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 ...
7 comments:
love this site.
How do you determine the events etc ?
What a gripping and spectacular battle.
Determining Events etc ..
To provide a thread for games there is a story line with some characters, this starts with a basic idea and offshoots from it - so to generate a couple of solo games I started with ‘Halfdan Makes his move’, a game that was designed to try out my Simple Combat rules that I am developing. An offshoot to the backstory of that game is Earl Wilfrid and the fyrd against the vikings - the Battle of Swimbourne. Sometimes the storyline thread doesn’t get far, so I have to think up a new one …
I keep a note of story lines and some possible follow-ons; along with the characters, so they can be re-used again. One example is Sven Eriksen and his search for the majestic treasure of the ‘whorled cup’.
Within games, most of the encounters use the relatively simple Saxons V Vikings rules (see here https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwW7pyxbU9oVZERWSUQ4VG9lcG8/view ). For the battle I divided each side into nominal groups, left flank, centre, right flank & reserve. The Saxon right flank collapsed as the viking attack resulted in the first line of the Saxon figures being killed, resulting a moral check which failed.
Good story, excellent pictures. :)
I thought about trying to do the same thing, but my imagination needs a bit of help.
I like the rules you made too.
I'm sure those Hearth Guard are feeling ashamed not being at the forefront of the fight.
Love this blog very inspiring
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