The Vikings are raiding again.

The other Friday night we got together for a little Viking raid.

The raiders disembarked along the coast and proceeded inland through the surrounding forest.

There were a number of Saxon woodsmen in the forest but all but one of them either ran off and hid or just plain didn't see  the several groups of angry Vikings looking for trouble.

Vikings making their way through the forest.

 Only one of the woodsmen decided to run towards the village and warn the locals of the raid.

 One of the Viking groups took a wrong turn and ended up in a swamp.

 With very little warning the Saxons did not have enough time to get their livestock away.

 The Saxons were caught in their homes but quickly poured out to meet the threat.

 The Saxons were seriously outnumbered and it wasn't long before they were being overrun.

 Finally the group of Vikings found their way out of the swamp and into the town to claim some of the spoils.

 What the Vikings didn't know was that this day was also "Tax Day" and that wagon in the middle of the road was worth more than all the rest of the available plunder.

The King's men fought well and managed to get away with the taxes collected. In this case a barrel of beer!

The Saxons lost their village and live stock but they did help to get the tax collector away safely.


The Saxons were later rewarded by their King.

Raiding along the British shore

A Dark Age game fought between a Viking raiding party and the local Saxons.

Hard to tell from the photos, but mist covered the land and this reduced the vision of the Vikings. This resulted in terrain being placed as the Vikings moved forward.

 The Vikings left their longboats and headed inland. They had been lead to believe that there was a village not too far away. 

 A couple of villagers were spotted but ran off as the Vikings approached. The Vikings followed and.....

 ....then the village came into view and the Vikings began to rush forward to loot whatever they could.

 As the Vikings reached the edge of the village the local Saxons appeared, keen to defend their livestock and homes.

 No fried chicken for these Vikings tonight as the Saxons began to escape with whatever they could.

 Saxon cavalry appeared and charged into the Vikings that were about to grab some pigs.

 The Vikings did manage to get some cattle and sheep and these were herded back to the waiting ships.

The old guy with the sheep managed to fend off several attacks from well equipped Vikings until he was finally killed.

 The Saxons managed to get a lot of their stock away to safety but the Vikings searched the buildings and got away with a bit of gold and silver.

A costly battle for the Warlords involved, all but one were killed. The Viking warlord above was attacked by two Saxons. To kill the warlord the unarmoured Saxon need to roll "6" and the armoured a "5" or "6". Slim odds but it was achieved!

Great game with the lads.

Thanks to Brad for organising the game.

We used our modified LotR rules.

Dark Age extras

A box of Gripping Beast's Dark Age Warriors provided the recruits for this group.

I was told that these guys would be required for a game in a few weeks time. 12 figures he said, so here they are.

  Six are armed with spears.....

......and the other six are armed with axes and swords.

 Found a container the other week full of "way out of date" Kiwi 2 cent pieces. I thought they were a good size for figure bases so I have used them here. Might have to re-base all my Dark Age troops now!

 The rest of the box will be made up into levy type troops for Saga with a few left overs.

Dark Age Takeaways.

Not exactly a “drive through” more like a “Sail by”. I have recently finished repainting some animals for my Dark Age games, and any other period for that matter. These figures are 1/64 scale, hard rubber and come ready painted. The paint work is okay for toys but I thought they needed a bit of touch up for wargames. A quick re paint and we were away. Inspired by Paul   http://tasmancave.blogspot.com/2011/07/pig-pen.html   and captain arjun http://corblogme.blogspot.com/2011/08/pig-pen.html I have also knocked up a pig pen mainly from Balsa wood on a MDF base.

Some monks and some peasants from Gripping Beast have also been added to give the Vikings something else to chase.

Thanks to Ray http://onelover-ray.blogspot.com/2011/08/viking-flags-no8.html I now have some very nice flags flying from my Viking Longship’s masts.

Some of the cattle.

The Pig pen

The pig pen with pigs removed.

Sheep being attacked by Berserkers.

Peasant with some geese.

Chickens

Farm yard under attack.

Couple of farm workers.

Monks on a mission.

One of Ray's flags.

Another of Ray's flags

and a third.

 

Viking battle report

At last the battle report of the Viking raid game has been posted. Read all about it on the Southern Strategists blog http://southern-strategists.blogspot.com/