Dec 24, 2012

Viking Village Vendetta!


So Christmas activities, family together and whatnot, it seemed just right to have a classic Viking-style showdown on the dining table. Jarl Bjarni's goats were stolen by Jarl Eirik Storrison's men, who were a tad hungry and set up a feast as soon as they got home on their longship. 
The table featured a wooded hill, a longhouse (of wooden bricks apparently, as I ran out of glue and didn't want to make a cardboard one anyway), a river and a longship for decoration and some walls at the end of the longhouse's yard. 


The hungry Vikings drink a lot of ale too. Scenario rules:  only three men can leave the house in one turn. Each rolls an 'intoxication level' dice, 1 means the man's completely smashed, 2-3 means he has to roll direction dice after every move.


The first two turns go on, it seems Jarl Eirik's crew isn't much drunk and two men actually start to put out the fires ignited by enemy arrows.


More and more men join the combat and the archers have pretty much to do. The archers take out both firefighters and the building fails a saving roll, the situation isn't that shiny over there. All three Berserkers die in two turns. 


A lot of Vikings fall wounded, or is it just beer? Four out of the next six coming out of the house are drunk but two can manage to swing their spears around and pin Jarl Bjarni and his men down, two wander off with really bad direction dice and the fire spreads more.


As more casualties are inflicted the balance breaks and now Jarl Eirik's men are quite sure they can manage to put out the fire and fend off the attackers...


A closer view on the fight in the longhouse's yard. The brave inhabitants managed to keep the fire down until everyone got out, then finally it was only smoking under the soaking wet roof... It took seven turns altogether with really crappy rolls. Soon, Jarl Bjarni died against three opponents and there were only three archers remaining... How did it come to that?


Kiting and shooting all their way to the safe edge of the table. 


Oops! In the last turn they decide to get into a close fight and they fail pretty bad. (The stick is my invention)

The conclusion is: 19 dead/wounded to Jarl Eirik's party (himself and one of his men survived), 16 dead/wounded to Jarl Bjarni's party (all down). Well, this was as bloody as you would have expected from a bunch of angry Vikings. Drunken Norsemen had their moments (turning away from their intended direction by 45/90°) and it is really just bad luck those archers were not effective enough or their own men blocked their way. Jarl Eirik constantly rolled 6s for saving/initiative and Jarl Bjarni took out a good few rank and file too before going to Valhalla. A good game indeed.

9 comments:

  1. Fun stuff, Andrew. And if your going to be wounded, you might as well be a bit snockered!!

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  2. Nicely done. Merry Christmas sir have a good one!

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  3. That's the last thing that I could think to find on a Christmas table!!!
    Merry Christmas, Andrew!

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  4. interesting, but it prooves that one should never drink and fight.

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    1. One just has to find the correct amount of ale that enhance his fighting skills but don't make him useless. In my personal experience, this balanced amount is hard to find and requires a lot of trying.

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  5. Mh, I'm asking myself: "How much did the gamers drink?" :-D

    Nice game, pictures and report Andrew!

    Greetings
    Peter
    http://peterscave.blogspot.be/

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