Second week for this game of Vikings trying to take a Saxon village during a Dark Ages game using figures from both Del and Rick’s collections. Last week we saw the participation of new person with the club David and this week we saw George who had not been able to come for a while return. George rolls really well so this could be bad depending on what side he is on. (Please click on images for larger versions)

Going hand to hand in the battle royal

Up close on these nice figures.

This week we will see if Rick’s Viking Berserkers will be able to tip the balance in favor of the outnumbered Vikings. The Berserkers cause fear in some units so certain Saxon troops will have to roll to stay and face them if charged to melee. Also the last of the troops in the Viking flank will see how long they will hold out against Brian and his cavalry. I figure even if I defeat the cavalry very unlikely the archers will take the last of the troops out.

Del and George take over

Well here were a second night with Rick and David not making this week Del took over for David on the Saxon side and George took over for Rick. Good I think Rick rolls high and that usually is good thing. The area around the village church was turning into a real scrum. Just a battle of attrition as both sides just fed troops in and if not killing troops pushing them back for a round.

This was theme for a long period of time each side brought in troops fighting melee and using the banners for each side to reroll when in the 3 inch range for the banner. Both sides moved leaders to bolster the fight and use the superior fighting ability.

In the rear I tried to move the few troops I still had back behind the fence now to see if this would deter the cavalry attacks. The one figure I left on hill side was attacked by two of Brian’s cavalry figures. I won one round of combat pushing them back but not killing them but then I was able to charge one to nullify the cavalry charge bonus and kill one horse knocking the man from his horse. Ultimately I lost this figure but was able to kill another horsemen which reduced the cavalry threat now.

The Viking Berserker for several rounds of melee were doing well at least staying alive if not always killing the Saxon troops. The fact that both sides because of loses were near break point the Saxon’s reformed up into a large defensive line to try and shield up and save itself from having to make morale rolls to keep troops on the table. A very good strategy as I tried to keep my last rear figures alive even though I faced mostly archers.

Brian and Del moved the Saxon king into the combat which allowed for George and I to move multiple troops into a large melee. With multiple wounds the King would be hurt but then with multiple rolls of 6 the King went down. At the time it was not a big deal but we could hope it would play a roll.

At this point both sides had reached the casualty point when rolling for breaking of troops was going to be necessary for each side. Now winning the initiative was going to be important in a different way. They winner would have to test morale first. Having over the two nights lost the initiative more than won this was looking pretty good for the Vikings then.

I rolled a 1 so was confident the Vikings would be going second which was true the Saxons rolled well enough to keep most of their troops on the table and then pulled back to reform and keep troops in range of the banner and one commander left alive. At this time we made several rolls for troops outside of the commanders range except for 1 Viking. Then with the choice of rolling a 6 for several troops the leadership value of a commander or rolling every figure individually which also would have needed a roll of 6 George failed the roll. This cost the Vikings a number of troops. Still we decided to move our last troops into the Saxon line. This was a mixed result and we found that we won several battles but the banner did not do me a lot of good as even with rerolls I was not getting kills and lost a berserker even with his high defence factor.

Carnage all over the battlefield

Battle to the bitter end

Still the Saxons won the initiative another turn and had to make morale rolls first and lost some troops fleeing off the table but overall they survived. Now the Vikings lost about the same number of figures to rolling to low. This left things basically a draw as the night ended. I don’t know how it would of gone just each turn trying to keep going by making morale.

Good game overall a lot of dice rolling.