MacDidz: The Scottish Blog

[Didz]

Summer 1103: Wallace goes sightseeing in London
Whilst Edward made finishing touches to his preparations to march, Raudri Wallace made his way to London. He quickly confirmed that his previous assumption that Prince Henry was in London had been correct, and that the new King Henry was resident in the city accompanied by an army of about 400 men, including a personal retinue of 62 knights and 21 Archers. The rest of the army were spearmen of varying and dubious quality.

Winter 1103: Remember the Danish.
Edmund sends word from Edinburgh that he has found a volunteer suitable and willing to go and talk to the Danes. He is a Stewart by the name of Angus and will sail for Antwerp in the next tide. Edmund also explains that he has taken the initiative of attaching a man called Gille Petair to Angus Stewart's staff. Petair can do a reasonable impression of a Frenchman, and smells strongly of garlic (or worse). Therefore, it is hoped that he will be able to acquire any information which the Danes might not be willing to disclose to Angus. He also reports that the latest scouting reports from the ships patrolling the Danish coast confirm that a large Danish army is massing near Antwerp and that a powerful Danish fleet lies off the coast near Bruges.

Concerned but satisfied that all that can be done to placate the Danes is being done, Edward marches south with his army intent on dealing with the English presence on the Island once and for all.

He is joined en-route by 160 mailed knights from Wales. In fact, the army marching on London could hardly be called a Scottish army. Whilst, it did include 240 Scottish Archers and the 62 Scottish Knights of Edwards personal retinue, the remainder were either mercenaries, Welsh or locally raised English Knights keen to win favour with their new King.

[Didz]

Summer 1104: London under siege.
As Edward approached London news reached him that King Henry had appealed for more troops and hastily increased the size of the London Garrison. It now consisted of over 800 men more than double the figure quoted by Wallace a few weeks ago.

Unperturbed Edward also appealed for more troops, hiring 150 Welsh volunteers and calling for a further 150 highlanders and 80 horse to join him from Nottingham.

[Didz]

Winter 1104: News from the Angus in the Low Countries
News arrived from Angus Stewart confirming that despite being driven slightly off course he and Petair had managed to reach the Low Countries and were put ashore near the Danish held port of Bruges.

Here Angus had presented his credentials leaving Petair to wander off and check the state of the Danish Army and the ships in its port. It appears that Angus was well received and was able to secure agreement from the Danes for an instant ceasefire. Not only that but he was also able to restored the Trade Rights between the Danes and Scotland and was even able to sell the Danes copies of the latest Scottish maps for 80 Florins.

The Danes seemed genuinely relieved to have the threat of war removed from over their heads and their army has already been moved from the coast to reinforce the defences of Bruge.

Income from African gold mines almost doubled
Edmund was able to confirm that another Scottish merchant has managed to establish himself as a gold trader in Africa and that future income from Africa is expected to rise to somewhere close to 2,000 florins per year. In addition, two more merchants are en-route to Africa even as he writes with the intention of seeking further trading opportunies in the area.

[Didz]

Winter 1104: The Seige of London
Cheered by the news from the Low Countries Edward made final preparations for the assault on London.

The small English army just to the West of the Scots, is a group of peasants who foolishly decided to join King Henry in the City at the last minute.

Edward took his time studying the defences of London, looking for a weak point at which to focuss his assault. Eventually he decided upon the north-eastern corner of the city defences where the city wall had been diverted to avoid several farms and consequently did not have such strong defensive towers.

The assault commenced with the two seige towers manned by the English Knights heading for the north wall. However, it was not long before fire arrrows from one of the defensive towers set one of them ablaze.

Fortunately the second tower reached the wall safely and the knights commenced their assault.

With the main assault underway Edward ordered forward the Welsh ladder teams in support.

As the assault developed the Welsh on the left of the attack found themselves unopposed, and with a clear run to the cities East Gate. This was not their intended objective, as Edward had planned to move right and capture the North Gate but nevertheless they made a run for it and captured it without further opposition.

In the meantime, Edward had ordered the first of his crossbow units to reinforce the troops on the North Wall, but as these men scaled the ladders they were met with a counter-attack from a fresh unit of English Spearmen, and Edward had to recall his knights from their advance on the North Gate to drive them back.

With his capture of the North Gate delayed by the English counter-attack Edward decided to switch the focus of his assault to the East Gate rushing all the troops still outside the city round to the East and into the city.

When news that the Scots had penetrated the East Gate reached the English on the North Wall they abandoned their counter-attack and fell back towards the City Centre.

At the same time fresh units of English spearmen launched a counter -attack against the East Gate in the hope of driving the Scots back out of the city.

The troops from the North Wall are rushed to the East Gate to assist in its defence and major battle develops in the streets.

Eventually, the Scots prevail and the Highlanders pursue the surviving Englishmen towards the City Centre.

A brief lull settles over the battle at this point as both sides prepare for the final confrontation in the City Centre. Edward's Welsh mercenaries form a shiltron at the head of the street backed up by dismounted knights to block the street and protect the Scottish Archers forming behind them.

With preparations in place the Scottish Archers begin to fire arrows into King Henry's personal retinue of Knights forcing them to react or die where they stand. The English King leads a furious charge which engulf's the Welsh shiltron and embeds itself in the supporting English Knights.

