As 2025 comes to an end, and despite being very behind on the blog's battle reports this year, here is one from today when Phil and Jenny invited myself, Andy and Jim down to play a 3000 point aside game of On Bloody Ground, Vikings versus Normans...
Adopting a nuanced tactical approach, Jen and I pushed the Norse straight forward, en masse...
With lots of shouting and clashing of shields!
Andy and Jim tried using tactics, employing a unit of light Breton horse to hold their right flank.
Whilst the rest of the army moved forward to engage the rampaging Norse!
Bark at the moon! The Ulfhednar, frothing at the mouth, moved up behind some bowmen skirmishers.
Whilst the Normans advanced their two main heavy cavalry units towards the Viking centre...
Colourful insults and chicken noises came from the Norse ranks.
Goading one of the Norman cavalry units into a charge!
On the Norman left, Breton infantry moved through the wood supported by crossbowmen and supporting cavalry.
The cavalry charging into a unit of Bondi...
...who after three rounds of vicious combat they routed!
In the centre the Norman knights with their army commander, crashed into another unit of Bondi with less spectacular results and a bloody attritional scarp ensued.
The second unit of Norman knight led by the Duke of Daisee (or something like that) charged into the Norse Hirð who had formed a shield wall...
The resulting melee saw the Normans suffer many casualties...
Before falling back with just two survivors accompanying the impetuous Duke.
The Hirð then charged the survivors, wiping the knights out and capturing the Norman Duke (blood eagle ceremony tonight chaps, BYOB...)
In the centre the Ulfhednar charged the Breton infantry who had helped the army commander's Knights wipe out the unit of Bondi they had been in combat with.
The Ulfhednar, having despatched the Bretons tried to catch a unit of dismounted Norman knights.
Whilst the Hirð moved up to try and get in position to charge into the remaining unit of Norman knights...
The Bondi on the Norse right flank tried to catch some pesky Norman crossbow.
This resulted in them being open to a charge in the rear by the Breton horse, who somehow managed to get wiped out when they executed the manoeuvre (I was in such a state of shock and amusement I missed taking a photo of this catastrophic attack!)
The dismounted Norman knights decided that taking on the Ulfhednar was potentially disastrous so they retired out of charge arc,
Meanwhile back on the Norman left, the Breton infantry decided to try their luck against a unit of Bondi,,,
They were not lucky,,,
And whilst the Norman cavalry managed to capture the Norse camp...
The Hirð had moved into the centre of the battlefield with the Normans falling back to avoid contact.
This was to prove crucial as it was one of the Viking objectives granting them 100 victory points. When Jen totalled up the various casualties, dead and captured leaders etc and added on the objective points the Norse had won by 1568 points to 1493...
A hugely enjoyable end to the gaming year, thanks to Phil and Jen for their hospitality and letting us play with their toy soldier collection, On Bloody Ground is a lot of fun and if you have large Ancients armies gathering dust and miss playing Warhammer Ancient Battles, I'd recommend checking On Bloody Ground out...
No comments:
Post a Comment