MacDidz: The Scottish Blog

[phunkbot]

this is making me mouth water and i still have 3 hours left to work before i can get home and get them pikes... aaargh im buying a laptop and taking it to work

[Didz]

Winter 1099 AD: News from England and the army marches South.

Messengers from Ruadri Wallace, the agent sent to gather intelligence on the English, inform Edward that the English have made an alliance with Spain and that as a consequence Prince Henry has left the English army and gone. Wallace assumes that he has gone to London but cannot say for sure.

However, the English army has been left in the charge of a mere captain.

Wallace estimates its strength to be somewhere in the region of 2,000 men, but at least a quarter are nothing more than armed peasants, no more than 300 are archers and these of poor quality, and only a handful are knights.


Furthermore, Wallace confirms that there is no garrison in Nottingham Castle. Only King Rufus is in residence guarded only by his personal retinue of knights.

Edward studied the report for some time as if some clue in its content would reveal an English trap or deception.

Why would Rufus sit alone in Nottingham and leave his only army leaderless?

Were the English trying to provoke him, to trick him into sticking his head in a noose, or was this truly a perfect opportunity to be grabbed and wrung for all it was worth?

Well trap or not he would not be the one to trigger it. He called for his equerry. 'Take a message to Edinburgh, tell my brother that all is set and that he is to march on York immediately, inform him that the army in Wales is already on the road for Nottingham and that he is too waste no time. is that understood?'

The equerry nodded 'Shall I inform the captain of the army to prepare to march, sire?'

'No! just send the message.' replied Edward. 'And inform Wallace to keep me updated on the movements of the English Army'.

If there was a trap it must be triggerred but not by him, not by him.

Edinburgh: A few days later
All is bustle and haste as Alexander Canmore gathers his troops and heads south.

He had felt it prudent to leave a small garrison in Edinburgh, particularly as there had been reports of Danish ships patrolling off the east coast. He had hoped to hire more men as he marched south but funds had proved sparse since the death of Gawain the merchant and so his army was less impressive than he had hoped.

Nevertheless, his brother the King had assured him that the English garrison of York was weak and he was already on the march to Nottingham and would draw the English away from York. So, it was unlikely that the English would prove too much of a problem.


Alexander marches south.

[Didz]

Summer 1100 AD: Edward finally marches
York is under seige, but Wallace confirms that the only movement from the English was a rather hearthearted attempt to block the road from Caernavon to York.

Re-assured by the news Edward finally musters his troops and marches east, avoiding the dithering English army he heads directly for Nottingham and the English King.

Even now with two Scottish Armies on their land and their King under threat the English Army dithers and does nothing. The only action from the English is to appeal to the Pope,who sends a terse note to Edward informing him that he is to cease all hostilities against the English immediately and return to his own lands. 'This is a strange note to be sending to your most loyal and trusted ally.' he commented 'Inform his holiness that we shall be in our own lands soon enough, once we have thrown the English out of them.'
[With a Pope-o-Meter rating of 8/10 I was reasonably certain that the Popes threat was a hollow one, but nevertheless secretly Edward was concerned.]

[Didz]

Summer 1100 AD: Alexander assaults York.
The English having failed to surrender the city, Alexander decides that an assault is unavoidable. Therefore, choosing what he considers to be the weakest part of the City defences he draws his army up ready for the assault.

Supported by his crossbowmen a force of Irish kerns use a ram to batter a breach in the city walls.

With the breach established Crossbowmen move forward to clear the English defenders from the breach.

Unable to do anything to protect themselves the English defenders are flensed by concentrated crossbow bolts.

In desperation the English charge troops through the breach to drive off the Scottish crossbowmen.

Only to be decimated and broken by the concentrated fire of the Scots Archers and crossbowmen beyond the wall.

With their spearmen routed the entire English garrison surrenders the walls and retreats towards the city centre.

At this point Alexander makes a mistake and orders the Border Horse to pursue the English into the city in the hope of cutting them down before they can rally. The border horse charged into the town hacking and hewing their way through the streets in pursuit of the routed English spearmen, only to turn a corner and run headling into a group of mailed English Knights. Whereupon, they in turn were cut to pieces and fled the field. Proving once again that cavalry are neither mine nor the Scottish strong point.

Alexander attempted to save his horse by ordering the Irish Galloglaich axemen forward and these eventually drove off the English Knights forcing them to withdraw to the city centre with the rest of the army.

The crossbowmen were then ordered forward again to cut down the English in the town square.

This triggered a series of six or seven costly counter-attacks by the English horse in an attempt to drive off the crossbowmen, each attack resulting in the crossbowmen withdrawing behind the Galloglaich and more English horse being cut down with axes.

The English general is cut down during one of these charges.

The death of their captain knocked the last of the fight out of the English garrison and they retreated once more to the city centre.

As the first Irish troops reached them they surrendered the keys to the city.

Casualties had been relatively light except amongst the border horse but the City of York was safe in Scottish hands.

[Fußball]

An entertaining read Didz. I will likely show this to my friend who loves playing the Scottish, he will likely enjoy the read.

Tschüß!
Erich

[Razor1952]

MacDidz a great read. The scots are great fun to play.

here's a shot of scottish canon elephants.....[IMG]
[/IMG]

[sapi]

Nice work, Didz, that's an enjoyable read.

However, AARs really belong in the Throne Room, so I'm going to have to move this there.