The Vikings had tarried too long and Sir Louis D’Alton would not suffer their presence on his lands any longer. This was their fourth season, sowing crops in his soil, building dwellings from his trees, intermarrying with his people. He would suffer them no more. They must be repelled into the seas from whence they came…

It’s been ages since Paul and I played any wargames. We generally try to get together a couple of times a year, but a significant global health event prevented that over the last couple of years…

Game 1: Saga

We managed to get together last week, with Paul bringing his Normans and me fielding my Vikings. The plan was simple: put some models on the table and have some fun! Our first game was a 4pt Saga battle using the Clash of Warlords scenario (though I missed that there was supposed to be a 6 turn limit!). Here’s how we deployed:

The Viking right ended up being the the focus of the fighting, with successive charged from the two mounted units and then their Warlord hitting there. The losses mounted on both sides, with the two Warlords falling in combat.

The Vikings were in a slightly stronger position at this stage, with a unit and a half of warriors and a small unit of Hearthguard to the Norman’s two units of warriors, one of which was crossbow armed.

That was until the Hearthguard and full unit of warriors bounced hard from a unit of Norman warriors! From there the Normans picked off Viking warriors until they generated no Saga dice… Victory to the Normans!

Game 2: Ravenfeast

We decided to play a simple follow-on game of Ravenfeast. Since both warlords had fallen in the previous battle, we reckoned a rescue mission would be pretty cool. We randomised which warlord would be the focus of a rescue attempt and it ended up being Sir Louis D’Alton. The idea being one of the battle survivors returned to camp and reported that their lord was wounded but not dead to the would be rescuers. We chose small forces, three mounted Normans and eight Vikings, which were randomly deployed around the Longhouse. The Normans would enter the board from the corner near their deployment from the Saga game. We represented the fallen Norman lord with a countdown:

His comrades had six turns to rescue him before he would be too far gone to have a chance at recovering. Of those six turns it’d take one turn stationary and unhindered to get him onto the horse of his rescuer. This seems harsh, but we were more than happy to adjust the rules as needed. As it happens, the Vikings mostly deployed away from the rescue site, bringing some balance to the game.

The Vikings nearly prevented the rescue in what was a close run game. We invented rules for falling back from combat, a mounted model could do so on a D6 roll of 1-2. In a spectacular piece of horsemanship, Robert De Courcy, bannerman to Sir Louis D’Alton, pulled off the daring rescue, just getting his lord onto the horse and evading the Vikings to bring him to safety. On a side note, Ravenfeast is a very nice ruleset, being quite quick to play.

So, the Vikings prevailed and Sir Louis D’Alton lives! Paul and I will have plenty of reasons to revisit this clash. Will the Vikings seek revenge? Will Sir Louis recover quickly and continue purging the Vikings from his lands? We’ll find out next time!

Until next time,

Owen