The Vikings were on the left and the Anglo-Saxons were on the right.

The Vikings sent their skirmishers forward to seize the right-hand hill before the Anglo-Saxons reached it. Whilst they were doing this, the remainder of their force advanced in line towards the oncoming line of Anglo-Saxon troops.

The Viking skirmishers reached the right-hand hill just before the Anglo-Saxons did ... but they were somewhat isolated and the Anglo-Saxons were already closer to it than the main body of the Vikings were.

Anglo-Saxon skirmishers and archers moved towards the hill and threatened the Viking skirmishers.

The Viking skirmishers came under very effective attack by the Anglo-Saxon archers. At the same time, the Vikings began to advance en echelon towards the main body of Anglo-Saxon troops.

Further very effective Anglo-Saxon archery caused the morale of the Viking skirmishers to break and they fled. At the same time, the Anglo-Saxons formed a shieldwall and the main body of the Viking force continued to advance en echelon towards the Anglo-Saxon shieldwall.

Anglo-Saxon archers moved onto the hill whilst the Vikings prepared to assault the Anglo-Saxon shieldwall.

The left-hand group of Vikings smashed into the Anglo-Saxon Fyrd opposite them, and smashed their way through the shieldwall, causing the Fyrd's morale to collapse. The Anglo-Saxon right was now gone!

However, before the Vikings could exploit this advantage, the Anglo-Saxon shieldwall pivoted so that their right flank was no longer threatened. At the same time, the Anglo-Saxon skirmishers advanced onto the hill and threatened the Viking right wing.

The Vikings attacked the Anglo-Saxon shieldwall ... and it proved too strong! The left- and right-hand groups of Viking suffer significant casualties and when their morale failed, they fled. Whilst this was happening, the central Viking group continued to fight the Anglo-Saxon thane's household troops.

With most of his force already fleeing, Ragnar Shortbeard urged his remaining troops to break through the Anglo-Saxon shieldwall ... but it proved too strong a nut to crack, and as casualties mounted, their morale cracked and they joined the other fleeing Vikings. The Anglo-Saxons had won the Battle of Scrobbesburh!

This was a thoroughly enjoyable wargame and Richard and I hope to fight another in the very near future.

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Note: The choice of the name Scrobbesburh is a nod to the venue where this wargame took place, Shrewsbury House. The Anglo-Saxon name for Shrewsbury was Scrobbesburh.