"Battle Of Hastings Eye Candy" Topic

Just some eye candy from a recent convention running the Battle of Hastings.

I have run this battle over a dozen time now, victory ratio is roughly 50-50. This last session saw two Saxon victories so a slight slant to Saxon's winning more often than the Normans. This is partially attributed to the Norman command being much more difficult to play, i.e. the Saxons just need to be patient and the Normans really need to work their combined arms to disrupt the Saxon line before charging home. If the Normans charge in without doing it, they usually get repulsed often with severe consequences.

The more I play the Triumph rules the more I appreciate how well they can recreate a great historical battle on the table top with such an elegant and streamlined system.

Brilliant work. How did you do the table?

Great looking game!

Faeger!

@McWong, the building of the battlefield was in this thread:

TMP link

Thanks guys, I am happy with the battlefield, it will take a tour of a couple conventions this year and then be in storage for a little while.

Looks like Hastings alright! Great looking game.

Nice looking game. Thanks.

Played in this at a local convention in Michigan. Terrain really captured my mental picture of the field, tactical challenge was excellent (we were Normans), and the rules were easy and captured the period. Excellent!

Terrific scenery, based on my memories of the battlefield.

great pictures and thanks for table build – certainly giving me some thought for my hastings table

Very nice!

Most excellent

Cheers
Matt

We ran a similar large game at the Society of Ancients Conference in 2016. We created a small rule which meant that any Saxon unit that defeated or was near the defeat ir pull back if a Norman unit had to throw . In that case it added its casualties to a d6 number and if that exceeded its fighting value then it had to pursue for two moves and would end disordered. This had the advantage of making it easier for a fyrd unit with a fighting value if say 4 or 5 to do an uncontrolled advance than a housecarl unit with a fighting value of 7. Pulling out a unit or two this way posed an interesting problem for the English commander as he could either pull the units back in oater moves or advance the rest of his units ( on a basis of a wing or the centre as a command) and support the attack. In our game the Normans sensibly crumbled the Saxons from the flank and tried to avoud charging Harold himself until he was well weakened.

The only special rules for my game were that any Saxon unit (other than the skirmishers) need an extra command point spent to go back up the hill.

i.e. The Triumph rules already have a great mechanism the Normans can use for pulling the Saxons off the hill with their lighter troops. This command point rule simply sped up the process so that what would have happened eventually happened faster. The Saxons get two or three units pulled and then roll a low command point roll, they can't pull everyone back into line. The Saxons then have to choose between advancing the whole line to support or letting over eager units get cut up unsupported.

In my opinion this give and take really helped recreate the "historical" feel of the battle. The light horse and the skirmishers taunting the Saxon warriors off the hill and out of formation. The knights poised to take advantage of the break in the line. The hill setting with secured flanks also gives the Saxons a very good chance at victory against any but the most cagey of Norman opponents :)