Going A-Viking

Today, we had the Viking-Viking battle we had planned for 2 weeks ago, with Lawrences nice new Norse settlement.
We had Alex and myself attacking the settlement, naturally being guarded by Lawrence.

I started on the right...

Ragnarr being at the rear with his Berserkir. 

 Alex had Rollo with Lagatha and some Shield Maidens in advance of the line.

 Opposite me was a small group of Swordsmen supported by some slingers...

...and some archers. These also supported the defenders main force on the road. 

 Lawrence's right had more archers and slingers.

Lots of curious villagers watched from the relative safety of the buildings. 

I didn't fancy a head on clash with that lot, particularly as we would be under missile shot all the way in! 

I therefore brought my force behind Alex's, to attack the enemy right, this would make us less vulnerable to shooting from their left, and would outflank their main force in the settlement. 

My archers were unable to shoot at first as Alex's shield maidens were in the way! 

Lawrence saw our move, and as we had planned, he left the defences to face us. 

His lightly armoured men moved into position quickly! 

His archers shot at our advancing troops, covering this re-deployment.

Alex was supporting our advance with his archers on the left - one of them was wounded by a lucky arrow.

Our line began to shake out, at last my archers were able to reply to the defenders shooting! 

Alex formed a line to threaten the enemy issuing from the town. 

 I waited to form line until we were past a large rock formation!, however, an enemy archer wounded one of mine, they must have crack shots!

 Soon, both lines were forming in the open for the main clash.

Lawrence moved the redundant left wing slingers and swordsmen on a long outflanking move round my right. 

We were untroubled by their shooting at this range! 

Lawrences archers on the right were now shooting at Alex's spearmen...

 ...an arrow from Alex's ignored archers in the wood got a lucky hit!

I detached my archers to face off the slingers going round my flank. 

 One of them was wounded as he moved into position.

We shot back! 

..and wounded a slinger! 

..a second arrow felled him!

Alex, with my spearmen moving up on his right, moved to attack the lighter armed enemy! 

They were under arrow shot, and another lucky hit wounded a spearman, despite his armour! 

The defending shield wall smashed into Alex's line, and pushed him back with their impetus! 

On my flank, Ragnarr and his guards saw the enemy swordsmen attacking my archers and counter-attacked them! 

All my Berserks did was a single wound on the lightly armed swordsmen!!!

...this left my line weaker, but my men charged in bravely nonetheless! 

Things were not going well, Alex's spearmen broke off and rallied, and my spearmen were suffering against the enemy axemen! 

 My men recoiled too!

One bright spot though, my archers, no longer under threat, managed to shoot an enemy archer in the throat!

Only Alex's shield maidens were doing well, trying to flank the fanatical spearmen that were pushing his shield wall back. 

My shield wall was unable to move, and got surrounded. 

Even Alex's shield maidens were being held back from supporting his shield wall. 

Ragnarr's Berserkir were  wounding, and holding off the swordsmen, but another poor roll from Ragnarr saw him wounded! 

 In the end, our centre broke, so our attack broke off, and we made our way back to the ships to lick our wounds!

Amazingly, when we counted up, only 8 men had been killed in the battle, 3 defenders and 5 attackers, and our wounds were about equal!.

We had been a little unlucky in that when we put our best troops into action, they signally failed to perform! That is life though!

The important thing, though, is that we all enjoyed the game!