Therad's ambush

Therad’s ambush

   It was early afternoon when the rider rode into Brudes. He demanded to see Therad, the local chief, saying he had important news of enemy raiders in the area. Therad saw him immediately.

   “Where are they?” Therad asked, letting the rider sit on a bench by the large hearth in his hall. The rider drank deeply from the goblet a servant brought him before speaking.

   “Near the Sicin heights, two days ride away.”

   “Did you see who they were? Did they bear a flag?”

   “No flag, just a band of men. Some were mounted but most were on foot with pikes.”

   “Could be Runissians.” Hrod, Therad’s cousin put in put Therad ignored him.

   “How many?” Therad continued his questioning.

   “I don’t know, I can’t say. They were spread out when I saw them.” Therad nodded then turned to his cousin.

   “Assemble my retinue and call the men to arms.” Hrod nodded dutifully and left.

   For this battle I used the Lord of the Rings strategy battle game, modified for my fantasy world. Here, Therad, a Border Lander noble, has intercepted a band of mercenaries ravaging his lands. With his retinue behind him, he is determined to destroy the scum and make his lands peaceful once again.

   The mercenaries start the game in a column of march, heading to their next target. Their cavalry is in the lead while the captain follows with the foot and few crossbowmen.

   Therad leads his band onto the field, on the mercenaries’ right. The ragged looters turn around and form up around their captain, levelling pikes and loading crossbows.

   The two war bands line up opposite each other and hurl insults and curses. The mercenary cavalry start to move around the right of Therad’s line to attack the rear and archers.

   

Battle is joined! The mercenary pikes give them an advantage early on and they manage to kill several of Therad’s Hearth guard in the opening minute of combat. Therad’s men step back but hold firm with lifted shields and iron determination.

As the fight grinds on, the Border Landers’ heavier armour begins to show its worth and the Hearth guard begin to carve into the mercenary phalanx. The two leaders meet and fight over the dead bodies of both sides. On the right three horsemen attack the archers, but two are hacked down by the vengeful farmers and the last flees from the field.

   

Soon, both sides are broken and morale tests are taken by all. Therad holds his men together but the archers disappear. The mercenary captain, not having a sense of honour, then runs, taking the last of his men with him. Too tied to purse, Therad’s men taunt him and finish off the enemy wounded.

   The battle was won, but at a cost for Therad. As night fell across the field of battle he walks to the place where many of his men now lay. Brudes is safe, for now.

An introduction to Runissia

As I said at the beginning of the year, I had a fantasy game in the works. Just thought I'd show you the map; not the best quality, it's a mosaic of sheets from various notebooks and scraps I have around. To the north lies the city states of Runissia, once a powerful kingdom but now disintegrated into bickering factions. To the east are the Border Lands, a wild land. Far to the south east is the Ardabarn Empire that continues to push north and west. This brings them into conflict with the Dalundrum, horse nomads now settled in cities along the western frontier of the Ardabarn Empire.

To the south of Runissia are the colonies of the Golden Runissians, cities founded generations ago and now great trading points between the north and south. To the south of these gleaming places are the ferocious Makkad tribes, and to the west are the Fraals who live on the western coast and in the scattered isles.

Advance Virtus test play

The other day I found an interesting set of rules as I was surfing. The rules are Advance Virtus, free to download from http://sgtligloo.free.fr/, a french wargames site. They are for gaming ancient and dark age battles so I thought, always curious to try out new rules, that I'd give them a bash.

And so I gathered some of my men (not all finished), lined them up and SMASH! I've included some pictures of the very modest affair.

And so? Well they're simple, and I like simple. Being mostly a solo player I don't like complicated systems and lots of book keeping. These rules meet those criteria. They're quite fun but I must test them again (with bigger forces) to get a real flavour. Maybe some more troop variety would spice it up as well.

The battle lines close

After a brief melee the Saxons pull back to rest

Saxon huscarls mixing it up (figures turned back represent losses and disorder, or PC)

In the centre, combat resumes

It's dangerous, it's gory, it's dark age warfare