total war saga thrones of britannia ragnar

The youngest son of King Æthelwulf, Alfred of Wessex is more famously known as ‘Alfred the Great’ for his legendary will to survive and unite the isles under one banner.Īlfred undertook his first key military challenge in 868 AD when he supported his brother Æthelred, the reigning King of Wessex, in an attempt to repel invading Danish Vikings from the neighboring Kingdom of Mierce. Alfred’s dogged defense of the Danish invasion laid the foundations for Wessex to unite England under one ruler for the first time in 927 AD. From the capital city of Winchester, Wessex conquered lands in Surrey, Sussex, Kent, Essex and even Mercia. Over-reliance on levy troops carries penalties however – if too many are fielded, the populace will rail against excessive conscription and public order issues will arise.Īs the dominant Anglo-Saxon kingdom of southern England, the forces of West Seaxe – or Wessex in modern English – provided the isle’s primary resistance against the incursions of the Great Heathen Army. To reflect the Fyrd system, the English Kingdoms in Thrones of Britannia may recruit additional levy units based upon the number of settlements they own. One of Alfred the Great’s many reforms was to better formalise the system, ensuring wealthy landowners contributed men and materiel.

In Anglo Saxon times, the Fyrd was a form of conscripted army composed of self-armed and armoured freemen, called upon to defend their lands when the need arose. Thrones of Britannia depicts the sweep of the British Isles from 878 AD onwards, when the Anglo Saxons were at their height. The peoples of these regions came collectively to be known as the Anglo Saxons – a term which came into common usage in the 8 th century in order to distinguish the English Saxons from the Old Saxons, or Ealdseaxe, of the European continent.īroadly speaking, the Anglo Saxons existed between the collapse of Roman rule in the 5 th century until the Norman invasion in the 11 th century the early Medieval period.

When Roman rule in England concluded, new kingdoms of Germanic stock coalesced in the counties now known as Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex, Essex, Sussex, East Anglia and Kent.

Total war saga thrones of britannia ragnar