Sven Forkbeard ... a little trouble with some vikings ....

A viking raiding party has been seen in the area,  Sven Forkbeard has collected the local fyrd and some of his retainers and gone to investigate. Sven with two of his men have gone a bit ahead of the main body to stop and at the small settlement of Solvenden to ask if they have seen anything...

---oXo---

 Just as the locals say they haven't seen anything unusual, three vikings approach ... Sven and his men prepare for action....

 The lead viking attacks Sven...

 He doesn't fair well and goes down wounded...

 While Sven tries to finish off his opponent the others get into the fray ....

 Sven's opponent gets wounded again and is struggling to defend himself and get up ...one of the other vikings is wounded and falls back, The viking with the long handled axe has the upper hand ....

 The combats continue ....

 Svens badly wounded opponent gets up and manages to move away, Sven lets him go and moves to assist his man fighting the viking axe man

 The viking axe man is wounded and falls back ....

 The vikings disengage, Sven and his men hold their ground ....

 Sven moves forward a few paces watching where the vikings were going, the rest of his retainers and the fyrd are approaching ....

 Sven and his men set out to follow the wounded vikings back to their raiding party ....

---oXo---

A quick little action with a small number of figures, using my initial version of  Simple Combat rules, developed from my Simple Swordplay rules for 17C.  Overall the little solo game worked out well. Time to look at my notes from the play-test of the rules, a few changes are needed (amongst which are some modifier additions which end up with a negative total - oops ! bad design 😉 )

In Defence of Eastham ....

Viking raiders, led by Ivar Erisksen, have been spotted moving towards Eastham and the nearby abbey of St Wulfstan - the local fyrd has been summoned and Thegn Rodor and his best men are on their way to join them ...

---oXo---

As the locals make for the safety of Eastham, two mounted scouts try to get some idea of the number of Viking raiders and ride off swiftly to inform Thegn Rodor...

The settlement at Eastham .....

The Vikings are on the move .....

Some local fyrd arrive near Eastham ....

Another group of the local fyrd arrive on the other side of Eastham, as the locals from the nearby farms reach safety

The local fyrd form up in front of Eastham as Thegn Rodor arrives with more men ...

Thegn Rodor reinforces his right flank with some archers and armoured men, keeping the rest of the men he bought with him as a small reserve. A group of armed locals take position behind the left flank....

The Vikings charge the Saxon shield wall ...

some vikings attempt to turn the flank ....

but are met by the armed locals who keep them back ...

The Vikings are getting the best of the Saxons ....

The Saxons fight back holding off the Vikings and thinning them out in places ....

as a gap forms in the Viking battle line, some of the Saxons come to support the locals on the left flank while others with support from Thegn Rodor's reserve attack the Vikings in the centre ....

The Vikings have had enough and disengage, falling back

they are soon in full retreat .....

A victory for the Saxons - the settlement of Eastham is safe and the Vikings are beaten

Beornwulf returns to Angleland - trouble at St Withibirgas

Beornwulf the Bold, his lady Iliana and their dog Wulf had returned to Angleland (from the Northlands). They landed on the southern coast and moved northwest towards Wudeceastre and the lands of his cousin Thegn Rodor.

After a couple of days journey they joined with a small band of pilgrims on their way to the abbey of St Withibirgas, the pilgrim group included Lady Aelfrith and her escort.

---oXo---

Another days travel brought them in sight of the Abbey

Also approaching the abbey was a small group of vikings ...

As the vikings started to cross the stream, they were seen by monks and also Beornwulf who was at the head of the pilgrim band...

The pilgirm band reached the abbey and there was an uneasy confrontation with the vikings

There was a glint of steel as a viking started to draw his word; Beornwulf shouted 'to arms' and charged at the nearest group of vikings along with Iliana and some of the pilgrim band. Lady Aelfrith was escorted away and the rest of her armed retinue attacked the vikings by the abbey.

Some of the vikings were pushed back toward stream by Beornwulf those with him, Aelfrith's retinue held a viking charge in front of the abbey

The vikings by the abbey lose ground and some of the number as they are pushed back;  Beornwulf, Iliana, Wulf and the others have lost ground but are fighting well (a couple of the lightly armed pilgrims have been killed)...

Aelfrith's retinue have cut down many vikings, Beornwulf and rest have the better of the other vikings; the vikings start to break off....

The remaining vikings flee, Wulf the dog barks at them as they run ....

Through the Islets of Langerhuns.....

Sven Eriksen continues his search for clues to the location of the Whorled cup and associated fabulous treasure..   Having collected six of the seven clues, he was unable to find the location of the seventh - however after months of research reading old manuscripts his scholars found an obscure reference in the works of Geraldus Nombrensis that the reliquary of St Agapanthus held in the Abbey at  Langerhuns contains the clue.

Desparate to find the 7th clue, Sven decided to voyage to Langerhuns and obtain the reliquary. On arrival he found the way though by water to the Abbey to shallow and narrow for his longship to get by all the narrow channels between the small islets, luckily he had two smaller vessels with him that were able to get through. 

---oXo---

The locals near the Abbey have been told of vikings in the area, a small boat sets out to see if they can find out where they are and if possible pick off a few of them with their bows.....

a monk living on one of the islets prays for deliverance from the viking marauders ...

Eriksen boards the bigger of the two smaller longships and start off to find their way through to the abbey

 As they get about halfway towards the abbey,  a small boat approaches and  a couple of bowmen open fire ...

the other boat gets fired on by an archer from the shore and loses a man...

The archers on the small boat hit one of the men in Eriksens longboat ...

the longboat rams into the little boat knocking them aside and two of the men in it over the side into the water ...

The two longboats reach the shoreline near the abbey, the warriors on the two longboats disembark to find themselves confronted by locals and some armed monks....

Eriksen leads his men forward and charges the group in his way, breaking through them with ease ...

Eriksen then directs his men to attack the monks defending the hurdle fence, as they charge in the warriors from the other longboat are not faring well and have been held back by the locals 

Eriksen's attack on the hurdle fence fails and he falls back to regroup, his other party of warriors is being forced back towards the shore ...

Eriksen makes another attack on the hurdle fence, to try and dislodge the monks ...

A couple of his men get across the fence, while a couple of archers pick off one or two of the monks...

The monks can't hold any longer and run away ..... Erisksen moves towards the abbey...

The locals have forced the other group of warriors back to their longship ...

As his men mop up and get ready do a bit of pillaging,  Eriksen inspects the reliquary of St Agapanthus ....