Halfdan and the Vikings - The Battle of Barbelton Heath

Continued from here

Halfdan and his small band of loyal supporters heads towards his rendezvous with the Vikings at Barbleton Heath...

A traitor in Halfdan's ranks has passed the rendezvous location onto the Saxons. The fighting monks of Wuduceastre marching with the banner of St Walpurga at their head near Barbleton Heath, in the distance the rest of the Saxon forces are arriving..

Halfdan's standard bearer sounds his horn as the Vikings approach...

Both sides are now in view of each other, the Saxons move up quickly  ...

The Vikings form up and start to advance, the Saxons are still moving into position...

The Saxon shield wall has formed up, with their skirmishers to the front ....

The Vikings send a small group of warriors forward to deal with the Saxon skirmishers, Halfdan and his supporters are on the right flank of the forming Viking battle line ...

Seeing Halfdan's standard, the monks sing a homage to St Walpurga and then beat their shields with the weapons chanting 'retribution', then they surge forward making for Halfdan and his men. The charge shakes Halfdan's men and their part of the shield wall is fragmented...

The monks are pushed back, but there are gaps. Part of Saxon shield wall has moved forward in line with the monks leaving a kink in the shield wall...

A monk runs through a gap and attacks Halfdan knocking him down and then finishes him off - Halfdan is dead

The Vikings charge home, the Saxon shield wall is strained but holds ...

The Vikings take lots of casualties on their left flank where they are fighting Lady Hilda and her female hearth-guard..

The Vikings fill the gaps and fight on,  the Saxon shield wall holds ... 

The Vikings are putting mounting pressure on Lady Hilda's female hearth guard holding the Saxon right flank, they are pushed back slightly. However the Viking ranks are starting to thin out in places...

The Saxon fyrd between Lady Hilda and Lord Wilfreds hearth-guards push forward to take advantage of the gaps in the Viking ranks, they break through and start to envelope the remaining Vikings

The Vikings fought to a stand still with their shield wall broken and their leader killed fall back.. the Saxons exhausted hold their ground ..

A great victory for the Saxons ...

A meeting with a dragon ...

 Off in the distant kingdom of the Northlands the king's son meet his first dragon ...

Halfdan and the Vikings ....

Halfdan after his failed attempt to kill Lady Hilda had been imprisoned. While Lord Wilfred prevaricated over the punishment for his son, Halfdan planned his escape ...

---oXo---

Early one morning Halfdan with assistance from a loyal supporter escaped from his room and made it over the pallisade; the supporter covering his escape was cut down by one of Lady Hilda's hearth-guard.  Halfdan ran full pace to the wood, with arrows whizzing past him - two of his friends were waiting there - they vanished into the woods... 

---oXo---

Within a couple of days, Halfdan and his men were raising funds, by stripping churches off their finery, the last church they raided was St Walpurga's at Charbury Minster.

The next day Halfdan met with some viking raiders at Nollerton, to buy their support ..... (with the promise of a bigger payoff and more plunder)

---oXo---

Meanwhile Thegn Rodor and his men were searching for the vikings ...

The news of Halfdan's treacherous agreement with the vikings reaches Lord Wilfred and Lady Hilda

Word is sent to the monks of Wuduceastre, outraged by the desecration of churches they send a party of armed monks join the forces assembling to deal with the threat posed by Halfdan..

Within a couple of days Lord Wilfred and Lady Hilda have mustered some of the local fyrd and with their hearth-guards set off to deal with the threat from Halfdan and the Vikings....

Lady Hilda's hearth-guard ...

A personal standard for  Lady Hilda, shown with her loyal female hearth-guard ...

the hearth-guard have been supplemented by some new female warriors (Bad Squiddo shield-maidens)

Through Thornleigh wood ...

Ragnar Olafson and his viking raiders, having defeated and dispersed the fyrd sent to intercept them, split into groups and set about pillaging and looting the area.

The group led by Ragnar was heading towards the village of Woodeaton (and then back to the rendezvous point); they had come down from small rise and had to go through Thornleigh wood, a mounted scout was sent forward to check the pathway through the wood.

---oXo---

The scout reports back that the path through the wood is clear ...

They head slowly down the woodland path ......

Ragnar hesitates, a man to sent to look in the woods to the right tells him their is open marshy ground with probably hard ground by the edge of the wood; Ragnar wanting to avoid a possible ambush from both sides orders the men to move through the wood to the right...

they make slow progress, men fall an get stuck in he boggy ground but just manage to extricate themselves; as they pick their way through a small group of warriors move along the woodland path...

