Dark Age Rules: Norman v Anglo-Saxon Game

I haven't played as many Dark Age games as I'd planned so I thought I'd start
putting this to right by having a classic line-up I always enjoy simulating.
This was a Norman v Anglo-Saxon battle based on the Hastings format.

Both armies looked pretty menacing. The Saxons were well positioned on two long
hills with a good compliment of steady, reliable foot, deployed in shieldwall.
In contrast the Normans decided to maximise their foot and archer contingents to
perform the initial assault. This, with hindsight had some consequences for
their performance, and significantly diminished their key advantage of mobility
and shock impact.

I also should have made one of their archer units crossbowmen. The Saxon
shieldwall was very resilient to hits and more penetrative power would have been
useful in weakening the defenders prior to the infantry assault.

The Normans were a bit hesitant in their advance. Again I should have really
used the cavalry to menace the flanks more. The Saxons on the hill proved to be
too hard a nut to crack. Despite some good flanking moves later in the game, the
Normans had already lost the infantry contest and the Saxons retained too much
defensive power to be removed from their position.

It was a good game but I felt the Norman generals frustration and there will be
lessons learned for a future contest. The use of Retainers as light cavalry was
interesting – in future I'll either have more to menace the flanks and get round
the shieldwall or promote these to Heavy Cavalry as the optional rules indicate
to get more shock impact. There really wasn't enough cavalry for the Normans to
shine.

On reflection I think I was having a bad hair day regarding my Hastings
re-enactment.

I was giving the Saxons far too much advantage. Not only were they on hills
which gave them first round benefit, I forgot to stop using the +1 dice for
integrated archers after the first round. I also allowed their shieldwalls the
superior save even if charged in flank or rear.

There is no ruling that states this shouldn't be the case but checking out some
other rules and reflecting logically on this I don't feel this should be allowed
as the interlocking of shields is to the front of the unit. If anything there
might be more chaos when attacked in the rear / flank. For missile fire I would
also limit this +1 dice for frontal assaults which aligns to the arc of fire.

My simulated William was right to curse the fates as he was too handicapped by
his enemy's positional strength and some cranky rules interpretations. A
re-match is on the cards.