1066 and all that: The Beginning and the End
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The starting set-up political situation, as of the death of Edward the Confessor on January 5th 1066. I exaggerated slightly the political cohesion of 11th Century Ireland in order to make it a viable power-bloc.
England was divided into two power-blocs; Southern England (being the Godwinsons), and Northern England (being the descendents of Leofric of Mercia). The northern Earls started the game as tributary to King Harold; this introduced an immediate political element to the game as the northern Earls schemed for their independence while King Harold had the dilemma of having to keep them in line without plunging England into a damaging civil war which would leave it wide open to foreign invasion. Indeed it was ultimately a rift between the north and the south that lead to the fall of the English Kingdom.
The result was a game where politics were as much a feature as army combat. At one point a High Witan was called to choose the King of England, and players furiously traded the votes of the areas they controlled with the candidates for political advantage. More than once political assassination was used as well.
And here is the final situation, at the end of 1075. England has been conquered by Flanders. Count Arnulf of Flanders has manoeuvred his brother Baldwin onto the throne of England. King Philip of France has driven the troublesome Normans from his Kingdom, and William Rufus, son of William the Bastard (who was drowned at the Battle of Hastings after being thrown from his horse in mid-river), rules the “Duchy of Strathclyde” as a feudal vassal of King Baldwin. Norse warlords have dismembered the rest of the former Kingdom of Scotland between them.
Then there is the question of the final scores. It would have been nice to start the campaign with all nation having an equal chance of winning, but realistically 11th Century Orkney (say) was militarily and economically a much weaker entity than (say) 11th Century England, even if I did split England into two halves.
I therefore made no attempt to game-balance the nations, but instead gave assigned powerful nations a victory point handicap, and weaker nations a bonus. To a certain extent my criteria for awarding victory points was “how will history remember this person.” After all, it was said of King Swein of Denmark that he never won a battle but never lost a war. Harold of England won a lot of battles, but ultimately he lost the war. Yet today, who is more famous, Swein or Harold?
Bearing in mind these considerations the final scores are:
As you can see, Flanders wins on points as well. Orkney came second.
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