play

Here are just a few notes to give an idea of how the game plays and to highlight the sequence of play. This is the view of the map from the Norman side of the battlefield.
There are 3 scenario's in Senlac Hill, these notes are based upon a playing of the historical scenario, which starts at turn 3 on the 'game turn track'.

Game turn 3:
The Norman player always goes first in each turn.

Lull Phase: The Norman player (only) can call for a lull, this replaces the current game turn and instead, allows the armies to re-organise and for their units to try and return to good order. It also allows archers to return to the battle with new arrow stocks. There is no benefit in calling a lull on turn 1 and so the Norman player moves to the next phase.

Missile Phase (offensive): The Norman archers start in the front line, their fire can disorder the enemy, who then become more vulnerable to infantry and cavalry attacks. If an archer unit rolls a '1' or '2' when it fires, it is out

of arrows and is removed from play (it goes into the 'Lull Box' and is brought back into play if a lull is called). The nine Norman archer units fire, amazingly they only score 1 hit and only suffer one running out of arrows. The saxon unit receiving the fire is a housecarl (value 5) so it becomes disordered (it's value drops to a 3). By chance, one of Harold's brothers, Leofwine (a leader) is present in the target hex, so must roll to see if he becomes a casualty (leaders die on a roll of '1'). Leofwine passes the leader casualty test.

Movement Phase: Since the Norman archers have mostly failed to disrupt the enemy line, there is little point at the moment in moving other units to attack up the slopes of Senlac Hill. Just two units move, in the centre, an infantry unit moves up to engage Leofwine and the disordered Housecarl. On the extreme left, Fergant (a leader) takes a cavalry unit to engage the Housecarl unit at the end of the saxon line. Cavalry cannot charge into or across slopes, so this is an unwise move a against a fully ordered Housecarl unit.

Missile phase (defensive): The saxons only have a couple of archer units and they start in the rear of the line. In additioln to the archer counters, the saxons also have 2 special missile attacks that they can use once per GAME. These simply represent the shower of stones, spears, axes etc that were hurled at the Normans during their first assault. Even though the Normans have not yet launched a full scale assault, the saxons decide to use their 2 special missile shots now, at the 2 enemy units that have jsut advanced against their line. Only the fire againsts Fergant's cavalry is successful and they become disordered. Fergant checks for injury but he passes.

Combat Phase: Units must face one of the six hex vertex points within their hex. This defines their facing. Units have a zone of control out of the two hexsides of their frontal facing. Units can attack an enemy that is adjacent to their frontal

facing. The Norman infantry unit attacking the disordered Housecarl (stacked with Leofwine) rolls well but the presence of Leofwine (leader) and the good defensive benefit of the slope, modify the dice roll so that an 'elim' result is reduced to a disorder result instead. Since the unit is already disordered, a new disorder result has no additional effect. Combat is calculated using the difference between the combat value (modified) of attacker and defender.
On the left, Fergant and a cavalry unit become disorderd as they attack a fully ordered Housecarl unit. Fergant has to test for injury but he passes the test. That's the end of the Norman combat phase, it was rather limited because the archers had failed to make any significant impression against the saxons.

Re-organisation Phase: The phasing player can now try and return disordered units to good order and routed units to disorder status, providing that the testing units are not in an enemy zone of control. Only Fergant's cavalry unit is disordered but that is located in an enemy zone of control so can't attempt to re-organise.

Turn 1 - Saxons turn: During the early part of the game, the best advice for the saxons is to sit tight on their defensive position, time is on their side. In this turn, Leofwine and the disordered Housecarl pull out of the line, so that they can attempt the recovery of the

Housecarl (this must be done out of an enemy zone of control). To maintain the front line, units that leave their position, need to be replaced by a unit to their rear. This will usually be one of the poorer quality fyrd units. As the game progresses an ever increasing number of fyrd units will form the front line, making it easier for the Normans to crack the position.

Over on the saxon right, a housecarl unit makes a very risky undertaking by counter-attacking Fergant and his disordered cavalry. He lucks out with a poor die roll and the Housecarl unit itself ends up becomming disordered.

At the end of the game turn, all 'missile fired' markers are removed from play. Archers can fire either in the defensive or offensive missile phases but not both. The missile markers help ensure that missile units fire no more than once per game turn.

