Today, we returned to an old friend, Dark Ages skirmishing!
Mick joined me for his first game (using my Sword and Dagger rules) - Phil, Lawrence and I all had Vikings, so we did a Norwegian civil war scenario, with Phil and Lawrence trying to seize our village, while the defenders (Mick and me) tried to stop them. Killing one or both of the oppositions commanders would signal a victory.
Phil's force (he does paint a lovely figure, doesn't he!)
He had his archers detached in the centre.
Lawrence took the attacker's left with a solid Phalanx!
(an overview from the attacking position.)
I took the left wing of the defending force, I had Ragnar Lothbrok, Lagatha, Floki, Rollo and several Skjoldmø (shield maidens)! - together with 2 units of Hirdmen.
Mick started with his Hird leading, with his bowmen in support.
His Huscarles supported their Lord...in the centre.
Phil advanced rapidly round a marsh.
His archers and Lawrence's Phalanx advanced at a measured pace.
I had my Archers with Ragnar and Lagatha.
Mick's Lord moved forward towards a sanctuary area.
He, despite our advice, decided to send his archers ahead of his Hird.
My Archers were just in range of Phil's force, so i loosed a few arrows at extreme range...
...A lucky arrow hit one of Phil's Huscarls in the throat and killed him!
Lawrence's archers began to engage Mick's.
He quickly hit two of them.
Another volley killed two and the rest scattered in Rout!
Phil had gone behind a wood after my lucky shot, so I shot at Lawrence instead, lightly wounding another man at extreme range!!!
Mick decided to retreat his Hird, had he lost his nerve?
I had detached a small group of my Hird to support Mick's Lord.
My other Hird unit took a low hill, and I advanced Ragnar's group towards Lawrence's flank to draw Phil out of cover.
Phil's archers took position round the fire tree.
A lucky arrow from them killed one of Mick's Huscarls.
As Lawrence advanced, he took a couple of more casualties to my archers!
Mick's Lord continued advancing into the storm of arrows, some awful dice saw two more of his Huscarls wounded.
I had advanced round Phil's hiding place and shot another of his Hirdmen.
Phil took the hint and advanced to the attack!
I started accumulating my forces to face the attack.
My archers wounded anther of Phil's men.
My archers, now at short range, didn't hit a sausage!, so Ragnar charged in!
I led some Hird onto the enemy flank.
Mick now decided to move onto the attack, the enemy bowmen caused a few light wounds on them as they attacked.
Mick's Lord moved to attack Phil's bowmen.
Ragnar's attack was initially successful, and we wounded two enemy Hirdmen.
Phil charged his Lord into the melee and we soon had a general engagement!
Phil's archers fell back shooting Mick's Huscarls as they took the Fire Tree hill.
Another of Mick's men died.
Lawrence and Mick's Hirds clashed.
Our fight was brutal, both Ragnar and Lagatha were wounded, but we were cutting into Phil's men...numbers against quantity of armour...
My Flank attack had worked, one of Phil's Hird units routed.
His Lord was now almost surrounded, so Phil signalled the retreat!
Lawrence, too, with Mick's Huscarls now cutting into his flank, decided the jig was up, so he fell back too.
I was just amazed Ragnar had survived! - If you remember my previous games, he always got Disabled or killed before this game!!!
