Alfred the Great - The Great Heathen Army 871 AD, March Turn Eight

Well the Vikings are doing exactly what I would do in this situation which is carefully biding their time and building up their strength whilst awaiting their massive reinforcement to allow them to bring on a battle with little concern for the losses they might incur.

With their fall back to the Temes, there is little I can do to stop their resupply by occupying vacant Saxon religious buildings and villages and their holding of Lundene enables them to make full use of the river to swing their forces from one flank to the other very quickly, whilst my Saxon foot sloggers trudge about the countryside.

I thought that might have been the case and tried to take out Lundene early in the campaign, but the city cannot be laid siege to and assaulting any fortified hex is a huge gamble and as seen can be very costly for nothing gained.

The Wessex army is now moving towards the Temes in two mutually supporting battle groups, one under the King and the other under Alfred. The next turn is the end of March and another Saxon resupply turn which explains the Viking moves to occupy secluded Saxon villages in the hope of restricting my reinforcements before the arrival of the Great Summer Army in the following turn, so the next move will be quite important if the Saxons are to be able to resist the coming storm.

The Viking position along the Temes is strong and gives them a good position to descend on any Saxon force detached and vulnerable.

As always the Pagan remains inscrutable, but I feel we shall here from him soon! His last thoughts about his position from turn seven are up on the last post and were recovered from a naked gibbering monk from the monastery at Abbendun who had unspeakable atrocities committed against his person. Is there nothing these pagans wont stoop to!

Viking Comments Turn Eight

The Saxons move up the road as I had expected and then split into two forces but neither of these groups threaten Abbendun so I can still occupy this area and deny him resources, the two little villages will have to be abandoned as I foresaw.

My Supply turn gives me 11 extra points which I spend on another Jarl and 6 more Warriors which have to be placed in London as it’s my only Fortified Hex.

My Army move is reasonably straight forward, I can now re-combine the army into two groups and occupy the two Religious sites either side of the River. As Turn 9 is yet another Saxon supply turn then I keep the warrior in Saches and move another one down to Leobriban.

My final position now gives me several choices on what to do next however it all depends on were the Saxons move so I don’t have an actual plan at the moment. Its time use the advantage of Cyberboard and try out all those possibilities.

Now why did he split into two groups? Lets have another look at the map, oh yes the Reinforcements from Chippenham couldn't move any further; I need to take this into account.