Thanks to everybody for playing, and especially to Æscwine and Joub for leading both teams, Deorlaf for organizing the event, Þorkell for running it and Guðmund for creating two fantastic maps!
Personally I'm torn between the
feeling that the Normans had too much cavalry (as their threat seemed to be constant) and the fact that, except maybe for the first round or two, that wasn't really the case (I counted them; they stayed well below the normal cap, close to 20%). Regardless, we felt completely at their mercy. I think that if we had played more rounds we would have figured something out, but without the discipline and cohesion of smaller forces with experience playing together that's very hard to do.
I know there's been relatively little emphasis on the historical background; that's because this is such an obscure campaign and very little is known about it (so Momchilo, I'm a bit sceptical about your disgust after reading about the effects of the English expedition on the nearby villages
). But in case you're interested in what we kinda know happened next: The English were repelled and had to flee back to England. However, after the Battle of the Val de Saire Count Richard thought it was in his best interest to renounce his policy of support for the Vikings, perhaps because he feared the English might be back during the next campaigning season and he wasn't confident in defeating them a second time, or perhaps simply because he thought siding with the English instead of with the Vikings would be more profitable. In 1002 Æþelréd married Richard's sister, Emma (who would then take or be given the Anglo-Saxon name
Ælfgifu), to seal a new peace treaty and alliance. We could perhaps say that the campaign was ultimately a tactical Norman victory, but a strategic English victory.
The new treaty went beyond merely restoring the status quo of 991, as England and Normandy were to enjoy close ties and very good relations until the Conquest. However, the Viking menace would soon escalate again. In 1001, Pallig defected to the Vikings with his ships. Against this backdrop of paranoia, the following year Æþelréd had countless Danes murdered throughout England in what came to be known as St. Brice's Day Massacre. According to tradition, one of the victims was Gunnhildr, Pallig's wife and sister of Sveinn 'Forkbeard', which prompted renewed expeditions by the latter culminating with his conquest of England (1013). Æþelréd fled to Normandy as an exile, where he was welcomed by Richard, which again goes to show how much the political and diplomatic situation changed after the battle of the Val de Saire. He would be restored after Svein's death, but would die himself in 1016, after which Svein's son, Knútr, seized the throne. Emma then married Knútr – her impact on English history cannot be overstated.
Niel viscount (known nowadays as Néel or Nigel I of Saint-Sauveur) went on to have a pretty brilliant career until his death ca. 1040. Ælfríc ealdorman, however, continued to have a reputation of untrustworthiness and of ambivalence towards the Vikings, but ironically he died at the battle of Assandun (1016), fighting against Knútr and the Danes.
