Battles of Maldon and Assandun

**shankly** · 11-26-2009, 00:27

I'm not at all heavily involved with any of these games, although once upon a time I spent hours with Shogun, MTW, and RTW, but at this point I'm pretty far removed from all of this and am not in touch with the new generation of Total War. However, I'm trying to put together simulations of the Battles of Maldon and Assandun (Ashingdon) as part of an overall presentation on the Danish conquest of England. To this end, I have a few questions for anybody who can help:

1. Are there existent simulations of these battles that I could download without having to go through the messy process of trying to precisely control the battlefield action myself so that it's historically accurate?
2. If not, is there a way to control both sides in a battle so that I can effectively produce these battles in a way that fits with the historical record?
3. Even though MTWII starts from 1080 on, is there a way that I could use it to recreate the battles, since the units (I'm guessing based on the improvements from RTW) look much better and would create a more interesting viewing experience for my audience?

Thanks for any help-this is for a senior-level history course on the Norse world and I'd like to be able to use this as a more interesting way of presenting my subject matter than drawing x's and o's on a chalkboard.

**Julius Augustus** · 11-26-2009, 04:42

Do a multiplayer battle with realistic armies. Get a friend to command one army, and you command the other one. Have a preset plan for who will do what when. Finally, save the battle replay and make a movie out of it in movie maker or iMovie. This should be pretty easy. Hope your project goes well.

**IncubusDragon** · 11-26-2009, 20:12

You'll probably find useable units from the Britannia campaign (part of the Kingdoms expansion for Medieval II Total War). I'm assuming the "presentation" would be video clips of battle replays?

That's the good news... now for the bad news... alright, so that's a wee bit dramatic, but the game is supposed to be designed to give you a different fight each time you play, so even if you set-up a custom battle, there's no guarantee that you'd get the same outcome that's recorded in history. Worth a try though, you might fluke a suitable battle replay.

Assuming you got the broadband connection to do it, Julius Augustus has made a great suggestion if you want the entire battle recorded in a single replay... obviously you both need to have the custom battle installed and know the battle inside out, so that units can be routed on cue etc.

Alternatively, you could stage a series of set-pieces (in separate custom battles so you have more control over the outcome of each exchange), record the footage you want with Fraps from battle replays, and edit together in a video editor - adding audio commentary if wanted... Maybe sounds a bit much, but if that's how I would do it because I don't have broadband so couldn't go down the multiplayer road.

**shankly** · 11-27-2009, 16:42

I appreciate your responses, and can see now that this will be a herculean task that may or may not be worth the trouble, but then, it's only a 10 minute presentation so 18 hours of meticulous battle maneuvering sounds about right.

It's been suggested to me to use the Chivalry II: Sicilian Vespers mod to get this done. Is there any reason to do that rather than just use the Britannia campaign?

I haven't gotten into M2TW yet (just ordered it yesterday) but is there a way to customize the terrain? I ask because in the Battle of Maldon, the Norse forces were separated from Brythnoth and the Anglo-Saxon forces by a narrow causeway that was flooded for most (if not all) of the battle. According to some theories, the Norse forces, upon receiving Brythnoth's invitation to cross, simply waded through, and in the process protected their legs from aerial attack. It's clearly not essential to have the causeway flooded, since I imagine that's impossible, but it would be nice to be able to have the causeway, since it played a pivotal role in how the battle unfolded.

**_Tristan_** · 11-27-2009, 18:21

I think you might use the "ford" that are allowed in game to create your causeway but I don't know anything about how the map editor works except that you're surely looking to some more hours to create your own custom map...

Good luck though

**IncubusDragon** · 11-27-2009, 19:50

Chivalry II: The Sicilian Vespers... https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...cilian+Vespers I've never used any mods, so you'd need to do a wee bit more research to see if it's what you want.

I've just started using the Battle Editor (working on the Battle Of Stirling Bridge), and while it's far from perfect (can't rotate bridges, buildings etc), I'm happy to help out and reckon we could make a custom map that'll do the job nicely.

Also, do you have an aerial photo and/or a plan of the battlefield? If so, I could use that as a basis to work from... after all, the clock is ticking.

*** EDIT ***
This is the place mate, yeah?

*** EDIT ***

**shankly** · 11-27-2009, 20:26

That is the place. That would be amazing...let me know if there's anything I can do to help. Just as a heads up, I need to get this worked out by Wednesday. Is the battle editor part of M2TW? If so, I'll have a go at trying to make the map as well, and see what I can do.