A'Viking we will go, A'Viking we will go! hi-ho the dairy-o...

Why circa 800ce? This is simply one of my favourite periods in history. Not only were the vikings sailing across the world in their longships, but also many peoples held on to their celtic lifestyles. Along with the bloody battles and heroic deeds this clash of cultures and axes ultimately ended at the Norman lancepoint, which is the basis for the current power structure in the UK. So, as a period in time, it was quite a significant transitional time as well as an exciting one!

For a map of the initial positions, please see this link.

The armies involved are not entirely historically accurate in terms of where they would be and when. This is particularily True with the Sub-Roman British, who would have been only in Cumbria at this time. Ultimately this campaign is meant to facilitate a fun time for all, and since these armies are the ones the players have and are interested in, then I think they are the best for the job! Sorry to all who are a bit more historically pedantic than myself :) Hey, it's creative anachronism at work!

The campaign will start roughly around 846CE. Of course, during this time people weren't worried about exactly what year it was, only what the season was and what sailing conditions might be like. As such, the exact year isn't all that important except that we need a year to start with, so that's the arbitrary-ish one!

The campaign will be played for two years. In the DBA campaign rules, each year is made up of three rounds corresponding to the seasons of spring, summer, and autumn. A two year campaign will therefor give players six turns each. There is an option to extend the campaign; if the players are still interested and available after two years, we can extend the timeframe.

At the end of the campaign, the player with the highest prestige point total will be declared the Circa 800 Hardrada! (aka, the winner). Prestige points will be alloted in the following two ways:

• After each battle fought, each palyer is given prestige points by first calculating:
  • (elements destroyed) - (elements lost),
  • plus two (2) points for each camp/BUA occupied
  • and two (2) points if the enemy general element was destroyed.
  • Any negative totals are changed to zero,
  • the final number is multiplied by (elements in opponents army)/(elements in your army).
  The multiplication is there to account for armies with a different number of elements; If you beat an army with fewer elements, you won't get as many prestige points while if you beat an army with more elements, you will get more points! And yes, I will do all the math! I have to put those university math skill to use somewhere!
• At the end of the campaign each player receives 3 prestige points for each city controlled, and 2 prestige points for each city controlled by your tributaries.

For the most part this campaign will follow Phil Barker's campaign rules as outlined in the DBA Version 2.2 rule book. There will be a few additions to the rules however to add flavour to the campaign and perhaps context for the period. The additions and other explanations specific to this campaign are outlined below.

1. Jarrow can be reached from ANY CITY with the exceptions of the capitol cities, and so from Jarrow you can reach any city with the exception of capitol cities. It is the central hub and it starts under the control of the English.
2. As noted above in the Prestige Scoring discussion, prestige points will be effected by the relative number of elements in each army.
3. The only true ocean crossings are York to Hedeby, and Bergen to Lindisfarn.
4. Horde elements do not follow the standard rules when lost during a battle. Hordes that are destroyed or flee/recoil over a battlefield edge are not transferred to the reserve, but are returned to the field army immedietely at the end of the battle. Hordes of peasants are easy to replace afterall!