Saturday 30 May 2020

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]

Wednesday 27 May 2020

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 😉 )