13 June 2011

The Tax Man Cometh - Part 2

Viking Berserker 
If you missed Part 1 of this Battle Report, look here:
http://tasmancave.blogspot.com/2011/06/tax-man-cometh-part-1.html

When we last left our heroes, the Lad was embroiled in a fight around the Bishop's residence, Ken and Owen were fighting their way to Church, and my warband was being systematically destroyed by a ferocious, foul-tempered bunny....

The Lad managed to fight off the Saxon defenders and a bunch of reinforcements, and in fact did so without taking a single casualty.  He then packed up all the goodies into a handy cart (actually two handy carts, but he realised he couldn't make it with two carts and dumped one) and then began a slow withdrawal in good order while an increasingly large mob of Saxons tried to build up enough courage to charge the Viking line.

Back at the Church, the Vikings decimated the first Saxon shieldwall, and advanced upon the next wave, who sensibly hunkered down around the Church entrance to use the stone walls to secure their flank.



And while his oar-mates were being dispatched by the foul rodent, my Champion had challenged the Saxon garrison commander to single combat!

Dueling at the Village Crossroads
Victory!!!!
My boys then went on to mop up the rest of the Saxon defenders, burst into the Church and slay the pesky Tax Collectors (much to the chagrin of Ken and Owen, whose boys were still engaged outside the Church).  After a turn or two scooping up all the gold the could carry, these two jumped out the back window of the Church and scarpered into the woods!
Inside the church - the comfy chair was very temping to outfit the Dragonship!
Meanwhile the shieldwalls clash outside the Church

Meanwhile, back at the Cave entrance I finally managed to scare off (scare off, not dispatch mind you!) the evil bunny, and finally enter the cave... (This was a fantastic bit of terrain Pete had made up in a box lid)  The glittering of treasure on one side was offset by the hideous visage of the 3 stooges Troll in the other corner!
The Cave of Wonders!
A cautious advance ....
"Intruders? Why I oughta..."
Charge!
Luckily for me, the Troll put up less of a fight than the Rabbit and my Hersir dispatched the gruesome foe.
At this time, the Saxon Army Commander and his continent of Huscarls dramatically entered the board, intent on stopping this unwanted incursion and taking back the stolen tithe!


A mighty Saxon Hero leads his men!
As they entered the Fray, Ken and Pete were mopping up with shieldwall, and Ken called out the Mighty Hero to a duel which went back and forth for a few turns as the two combatants were closely matched.
And the Lads lads got their cart over the ford in the stream, just as more Saxons came on to oppose them:

An angry Harold the Missionary leads more men to take back the Church's gold
But the fearsome Vikings challenge them from the other bank, and their courage fails them!
At this point the Saxon hero fell the Ken's axe and the Saxon defences crumbled.  Having looted the Church, the Cave and the Bishop's residence, the Vikings had taken a good haul of loot and made their way back to the Dragonships.  The funeral pyres burned brightly on the beach for some of my departed lads.

Battle Epilogue: Hours later in in misty dusk, the Saxon hero regained consciousness, having been left for dead on the battlefield.  Binding a serious wound on his leg, he knew the Ealdorman's wrath would fall upon him for loosing the tithe revenue.  Swearing vengeance upon the Northmen, eternal hatred for them would burn deeply...

15 comments:

  1. A cracking good dust up! But more importantly, how much loot did we end up with!!!!

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  2. And it was all the better for having you there buddy! Sent you an email re Loot

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  3. An epic tale! Fought with the bravest of hearts, worthy of any Viking saga!!

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  4. Wow! Looks like a cracker game. Fantastic terrain. What rules do you use?

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  5. Brilliant battle. I am also interested in the rules. Now I just need to go and make some loot for my games.

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  6. Bloody excellent...a well set up table and a great story!!! You´ve got some great scenery stuff there...one thing that I noticed...I haven´t got a well!!! I knew there was something missing.
    Love the comfy chair :-D
    My stonecircle....it´s the same hill as for the church, all I have done is made a new plate to fit, the stone is removable and can be replaced with the fire, also lit from underneath in the smae way as the curch :-D
    Cheers
    Paul

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  7. and a cave...that would be good...for a witch to live in. Now where´s my styrofoam?? :-D

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  8. Love the stooge troll, excellent work as usual sir.

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  9. Excellent report - and who wouldn't like the "Stooge-Troll", although a truly evil version of a Stooge-Troll would replace the Curly head with one for Shemp!

    The troll is truly inspired!

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  10. Thanks all! The Troll also had some special rules about which head takes over which turn, but I killed it a bit quick for all that to kick in properly!

    Paul's Bod's: I've no doubt you can scratch build yourself a beauty Paul, with a fully operational bucket and hoist and realstic splash sound effects too :-)

    You can see more of mine here: http://tasmancave.blogspot.com/2011/03/review-well-set.html

    Alanus and Rodger - we are using Age of Blood, 2nd Edition, which is available for free download here:
    http://www.rebelpublishing.net/resources/Age_of_Blood_2nd_Edition.pdf

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  11. A great fight, worthy of song and story!

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  12. Impressive on all levels, looking forward to the next one.

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  13. Excellent battle report and story! Surely the Northmen's ranks will swell when others learn of the plunder taken from the church.

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  14. Greate game and report. Super stuff

    -- Allan

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