Sognfjord - A Night Raid ...

A small scale night raid game played using our usual rules set for combat along with the core mechanisms from Osprey' Black Ops rules ......

---oXo---

Background

In Sognfjord, within in walking distance of the enclosure of the great hall of Ragnar Rogersen is a small group of buildings where various items of loot from his overseas raids are kept. A small group of men guard the buildings and their contents. 

Sven Eriksen has heard that the Scroll of Somblocus, which apparently contains information about the route to the location of the treasure of the Whorled Cup, is stored there.  He has sent a some of his best warriors to steal the scroll. 

---oXo---

The Game

Sven's warriors approach the store houses....

They make final preparations for the their raid, they split into two groups one to get into the store houses, the other to wait nearby in case of trouble.

An archer and a warrior get into position to cover the main entrance ...

Meanwhile the store house guard are on patrol ....

The warriors cross the ground carefully from the trees.... the sentry hears a noise and peers into the darkness but sees nothing ....

A noise, perhaps made by the other group of Sven's warriors is heard by the sentries who move along the wicker fence line to investigate....

The lead warrior crosses the wicker fence and takes out one of the sentries, the other turns.....

The rest of the warriors quickly get over the fence, the other sentry is dispatched..... a lucky shot from the archer covering the main gate takes out the sentry there as well...

The warriors move in,  their activities have been heard by a sentry on the far side of the enclosure...

As he comes over to investigate, he blunders into one of the warriors and is quickly dealt with ...

With the sentries out of the way, they start searching the store houses for the scroll ....

A short search in the first hut they try locates the scroll,  they then move carefully across the open ground... they pause for a moment - the door of the second store house opens and a man peers outside - seeing nothing in the dark he then goes back in closing the door

The party of warriors make their way quietly out of the enclosure to safety ....

a successful raid, another step closer to the Whorled Cup ....

Action In Plymfleot ....

The Saxon ship under the command of Alfric of Wismer entered the mouth of the estuary, in the distance moving out of a side channel they could see a viking ship ....

 Ragnussen ordered the sail raised as they made the wider waters of the estuary, with a good sailing wind he could get out to sea quickly .....

 The Saxon ship headed towards the Viking longship

 Having spotted the saxon ship, the he viking ship edged toward the nearby shoreline., trying to manouver round them..

The Saxons moved in and tried to close and grapple .... archers on both ships let loose their bows .. a couple of men fell....

 The Saxon ship managed to grapple and hold the viking ship, pulling them close....

 Both side fought hard to prevent the other from boarding ...

 As they fought the ships edged closer to the shore ....

 The Vikings got the upper hand and some crossed over onto the fore deck of the Saxon ship ...

 More vikings boarded and they were soon pushing the Saxon's back ....

 The Saxons fought hard, they held the vikings at bay; at the critical moment their commander Alfric Wismar fell wounded and stumbled out of the fray collapsing on the aft deck ....

 The vikings pushed the saxons further back....

 they had soon cleared the fore deck of the Saxon ship of opposition ...

 As they pushed the saxons back a bit further, some of the vikings jumped back aboard their ship...

 The rest of the vikings followed, loosing a couple of men into the water; the grapple lines were cut ....

 The Saxons tried once more to grapple......

 But with no success, the viking ship was moving away ....

 Soon the viking ship was on its way down the estuary, the Saxon ship was facing the wrong way it could not turn quick enough ....

The viking ship headed out to sea, Ragnussen and his men were away .....

Out at Sea .....

Alerted to the viking raid, Thegn Rodor had ordered his small fleet of ships out to skirt the coast in the hope they could intercept them. 

---oXo---

In the bow of one the Saxon ships the commander Alfric of Wismer, looks into the distance at the entrance to a wide estuary....

 as it is in the area where the vikings were last seen on land they move in-shore to investigate....

Under Way....

Ragnussen and his men made it back to the longship without further incident,  the booty on the pack horse and cart had to be unloaded and transferred to the ship...

 As they booty was put on board, the tents in the camp on the shore were taken down and stowed on board. As soon as they could they were underway ...

moving down the river towards the wider waters of the estuary .....

Ragnussen heads towards his longship ....

Snorri Ragnussen and his men were on their way back to their longship, they skirted the woods, they spotted some riders in the distance and took cover in a coppice

They watched the riders, they had halted to gain their bearings ...

With great relief they watched the mounted men ride off away from them. After a short while, they moved on - another hour or so and they would reach the ship; they proceeded cautiously.....

Battle in Burnacumb.....

Sven Forkbeard and his warband had tracked the vikings they had encountered at Solvenden, they found one dead from his wounds but no sight of the other two.  They hurried on down into the valley of Burnacumb, where locals said they had seen a couple of camp fires the night before ...

---oXo---

The vikings were getting ready to strike camp....a few men remained in their tents and some were still out foraging....

A viking keeping lookout could see a group of warriors approachng

Sven could see the camp in the distance, he ordered his mean to make haste.....

 Hearing of the approaching warriors, the viking leader Snorri Ragnussen barked orders, the horn was blown to call in the foraging parties ...

 a defensive line was formed a short distance from the camp, men roused from resting in the tents and ones who had been foraging ran up to join their comrades...

 Sven Forkbeard halted his advance and drew up his men, the fyrd behind split up to move to the flanks ....

 Both sides prepared for battle ....

 Sven Forkbeard, straightened out the shield wall as the vikings advanced ...

 The Vikings wasted no time, as soon as they were close enough they charged .....

 The shield wall held, men started to go down on both sides...

 both sides pressed forward hard, trying to break through the opposition's ranks ,,,,

 As the viking centre started to gain an advantage, their flanks suffered heavily....

 the saxon fyrd started envelope the viking flanks, while Sven's and his retinue only just held on in the centre...

 With the viking centre pushed back, Snorri Ragnussen and the remainder of the vikings were almost surrounded ....

 They just managed to disengage and withdraw.....

  the saxons who were exhausted from marching and the fight, could not catch them up ....

---oXo---

Still the vikings has lost more than halve their number.  Snorri Ragnussen and his men headed for their longship.   Sven Forkbeard and his men rested, preparing to return home; it was possible the rest of the vikings would be caught by Thegn Rodor's mounted patrols by the coast.

[Note: Post re-done on older Blogger I/F after tryout of New Interface ; known Blogger issue with images displayed small when clicked on to enlarge when viewing posts]