Today was our last club meet till September (sigh!), and we decided to do a dark ages skirmish.
Our scenario was Lawrence and I are Viking raiders attacking Saxon England, being met by Frankie and Paul with their Saxon Fyrd. I am not one to underestimate the strength of the Anglo Saxons, with whom I had beaten the Vikings (see this link)
Our scenario was Lawrence and I are Viking raiders attacking Saxon England, being met by Frankie and Paul with their Saxon Fyrd. I am not one to underestimate the strength of the Anglo Saxons, with whom I had beaten the Vikings (see this link)
The battlefield from the Saxon side.
The Vikings would have to cross the stream to approach the Saxon village (off table)
I placed my Vikings on the left, my men found the stream in flood and uncross-able except at the fords and the bridge! So much for a combined attack!
Lawrence deployed on the right, and had both the bridge and a ford to cross at.
Opposite him, Frankie emerged from the woods with a strong force of Fyrd.
These began to advance with his archers and slingers moving to his right to cover his flank from the cover of the trees.
I began my crossing of the ford with a force on the hill covering it, my archers shot enthusiastically but initially had little luck hitting anything!
Opposite me, a group of Saxon slingers was filtering through a wood.
Paul had a smaller force than me, but they were all wearing armour!
My force was trying to get across the stream before the Saxons reached me, it would not be good to be caught mid-crossing.
My commander, Ragnarr, with Lagatha, Floki and Rollo.
Lawrence managed to cross the stream with ease, screened by some slingers.
His main force crossed at the ford and occupied the commanding hill.
My covering force moved across the stream.
My screening slingers began a long range engagement with the distant Saxons.
Their shot simply bounced off their shields and armour!
Paul's own slingers now came out of the wood to match mine.
Frankie had halted his Saxons to allow his light troops to threaten the flank of Lawrence's force.
They began harassing the Vikings on the hill.
Frankie now began a move through the woods towards Lawrence's men on the hill.
Lawrence had his force defending the hill, and exchanged shot with the Saxons.
Back on my side, my archers delayed crossing the ford to shoot a few shafts at the Saxon spearmen.
A lucky arrow caused a light wound on one!
Our slingers were having a duel.
Frankie decided to put his bowmen in the wood to give them some protection from the Viking shooting.
The Saxon spearmen stayed back.
On my flank, I charged the Saxon spearmen, but my line was not complete and I had a gap in the middle where I had taken my heroes to push the flank.
On first contact, Paul threw a '1' in melee with his Lord against my spearmen, and took a wound!
The Saxon Fyrd countered by killing one of my spearmen and breaking through my weakened shield wall.
As Ragnarr and co turned the flank of the Saxon guards, Paul's Lord threw ANOTHER '1' on his D12, and slumped to the ground, dead!
Paul's slingers were the only ones affected by his death, but even they only went to 'Stand'.
Rollo, Lagatha and Floki were chopping down Saxon guardsmen, though Floki got wounded in return. My spearmen held the rest of the Saxon spearmen using numbers to counter the Saxons heavier equipment.
On the other side, Lawrence had sent some spearmen to dislodge the Saxon missile troops, but they arrived only as the Viking archers broke their opposite numbers!
The Saxon slingers were looking beleaguered!
Lawrence's spearmen on the hill remained casual observers.
Frankie had advanced his spearmen...
...and his flanking forces were round Lawrence's right wing...
...ignoring a Saxon apparently trying to turn THEIR flank!
On my side, the last of Paul's guardsmen, with his standard, finally broke and ran, Lagatha let him go!
Paul's spearmen were still fighting bravely...
...but eventually broke off to form a final shield wall.
My Vikings charged them, Ragnarr, Rollo and Lagatha all killed their opponents.
This broke the brave spearmen, my men let them go.
I had more urgent business, and moved to support Lawrence.
Lawrence's men were hit by a sudden charge in their flank!
They were soon in difficulties.
The other Saxons had charged down towards Frankie's Lord.
The Vikings got the worst of the engagement and broke back over the hill!
They immediately rallied, though, and sheepishly reformed!
Frankie's spearmen were cutting into Lawrence's men, Lawrence was throwing terrible dice, like Paul had, against me!
Lawrence's rallied spearmen now charged to support his retreating men on the hill.
Frankie held the attack, and began pushing them back too!
Frankie's Lord now charged Lawrence's spearmen who had been detached to support his light troops.
He was soon chopping these up too!
At this point, Lawrence signaled the retreat, as my victorious wing was still 3 turns away, and his men could not hold out any longer! So, the Saxons won again! - though they had taken many more dead and wounded, especially on my flank!
We would return to the boats, and find a less well defended target to attack!
More importantly, we all had a good game and enjoyed ourselves!
AND RAGNARR HAD HIS FIRST GOOD DAY, AND WASN'T KILLED!
He seemed to have passed his bad streak of luck to poor Paul's Lord!
I do think that the dark ages makes a nice setting. Good job on the AAR.
ReplyDeleteThanks Stew! I was a bit iffy about doing Dark Ages for our last game of the season, but ended up enjoying it greatly! Its just so atmospheric!
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