Disaster in Bernicia

As part of our ongoing Dark ages Campaign I fought the last battle of the year (autumn) against the invading Scots and Icelandic troops The sneaky Icelanders sent two armies against me- one joining with the Scots, the other moving through Norfolk’s territory of York unopposed and capturing it on their away to battle.

So massively outnumbered the army of Kent decided to stand and fight (10 elements vs 22!). Our only hope to attack and maim a couple of armies before we were overwhelmed so we aggressively attacked the Scots and smaller Icelandic army. There were a lot of them but they were fragile and a couple of quick kills could swing things in our favour!

The plan went well until about the 4^th turn when I managed to turn the Icelandic line but was driven off (5-6) rather than destroy the offending spear which having turned to face would have been destroyed on a recoil result- and thus exposing the entire line to being outflanked and rolled up!. This gamble meant I had been unable to deploy a Cav stand that was still behind my general (1 pip too short) and the Scottish Cav swooped in for the kill and closed the door on my general who promptly died and my army imploded. We continued a fighting retreat (well technically a rout as we fled as fast as we could) but the Scottish cav ran amok killing another two stands of veteran Cav (+1 in combat- but everything was no fighting at a -2!) and an element of spear. Our retreat did take us into the newly won territory of York which we reclaimed for ourselves!

A very cunning plan by the Icelandic and Scottish side. We have winter to lick our wounds and rebuild our shattered army.

There is one more battle to be fought this round- in Cheshire, with our Welsh/Wessex allies ready to win some glory for the Southern Alliance!