HWAET! Normans were afoot though! Ulr's skis! Must every raid be a fight?
This was a quick game for Raven and I. We played at Guardian last night. His Normans vs. My Vikings. Modified Bridge Battle - one bridge, river fordable (uneven terrain). Victory was points on other side of river at round 6. Field was 4x4.
Normans:
Baron
Knights x4
Knights x4
Sgts Crossbow x8
Sgts Foot
Levy Archers
Levy Archers
Vikings:
Svart Hrolf
Val'Serkers
Hirdmen 2x4
Bondi x8
Bondi x8
Thralls - the now infamous Old Men With Bows x12
Hrolf, seeing the Normans arrayed on the other side in a position to greet us not-so-kindly, decided to be "grand" and shift all to the left using the hut as cover and ford the stream there. The Old Men With Bows would stand ground at the center on our side of the bridge, all willing sacrifices to Odin who likes such things. Spared the spear in younger years these men are ready for an opportunity to go to Valhalla.
The Normans opened with those damned longbows of theirs. Arrows became storm clouds that rained upon us. Three quarters of the Bondi were lost while crossing the river, the last four making it to the hut for cover. Those archers did not bring enough arrows to kill us all though and took a bit to replenish*.
*meta - being levies they were exhausted, needing a round to rest so that they could move and shoot again.
The Normans also pulled a gran maneuver of their own and began crossing on our far right flank. They would face The Old men With Bows.
On the left, Svart Hrolf made it across the river with his doughty warriors, all bearers of silver arm rings - spears, axes, and swords notched in the song of war - mail and helms glittering as they were just cleaned. They engaged the archers on the left and pushed them back. Now a threat to the whole left flank the Hirdmen of Hrolf stood their ground. In answer, the Normans pelted them with arrows. Many of the Hirdmen's shield and mail held true but not all.
The Old Men With Bows stood like stone. They saw the Normans (crossbow, Baron, Knights) coming on the right where there was cover of woods. They wheeled then and shot their arrows into the knights. Horse screamed in pain and knights fell, shields and chests pierced with good Norse iron and feathers*.
*meta - my levies got a lucky roll with 5 hits, Normans only saved 1. Wiped out a whole mounted hearthguard unit.
The Normans finally crossed with the Baron, some knights, and the feared crossbows. They took cover in the woods right in front of the Old Men With Bows.*
*meta - We were into round 5. The game was becoming about getting across the river now as that was the victory conditions. The score was tied as the Normans ended their turn. Saga dice not cooperating with Raven.
There was a slim chance for The Old Men With Bows to take the victory for Svart Hrolf.
Meta - here, there was just 2 options. Get at least 3 levy across the bridge for 1 point to win, as I went last. Or I could shoot into the woods and hope to kill off a point of Normans and take the win that way. My levy had one one fatigue on it already. Either way I would need 2-3 levy activations to do anything at all.
I rolled my Saga dice and got 4 (of 5) dice that could be used as levy activations, and those activations looked like this:
1) Rest levy (remove fatigue)
2) move them towards bridge (first move, no fatigue)
3) Move across bridge (gain one fatigue)
4) move onto Norman side (gain one fatigue) (score 4 points) (win game)
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| From Viking perspective |
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| From Norman perspective |
It wasn't the bloodiest of fights, and the Normans opened up by killing the heck out of my warriors. In the end it was about points and it was close. If not for the Saga dice being with me it would have been different.
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| End of game aerial shot, Norman side |
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