Anglo Danish - Tips and Hints

Bob Stradling
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Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2016 10:46 am

Anglo Danish - Tips and Hints

Postby Bob Stradling » Thu Jun 01, 2017 9:24 pm

Wayne suggested on the Swordpoint Facebook page that some thoughts on your favourite army(ies) would be good.

So I have already posted what follows there. Happy for your thoughts and observations.

Anglo Danish (p39 Dark Ages Book) Tips and Hints

The Anglo Danes on the face of it have quite a limited troop choice and the list has on the face of it some quite significant limitations.
The standard troop choices are Huscarls, Fyrd, and you have to have at least 50% of these in your list.

It is possible to upgrade your Huscarls and choosing the right upgrades is essential for getting the most out of this list.

Issues: No cavalry, very little ranged shooting, and everything is close order so it will be quite slow and not cope with difficult terrain.

This is where the Special Troop and Allies (Max 25%) in your list can help compensate for some of these deficiencies.

Vikings can be purchased in Open Order (which is cheaper) and allows you to deal with difficult terrain and be a flank guard. They can also stand in the line of battle if necessary and because they are superior fighters and have the shield wall rule they will more than hold their own.

The skirmishers are cheap, but pants; no defence value, low cohesion value and a limitation on the number of bow armed skirmishers is limited.

The Allies available to us come from the Early Medieval Wales (EMW) or Later Irish lists. The EMW list gives you access to some half decent cavalry Teulu, but this is a 0-1 choice so only one of these. You can also get Archers – these are cheap but no defence value and low cohesion means that they can be brittle.

For those who want a more balanced all arms force then you can just squeeze a unit of Vikings, mounted Teulu and Archers into a 1,000-point force.

However, they are not essential to a well-functioning army.

Because you can have combined units of Huscarls and Fyrd you can have a close order unit of 6 bases which has shieldwall and where the front rank are superior fighters for 102 points without upgrades. It is possible to have 9 units of these in a 1,000-point force! You could out number your opponent and potentially outflank them as well!

However, I think the army becomes even more dangerous when you start to upgrade your Huscarls. Personally, I don’t leave home without my Double Handed Axes (same applies to the Vikings). Enemy cavalry hate charging superior fighters in shieldwall armed with double handed axes!

Then I begin to think about further upgrades. Veteran can be really helpful to re-roll a bad set of dice.
Stubborn can be helpful for units that might be positioned on the flanks or end of the battle line as they are most vulnerable. I certainly would not give it to every unit in a 1,000-point force.

Riding Horses is a bargain at 1 point a base, as being able to move most of your battle line 8” closer to the enemy and start the game in shieldwall can be really helpful and put pressure on your opponent right from the start. That is when they are more likely to make a mistake. Troops that you might use to guard a flank don’t need to be riding horses so some points can be saved there.

I rarely take javelins unless points are not an issue.

Patience is the key when using the Anglo Danish. You may need to keep a unit or two back on the flanks to stop the enemy getting around the side of your battle line. Most other armies will be more manoeuvrable and this will be your key danger.

One way to deal with is to use a ‘refused flank’ deployment. Mass your troops on one side and then swing your army round using your board edge to be the hinge around which your army moves.

You will have to accept that your opponent if they have a modicum of shooting will gain some momentum points. You will not lose too many bases from shooting (and the first one can always be a Fyrd) as even at short range they would need an average of 18 shots to take a base off. However, if you come out of shieldwall on your own head be it.

You will earn plenty of momentum tokens in the combat phase!

If your opponent has built up a significant advantage in momentum tokens then try to ensure that you align your units so that when the charge eventually goes in there is only one or two combats so that you are not at a disadvantage in the use of momentum tokens as there is a maximum of 3 tokens per combat.

Once you are in combat you will find that you start to grind your enemy down until their battle line begins to disintegrate.
If you get too gung-ho you will find yourself leaving a flank exposed so even when you are in combat you may want to hang back with a unit or two.

MartinG
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Re: Anglo Danish - Tips and Hints

Postby MartinG » Fri Jun 02, 2017 7:26 am

Great stuff Bob. Now we all have to try and mirror image this to work out how to beat you!
"No one ever achieved anything without making a few mistakes along the way"

Bob Stradling
Posts: 393
Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2016 10:46 am

Re: Anglo Danish - Tips and Hints

Postby Bob Stradling » Fri Jun 02, 2017 8:48 am

Martin do you think I told you everything? ;-)

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A Lot of Gaul
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Re: Anglo Danish - Tips and Hints

Postby A Lot of Gaul » Fri Jun 02, 2017 3:10 pm

Thanks for your great post, Bob! I, for one, greatly enjoy reading such helpful and informative posts as yours. For a number of reasons many of us do not have Facebook accounts, so please continue to post here as well.
"Experience is the teacher of all things."
~ Gaius Julius Caesar

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guard
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Re: Anglo Danish - Tips and Hints

Postby guard » Tue Jun 06, 2017 10:04 pm

Thank you, enjoyed the insight into the AD very much

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Atheling
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Re: Anglo Danish - Tips and Hints

Postby Atheling » Mon Mar 09, 2020 7:54 am

Thanks for this Bob.

It will certainly help not just with the list writing but the the tactical hints will certainly be extremely useful too. I would dearly love to get my Anglo Danish army fully painted as I just love the look!

I'm still stuck between fielding Anglo Danes and Almoravids in Notts (all down to getting the painting done in time!) though I could always pull out my Normans and possibly play them as Italo-Normans (just for the fun).


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