Going is slow but there is a dry way along the edge of the wood ....a straggler moving along the woodland path is picked off - an arrow strikes ... 

The warriors on the woodland path find their way blocked ...

They rush forward to attack, a saxon slinger downs one of them and archers another two....

Two men get across the barricade and fight the saxons to their front, as arrows whizz past them ...

Meanwhile the main group moves forward by some rocky ground ... 

The pack pony comes to halt and refuses to budge, as they try and get it to move they disturb a wild boar..

One of the men stumbles in a rabbit hole and falls.. an irate rabbit appears (and soon runs off)

Ragnar and the rest of his men move forward reaching the edge of the marshy area......

The pack pony exhausted keels over, the men have to gather up the loot and carry it ....

Ragnar and his men reach open ground and are joined by the one surviving member of the group that went down the woodland path.... a couple of saxons hang back by the wood ...

Ragnar and his men are no free to move on to plunder the village of Woodeaton ....

the battle of Woolaton ...

 Ragnar Olafson's viking raiders had landed.  They had not gone un-noticed and the local fyrd had been called out and were to assemble at the old stone circle near the small hamlet of Woolaton.

---oXo---

The vikings had been moving inland fairly quickly and when the advance guard saw the fyrd ahead of them they formed up ....

The vikings moved forward slowly waiting for more warriors who were strung out on the march behind them. They dealt with some flanking skirmishers as they attacked the fyrd...

The vikings started to envelope the saxon's right flank, but their own right flank started to be thinned out by the saxons. More of the saxon fyrd started to arrive.....

The vikings broke around the saxons right flank and rolled up what remained of their shield wall, a few saxon warriors fell back to join the newly arriving fyrd...

The vikings pressed forward and charged into the assembling saxon fyrd....

a furious fight ensued but the fyrd were no match for the vikings and the remainder took to their heels

The saxon fyrd, though badly battered was not destroyed; they were re-grouping and waiting for the local lord and his men to join them. 

Ragnar Olafson and his viking raiders would need to be quick to take advantage and gain loot and captives before they re-organised.

Standing ready ...

 The refurb project for the figures is completed. Finished the spearmen off today...I've also added a new standard bearer.  They stand ready to repel the vikings ...

Some new arrivals ...

Some new arrivals for the 'dark ages' collection,  finished painting them yesterday, various oddments from a few Ebay job lots ..

The big refurbishment begins ...

Started on refurbishing my collection of 'Saxons', most of the changes will involve a wash on the flesh areas and repainting the bases.

quite a few to get through ! but easy to do in small groups between other projects..

The Battle of Swimbourne

 Backstory ...

After vikings had been sighted down the coast, Earl Wilfred mustered the local fyrd and marched off to intercept the threat.  His wife Lady Hilda had been left in charge and he was sure she would be safe with her cousin Beornwulf the Bold and the female hearth guard to protect her.

They reached Swimbourne and could see the viking column heading their way....

 ---oXo---

Earl Wilfred and the fyrd move into position by the stream to the east of Swimbourne blocking the viking's route; they watch the approaching Vikings ...

The Vikings break out from their column of march .....

and start to form up to attack ...

their leader Torsten Sigardsen studies the opposition ...

The Saxon shield wall forms up,  Earl Wilfred and his hearth guard behind in the centre to counter a break though;  the left of the shield wall where the stream bends back is composed of armoured axe-men.

The vikings get into their attack formation ...

Sigardsen give the order, the horn is blown to start the advance...

the beserkers jump across the stream and pile straight into the Saxon centre.....

the bererkers make a dent in the Saxon shield wall...

The viking centre follows up ......

and the Saxon centre buckles but holds ....

The rest of the vikings charge in .....

The Saxon right flank is struggling to hold the vikings back ....

it finally fails and the survivors run away.....

the Saxon centre now falls apart as the vikings push forward .....

Earl Wilfrid, with his son Edwyn and the hearthguard fall back ....

The beserkers attack the hearth guard, one of them is cut down by the Edwyn and the others fall back

The Saxons are in full retreat covered by their hearth guard and a few groups of men left with fight in them....

The Vikings do not pursue, they have pushed the Saxons out of the way of their line of march.  They reform and continue on their way back to their ships ...

A victory for the Vikings ...