Miniatures Adventure => Medieval Adventures => Topic started by: James Morris on January 09, 2022, 07:50:50 AM
Title: Battle of Degsastan, 603: Bernicia vs Dal Riada
Post by: James Morris on January 09, 2022, 07:50:50 AM
After several cancelled games over the holiday period, Matt and I were finally able to get together on Dec 31st for a final game of 2021. I've been getting back into the 7th Century recently and developing my Midgard heroic battle rules, so the Battle of Degsastan was an easy choice.
Degsastan was, by the standards of British battles of the time, a pretty large affair. Many of the battles of this period probably involved no more than a few hundred warriors, but Degsastan seems to have been into the thousands. The conflict came about because of the growing power of Aethelfrith, King of Northumbria in the north of Britain; nicknamed the 'Twister' by the Britons (presumably because of his cunning rather that his wrestling moves), Bede tells us that he 'ravaged the Britons with more cruelty than all other English leaders.' Aedan mac Gabhrain, King of Dal Riada, raised a coalition of Dal Riadans, Ulster Irish and Britons to put the tyrant back in check.
The battle was fought at Degsastan, 'Degsa's Stone', an unknown location in Northern Britain in 603 (or possibly 604). Peter Marren's book Battles of the Dark Ages presents the evidence for the most likely site being Dawston Rigg at Liddersdale in the Scottish Borders (there are other options but for simplicity I just followed his lead.) Guy Halsall's article for Miniature Wargames magazine in the 1980s included a suggested map of deployment (reproduced in Peter Marren's book), with the two opposing forces facing off across Dawston Burn, so I took this as my blueprint for the game. Historically, the battle was a mighty victory for Aethelfrith of Bernicia and paved the way for the Saxon domination of the north of England.
Suffice to say that we managed to completely reverse the historical outcome! Aethelfrith 'the Twister' and his brother Theobald were both killed and the Bernicians were slaughtered, though it was a hard-fought battle. There's a full report and further pictures on my blog here if you are interested: https://mogsymakes.net/2022/01/08/the-battle-of-degsastan-603-ce/ (https://mogsymakes.net/2022/01/08/the-battle-of-degsastan-603-ce/)
Title: Re: Battle of Degsastan, 603: Bernicia vs Dal Riada
Post by: frank xerox on January 09, 2022, 01:42:46 PM
Hate myself for nit picking but Northumbria and the borders aren't the north of Britain not when you're looking from near Aberdeen at least.
Good looking game though and the rules look interesting - I do like the dark Dark Ages!
Title: Re: Battle of Degsastan, 603: Bernicia vs Dal Riada
Post by: MaleGriffin on January 09, 2022, 04:16:44 PM
Great looking game!
Title: Re: Battle of Degsastan, 603: Bernicia vs Dal Riada
Post by: fred on January 09, 2022, 04:34:11 PM
Great looking figures, the commanders are particularly impressive.
The game certainly has that massed battle look to it - and seemed to be a huge punch up all along the stream. Great stuff, thanks for sharing.
Title: Re: Battle of Degsastan, 603: Bernicia vs Dal Riada
Post by: Atheling on January 10, 2022, 03:36:35 PM
Wonderful stuff James :-* :-* :-*
Great to see so many old models making it back onto the tabletop 8)
Midgard looks as though it's the right scale for "Dark Ages"/Early Medieval battles :)
Title: Re: Battle of Degsastan, 603: Bernicia vs Dal Riada
Post by: Harry Faversham on January 11, 2022, 04:09:36 AM
Exciting AAR, loved it, the figures look superb too.