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Saturday 27 January 2018

Pig Warring!

Today, we did a different Medieval skirmish game, using Phil's copy of Pig Wars.
It was the first time I had actually played this as the last time Phil brought it down I was working, and could only pop in and watch for half an hour!

Normally the game is card run, but Phil had left his cards at home!!! - and we used D12's instead!

The scenario was a simple one, 3 Viking Frenemies! - competing crews of 3 boats - were co-operating in an attack on an Anglo Norman village. The local levies (probably still Fyrd!) were stationed randomly around the edge of the village. To put a bit of time pressure on the Northmen, the local Norman Lord would arrive with a force of mounted knights on a roll of double 12 on 2 D12's.

The village at peace!
 The direction the Norman cavalry would appear from. 
I chose to start on one side of the village, I had a group of 5 archers, 5 light spearmen, 5 armoured spearmen and my Lord, with 4 Axemen. 
 Phil started on the short table edge, with a similar force, but his bowmen had light armour.
 Lawrence was opposite me, again with a similar force.
 Phil advanced first, immediately finding a group of doughty spearmen guarding some cows (Yes, one cow wanted to join the shield wall!)
 Lawrence approached the edge of the village, and met 4 peasant archers.
 My men met nothing, my light spearmen went to loot a storehouse...
 ...my armoured men went straight for the centre of town...
...my archers went to loot a hall! 
Phil's men marched to meet me. 
Lawrence was stalled, while his archers dealt with the peasants. 
 One fell quickly to a well aimed shaft.
 ...then another!
 Phil's archers shot at the spearmen guarding the cows.
...some great shooting wounded 2 of them!
 His other spearmen pushed into town to round up some slaves. 
 My archers were ransacking the hall.
My spearmen were rifling through the store. 
 My spearmen halted as they passed another store, as they had spotted some enemy archers about to ambush Phil.
 Too late, the bowmen began to shoot! 
Lawrence sent some spearmen in to loot a house while the enemy archers were preoccupied with his own bowmen. 
 Finally! The peasants were all down!
 Phil attacked the cow enclosure, one of his men was quickly wounded.
 Things didn't get better!
 The 'Norman' archers had shot one of Phil's men.
My men charged them in the rear. 
New turn...Oh no! - The Norman Lord was approaching! 
Seeing the cow defenders were winning the battle there, the rest of Phil's men moved to pull the fence on their flank down.
 Lawrence had found more Norman spears, and engaged them with bows.
My archers found a lot of treasure, even with a roll of 1! 
My swordsmen had halved the enemy bowmen. 
 The cow defenders were still doing ok, despite losing 2 men!
 The Norman Lord appeared!
 Quickly assessing the situation, he directed his knights forward!
 My light spearmen, totally unaware of the impending storm, had found some treasure hidden amongst the grain sacks in the store!  
Amazingly a Norman archer killed one of my armoured warriors with a lucky strike! He died from a blow from another of my men though! 
 My archers came out of the hall, face the Norman knights? - Nah, there is another store to raid!
The knights advanced!
My other 2 archers were gathering the treasure they had to make a quick getaway! 
 My Lord - combined with a spearman from the store, attacked some peasants guarding 2 horses.
Phil's men had broken down the fence! 
My Lord was butchering the peasants, but we were out of time! 
 Phil made good his escape from the advancing knights... 
 ...As did Lawrence - with the treasure from his hall.
A small force kept a watch on the advancing knights as his bowmen withdrew. 
 My archers had time to enter a last store...
 A gold mine!
My men rapidly made their escape with their ill-gotten gains!
 We just had time to kill the leader of the Fyrd first!
 So, we escaped! I actually had the greatest total of stolen goods, and despite losing a sergeant, had offset this with the killing of the defence force leader.

I was feeling very tired and had to go home at this point, so missed the second game, sadly. I wonder how this went?