Aethelstan - Notes

Anno Domini 815 - Dorcic, West Saexe, in the Kingdom of the Saxons

These first two battles were fought in the middle of my current Viking Invasion game, coincidentally my first. I'm the Saxons, of course. So far I've expanded into the southeast, about as far as the main game province of Wessex, with a small incursion into Wales. The Mercians, strongest military power in the game, were allied with me until I beat up the Welsh, then they lept out and attacked. The battles in West Saex have been the two main ones so far, and they've resulted in the utter destruction of the Mercian armies.

The first battle is one of my favorites in all MTW, I think. It's one of those ones where everything just goes right. The very turn of the invasion, Prince Aethelstan comes of age, and he's my best general right out the gate. The Mercian army kinda sucks, and they do everything wrong, including leaving the archers unprotected, allowing my cav to swoop in and clean up. Massive, massive slaughter for them, negligable losses for me.

And here's some pictures:

Pre-engagement

Aethelstan comes in for the kill

Oswulf's Last Moments

Anno Domini 816 - Dorcic, West Saexe, in the Kingdom of the Saxons

This second battle was just ugly. He had a lot more guys than I did, and while the bulk of the difference was peasants, he had about as many fyrdmen and such as I did. It quickly turned into this nasty meat grinder all over the hill, wherein I lost a whole bunch of guys, but he lost more because they were peasants. Meanwhile my cav rode down what was left of his archers, then his fleeing peasants, then the very few remnants of fyrdmen units that escaped the slaughter. In the end my army only had about 200 people left, but the Mercians lost EVERYTHING. So it paid off.

And pictures.

Pre-engagement

Fighting - I've held the center, and the Mercians are starting to break.

Fighting - The Mercians are breaking, and I'm chasing them down.

Mopping Up - Fighting militia sergeants with archers on the hill, fyrdmen vs fyrdmen farther down.

Post-battle - And there's the score. All those prisoners I killed after the battle, because I have enough problems with Mercians.

Anno Domini 835 - Offa's Farm, Wrocen Saetan, in the Kingdom of the Mercians / Anno Domini 843 - Luel, Cumbri, in the Kingdom of the Northumbrians

The battle in 835 marked the end of the Mercians, which started around 815 with Aethelstan's first big battle. It's only fitting that the greatest battle he's fought thus far was against the biggest Mercian army anyone had ever seen, and their last. And it was an enormous army. Three full stacks, of which maybe one and a half were assorted good troops, and the other one and a half were peasants. You laugh at peasants, but when there's fifteen hundred or whatever of them bearing down on you, it can cause some damage - the run up to this battle involved me sending in two stacks of fyrdmen and archers, and getting my head handed to me by those peasants. Rather fortunately for me, the game crashed immediately after, and I didn't feel compelled to replay that horror.

In any case, the battle went pretty much like I described it from Wihtric's point of view. The Mercians and I lined up across from each other, and I did send those two units of merc cav into the peasants, unsupported. They died, but killed a bunch of peasants, and the whole left wing of my army pretty handily trounced theirs. Almost nothing happened in the center, owing to a farmstead smack in the middle of the fight. That left the right flank, which was a nasty, nasty melee against the best troops the Mercians had to offer, from fyrdmen to huscarls to the king himself and I think a prince, plus their bodyguards. A couple entire units of huscarls almost got obliterated, with Swithnoth and Wulfheard down to themselves and like 3 other guys.

In the end, though, their king died, and I set about with the remaining merc cav (who did indeed charge into the rear of the enemy, along with some left wing huscarls) killing routing guys. This they did, until they ran smack into the Mercian reinforcements, which I had forgotten about. 90 Mercian horsemen versus my 50 or so remaining mounted sergeants wasn't much of a contest, and the Mercians kept coming, along with this breathtaking column of peasants that just kept coming down the hill. Unfortunately for them, huscarls are tough, and batted them right back. They tried one more charge, but then retreated, and Aethelstan went out to collect some heads. Thier king and heirs dead, the remaining Mercians fled into the fortified village as rebels, and my really hard war was over.

As always, pictures:

Early battle - The Mercian left has already crumbled, and there's nasty fighting going on on the left.

Mid-battle - Incoming Mercian second wave. That's a lot of peasants.

Endgame - The third wave of Mercians has routed, and I'm starting to chase them down.

The remaining battles against the Mercians and Welsh aren't particularly worth talking about. The assault on the Mercian rebel fort involved me battering down the walls, then rushing in and killing everyone. Fun, but not exactly intellectually stimulating. Of note, the rebels actually started with a big block of troops OUTSIDE the fort, and tried to run INTO the fort. Never seen that one before. As for the Welsh, their big battle involved me running down archers, and fighting their king and three princes in the woods. No biggie. And the assault on THAT castle was about the same as the Mercian one.

But pictures anyway.

Lyccidfleth, Wrocen Saetan - That's my huscarls just after beating down the walls and running in to kill everyone.

Clwyd - Me charging the Welsh army. Note the masses of archers.

Clwyd - His king fighting in the woods.

As to the Vikings, Aethelstan's battle against them wasn't particularly THAT impressive, except in showing my totally low regard for the Viking king, who after being thrashed by my forces twice, very decisively, you think would have the presence of mind to back off, but no.

The nifty battle against the Vikings was actually some time earlier, about the time Aethelstan was beating the snot out of the Mercians. It was an exciting year, actually - I beat the Mercians, I beat some rebels, and I beat the Vikings. I didn't set out expecting to beat the Vikings, really. I had nine hundred or so 0 valor fyrdmen led by a rank 0 general versus 61 Viking huscarls led by their king, 3 units of 12 berserkers, and 200 assorted and fairly random peasants. Using my massive numbers of guys, I managed to pin the Viking units in place with half, then run around back and slaughter him from behind with the other half. Why nobody broke and ran during this I have no idea, but nobody did, and eventually the Viking king ran off in defeat, taking about 20 peasants, 2 berserkers, and 3 huscarls with him. I left the field with 349 men. It was pretty brutal.

But, since this is all about how awesome Aethelstan is, you're going to get stories about Aethelstan, and not about randaflunky. Also, you'll get pictures of Aethelstan:

Aethelstan vs. Harald - Just before first contact. The two units on the right will contain one of his full units and the king, while everyone else deals with the others, then runs back to help.

As to the political dealings that get mentioned, yes. Aethelred really was that bad. 2 influence or so, 1 piety, 1 acumen, 1 command, 1 dread. And yet he was BETTER than Egbert. Truly my kings suck. Currently I've got him locked him in Sumorsaet, where he and his wife are cranking out kids like mad. Under Aethelstan's fictional guidance, the kingdom's doing ok, and now that a bunch of buildings are getting built and Aethelred is getting builder virtues, loyalty is doing much better, but for a while it seemed like I was going to have a civil war any turn, with no way to stop it. It was narrowly averted, but I'm about the only one who hasn't had one. The death of the Mercians was half because they bled themselves white in a particularly nasty civil war which I capitalized on. The Welsh and Irish have both had them. How the Vikings managed to avoid one, I have no idea. The Northumbrians managed to avoid one, but died with no heir anyway, hence why Aethelstan and the Vikings are fighting over the corpse.