Monday 15 October 2012

Snorri Ragnarsen's Raid - Part 3 (of 3)

Meanwhile the saxon ship moves into the bay and maneouvres to grapple the viking ship....
The grapple was successful - but the vikings board the saxon ship after a fierce fight ....
 After a hard tussle the saxons get the upper hand and the vikings are either in the water or back on their own ship..
The more experienced vikings, although much reduced in numbers, manage to cut the grapple lines and the saxon ship drifts away, oars damaged and with many wounded on board ... 
Meanwhile on land the fyrd is putting pressure on the vikings, but not in the mood for another charge (there are more vikings left than saxons !)...
Out in the bay the saxon ship continues to drift out, as it tries to sort out the mess of broken oars and wounded men ... 
The vikings start to board their ships .... 
The vikings make their getaway, after losing a few men at the hand of the saxon fyrd who made a charge as they boarded their ships...the saxon ship is no fit state to deal with two viking ships and keeps out of the way...
 
---oXo---

A close run thing - the ship melee result meant the vikings were able to getaway with their booty- but they had more men left than the saxons. Any wounded vikings swept up on shore wouldn't survive long.

We'd been thinking about ship to ship fighting, but seeing the article in Wargames Illustrated 300th edition was shandy for some rules - so we used them as a framework.

After further discussions after the game we decided to try and get some more 'ships in the water', so maybe some more ship-to-ship fighting to come.  One thing - we need to have the sails on the ships furled or masts/spars removable as we had trouble handling the figures on the ships - (possibly maybe some representation of oars could be added ).

6 comments:

Sean said...

Well done. I like the inclusion of the ship to ship fighting. An interesting series of reports.

Fitz-Badger said...

I agree with Sean. Excellent series! I love the pictures and the write-up.

Dan said...

Great conclusion to the battle

Paul O'G said...

Fantastic scenario and great write-up! That would have given the Norsemen something to think about indeed, thought the village would now be ripe for another Viking raid...

El Senyor Verd said...

Wow! What a battle!
Some great ideas there. Thanks!

tradgardmastare said...

I am really enjoying these recent postings too.I am looking forward to seeing more ships too!