Game Turn 4: The Norman archers fire and things start to look desperate as four of the units run out of arrows and go into the Lull Box. However, one of Fergant's archers (on the left) gets a hit, disrupting a Housecarl. This is followed up by an infantry attack, who scores an 'elim', becoming the first Norman unit (the Breton contingent) to get a foothold on the hill. Towards the centre right, the fyrd unit that moved into the front line to cover the retiring housecarl, immediately became the target of a cavalry and infantry attack. The infantry attack failed (attacker disordered) but the cavalry unit scored an 'elim', allowing it to break into the enemy line.
When an enemy unit is eliminated from play, the attacking unit MUST move into the vacant hex and maintain the same facing. This puts the attacking Norman cavalry unit into face to face contact with the second line. The Housecarls on the front line will risk their own flanks if they turn within their hex to deal with the cavalry unit. Again, Leofwine takes his unit into battle. The attack fails, though he survives yet another casualty test.

Game Turn 5: Further Norman assaults fail, their attack has stalled. The main problem has been that the archers have not been able to cause enough disorder before being removed to the Lull Box. William could lead an attack himself but that would be too risky at this stage, perhaps this is a good time to call for a lull in the battle.

Game Turn 6: The Normans call a lull. This allows them to pull back all of their units upto 2 hexes and to attempt to re-organise all of their disordered / routing units with a better chance of success. The Lull also allows all of the archers to be brought back into play from the Lull Box (they have been re-supplied with arrows). The saxons can also re-organise their units (by moving any / all units 1 hex in any direction) and they likewise get an increased chance of recovering disordered units.

Game Turn 7: The Normans draw new hope. Their archers disorder two fyrd units (easier to harm because of their poorer level of protection and organisation) amongst the front line. An archers can swap position with another friendly unit directly to its rear (or front), this interchange allows melee type troops to get in close and exploit the damage caused by the archers.
On the Norman left, Fergant gets back onto the hill as the saxon units there begin to thin a little. The first Saxon reinforcement appears this turn and it starts to head towards this weakening flank. In the centre, the Normans suffer a bloody repulse but Leofwine is killed during that counter-attack, his presence will be missed. The fyrd have now taken enough casualties that further casualties will increasing cause adjacent fyrd units to break and rout.

Game Turn 8: CRISIS LOOMS, Fergant was killed as he pushed deeper in the saxon position. His death triggered a morale check for all his fellow Bretons that were with him or adjacent to him. The test failed and so those units ( 2 cavalry and 1 infantry) turned and routed away. When such an event occurs, the saxon fyrd must test to see if they will lose their discipline and make an impetuous pursuit. The single fyrd does fail the test, breaks from the saxon line, pursuing a cavalry unit. It attacked the cavalry and eliminated it near the hillock but this left it in the open and exposed (a spooky coincidence with the exact historical situation near to the 'hillock').
Williams far left flank is now hanging in the air, several units of the Breton contingent remain but being leaderless and likely to further routing, much of their offensive capability has been removed.

Game Turn 9: Desperate measures, Williams rides out in person with his cavalry and attacks the slopes, he is repulsed but survives the leader loss check. He orders the Papal Banner to be brought forward but likewise, the cavalry unit carrying it was repulsed. On the far left, a Breton cavalry unit attacks the exposed impetuous Saxon fyrd unit and eliminates it. William is getting desperate, if he could only break into the saxon line to destroy the integrity of the defensive line. The fyrd are becoming increasingly present in the front line to fill the gaps caused by falling elite housecarls.

Game Turn 10: The battle is starting to get confused. On the left, the leaderless Bretons renew their attack but the Saxon line, led by Gyrth, dash down the slope and attack the remaining Bretons. Their morale is so fragile that most of the Breton contingent breaks and routs. By contrast, Williams right flank, held by the Franco-Flemish contingent under Eustace, have a good toe hold on the hill and are faced mostly by saxon fyrd. William, together with cavalry carrying the Papal Banner, re-organise in the valley in readiness for their next assault.

Game turn 11: The game has broken down into a number of smaller actions. The saxons can just about hold their front line together but it's under pressure everywhere. A Norman cavalry unit even got adjacent to Harold before it was disordered by a timely fyrd attack. It looks very unlikely that either side will capture their designated terrain objectives or kill the other army commander. The final assessment for victory will no doubt have to rely upon a head count of eliminated units.

Game turn 12: This final turn in the game, as predicted, neither side reached their geographic objectives and though the Normans had broken into the saxon position, the Saxons were still mostly defending on the front slopes of Senlac Hill.
Further fighting would almost certainly have gone the Norman way, especially as the first housecarls had started to rout. However, darkness had fallen, Harold was still alive and the remnants of his army could slip away. The Normans had not got their decisive victory.
Adding up the victory points from the casualties of the battle, gives a total of 44 points to the Saxons and 53 points to the Normans. In victory terms, this translates into ' a moral victory to the winner (Normans) with at least 1 more big battle likely in the future'.