The Welsh are overwhelmed and die to a man, but Henry pays the ultimate price, cut down by his former subjects, or perhaps one of the highlanders who seem to have involved themselves in the fight.

Their King dead the English Knights lose heart and the handful of survivors fall back to the City Centre allowing Edward to bring forward his crossbowmen to finish the job.

The Crossbowmen continue to slaughter the Englishmen crammed in the City Centre until they eventually throw down their arms and surrender. Victory!

The entire of England is now under Scottish control and the Union is formed under the leadership of Edward, King of Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England.

The City of London was sacked realising 13,039 florins for the Scottish treasury, and earning Edward the reputation of being a 'merciless mauler' (+3 Dread). When news of the victory reached Edinburgh, so many Scottish Knights flocked to join the army and share in the glory and spoils that Edmund was able to add four units of Feudal Knights to his garrison. (Mission: Reward)

[Razor1952]

"They made a big show of constructing a ram and some scaling ladders but seemed less excited about actually using them,"

I had to laugh at that , I also loved the picture of the sheriff of Nottingham. You have a easy writing style.

Anyone who is thinking of playing MTW2 should read this thread to see the fun you can have.

I await further installments.

[Didz]

I also loved the picture of the sheriff of Nottingham.

I tried to find out who the Sherriff of Nottingham really was, but stumbled upon the picture of Alan Wheatley the actor who played him in the Robin Hood films instead. In fact, as someone pointed out on one of the sites I visited, Nottingham Castle being a castle would not have been the residence of the Sherriff of Nottingham anyway, but would have been the responsibility of a Constable, hence the idea that Alan Wheatley was being sent to meet with King Edward whilst the Constable stayed in the Castle just in case of treachery.

I thought about getting Robin Hood involved in the story, particularly when the English Army spent the entire Winter camped in Sherwood Forest, but I decided that might be a bit too corny.

The thing that has surpised me as I've been writing this blog is the extent to which fate has favoured the Scottish. The rapid deaths, first of Pope Gregory and then Pope Aczo were an amazing coincidence which left Scotland with a 10/10 Pope-o-meter rating even after taking York and Nottingham. One can seriously understand why Edward would be convinced that God favours his cause and it's interesting that as I've followed through on this theme so Edwards traits in the game have followed suit.

Both in the game and in the story Edward is becoming ever more convinced of God's hand in his destiny.

The only time this ever seemed in doubt was at the battle of Nottingham when Rufus and his army of Knights emerged from Sherwood forest. That really was a shock, and I can only assume that the AI had rapidly recruited these extra knights just before the battle. I thought at that point that the battle was lost and if the AI had handled King Rufus better that might have been the case.

Instead it produced a great story line and a nail biting epic battle that decided the future of England and changed the course of history.

[trickydicky]

Great work Didz, fantastic reading.

I just wish I had your panache and writing style, and I might give it a go myself.

[Andres]

Great work MacDidz

[Didz]

Thanks guys, glad you enjoyed it.

One of the things I’ve noticed whilst doing this blog is the strange relationship which develops between the game and the story.

To begin with the game play drives the story, but as the story develops there is a subtle shift of power and I found myself modifying my game play to fit in with the logical plot development dictated by the blog. Even in the battles and sieges I found myself contemplating how I would write up the report and what Edward would say and do as the events unfolded.

So, I am presented with an interesting quandary at this point.

My Scottish Campaign has reached a logical break point. Edward has united the kingdom under Canmore rule and the hated Normans have been driven out, back to their domains in France.

Under normal circumstances I would merely cross the channel and finish them off in accordance with the Short Campaign victory conditions, but this doesn’t make a lot of sense story-wise and so I’m reluctant to force Edward to do it.

Edwards initial goal was merely to drive the Norman’s out of England and he has achieved that. His expectation was that the King Phillipe of France would use the opportunity presented by the Scottish invasion of England to fulfil his own objectives and seize the Norman possessions on the European mainland. That was why Patrick was sent to speak with the French king and negotiated the alliance with France.

The fact that the French did nothing is a considerable disappointment to Edward, but he is equally aware that if Scotland crosses the channel and begins to seize castles and cities in Normandy then the French King is likely to be somewhat annoyed and it may even damage their alliance. So, both Edward and myself are reluctant to begin a fresh chapter of our story with an illogical invasion of mainland Europe.

That leaves me with a problem of what if anything to do next.

I could just call it a day, and end the blog here. It is as I’ve already mentioned a logical break point. The other possibility is to continue but explore some of the other aspects of the game.

For example it would be interesting to see if Edward could persuade, or provoke, the French into attacking the English in Normandy.

The other logical mission might be for Scotland to try and expand its domination of Africa.

It already has established trading interests around Timbuktu, perhaps its time to establish a Scottish settlement down there and begin colonisation.

That would almost certainly mean war with the Moors and would also present some huge logistical problems, requiring heavy investment in the navy to solve. Likewise, there is the challenge of gaining diplomatic acceptance from both Spain and Portugal, who could make things very difficult if not properly handled.

My preference is to go for the African Colonisation option. Its not the easiest route to victory but it might be fun to attempt and it will change the pace, focus and direction of the story line.