Society of Ancients Battle Day 2025 - Maldon 991 AD

[martin goddard]

For the benefit of all. here is my brief description of Maldon.

England 10th century.
Monarchy messy but young king is on the throne. King and kingdom seen as vulnerable.
Vikings  raiding.
Maldon near bottom corner of England.
Vikings arrive and set up camp on island with low tide causeway to mainland.

English arrive and bottle up Vikings on island.

Vikings say "it's not fair".
English agree and  say "come ashore and have a man battle"

Battle goes OK for English until general killed.
Then it all goes bad in the 90th minute.

English  fall back and Vikings eventually get paid off by the usual method of Amazon gift cards etc.

A small battle by world standards, with about 3000 a side.

martin

Any re-fight would have to include slurs on opponent's manhood and mutual loathing.

[Martin Smith]

Posted today on the SoA Forum:-

" For the avoidance of doubt, and with apologies for the delay in posting (though I have enjoyed catching up on the rumours!) here to formally confirm, and as announced at the end of this year's Battle Day, that next year will indeed be Maldon. I remain open to ideas about how we find a suitable battle outside of the western hemisphere to broaden our minds, but that will be for a future year. As for this year:

Society of Ancients Battle Day
Sunday 30 March 2025
Maldon (991 AD)
Next year's annual Society of Ancients Battle Day will take place at Hermitage Village Hall in Berkshire (postcode RG18 9WL), on Sunday 30th March 2025. We will be re-fighting the famous clash between Vikings and Anglo-Saxons at The Battle of Maldon in 991 AD.
The day will run from 9am (with the hall available to set up from 8am) to 5pm and will consist of an opening presentation followed by a full day of wargames to refight the battle itself. A wide variety of rules sets, figure scales and even, perhaps, widely divergent interpretations of the historical sources will be on display. Games are laid on by attendees, and participants can either volunteer to run a game, or turn up and find a free space to play. The event is open to both members and non-members, and will cost £12 per person.
For further details, please email the Battleday Coordinator: battleday@soa.org.uk or soabattleday@gmail.com ".

Tis now a definite 😁

[Sean Clark]

It would be interesting to see if this could be played using the battle rules.

[martin goddard]

Thank you for keeping us up to date Martin.

I would like to go.
Who would be happy to play it with CK?
I think we can play it twice in the day easily.

martin

[Colonel Kilgore]

I'd like to go.

But how about also doing it with the Longships rules?

Simon

[John Watson]

Sounds good to me. CK is fine. I haven't played Longships so can"t comment on them.
John

[Sean Clark]

Doh! I hadn't considered CK. Maybe a table of each?

[martin goddard]

We could do a table of each as Sean suggests??
30th March will be a bit rainy though?


martin

Who is up for that day.
1.martin

[Colonel Kilgore]

Who is up for that day?

1. Martin
2. Simon

[John Watson]

I'm up for it.
John

[Colonel Kilgore]

Who is up for that day?

1. Martin
2. Simon
3. John

[martin goddard]

This is good.

martin

[martin goddard]

Maybe we can play the game a few times before the  actual event, to make sure the Vikings lose?


martin

[Sean Clark]

1. Martin
2. Simon
3. John
4. Sean

I know that Maldon is considered important amd that there was a poem written about it. However, as a wargame I'm not sure what the fascination is 😁 Two lines of dark ages troops shoot each other and then bash each other up a bit.

Though thisay describe many battles through history     

Scenery seems very straight forward.

[martin goddard]

See my earlier description of the battle and I think you will be excited Sean(?)

martin