Wargaming the age of the Anglo-Saxons at Sutton Hoo

Sutton Hoo has been in my awareness for nearly my entire life; from seeing the iconic helmet and shield at the British Museum as a child, admiring Angus McBride’s illustrations in Osprey books as a teenager and visiting the end of the excavations on site in the early 1990s, I have collected the miniatures and refought the battles.  So, it was a great privilege to be asked if I’d help to put on some Anglo-Saxon wargames as part of the National Trust site’s activities in July 2023. 

My son was also inspired after watching the Netfix film The Dig and decided to join me, along with chums Pete and Tom.  Pete kindly volunteered to drive us all down to Suffolk, and so began the Sutton Hoo wargaming road trip.  It didn’t start so well – with Tom unfortunately being laid low with Covid – but the remaining three of us packed up Pete’s car and hit the road on Saturday morning. 

Despite driving through some squally weather, the sun was out by the time we hit the lanes of Suffolk and we were treated to a beautiful late afternoon visit to Sutton Hoo.  The National Trust have done a wonderful job with the site – a far cry from the concluding excavations that I remember from my visit thirty-odd years ago. 

We headed straight out to Tranmer House followed by the obligatory tour of the grave mounds.  I was most impressed with the viewing tower with its well-presented information on the geographical links and connections of East Anglia – essential for understanding how a site like this was near the centre of an active and powerful kingdom 1400 years ago. 

We also ran into a friendly NT volunteer at the mounds who was able to give us more information about the area and its history, as well as some more background on Edith Pretty and the excavations of 1939.

I could happily have sat out by the mounds for several hours, but time was pressing and we needed to get back to the rest of the site.  There is a visitor centre next to the shop and café with a state-of-the-art exhibition explaining the history of the site and interpretations of the treasures, alongside outstanding replicas of the helmet, shield, sword and other grave goods. 

Naturally, my son found the dressing up section and turned in quite a spooky impersonation of Raedwald!  We also enjoyed playing some hnefatafl before closing time, at which point we headed off for the less glamorous but perfectly comfortable Premier Inn in Ipswich.

Sunday was the day for the event and we arrived back on site to find Joshua and Andy from the NT putting up gazebos for the gaming activities.  Yes, we were gaming outside! 

Rain wasn’t forecast until the end of the afternoon, but we knew that wind was going to be the main issue.  The Sutton Hoo site is at the top of a ridge above the River Deben (the access point for the boats used in the ship burial in Mounds One and Two) and catches a fair breeze, to say the least.  Fortunately, we had come prepared: feeling somewhat like a roadie setting up a gig, I produced two large rolls of gaffer tape (duct tape for our US chums) and we proceeded to stick down nearly every element of the gaming area.  In the days when we mainly used big terrain boards, this might have been less of an issue, but with modern terrain cloths we were in danger of taking off! 

It took a while, but eventually everything was secured into position.  The biggest issue was the A4 document holders which acted somewhat like a sail – fortunately, several layers of tape combined with East Anglian flint rocks took care of it.

The day passed in a pleasant blur, with visitors crowding the four event tables all day.  Local gamers Richard and Ernie (also a NT volunteer) had brought a game of Too Fat Lardies’ Dux Britanniarum.

NT staff member Andy hosted a busy ‘paint your own Saxon thegn’ table, kindly sponsored by our the ever-generous Lord Sherwell at Gripping Beast.

Pete did a sterling job of hosting my 15/18mm Battle of Degsastan game (with no breaks) for a seemingly endless stream of visitors – there were great cheers emanating from his gazebo at regular intervals, so clearly people were enjoying it.  Grateful gamers also collected the sample bags of 18mm Saxon miniatures donated by Daniel Mersey of Wiglaf Miniatures. 

My son and I ran the Battle of the River Idle using 28mm miniatures around ten times in various forms, with victory going to the East Anglians and the Northumbrians in equal measure.  Historically, this one was particularly relevant to the site as it’s the battle where King Raedwald of East Anglia (the most likely occupant of the ship burial in Mound One) triumphed over Aethelfrith in 616/617.

There was much hilarity as families were pitted against each other and bloodthirsty children charged their miniature heroes into battle.  One enthusiastic participant managed to wipe out the entire East Anglian royal family in just ten minutes with a spectacularly unlucky display of dice rolling! 

Rules used were my own Mead-Price (designed to play a battle in 30 minutes) which are available as a two-page download if you’d like to try them. 

In case you missed it, you may also want to read my Getting Started in Early Medieval Wargaming.

Many thanks to Josh, Andy and the Sutton Hoo NT team for making us so welcome, Pete for the heroic driving and game hosting, and Gripping Beast and Wiglaf Miniatures for your generous contributions.  It was a great privilege to be involved.