I was looking into Great Yarmouth in 487, the final stop on the naval raids, and trying to juggle out what it might have been like in 487 and squaring that with Caister-On-Sea Roman Fort that I visited a couple of years ago.

As it turns out in Roman times where Great Yarmouth is today would have been under the sea and Caister-On-Sea was a naval base. Caister-On-Sea was also known as one of the Saxon Shore Forts and occupied at least until the end of the 4th century.

The GPC describes Yarmouth as a port for the Royal Fleet.

So putting it all together I've just decided to switch out Yarmouth and drop in Caister-On-Sea. It's easy to imagine a Saxon Short Fort either being continually occupied or refortified as the threat of the Saxons increases.

Add in a hundred years or so of a lack of Roman knowledge and it's easy to imagine the Roman Walls patched and fortified with wooden palisades. I might also describe the estuary beginning to silt up forming the land on which Yarmouth will later be built.

There's some more information on Caister-On-Sea here complete with an illustration over what it would have looked like in Roman Times:
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.12337

Thanks very much for this. I'll be doing the naval raids next Tueaday.

I wasn't sure if this was the sort of thing that should be posted, so it's nice to know it was helpful.

I'm also planning on making the first attack at Hastings and having the fleet spend the night before at Anderida (Pevensey). That was another Roman Saxon Shore fort and gives me the opportunity to introduce the place and it's people before having Aelle destroy it and slaughter everyone a few years later.

Anderida was unusual in that it wasn't the usual playing card shape but instead followed the shape of the spit of land that it was on. Much as I would like to I can't find an impression of how it was in Roman Times, just how the later Pevensey Castle looked. There is some information here though:
http://www.yeoldesussexpages.com/castles/Pevensey/pevmain.htm

Fear not - posts like this are very welcome and helpful.

I GMd the very same year yesterday. All of my knights survived even though they balked at the idea of getting on a boat (all of them having Swimming 2 and Boating 1).

To add to Oly's background information, I manipulated a few shots of places along the shore to use as scene setting pictures for my players, which you might also find helpful.

http://www.kap5.net/Other/487-Sea-Raiding-with-Madoc/11252713_hMDRw#789273597_FtbJR

Drat. I'm a couple years ahead of you guys in the timeline (just finished 489), otherwise I'd have loved to use this stuff.

But, my players decided on the land adventures that year (they balked at the idea of fighting on ship, too), so I guess it would have gone to waste.