Dark Age DBA Campaign Year Two

Carrying on from Year One…

(Seriously, if you haven’t read the previous year’s report, you probably should…)

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

There was considerably more negotiation before the beginning of Year Two – pairs and groups sneaking off to different corners of the house to try and make deals and plans….


Christian (Wales) and Cory (Wessex) try to strike some bargain…


Rick (Norse) presumably giving his vassal Terry (Scots) instructions for the year…

There were others all over… but they were in dark corners of the house and the pics didn’t turn out… so…

YEAR TWO

Declarations of War
There was a tad more beligerance this second year. Weesex declared war on Mercia!? Persumably to invade and free them from the shackles of Welsh oppression…? The Scots also declared War on Mercia… as did the Norse… In return Mercia declared war on The Scots and... Normandy? So Mercia ended up at war with Wessex, Scotland, Norway, and Normandy… half the map.

The Danes and the Normans declared war on each other, but the Normans also declared war on... the Irish!? (just in case, I guess...)

The Welsh declared war on Scotland and the Irish declared war on no one, once again… Though technically, due to the Norman’s bizarre declaration, they were technically “at war” with Normandy!?

SPRING


In the Spring The Mercian Army rallied to the flag at Cambridge and the Army of Wessex gathered at London. They planned to march to each other’s territories, but WEssex was apparently more efficient in their preparations for this years campaign and marched into Cambridge before the Mercians were ready to move.

The Scots overwintered in their capital of Scone and there they stayed throughout the spring, presumably rebuilding after the sacking by their new overlords… The Norse overwintered in Burghead to get a quick start on things in the spring, and marched to Dumbarton as early as it was possible to do so.

The Welsh Gathered in Nottingham to begin their campaigning this year, but only marched as far as York in the Spring.

Oh, I think I forgot to mention that the Irish lost six elements of their army in their retreat to winter quarters at the end of Year One… so they were busy rebuilding their army at Lind Duachaill… which may account for their lack of aggression this year…


The Danes were quick to march on Ribe in the spring. They moved swiftly (which was easy enough, due to their lack of numbers…) and caught the Normans before they were ready to march (as the Normans had, indeed, planned on sailing for Roskilde this spring).

The Second “Battle” of Ribe


The Danes “attacking” with three elements (as all that remained of the entire army – after the battles ans sieges of the previous year – was entirely wiped out in a terrible storm at sea during their return to winter quarters…) decided to hide in the woods…


Rowan obligingly brought the fight to the “attacker” (that’s the spirit).

Technically he could have sat at his edge of the table and said “go on, attack!” for an hour (or until I got bored) and declared victory for the defender (due to the attacker failing to actually attack).


Since the bulk of the army was hiding in the woods Rowan decided to go sack their camp. As the Danes only had three elements, sacking the camp (counting as a loss) would end the game. This eventually sucked the Danes out of the woods and the force was entirely wiped out… again…

After this the Danes sued for peace and declared the Normans their overlord and the shattered remains of their army retired to Roskilde to begin rebuilding anew…

The Normans scored two more victory points (they lost an archer, The Danes lost their General and an element of Balde).


The Battle of Cambridge


The opposing English armies line up opposite each other.


Jackson (Mercia) left, and Cory (Wessex) right. John (Ireland) is on the couch drinking beer and heckling as any decent Irishman should!


The lines meet and chaos ensues.


The battle, I recall, was pretty quick and rather one-sided. The Mercians lost an element each of Spear, Blade and Psiloi, The Army of Wessex ended the battle relatively unscathed. The Mercians simply had no fight in them. Probably demoralized from being beaten by the dirty little Welshmen and having to accept their harsh overlordship… Can you blame them?


SUMMER


In the summer, having accepted the Danes as their tributary, the Normans sailed for England landing at Wessex-controlled Cambridge! The Welsh tired of waiting around for the Scots or Norse to invade marched on Dumbarton and found, not the Scots, but their overlords the Norse there, preparing to march south to England. There they did battle…

The Scots had actually snuck past Dumbarton and sailed for Deganwy and laying siege to it! The Welsh sat in their hilltop fortress and rained insults and rocks down on the Scots throughout the summer to which the Scots had little to reply – lacking wit and proper siege equipment…. The Siege dragged on into the fall.

The Irish, just to keep everyone guessing about whom they might come to the aid of, marched south to Loch Garman… would they sail across in the Autumn to lift the Siege of Deganwy…?

The Mercians fled to Lincoln and kiept on going right up to York. Into the vacuum they left the Armyof Wessex marched, laying siege to Lincoln. The Welsh garrison proved a little harder to winkle out than the Mercians did on their own the prevous year. This siege also dragged on well into the fall.


The Battle of Dumbarton


Rick (Norse Vikings – setting up on the left) recruited Keira to roll dice for him, having proved herself “lucky” in his previous battles against the Scots… Christian (Welsh) sets up his forces opposite. Jackson (Mercia – and Ricks’ son, and Christian’s vassal) and Terry (Scotland – Rick’s vassal) anxiously look on…


As it was the only battle of the season everyone gathered in the living room. Despite the large gaming table in the basement with plenty of room to stans around – no battles were fought there until the third year? The first battles of the first year were fought upstairs in the dinign room and living room – because everyone thought it would be easier to go back and forth between the two and catch all the action – rather than having to go round the corner, up the stairs, through the kitchen and back to see what’s going on… and after that most battles took place upstairs…


The Welsh and Scots meet – battering at each other like the wild savages that they are…


Things go poorly for the Vikings at the outset – the Welsh Smash through the center of their line slaying all before them. The Norse had some success of their own a little to the right of the Welsh devastation.


The Vikings on the hill charge down at the Welsh, who were too damn tired form walking all the way from York to go marching up another damn hill to fight some blasted Vikings sitting on the very top!


The momentum from their charge scattered all before them and set the Welsh to route!

Dumbarton was held and the Welsh scarpered back to York…


AUTUMN


I think this is actually a picture taken after everyone retreated to winter quarters….

Very little took place in the Autumn of Year Two. Wessex and the Scots continued their respective sieges without success, both armies had to return home less a few of their comrades.

The Welsh continued their retreat all the way to Nottignham (having found York already occupied by the terrified Mercians!). The Norse chose not to pursue the Welsh into Mercia…? I’m guessing Rick just didn’t want to beat down his already broken son and take away the last city he had – other than his capital… which was currently under siege… Jackson would have had to face the Vikings at York or retreated to Lincoln to attempt to relieve the siege…

The Irish getting bored of Loch Garman (and drank the local pubs dry) marched to Duiblinn hoping a fresh view of the sea and fully stocked alehouses would lift their spirits.

The Normans marched south to Canterbury, perhaps preparing for their return to Normandy.

Year Two ended with The Mercians still tributary to the Welsh (though they were feeling like they might get a chance to lift that mantle, should the Welsh be defeated again…), The Scots were still Tributaries of the Norse, and the Danes now Tributaries of the Normans. The Norse held onto their toehold in Burghead but were unable to spread their influence. The Welsh held on to Nottigham and Wessex now owned Cambridge, leaving only York and Lincoln under control of the Mercians. The Normans controlled Ribe and the Danes, once again, had no army to speak of…

At the end of Year Two we actually though we might get in a fourth year… but it was not to be… By the end of Year Three everyone had had about as much excitement as they could handle in one day… Stay tuned for the report of that final and most turbulent year!