Plumes of smoke and
faint cries from the village were carried on the wind. Grim faced, Rufus nodded a command and his
warriors fanned out and covered the tracks leading away from the horror that
was Lundby. The bulk of his forces had
struck at dawn and like beaters in the boar hunts that he enjoyed so much drove
the shocked peasants and the escorting infantry out of their hiding places in
the forest.
He had kept his best warriors
for the bloody business of tackling the Fyrd, determined to protect the
valuable livestock that would keep them and their families fed in the depths of
winter. Kill the animals, end the
resistance.
No pleasure would be
found in seeing this carnage. Let it be
swift Lord. Let the Saxons come to their
senses.
The Harrying of the North 1070 - Turn Two
Last Thursday saw the second round in our Harrying of the North
campaign for Saga, and the scenario selected was The Escort from the original
rulebook. The scene was set that after
successfully raiding and burning a Saxon village, the Normans would attempt to
capture the fleeing survivors and their winter provisions.
This was the first time I had played this scenario as it
took a while to get some painted civilians and animals on the table. We didn’t bother rolling for terrain this
time but rather placed a river just off centre, a few trees and a small burnt
ruin offering scant cover.
Phil placed a unit of warriors on his left flank (Hearthguard
being too noble to lower themselves guarding a few pigs) somewhat protected by
the river and I took the bait and countered them with a couple of units of my
own.
As usual I placed my archers to the front with the idea that
with Gallop I could charge through and strike an unsuspecting target.
Preliminary archery was bloody for me with cavalry being particularly
vulnerable to arrows. The livestock on
my right was very exposed and more importantly unable to pass off any wounds
using the Resilience rule available to the baggage in this scenario. Sending a complete unit of 8 warriors into
combat seemed a pretty risk free strategy and so it proved as the cattle
protected by old men and boys were driven off for the loss of a few gored
horses. One baggage down and I needed to
remove one more for the game.
However, both were well protected by strong units. The Saxons had hoodwinked me by deploying
near a ford and used it to bring baggage over, leaving some Knights and
Warriors on the wrong side.
The central herd was moving forward surrounded by a ring of
spears but the pigs hadn’t gone far enough and assaulted by Knights were forced
to retreat straight into a speedily advanced unit of my warriors and away from
a protective screen. I don’t remember having
used the ability Crush before which doubles the number of wounds received if
the attacker lands twice as many hits as the defender. Against a bunch of swine
this seemed good odds especially as not enough potential sacrifices were
available. The ability lived up to its
name – bacon for dinner!
Game over and decided in short order.
“Gather the animals,
leave the Saxons!” There was no point in continuing the slaughter. Pigs, sheep and cattle were loot and his men
needed to eat too. The fleeing warriors
were mostly farmers and farmers would be needed in the Spring. Now if any of the Thegns had dared show
themselves Rufus would have had no restraint in ordering a pursuit. Those fearsome axemen would only trouble the
Kings order and the fewer left breathing the better.
That the meddlesome
Priest had once again escaped vexed him and combined with the missing elite served
to convince the Norman warlord that the coming battles would not be so easy.
