2nd part of Eirik Bloodaxe's Saga

Peasants & monks - who cares?

"Eirik woke up from his drunken slumber into a hangover, pale morning. Last nights feasting must have matched to the eternal feasting in Valhalla... maybe one pint of mead too much Eirik thought. He grunted as a messenger entered his tent. Group of Danish settlers wanted to move to the near town vikings had seized earlier and the captured Irish monks would soon all be dead - and not worth any ransom - if they had to endure a one more night of viking feasting. Eirik cursed the messaanger, peasants and especially monks twice. He really didn't feel like herding  them..."

As part of our Britannia Saga-campaign we played the scenario published in the February Wargames Illustrated Magazine: "Seek Sanctuary". Idea is to get three groups of civilians into safety, without them getting captured by attacking enemies.The game would end when either 8 civilians have been captured by the attackers or reached sanctuary or after 7 rounds, which would mean victory for defenders.

Layout of the game:

Game 1. 5 points

We placed terrain (way too much rough terrain to my liking, when playing against them Irish!) and rolled who'd be the defender / attacker. I became the defender - against my liking - my loot looking and proud Jomsvikings weren't that interested in escorting peasants and monks to their sanctuary... what a waste of time!

Deployment

I had to deploy my army after Kalle had placed his warlord. I had felt the sting of Irish shooting attacks from rough ground in earlier games and deployed my units so, that they could move out of the range (4")  of those annoying shooting attacks. Luckily I would have the first round, so this shouldn't be a problem.

Jomsviking deployment close up. I had 4 units of 8 warriors, 2 with daneaxes and 4 Hearthguard with daneaxes as well.

My plan and first round

My plan was to leave the left flank civilians to their fate and just hinder and slow down the Irish on that flank with one unit of warriors. I would focus on protecting civilian groups in the middle and right.

My first moves were to move out of the range (4") of the really annoying Irish BB ability "Sons of Dana", that initiates a shooting out of any rough terrain except buildings. Irish BB has also several other shooting boosting abilities, so I took great care to keep more than 4" away from rough terrain, maybe too much care... I also killed 3 irish warríors with Northern Tempest (read: they ran away, as they saw the first glimpse of my Jomsviking).

Kalleig then moved his troops a bit closer, but none of them dared to come close enough to throw any javelins.

Second round saw my troops moving forward while keeping their distance from the hill. The Irish seemed to be quite far. It seemed, that I would get a strong position in the middle and close to the "town" - hence guarding the route all the way to safety. 3 more Irish cowards quit the field.

Positions after my second round.

Jomsviking warriors sent to cover the left flank. The Irish seem far away.

Sanctuary seem from the peasant viewpoint

And then it all crashed

Eirik saw movement in the woods, fast movement, hairy movement. Are the devils from hell coming to claim me he thought for a moment, well that couldn't be much worse than this dagen efter... 

Suddenly a pack of dogs sprinted out of the forest and rushed towards the Danish settlers, whom went into panic and were ran down by the frothing hounds. Then Eirik saw movement and heard shouts from the right; Irish were dashing forward to release the captured monks from their bonds. Jomsviking warriors were as well slowed down by after effects of too much mead and failed to react. Eirik was about to let out his war cry and order his men to chase the enemy, but then thought better of it: peasants and monks - who cares!

In game terms: I had left my lines too open for the fast dogs and one forward dashing Irish unit to capture the needed 8 civilians, which they duly did on the second round of the game. I had no way to react. The game was over. Victory to Kalleigh. For once, he at least played the scenario!

Game 2

Since the first game was such a short and uneventful we decided to reboot, also changing the roles. Since victories in our campaign have been so rare to the "Natives" -faction Kalleigh demanded, that our second game would be totally unofficial and not count on the campaign scoring - this mainly implies on his confidence in those pesky Irish to do the mans job, when it really counts... or he just knew, that the WRATH of Jomsvikings (including me) would be terrible now...

Deployment; as an attacker I wasn't that much threatened by the rough terrain in the middle and made a more balanced deployment with 3 units of warriors and Eirik on the left and 1 unit of warriors and my 4 HG on the right.

Kalleigh started the game and advanced quite aggressively towards my lines; doggies moved to the forest (to take a piss probably) and his nerdy Priest-WL advanced towards my main force... "Eirik was thinking: those Irish must still be drunk, coming so boldly towards us!" Some of them even dared to throw some pointy sticks at my direction, useless I say!

FEEL MY WRATH!

I must give them foolish Irish this: they were brave (and foolish) enough to challenge and even charge us! First of them  go down was one of the Curaidh, whom only managed to take one of my warriors (a girl to be precise) with him to Valhalla, or to where ever these stinking  Irish sheep lovers go....

Come my turn I pondered: how the get grips on that annoying priest, generating so many Saga dice! So Eirik moved boldly forward with his warriors trying to keep up.

Kalleigh's brave HG took the bait and charged Eirik - and were soundly beaten.

Leaving Eirik and the Priest facing one another...

And to nobody's surprise Eirik chopped the pesky, flea bitten priest to pieces without breaking a sweat! Hah!

Overall situation after two rounds

Total slaughter  

Once already beaten Irish HG charged my warriors protecting Eirik and were once again beaten (I suppose my somewhat good saving throws had a role to play in this).

Kalleigh still didn't quite grasp, that he had already lost and moved his doggies forward to "protect" the advancing civilians.

But that was so futile! My Hearthguard  charged forward and cut the doggies to pieces. Ok, it really wasn't a fair fight, but the Irish could only blame themselves for irritating the mighty JOMSVIKINGS!

Our vengeance had come with a cost, but that cost was well met with the slain Irish and their pets! Victory and vengeance was ours!

At this point  Kalleigh new that all hope was lost and conceded the battle. All civilian groups were within my grasp - our captives were recaptured!

Conclusions: I think Kalleigh moved his troops too eagerly towards my main force and instead of softening them enough with javelins, engaged  them or allowed themselves to be engaged. Also in this 5 point game Northern Tempest -ability forced Kalleigh to give me WRATH-points and those wrath-spending abilities can be devastating. Especially Jomsborg is a game winning ability, when used well - for example leaving the enemy warlord without any protection.