Snorri Ragnarsen's Raid - Part 3 (of 3)

Meanwhile the saxon ship moves into the bay and maneouvres to grapple the viking ship....

The grapple was successful - but the vikings board the saxon ship after a fierce fight ....

 After a hard tussle the saxons get the upper hand and the vikings are either in the water or back on their own ship..

The more experienced vikings, although much reduced in numbers, manage to cut the grapple lines and the saxon ship drifts away, oars damaged and with many wounded on board ... 

Meanwhile on land the fyrd is putting pressure on the vikings, but not in the mood for another charge (there are more vikings left than saxons !)...

Out in the bay the saxon ship continues to drift out, as it tries to sort out the mess of broken oars and wounded men ... 

The vikings start to board their ships .... 

The vikings make their getaway, after losing a few men at the hand of the saxon fyrd who made a charge as they boarded their ships...the saxon ship is no fit state to deal with two viking ships and keeps out of the way...

 

---oXo---

A close run thing - the ship melee result meant the vikings were able to getaway with their booty- but they had more men left than the saxons. Any wounded vikings swept up on shore wouldn't survive long.

We'd been thinking about ship to ship fighting, but seeing the article in Wargames Illustrated 300th edition was shandy for some rules - so we used them as a framework.

After further discussions after the game we decided to try and get some more 'ships in the water', so maybe some more ship-to-ship fighting to come.  One thing - we need to have the sails on the ships furled or masts/spars removable as we had trouble handling the figures on the ships - (possibly maybe some representation of oars could be added ).

Snorri Ragnarsen's Raid - Part 2 (of 3)

The defenders of the town loose their bottle after heavy losses and run for it, while the vikings take a breather

The saxon ship is getting near, the viking lookout blows his horn to sound the alarm ...

The vikings form a shield wall to hold off the local fyrd, while they ransack the church and town ....

The fyrd moves up to engage the viking shield wall while the rest of the vikings take their booty back to the ships ...  

Crunch ! the fyrd charge home into the viking shield wall ...  

The saxon ship rounds the headland, while the vikings scramble to get their larger ship into the water and ready to engage the saxon ship .. 

The fyrd break the viking shield wall ....

The vikings retreat towards their ships, while the fyrd follow up rather slowly ... 

 

 ---oXo---

to be continued

 

 

Snorri Ragnarsen's Raid - Part 1 (of 3)

Along the coast a Saxon ship (part of Earldorman Rodor little navy) is on patrol and is trying to find out where the viking ships it spotted went ashore ...

Snorri Ragnarsen and his men go ashore,  a larger than usual ship guard has been left (as he saw the saxon ship a while back)

The men of the town prepare their defence

The vikings move up into the town

The two sides skirmish ....

The vikings make short work of the saxon skirmishers and move forward ...

The vikings charge the saxon shieldwall ...

The fighting is hard and the saxons are just holding off the vikings, in the distance the men from the nearby villages have gathered and are on their way to help  ....

 

---oXo---

 

to be continued....

The Vikings are raiding the saxon shore again ....

Snorri Ragnarsen and his warband have descended on the saxon shore....

game report coming soon ......
 

Sven Eriksen returns ...

Sven Eriksen and his warbands set off on a new voyage a month or so back; severely hampered by bad weather and after an abortive raid on the gallic coast they had returned home - just in time to enjoy the inaugural feast in the new great hall.

SOON, Very Soon

Old Svan stood on the headland gazeing out to sea, his heart yearned to be out there, raiding the saxon shore, looting, burning and pillaging,(He was far too old for anything else). But, his head knew that the decision of the council to move to a new great hall was a sensible one, indeed he had voted for the building of a new Treasure Hut as an adjunct. Junk, Helga called it and the youngsters soon named it Jabba ( The great Hut). But now the bulk of the work was complete, a little bit of Daub here and there, new thatch for the roof of Jabba and rushes to light the interior. Soon everything would be ready and he could sail freely off to create mayhem in Gaul, Monrovia or anywhere that the tides carried him, his crew was ready. Just as soon as he could stop the door of the treasure house bulging under the contents, Whoops as young Svan had said!!

fyrd - archery practice

Earldorman Rodor and one of his houscarls chat with the 'bard'...

Rodor then watches some of the local fyrd at archery practice...

(figs:  Rodor, houscarl, 'bard' and the archers all from Black Tree Design)