Lost Battles Hastings 1066 scenario

Below is a scenario for Lost Battles, I tried to follow the section in Lost Battles that described the parameters of scenarios in the system. It has the Normans at 7,500 soldiers and the Anglo Saxons at 8,000 soldiers and the scenario uses the multiplier of 1. The scenario is untested and it was made in June to give me something to build paper armies towards. The paper armies were made with Lost Battles troop ratios in mind. Also each paper warrior to real warrior is roughly 1:7 or 8. Average heavy infantry have a frontage of 80mm (16 x 4 warriors) Huscarls represented by Veteran Heavy Infantry on 40mm front (8 x 4 warriors), each Levy heavy infantry units have 2 x 80mm bases as they represent twice the amount of warriors of an average unit. Light infantry here is represented by 2 x 80mm frontage bases (16 x 2 warriors per base) Average Light infantry in Lost Battles represent the same amount of warriors as an average heavy infantry base, however they are twice as wide. Veteran Cavalry have an 80mm wide base, and have 18 riders on them whereas Average cavalry have 2 bases across, 36 riders and like Light Infantry they occupy a wider slice of the battlefield.

I didn't want to come up with any special rules and wanted to test the Lost Battle system to see if it can manage Hastings. I feel like cavalry was probably very similar to their ancient counterparts, depending on closing and javelin throwing. One of the main features is the somewhat uncontrolled charge off the secure hill by the Anglo Saxons chasing down fleeing Normans. Instead of an involuntary charge rule the Norman Key Zone is placed on the Norman Left, thus if the Anglo Saxons want to strike a morale blow to the Normans they should try to take that zone. Or try to grind down the Normans from the hilltop but in doing so they allow the Normans to dominate most of the field. Also there is a risk that William can use his Brilliant Commander ability to intervene on a faltering flank with his turn flip flop. The field itself has difficult terrain on the flanks, the historical deployment would probably ignore the flank zones and funnel into the 3 central zones, but players can see if flanking forces can make a difference, or whether focusing commands on the attacks and not wading through marsh or navigating trees would be more prudent as the forces on the day found. This is the beauty and fun of Lost Battles you can experiment and tweak as you see fit. I'm certainly not an expert in the battle so I would love to hear suggestions or tweaks to the scenario or even your version of the scenario, its a classic British battle and we love to rake over it!   

HASTINGS, 1066 AD

M: x1 AL:3
Anglo-Saxons:
King Harold Godwinson (Inspired Leader) attached to a VHI
8 VHI (Huscarls 2,000), 8 AHI (Select Fyrd 4,000), 2 LHI (Greater Fyrd 2,000), FV 72.

The Normans:
Duke of Normandy (Brilliant Commander)
8 VHC (Norman Knights 1,000), 4 AHC (French/Breton Cavalry 1,000), 8 AHI (Norman/Mercenary Infantry 4,000), 3 ALI (Bowmen/Crossbowmen 1,500), FV 95.

Approx. 300m per zone

FOREST	HILL	HILL	HILL	FOREST
		HILL KZ
MARSH	KZ
MARSH				FOREST

Hastings Paper Project

2025, I knew on the 1st of January it was going to be a tough year. Our daughter had been having major struggles at school around sensory issues and expected a rough year. Having a child that needs adjustments in the UK around school uniform, despite the law being on our side, it is not enforceable for most parents, and in the mean time you can try to protect your child but the system forces you to either force and harm your child to comply or punish you as a parent for not doing so. However this is not what this blog is for, but for context, the trials of trying to raise and protect a child with neuro-divergent profiles in a system that punishes non-conformance has thoroughly sapped my strength and will to pursue hobbies. Even in school holidays where the whole household sighs relief for the break from coping with this system, things are not always easy. In June I began to prep some metal 20mm Celtiberians from Newline Designs and I just lost the will to go on!

I thought instead of powering through I need to pursue a topic I fancied at the time, to use what little enthusiasm I had. Hastings 1066 had captured my imagination and I felt Lost Battles could work for that as it works great for solo. I worked on a scenario (post to follow) that gave me a basis for an army list for each side. I then dug out my Victrix stash and worked out what miniatures I would need while keeping the Lost Battles troop ratio. Being larger figures I wouldn't have the usual mass of troops I like and I would need to get  another set of cavalry. This was looking more and more like a huge project that would take years and require tonnes of storage! I didn't want to buy any more cavalry and didn't want another main project.

