923 AD - the prequel to a saga ...

It was Viking time again! 28mm, Hail Caesar, Nomans, Vikings and Avars, all from Barts beautiful (and definitively outnumbering mine by now) and newly enlarged dark age miniature collection presented in a battle on Houseparty again! The scenario / terrain and photos were courtesy of Bart. The Viking, Norman, Avars rebellion, fully set up on one table, was to be completely squashed by the Kings arriving household guard and then these valiant knights were soon to be supported by two infantry divisions of more normans... I took the household cavalry of course!

So Bart had the rebels and the first move, I diced turn 3 for my army to come in, and we shuffled a bit tactical nearer to the havoc line ... I was a bit lucky so on end of turn 3 I had all my retinue on the table, AND as our customary dark age games are, shall we say, a bit more reckless then the rest (if thats possible), I just charged in with my Norman milites, not even bothered if there is a Viking shield wall in between.

The impact was as suspected, heavy losses on Barts side, Vikings pushed back, Avars dropped out of their saddles, archers being ridden down! Multiple occasions for my leaders and King to die, but it wasn‘t meant to be! Then at the end I did what every HC player does I rolled blunders ... that somewhat put my set up in a tactical mess and it was a bit difficult to get the whole circus on the right foot again.

At the end of the loveley slaughter, I definitively didn‘t managed to kill ALL, but maybe that was a high mark for an objective, BUT I managed to kill half of the avars, and nearly all of the rebellious normans.

So we decided to call it a draw. Any self-respecting dark age leader would have, in this situation offered the Vikings more land and substituition to solve the problem for just about a generation... this is where Bart had the idea that this battle could be the prequel for our long running dark age saga of Raoul and Rolund! It was a lot of fun and we will continue the saga/hack&slay for sure in the future.

The battlefield

The Kings cavalry

The Kings infantry (to come later 1d3 turns)

The rebels

The initial set up

I formed a crescent to attack

The Vikings formed a shield wall

Shuffling to get nearer

First clash of lances

More norman knights clashing in ...

being bounced back from a shield wall

more clashing vs archers ouch!

my miltes getting charged by vikings

... and killed in that process

retreat on all flanks

but for a second wave of charges!

even into flanks of archers ... ouch ouch!

and the Viking shield wall again, why not!

... hm maybe because they are tougher?

still the archers and infantry suffer

the battlefield was a bit in a tactical mess after my troops arrived

 that was when we had to stop ...

The losses