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

The next turn in the first turn of April and heralds the arrival of the Viking Great Summer Army consisting of Kings Guthrum, Oscetel and Anwend, seven Jarls and fifty warriors.

With a large and intact Viking Army already in situ on the Temes, King Aethelred and his Wessex army is very much on the defensive if it is to survive the upcoming onslaught.

This turn also happens to be the last Saxon resupply phase before the great Viking army arrives and therefore an opportunity to add to the defences in preparation. I therefore move the main army closer to Basengas in the central position and reinforce my garrisons on the Temes to await events as the initiative shifts to the Pagans.

Well that was interesting. The Vikings do nothing and are content to wait until their massive reinforcement turns up next month and then I think we will see some serious action!!

At this critical stage in our game it might be worth re-stating the victory conditions.

First with regard to the "Great Summer Army"
Kings: Guthrum, Oscetel & Anwend, Jarls 7, Warriors 50

The Great Summer Army (GSA) arrives in Turn 10 and can land in any Fortified Hex (FH) that the River Temes runs through (including Lundene), not manned by Saxons. They can then move their normal movement in the same turn they land.

Vikings-
Major Victory
Is achieved if both Alfred and Aethelred are killed and Wintanceaster has been captured.
Minor Victory
At the completion of the 15th turn Viking victory points are greater than the Saxon victory
points.

Saxons-
Major Victory
All 5 Viking Kings have been killed before end of turn 15
Minor Victory
At the completion of the 15th turn Saxon victory points are greater than the Viking victory points.

So with the initiative very much with the Vikings it is important that one of the Saxon leaders is alive at the end of May to lead the resistance and if we can keep hold of most of the real estate then that will be a bonus.

Stand by for a comment from Ragnar the inscrutable.

Viking Comments Turn Nine

The Saxons have moved towards the centre and are now placed to be able to protect all the major towns preventing me from laying siege to any of the big VP sites ,also they have beefed up the defences as well therefore stopping me from trying to assault them (also any siege would take forever !).

Quite frankly I have no idea what I am going to next even when the Great Summer army arrives in London next turn.

I did consider moving west again towards Chippenham or moving to four hexes north of the Alfred stack thus offering it battle and also possibly moving east to be four hexes away from the Aethelred stack but if the Saxons strip out their garrisons I could get swamped.

So is doing nothing better than doing something for something’s sake? Either way I decide not to move this turn. I suspect the Saxons will do the same.