Today, we were down to Lawrence and me in our game. We had a Dark age skirmish using my rules. We did a scenario where a Norwegian village is being defended by the locals against a rival Jarl. The defenders have been drawn out of the village by a diversion, while the raiders attack from the other direction!
The village...
The raiders would attack from the direction of the stream.
Lawrence's men returning to the village from their wild goose chase!
A block of well armoured spearmen.
His Lord, and hearth troops, supported by some archers.
My force, larger, but less heavily armoured.
Lawrence advanced to seize the village before I could get there.
They could not see my force yet.
In my haste, only one unit crossed by the bridge, My Lord and the rest of the force waded across the stream.
Lawrence's force decided to vault the fence.
My raiders pushed on rapidly into the edge of the settlement.
My left hand unit caught sight of the defenders, and raised the alarm.
These had cleared the barrier, and formed up, ready for battle.
My Lord edged round the edge of the town, looking for a chance to outflank the defenders.
My spearmen and archers pushed on into town.
Where were the defenders?
Lawrence diverted half his men left, to counter my moves.
His Lord, and the archers, stayed in town to delay any advance there.
I detached my archers to shoot them from the fence-line.
They also threatened Lawrence's flanking troops.
My Lord halted, to see what Lawrence was doing.
His flank move hove into sight.
My archers came under arrow shot as they took their position behind the fence.
One of my men took a light wound.
My men shot back - causing a serious wound on one of the opposing bowmen!
Were we going to settle for an archery duel?
No! - my Lord led some spearmen down the flank.
Lawrence's men were still crossing the fence!
The archers were still trading arrows.
Lawrence decided to halt his flank move, and set up a shield wall.
His archers and Lords-band followed them, abandoning the town.
My archers, now without a target, followed my Lord.
They soon had Lawrence's spearmen under shot.
My Lord and his Huscarles also demonstrated against them.
I now brought the remainder of my force round the flank to support my Lord.
These would protect my flank and rear, and support any attack I made.
Lawrence's spearmen looked under threat.
My archers were countered, however...
Lawrence's archers were now in position to support his spearmen.
His Lord, too, now raced to support the spearmen, too.
I now had my full force mustered, and prepared to attack!
I ordered my archers to charge his, who had crossed the fence to engage me.
My bowmen refused! - but agreed to engage in a short range exchange of arrows!
My spearmen hurried to form up with my Lord.
My bowmen were losing the arrow-fight...
... and were charged by Lawrence's archers!
My men evaded easily.
My Lord, seeing the enemy spearmen close by, charged them, driving away his archers in the process! My first charge wounded some of the enemy front rank.
My Lord was now vulnerable to Lawrence's Lord who was moving to extend his flank!
Surprisingly, my Lord and his guard, were briefly recoiled, were we going to lose?
No! - My spearmen charged Lawrence's Lord, and although they lost the melee, they held on bravely...
My Lord and his men returned to the attack and broke the enemy spearmen!
This unexpected disaster forced Lawrence's Lord to retreat off table too, as my reserve spearmen and my Lord, would have overwhelmed his small remaining force had he stayed.
(At this point - Lawrence realised he had not deployed a Huscarl in his Lord's band!)
Guthrum emerged from the trees, hitching his breeches, only to find his army in retreat! 'O, Bu##*#r!'
Amazingly, although about a dozen men were wounded, only one of Lawrence's spearmen had died! A rematch is therefore on the cards!
More importantly, we had a good little game, which could have gone either way!
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