A thrice-beaten-on-the-day Saxon General’s personal review of Nortung!: a Dark Age campaign day run by members of the WAB section of South East Scotland Wargames Club (SESWC), 26th March 2006.
Following on from Bretwalda, the WAB section’s inaugural, and highly successful, Dark Age campaign day back in November 2005, it was decided that another such event was needed to pad out our events calendar. The result was Nortung!: a day of gaming where the emphasis was placed squarely on players, both new and old, having fun, and not necessarily winning at any cost (although winning is nice!)
The day was once again set up and run as a mini-campaign with every player taking part in three games, with each game having an affect on the next. All terrain was randomly placed prior to play, and remained ‘fixed’ for the rest of the day. Players were required to bring two army lists, one small 500 point scouting force, and a much larger 1500 point main body, all to be drawn from just three Warhammer Historical supplements pertinent to the period: Shieldwall, El Cid, and Byzantium Beyond the Golden Gate.
Things are well under way.
The format, slightly changed for the day, was:
Introduction and registration: remaking old acquaintances and perhaps even fostering the odd grudge for later table-top action.
Game 1: a 500 point scouting clash on a 4’x’4 table, based on the Border Skirmish Rules in the WAB 1.5 rulebook. Players would be semi-randomly paired up for a limited-turn skirmish. The winner would take forward a positive ‘event’ to the second battle.
Game 2: a 1500 point vanguard clash on a standard 6’x4’ table. Points gained (or not in far too many cases: yes, mine too! see later) from the scouting clash would be used to determine the combatants for this game. The winner of this game was allowed to employ a ‘Flanking Force’ for the third and final game.
Break for food (mad dash to the local chip shop for some!), drinks (handy gaming on licensed premises!), and a blether (much of this). Some realigning of tables for the last game would also be required.
Game 3: a 4000 point two-on-two Pitched battle on an 8’x6’ table. Players would be paired up for this game based on their accumulated points score from the previous two games. Each player would amalgamate his two army lists into one force for a mega 4000 point game. All points gained from this battle would be shared equally between the allied generals.
Prize-giving and photo session, and a chance to reflect on the days events: were my dice rolls really that bad!
And so it was that a small but select group of 12 gamers (some travelling from foreign climes: Fife and even Glasgow!) gathered at the club for a days rampaging through the Dark Ages. What follows are recollections of my own three games that, not to put too fine a point on it, should at best be forgotten! But, such are the wiles and powers of persuasion of the ‘Organiser’, I felt obliged to put finger to keyboard (yes, alright then, I volunteered!)
For game one I was paired up with Julian Evans and his now infamous WAB Barbarians, this time masquerading as Shieldwall Scots. I was faced with a wood hugging the table edge on my left flank, a village on my right, but within my deployment zone, and Jules had a hill facing this in his. The 500 points limit gave me a few headaches: mounted Thegns or Vikings? I chose the former (First big mistake) I also took a mounted Ealdorman to boost the cavalry’s low Leadership, a further unit of 15 Thegns and a unit of 11 slingers.
The opening exchanges centred on a protracted skirmisher melee: this lasted for three turns with both units knocking lumps out of each other. Of course it had to be the Saxons that finally broke, fled, and be eventually run down.
Scots skirmishers (right) get to grips with the Auld enemy. My knuckles are about to turn white!
This prompted me into action, moving the cavalry and Thegns slowly forward: Jules merely sat there, passing all his Warband tests. Until that is, his Toisech failed theirs. Of course they were found to be just in charge range to hit the flank of my Cavalry. No amount of counter-changing could stand up to this and my mounted Thegns were soundly beaten, pursued and caught. The pursuit move naturally allowed the Toisech to hammer into the flank of my Thegns, with the same devastating results. And that was it, game one over: I lost 1100 points in a 500 point game, avec nil points pour moi.
After a short break to hand in our scores, stock up of nibbles and drinks etc., it was straight on with game two. I was paired with another zero-pointer from the first game: Darrell Hindley, a damned good Norman player, though using Italo-Normans this time, and the event organiser (well, he likes to think so, but it was yours truly that really did all the work!) Thankfully I didn’t have to change table (now restored to its normal 6’x4’), and even had the same edge.
Knowing Darrell’s penchant for sweeping flank attacks, my plan was to keep my three large warbands tight in a central position. So why I stuck one way out on a limb hiding behind a hill on my left is still beyond me! (Second big mistake) I placed my Vikings to the right, ready to charge them up onto the hill to their front and hopefully see off a large unit of crossbow-armed Serjeants. My entire frontage was covered by a meagre two units of archers.
Darrell placed two units of Cavalry on his extreme right flank on a flanking manoeuvre that could bring them crashing into my exposed warband. Another unit of Knights was held back in the centre to keep my two warbands there honest. He also had a unit of javelinmen lurking around the wood.
John Glass' Vikings ready to break into skirmish formation prior to assaulting Darrel’s crossbowmen.
