A Viciousness of Vikings

A Headless Body Production

Venue: Harve de Grace's Community Center, in the land of the HAWKS.
Event: Barrage 2024
Players: Mark Cribbs running Viking and Liedang, list 155
               Phil Gardocki running Samurai, list 221
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 15mm, 200 points per side.  Round 1.

A plug for a friends wargame site, Bill Molyneaux.  He visits battle fields and museums around the east coast of the US and promotes games you might have heard of.  

 

Each visit to his site generates a small amount of cash dedicated to the Toys for Tots campaign. It costs you nothing but time.  Visit  Bills Wargame World .

 

Why Samurai?

Most times I do not even think about what army I am bringing to a tournament until the last week.  Then usually it is something that just tickles my fancy at the moment.

 

This decision started with an email from Steve Turn.  "Do you have stampeding cattle for your Japanese list?"

 

"Yes I do, I found some Holsteins at an HO train shop a few years back, then put some cotton on the back of the stand to represent a dust cloud."

 

Two weeks later, Steve showed up with the below model he 3D printed and painted for my Samurai.  He was using his 3D printer to print out a Timurid army, and they had stampeding cattle.  So he printed out an extra set and painted them for me.

They are much better looking than my Holsteins.

 

Flaming branches in the tails and all.  How could I not bring Samurai to Barrage?

The Forces:
Samurai commanders include the Strategist Yoshitune, Darryl-san, the Competent, and Darryl-san, the Ordinary and Included
2 Heavy Cavalry, Bow, Elite
2 Light Cavalry, Bow, one Elite
5 Samurai, Heavy Sword, 2HW,  Elite
6 Samurai, Medium Sword, bow, 2 Elite
3 Peasant Bowmen, Mediocre
2 Peasants armed with Naginata, Medium sword, Mediocre
3 Light Infantry, Bow
1 Stampeding Cattle, played as a Scythed Chariot
Breakpoint...23

The Viking commanders are unnamed, and have uncertain qualities, but one known is that the Bretan commander is Allied.
7 Huscarls, 2HCW, some armored, some Elite, some with Support
4 Bondi Warriors, Medium Sword, Impetuous
6 Medium Cavalry, Javelin
2 Light Cavalry, Javelin
2 Bowmen
2 Light Infantry, Bow
Breakpoint...23

Display Conventions: When you see a word bubble like "Ouch!" or "ᛟᚢᚲᚺ!" or "ああ！", this implies a disorder from missiles. Letters in parenthesis represent some value change for the specific unit. For commanders it is s for strategist, b for Brilliant, c for Competent and o for Ordinary, u for unreliable. For troops it is e for Elite, and m for Mediocre. Other abbreviations, Hvy Heavy, XB Crossbow, LB, Longbow, Jav Javelin, 2HW 2 Handed Weapons, B Bow, Kn Knight, HKn Heavy Knight, HC Heavy Cavalry, Md Medium, Sgt Sergeants, LC Light Cavalry, Chr Chariot, Cat Cataphract, Pa Pavise, LI, Light Infantry, HG Hand Gun, FKn Foot Knight, Hvy Spear, Heavy Spearmen.

"XX" implies a unit killed in that location on that turn. Inappropriate capitalization is for words that have a specific meaning in the game. 

Any inaccuracies and vagueness as to specific units is to be regarded as fog of war and should be considered as part of the fun.

Side note.  

I brought a near copy of the Samurai army as I faced in Lisbon last month.  And copied Dave Saunders tactics as well.  See Bringing Katanas to a Knight Fight.  They say mimicry is the highest complement.

The Board:

The Samurai win the initiative and elect to defend in the plains.

Ready to parade on the Narvik to Stockholm highway.  On their right are the Viking bowmen and bondi.

Their center the professional huscarls.

On their left, a large force of horsemen from Bretagne.

Yoshitone takes the left with a large command

 Hidden in ambush are a Naginata and several Samurai

The center is commanded by Darryl-San and just two units of horse, herding some cattle

On the right is Darryl-San with a mix of heavy and medium Samurai, and bolstered by Naginata and bow armed peasants. 

 Goober the dancing bear has come for a visit!

We have a visiting celebrity!

This is the plan, which I stole whole cloth from Dave Saunders of the UK, see above.  Two large commands on the outside which are a mix of heavy and mediums.  The heavies catch and hold the attackers, while the mediums hit them in the flank.  It worked very well against my impetuous knights in Lisbon.  But the Vikings are a large foot army, with only some impetuous foot that can operate without penalty in the rough.  

