Viking Fury

Jonathan set up another big figures game last weekend, playing the Saxons defending against James' and Orhan's Viking coastal attack.

The Viking longship sailed to the other end of the game board to supplement James' Western Franks mercenaries...

...with some genuine Vikings:

Meanwhile Orhan's Vikings started coming across the beach at the far end of the gaming table.

The Saxons had a strong position holding a hill in the centre...

...with other troops including crossbowmen in the woods on the flanks:

James also started with some Western Franks infantry holding a fort...

...although his bowmen fled immediately following some devastating crossbow action from the woods (Jonathan succeeding despite needing 7s on D6s - don't ask! ;-)

James' Vikings had more success, sliding up behind the fort...

...and then along the edge of the woods, where the Saxons began to retreat.

On the other flank, Orhan pressed on, wiping our skirmishers with his berserkers - which even succeeded in getting Saxon cavalry to flee, leaving the flank looking very thin.

Jonathan reinforced the other flank as a defence against James and moved troops to meet Orhan...

...having particular success with his housecarls:

With Jonathan's original central position split to fight the infantry on his flanks, James then rode his Western Franks cavalry into the centre - held up a bit by fencing...

...but eventually able to do a fair bit of damage to the Saxons including a nasty flank attacks:

The other flank was becoming a war of attrition.  Both Jonathan and Orhan continued to pass every morale test as their troops continued to thin each other out - units usually flee with this much of the movement trays empty!

The Saxons and Vikings continued to wear each other down, with Orhan reimagining the Viking strategy of "Raid and Retreat" into one of "Death or Glory".  They got Death.  Jonathan killed Harald Hardrada in a character battle.  Orhan's remaining Vikings finally returned to the beach...

In the centre, there weren't many Saxons left to face James' Vikings and Western Franks, who hadn't lost any units:

With the Saxons defeated and the Vikings returning to Norway with their tails between their legs, we decided the victory belonged to the French mercenaries.

But the strategic win must be with the English - with Harald Hardrada now dead, King Harold wouldn't have to later march to Stamford Bridge to defeat him, leaving Harold's troops fresh and ready to repel the Norman Conquest...?

Warhammer Ancient Battles - 28 August 2010

Jonathan introduced us to Warhammer Ancient Battles this weekend, with his and David's Pikes taking on James and Kieron's Barbarians.  We played a 1000 points per side four-turn game before lunch to get familiar with the rules, and then a big 3000 points per side all afternoon.

The ruleset has more in common with FoG than DBM (fortunately) but I felt flowed even better.  Engagements got resolved more quickly and bloodily and there were interesting effects from the characteristics of the various units and their special characters - like this Shaman here...

At the wall end of the table, David's light cavalry kept two units of cavalry occupied all game, succumbing finally in the last turn.  The barbarians on that flank had a long march into battle but did eventually get stuck in.  On the other flank, the barbarian cavalry stepped up, faltered when they realised the advantages their opponents retained even when charged, but then decided to do it anyway.  The wedge engaged the other two, did a bit of damage but was soon chased off.  The other cavalry unit went into skirmishers formation to occupy the woods, that the previous foot skirmishers had just run away from.

In the centre after some wheeling and bow fire, the barbarians and pikes did engage, as did the elephant, which made short work of the barbarian infantry - no saving roll from the effects of an elephants foot!

I enjoyed rolling handfuls of dice and like any other game, luck plays its part.  Jonathan and David would have to admit to some exceptionally good rolling for most of the game, like this example from Jonathan...

...but ultimately it was the luck of one dice roll that decided the game.  In the last turn, this pike unit failed a leadership check after losing the fight with the warband, and it then fled off the table edge.

Unfortunately for Jonathan and David, it contained the Army General and so the rest of their units on the table had to make similar morale tests, and several of them broke.  So in the last couple of minutes, the pike army snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and the win went to James and Kieron.