It's looking likely that my players are going to stop paying Cerdic his yearly tribute. Through warfare and politics they've managed to forge a vague alliance of Rydychan, Malborough, Clarence & Salisbury and think that while they may not be able to beat their Saxon neighbour they can give him enough of a bloody nose to make him back off.

So what forces can Cerdic bring to the table?

The GPC has him bringing "2000 Warriors" to the battle of Netley Marsh. Are they all "Saxon Warriors" (KV1) or are some of them meant to be the Fyrd of Ceorls (KV 0.2)?

The Saxons! book has Wessex with 52 Thegns and 800 Ceorls before Badon, so that's about a 1:10 ratio of Warror Thegns to farmers armed with spears.

A 2000KV Warrior army of Wessex is tough. A 252KV Army of 52 Thegns and 800 Ceorls is barely able to stand up to one County.

How strong should a Saxon Kingdom be?

If they have been getting tribute then we must assume that they are strong enough to do so? You do have quite an alliance. maybe you should call urself Duke!!!!! :D but 2000 should be ceprls and peasants as well as warriors and heorthgneats. thegns as well. and dont forget what makes the saxons really strong. they can make alliances themselves! should be an interesting battle.have fun and let us know how it goes.

You may have an alliance with Rydychan, but how many of them will come? After all, you have Forest Sauvage coming into play. Also, would Silchester raid so they can use that money to pay off their tribute? Cornwall's forces are on the march, so what if they hear that Salisbury is staging a major thrust against Cerdic? Will they be weaker afterwards and therefore open to invasion? It's true that they have a major alliance starting, but with everyone for himself, just how much will they send?

I can't see them invading Wessex, though you never know... What I imagine they will do is to refuse to pay tribute to Cerdic which will lead to him sending his army in.

Rydychan's got more to fear from the Angle's in Hertford than the Forest Sauvage. The Countess is indebted to Salisbury for dealing with the Usurpers, but I'm not sure how far that will go, a reasonable distance I can imagine.

The alliance with Marlboro and Clarence (which I do have as a small Duchy, at the moment, I'm looking to get Marlboro to break away) is more problematic. The Duke's motivations for it were his border skirmishes with Gloucester, which the players did become aware of yet still wanted the treaty.

So caught between the Duke wanting to get Salisbury involved in his border wars, Rydychan being weakened with the the Angles next door and Salisbury simply wanting to save a few Libre in tribute payments I can't see it all lasting very long. Other than Rydychan to Salisbury everyone's actual commitment to the deal seems pretty tepid.

Alliances and friendships are easy, in the time of anarchy sending knights away from their homelands is tough...
ISH