I then thought Peter Dennis' Helion book on 1066 might be an option. I had looked into paper miniatures in the past but felt I wasn't up for intricate snipping. This time I did a deeper dive into the practicalities of it, there was a number of videos that gave excellent pointers. So I got a few free files from Helion downloads section, followed Peter's advise and was impressed with the possibilities. By the end of June I bought and downloaded the 1066 book and printed off the required sheets for my Lost Battle's scenario I printed 4 x A4 pages to 1 side of A4 effectively halving the scale of the troops in the book.

early July saw me making steady progress getting a unit done every other night when i got the chance to spend an hour or so on them. I hoped to have the full armies done, and a game set up and hopefully posted by the anniversary of the battle. 2025 being 2025 has lead to that date passing by with finishing touches still needed, still not too bad, but the situation had halted much productivity! But casually tinkering on and ending up with two completed armies would never be possible with my usual medium of painting miniatures. I enjoyed printing and snipping the paper soldiers and have done as I usually done and gone all in, got most of the Helion ebooks and a few of the sets from Peter's Paper Boys webshop (with my eyes on other eras on there). Its an ideal side track, produce satisfying armies quickly and cheaply, ideal for the wargames butterfly and when I'm feeling more refreshed I can pick up my 20mm ancients main project.

While plowing through fyrd and Norman knights, I quite fancied AWI next, then I was thinking again on 28mm Dark age skirmishing. This project has cemented what I'm using my Victrix miniatures for, thus I have decided that my 28mm Victrix miniatures will mainly be geared towards a fantasy setting whether that's Middle-Earth or my own made up fantasy setting. This also frees me to build and paint miniature without historical accuracy to contain me. I like the look of swords despite their less frequent historical use, more practical spears are more at risk of snapping in plastic. I still could do with making some paper terrain for Hastings but I've started assembling some Victrix Early Saxons again following the principal of following hobby whims.

I'm also thinking on on my next Paper army project, originally AWI, then thought Peninsular war, now I seem to have settled on the Wars of the Roses. I'm in the research phase, imagining the armies, how I will format them using the Helion book by Peter Dennis, and what rules to go for, tending towards homebrew inspired by various other sets including the ones included in the ebook.      

For the Anglo Saxon and Norman armies here, I settled on the usual 80mm bases, with the strips being printed at half scale the frontage of each strip was 20mm, so each base of infantry got 16 strips. Huscarls were based as Veteran heavy infantry so did them on a 40mm base (Lost Battles quirk). I got into the swing of things working on the Fyrd troops and I didn't cut between the legs hoping to give a stronger bond to the base, by the time I got onto cavalry and Norman foot I started to cut between the legs and will do so going forwards. I think the cavalry would have appeared better had I mounted them closer together, but I based them on the troop ratios in Lost Battles (cavalry tends to be half as many mounted warriors as infantry but on double the frontage). I also used spare shields to give casualty markers a bit more drama. I could still do with making a few trees for the flank sections of the battlefield but other than that the armies are done for now.

I've always loved Peter Dennis' art which is an integral part of the hobby, box art, rules and supplement illustrations, board and card game art (I love Milito) and Ospreys to name a few, so to have full armies of his illustrated warriors is a true pleasure and I'm eager to print and assemble more. The relative speed and ease alongside the lower costs makes Peter's Paper Boys an invaluable option to the practical wargamer! The can be stored quite compact also.

Hopefully in time, things improve here and I can have a blow by blow account of Lost Battles: Hastings 1066! in the mean time I will post a scenario for Lost Battles enthusiasts to try. I also hope to get these Moria Goblins posted they have been painted and photographed for ages they are cursed on this blog, there's also a few other June draft posts when I was last blogging. I'm assembling the odd Victrix armoured Saxon warrior, enjoying the assembly phase and hopefully soon I'll work out what forces I need for the Cousins War!

