Battle of Brunanburh Bonus (More Vikings!)

Wargames Illustrated 271 features my take on the epic Battle of Brunanburh, where the Dublin Norse made their last great attempt against Alfred's scions in 937. This material was written in support of the previous issue's Vikings of Ireland theme. The WI website features orders of battle I created using Warhammer Ancient Battles and Warmaster Ancients rules.

I mentioned previously that I really liked Howard Whitehouse's article on the Battle of Clontarf because he made the effort to present the scant historical facts as best as possible and let the mythology provide flavor. This is exactly the way I felt Brunanburh should be handled. Most of the medieval text concerning the battle should not be taken at face value. The orders of battle noted above were created with these kinds of thing in mind. The Brunanburh battle poem, found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (and also presented in the online bonus material), served as my guide; the tweaks especially try to bring out the flavor of the poem.


So now I'm wondering what the lists might look like with Howard Whitehouse's beta Clash of Iron. That sounds like a fun project to try out next month.