Battle of Mynydd Carn 1081

The end of last week saw a couple of games being played. First up a chance to get my Dark age collection out for a fight. Some time ago I picked up a useful book on Battles in Wales this lead me to the Battle of Mynyyd Carn 1081. After a bit of web searching……..

“In 1081 Gruffudd ap Cynan returned on a second campaign from Ireland with an army of Danes and Irish to become King of Gwynedd. He took his fleet to St Davids and made an alliance with Rhys ap Tewdwr who had recently been ousted as prince of Deheubarth by Caradog ap Gruffudd of Morgannwg. Gruffudd ap Cynan received additional support with backers that came from north Wales. They all agreed to remove Trahaearn ap Caradog from the throne of Gwynedd. However, meanwhile, Trahaearn had learned of their plot and secretly formed an alliance with Caradog ap Gruffudd and Meilyr ap Rhiwallon. Trahaearn also obtained Norman arbalesters for additional support for his army. The two enemy armies met at the fierce and bloody Battle of Mynydd Carn north of St Davids. Trahaearn, Caradog and Meilyr were killed”. 

The scenario had a number of features to add some ‘fun’ , most significantly Gruffydd’s force would be split into factions, Welsh, Danes and Irish. These would come on piecemeal and at different rates as they rushed headlong into combat. Trahaearn’s which is slightly smaller would be set up ready to fight. There was a slight chance that some of the Danes would swop sides although in the end this didn’t occur. The small hills are surrounded by boggy ground.

The welsh portion of Gruffydd’s force immediately rushes onto the table in fact assaulting the light defenders in the wood first turn ! It was clear the object for the defenders would be to beat the attackers before they could bring their numbers to overwhelm them.

Crossbow bolts are fired into the woods to slow the attack

Quickly fierce  fighting kicks off in the woods

At the far end the Welsh defenders are drawn into the boggy ground by the Danes, this proved a big mistake !

The defenders are starting to be driven back although they are still holding the nearby hill

But they too are gradually being forced back until they finally break 🙁

In the centre Caradog has attacked but his heavier armed ‘Saxon’ warriors get overwhelmed and eventually the Danes force their way through the ‘bloody bog’ and begin to outflank the defenders. History has been repeated although only one of the defending generals has actually been killed the others would need to make a quick escape to save their skins.

I didn’t take too many photos but this was a tremendous battle and fight. The random deployment worked really well giving the attacker a lot to think about but getting the battle going really quickly. It has made me think I could do with a few more Pictish and welsh troops ?

The other battle last week was down with George, he has already covered the battle on his blog so just a few pictures here and the merest record.

The Germans are at least allowed tanks this battle so a Pz1 and II enter the battle.

Marie-Louise a local lady mistaken by the French as a collaborator but in fact she was just shopping and when challenged she disappeared back into the woods ? (She is actually a sniper and will return !)

I made a real hash of coordinating the attack, getting too spread out and letting the french get into a strong defensive position, this meant a lot of fairly ineffective shooting at a single unit in the buildings when I should have been advancing boldly across the table.

The PzI was as much a decoy as a threat to the french who spent a long time chasing it through the woods

I’d like to say my plan worked but it didn’t really, however by some quirk, every time I hit a french unit I managed to kill or wound a junior leader and then George kept rolling six’s on the bad things table. One of the French senior leaders was even hit by shrapnel from the 75mm gun and knocked unconscious for several phases. The french morale plummeted off the scale really quickly leaving them with no option but to flee the field giving the Germans an unlikely win. I’m not sure the Germans deserved a win but I’ll take it 🙂

Lots of painting activity at the moment but not much completed only these 15mm animals for the ECW collection. I have some pigs but I’m not sure what to do with them yet ?

We have just completed another ECW battle today so I’ll try and blog that later in the week, otherwise thanks for taking the time to pass through 🙂

Matt❤️

One final thought blogger seems to be particularly annoying at the moment as it must have had an update or something. Uploading photos seems to be a challenge, commenting seems to keep locking me out etc… I assume this will settle down but it is becoming a bit of a chore so I probably won’t post that often at the moment.