Lost Battles: Magnesia 190BC

Rome began with Eumenes who forced the withdrawal of the Scythed Chariots, no one else suffered from this flight from the field but the continued combats wore down the levy light infantry. The Roman veteran cavalry swiftly dispatched the Galatian levy horse on the Seleucid left, this caused the yet to be bloodied levy heavy infantry on the Seleucid left to withdraw. Fighting in the centre was inconclusive while the Seleucid levy skirmishers on the right became spent. 

The Seleucids countered, somewhat on the back foot, the Roman advance had pressed the Seleucid in the rear of the battlefield so they needed to push the Romans back. They started in the centre the Seleucid Light Infantry pressed the velites back being able to retreat behind the legions they avoided a second hit. The Seleucid phalangites used their depth to push the Roman legions, there were two successful attacks one had to all out attack by becoming spent, hoping that the greater numbers of Seleucids would pressure the Romans with less troops, causing veteran legionaries to become spent. The second was also an all out attack but this time the phalangites in their effort expended two veteran legionaries as well as themselves. The Seleucid left after seeming quite brittle pushed back hard, Eumenes guard (who forgot to rally) took a hit along with the Roman allied cavalry and the veteran Cretan archers.

The Romans after taking some hits knew they had to press their advantage, having control of most of the battlefield was dampening the spirits of the Seleucid troops just as much as the damp conditions were dampening bow strings. Roman velites pushed themselves almost to breaking point to shatter the Seleucid levy skirmishers. Another Seleucid skirmisher swarm was shattered, the resultant morale of the Seleucids saw a levy heavy infantry rout and the withdrawal of an average heavy cavalry and the levy cataphracts. The flight inspired the withdrawal of last light levy troops in the centre.

While the cavalry on the left withdrew to fight another day, the remaining troops felt the pressure, they had to start breaking Roman troops before the Roman right regrouped to attack their flank. The elephants pressed some veteran legionaries inflicting a hit as Antiochus finally got into the fight his Agema wrecked havoc on the Roman lines with allied legionares and veterans becoming spent. The cataphracts followed in the carnage and in their attempt to emulate the kings guard exerted themselves inflicting damage on two veteran legions.

The Romans used to dealing with elephants and inflicted a double hit the levy phalangites taking the brunt of the elephants wrath. A following veteran legion finished off the elephants and the levy pikes routed from the field. Antiochus himself was under threat the Agema received a hit but the king rallied his men.

The king knew this was his last chance, after his men rallied they once again undertook a thunderous charge destroying veteran legionaries and the Velities sheltering behind them. Roman morale held despite the looming threat of light cavalry to their rear who appeared after skirting along by the river. The Silvershields brought their strength to bear shattering average and veteran legionaries, this caused the remaining veteran legionaries to rout as well at the velites in the centre. The light cavalry now headed to threaten the Roman centre but the phalanxes did not make any headway.

By now the victoriuos roman right was geared to strike the flank of the phalanx and after the final phalanx became spent a unit of pikes were shattered causing the rout of the remaining two and the levy light cavalry quietly withdrew, the victorious Roman right now swept towards the Seleucid camp, the Roman centre now thier opposing troops dissipated, turned to finish the Silvershields with another shattered phalanx and another two routing units after a attack from their left flank. Antiochus could only withdraw, the cataphracts routed following the kings decision and Antiochus he hoped to rally his army to fight again, and that the Romans were bloodied enough to slow their advance into Asia Minor!       

Rome 

Shattered: 1 x ALE, 2 x VLE, 1 x ALI  

Rout: 1 x VLE, 1 x ALI 

Spent: 3 x VLE, 1 x AHC, 1 x VHC, 1 x VLI                                      
74 Seleucid VP (94 with handicap)

Seleucids 
Shattered: 1 x LHC, 2 x LLI. 1 x IEL, 2 x APH

Rout: 1 x LHI, 1 x LPH, 4 x APH, 2 x ACA

Withdrawn: 1 x SCH, 1 x LHI, 1 x AHC, 1 x LCA, AL + VHC
109 Roman VP

Clear Roman victory (Narrow victory with handicap)