Turn 1:

Battle plans never survive contact with the enemy.  Sometimes they don't survive the first die roll...

You have to have sympathy for Mark.  He got up at 5am to get here, and then rolls a '1' for the Allied Bretagne command.

The Vikings move their bowmen down the road,

and advance the rest of their horde.

Their left flank is hanging just a bit, but it is still secure.

Yoshitune orders his peasant bowmen to the left.  But keeps his heavies back.

His skirmishers move forward

The Bretons will not stay in the back for long.  Darryl-San sets up firing lines for when they do advance.

Turn 2:

It looks like I missed the pictures of the Viking turn for turn 2.  But truthfully, nothing much happened.

Yoshitune orders his left flank cavalry forward

And continues to hold back his foot troops

Darryl-San breaks out the igniters for the cow's tails

Darryl-San holds as well

Other Pics at Barrage

Menu from Friday's food truck.  Not everyone will get the joke

A 10mm pike v Roman battle on a 12' table.  Looks great from a distance.  Judging from the colors of the dice, it is Mortem et Gloriam.

Even up close they look good.

Great looking ruins.  And a figure smashing 20 sider to the right.

Turn 3:

These moves may have occurred on turn 2, it doesn't matter.

A forced charge by impetuous troops run off Japanese lights.

The Breton's continue to be unresponsive.

One ambush revealed.  A darkening of the skies by Samurai archers.

Yoshitune tries to lure the impetuous troops forward another charge.

The Bretons don't seem to be doing anything.  Darryl-San starts to shift left.

Turn 4:

The Vikings have a surplus of command points and hold their impetuous warriors.

And use the time to rally their skirmishers.

The Bretons dismount for their union mandated mid-battle break.

Yoshitune advances his left flank.  Partially to threaten the Viking archers, but also to threaten the warriors flank should they advance.

This is really a side show.  If the bowmen advance, I'll engage.  But I am finding that command points are limited, and my main forces have not yet engaged.

More taunting by the lights.

A bit more shift to the left.

Turn 5:

No advance here.

But another forced charge here.  The Bondi roll short, allowing the Huscarls to keep up with them.

The Bretons are now responding.  Let the game begin!

I cannot fault Mark one bit for holding back until the Bretons came on line.  And my battle plan was to hold this line just so, and I didn't wand to change it just to challenge his troops while they were short 8 units.  I also think I would lose if I tried!

2 Samurai in the plantation advance to charge range.  The other turns to flank the incoming Vikings.

Fire is set to the cattle herd.

Who disperse before contact.

Now there are real cavalry in the field, Darryl-San must be cautious.

Turn 6:

See above reference to battle plan and contact.  Viking Impetuous warriors charge into the plantation.  One warrior is ginzu'd.  The others roll over their Samurai, and into the flank of the next.

Another impetuous warrior charges and is badly disordered.

The rest of the Huscarl line are now racing to get into the fight.

The Breton horse, all javelin armed, prove their worth.

Who would hold an ambush for 6 turns?  Naginata armed peasants emerge from the plantation to support their Samurai.  The Samurai turn, routing a warrior, then pursue, routing another.

The last impetuous warrior is routed.

Darryl-San orders some of his troops deeper into the field.  Just daring the Bretons to charge.

The score is 15 points towards demoralization for the Vikings to 7 for the Samurai.

Turn 7:

While this may look like a long game, the inactivity of the commands allowed the turn counter to go fast.  I think we were at just 75 minutes at this point.

The Huscarls get in their first charge, disordering their Samurai opponents.

The rest of the Huscarls are lining up for a crushing blow.

Breton horse attack all down the line.

The Samurai counter attack, destroying a Huscarl

Yoshitune holds his lines.  If I remember right he was rolling 1's for command points.

Several Breton horsemen are routed here, taking the Viking demoralization to 23 for the loss.

The plan seemed to work well here.  But you cannot count on your opponent having a command out of action for 5 rounds.

But there was a point in turn 6 that things were not looking so good.  Just as the huscarls charged, I rolled 8 1's in a row, causing disorder on many units.  Then there was a short string of 6's which balanced it out.  

No 3's or 4's.  Just 1's and 6's.  

Pictures from the previous day:

Sir Bor's and his squire are dueling with a nameless French knight.

A fabulous fort set up.