After several turns of very fancy hoof work (I hate superior cavalry!), Darrell’s two cavalry units had my left flank in serious trouble: the Vikings, now in skirmish formation, had raced up the right flank, taking some serious casualties en route, before finally charging and catching the fleeing Serjeants with only two figures! (you’ve got to love Ld 8 skirmishers)
Eventually the charge came on my exposed warband, and steam-rollered through it. This sent shockwaves of panic through the remaining two warbands: one fled off the table, the King’s stood firm. But with two turns left, I was in an untenable position. To keep the King’s head intact, I had to flee to evade cavalry charges from the rear, and then rally him on the last turn. Simple! Evade the cavalry, no problem throwing 11: rally the King on a 9, eh, no! At the end of the game I was left with just two Viking skirmishers claiming a table quarter, everything else was dead or fleeing.
So, yet another decisive, but highly enjoyable game, with Darrell worthy of his victory. It was now time for a food break (and that dash to the chip shop!), and then some swift realigning of tables for the big showdown.
Darrell and I were ‘magically’ paired up to face the Justinian Byzantines and Northumbrian Saxons of Dave Imrie and Chris Stone respectively. With most of the cavalry and Darrell’s crossbowmen being deployed on just one flank, our left, this was going to come down to a Saxon meat grinder in the centre. Here I had my three warbands in a nice tight line, their left flank protected by a village, their right covered by a unit of Knights. My Vikings, cavalry and the other unit of Thegns were out on the right flank, keeping three units of skirmishers company. The plan was to try and hold this flank against the two combined formations of Dave’s Justinian heavy infantry and some skirmishers.
Opening exchanges were minimal, and both sides manoeuvred for advantageous positions. Darrell’s crossbowmen were an obvious threat to Dave’s heavy cavalry: similarly, his horse archers were proving their worth against Darrell’s superior cavalry. On our right, the Vikings had scared off two units of skirmishers, and were now threatening to reform on the flank of one of Dave’s heavy infantry units. Chris kept up a steady advance with his Northumbrians in the centre.
Dave’s Optimates, on the left of my line, just before they met their maker!
With some minor cavalry scuffles and long range shooting on-going to our left, Dave eventually declared a charge with a unit of his Optimates against my left hand warband. Being in Shieldwall is a great help in standing up to cavalry charges, and my sturdy Mercians proudly stood up and slaughtered ALL of them! Sadly, the resulting panic tests were all made, and only stiffened the resolve of the Northumbrians to get stuck in.
And get stuck in they did! With throwing spears and Huscarls wielding double-handed axes in the front rank, there’s not much would stand up to this charge: my centre (King’s) and right hand warbands were hit by three such units, and although I was in Shieldwall, and with my Abbod allowing me to re-roll misses, it was all over due to weight of numbers. Darrell’s knights did manage to charge and halt a warband, but they simply fell back in good order. With our battle line in tatters, and time against us, it was at this stage that we called a halt and calculated up the points, though it was obvious who the victors were.
So there you have it: three great games and three big losses. But all played in a right spirit, and against genuinely nice people, and that’s what organising and taking part in these campaign days is all about – having fun. And after some eight hours of great gaming, drinking, blethering and good-natured ribbing, we finally came to the prize-giving ceremony for the top three players. Our congratulations (and envy at their LBM prizes) go to them. And for the rest of the prizes, all names were put in a hat, and everyone got to chose something when their name was called (I’m more than happy with the nice bag of Vikings I went away with!)
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Our overall winner Tim Dagnell (left) receives his prize from John Glass. |
The full results:
- Tim Dagnell (El Cid, Christian Spanish)
- Chris Stone (Shieldwall, Northumbrian Saxons)
- Andy Thomson (Shieldwall, Northumbrian Saxons)
- Julian Evans (Shieldwall, Scots)
- Jack Glanville (Shieldwall, Scots)
- Olivier Lepreux (Shieldwall, Breton)
- Darrell Hindley (Byzantium, Italo-Norman)
- Andrew Cairns (El Cid, Almoravids)
- Dave Imrie (Byzantium, Justinian Byzantine)
- Ross Edmonds (Byzantium, Justinian Byzantine)
- John Glass (Shieldwall, Mercian Saxons)
- David Glass (Shieldwall, Normans)
We would like to pass on our thanks to the Royal Navy and Marine Association and Club in allowing us to host this event. We would also like to thank all those who came along and made the day such a great success: all our efforts and hard work now pale into insignificance as we sit back and bask in the reflective glow of all the positive feedback we have received. Finally, we are indebted to the main sponsors for their continued generosity and support: Warhammer Historical, Gripping Beast, and Little Big Man Transfers. The following companies also donated some superb prizes: Perry Miniatures, Magister Militum, Old Glory, Dixons Miniatures, A&A Miniatures, and Newline Designs. The net result of all this support ensured that all those taking part went home with something other than just fond memories of a great day playing at soldiers.
We are now deep in the planning stages for our next campaign day to be held later on in the year, and will no doubt be employing all the lessons we learnt in running Nortung! (won’t we Darrell?)
Text and captions by John Glass. Photographs used by kind permission of Darrell Hindley and Julian Evans.
