Ianberht's Last Stand, a final game of Hail Caesar in our mini campaign.

 Ianberht's Last Stand: The Battle of Alverton Moor. 

Charlie, Ian and I were all looking forward to our final game in a loosely linked set of three games. Charlie's Norman Lord, Bohemond rides north to catch up with the Saxon Rebel Earl Ianberht (Ian) for a final battle.  Both leaders need to not just win the battle but also capture or kill their opposing commander. I based the table terrain around that of the 'Battle of the Standard 1138 with the Saxons and their Viking allies deployed where the English deployed and the Normans deploying where the Scottish force deployed. However the forces were quite different from the original battle and our game was just a straightforward encounter battle. Alverton Moor is just a made up name. 

Gathering his knights Bohemond rode north to confront his sworn enemy now gathered upon Alverton Moor, blocking Bohemond's route along the Great North Road.  

It was 600 points each in 4 divisions per side. Most leaders were Ld:8, FV:2 although we use some random cards to offer some random leadership values. 

Upon sighting his enemy Noble Bohemond swore an oath, "by oak and ash and bitter thorn we shall ride north to end the vile deeds of the pernicious Ianberht. By this, my right hand I swear you will soon see this Saxon rabble brought to nought. We will rule this land and our gracious leader, Duke William will be sworn as king by Michaelmass. Then his knights took up the cry 'Dieux Aide, Dieux Aide' (God aid us). 

Noble Behomond

Ianberht, Earl of Ripon summoned his loyal Thegns and all their levy to assemble upon Alverton Moor. This was perhaps his final chance to stop the foul Norman interloper Bohemond gaining control of the North. Upon hearing of the approach of the Norman forces Ianberht deployed his army across the Great Northern Road.

Then brave Ianberht began to arrange his warriors

Gave advice as he strode, told the warriors

How they could stand and hold their place

And bade that their shields they hold correctly

Fast in their fists and not be afraid

For this land was theirs. 

The Saxon army faced the approaching Normans and took up the cry of 'Ut,Ut!' (out, out). 

Ianberht, Earl of Ripon.

Such is the hatred and animosity between the two army leaders that they each share the same objective, win the battle and kill or capture their opposing leader.

Norman deployment with Noble Behomond and his knights deployed at the rear. 

Saxon and Viking deployment with Ianberht deployed at the rear.

Were the two leaders trying to protect themselves in some way? 

Normans to the left, Saxons and Viking allies to the right. 

Charlie was quick to get his light cavalry trying to get around the saxon flanks. 

The two forces approach each other. 

View from behind Saxon lines as they advance onto the central hill. 

At this moment it looked quite threatening for the Saxon/Viking alliance as there seemed to be masses of Normans and they were starting to use their superior missile power. .

Norman light cavalry threatening the Viking Bondi archers. Neither were very good at shooting as they were both still in this area at the end of the battle. 

More Norman light cavalry (who look suspiciously like Pictish light cavalry stand-ins) getting around the other Saxon flank. 

At last, combat ensued with this complex encounter. 

More units were fed in and after some truly awful dice throwing on both sides and a bit of head scratching trying to decide who should be taking 'break tests' the Normans were defeated and pulled back. 

The two forces are getting closer, it was getting a bit tense now, who would commit to the attack first? 

Noble Behomond and his division of Knights remain at the back with no gap appearing for them to ride through to help. 

Another view of the Norman cavalry (very intimidating).

View from behind the Saxon line, note the Norman cavalry still behind their infantry. 

The first clash of the main battle lines happened right at the top of the line. The Saxon infantry getting the better of the Norman infantry. 

In the centre the Saxon Huscarls defeated another Norman infantry unit and gaps were starting to appear in the Norman line. 

(The unit with the red flag were the victors, their foe has been removed). 

More Saxon victories in the centre of this photo and the Norman infantry divisions were getting seriously weakened. Earl Ianberht had rushed his division across to his left to support his Viking allies who despite fighting well were starting to look outnumbered. 

Ianberht and his Huscarls defeat more Norman infantry and suddenly most of the Norman infantry were gone and three divisions were broken meaning defeat for Noble Behomond despite him not ever entering the fray. Behomond turned his knights around and left the battle site, Ianberht was victorious and the North was free of Normans. I somehow suspect that Behomond may return? 

This was a most enjoyable larger battle. Before lunch Charlie (Behomond) seemed to have the luck of the dice but after lunch the dice definitely favoured the Saxon/Viking alliance. 

Our next game is in two weeks time with us moving on to the Wars of the Roses. 

Back to Fantastic Battles.

 It was great fun today to play a 15mm 'Fantastic Battles' game with Ian as it is one of our favourite set of rules. Ian was using his deadly 'Undead' led as usual by the Warlord Kroogan Hymax. I used my Wylde Elf army led by the mighty Mage Princess Leofran who rides her unicorn into battle. The scenario was a fairly straightforward one with a bit of flavour added by using both the 'Objectives' chart and the 'Random Events' as well. 

Princess Leofran glanced up towards the summit of Tol Berwyn where dragons once dwelt. She wished she had a dragon fighting beside her today. Leofran patted her unicorn, Corwen and turned away back down to her army. She had seen enough, the undead were advancing. 

Elven war songs sounded across the valley whilst the undead advanced in utter silence. The Undead Warlord Kroogan Hymax made a wide gesture with his arms whilst chanting and the whole undead force came to an immediate halt. Silence fell across the land between the two forces. Leofren gave a slight nod of her head and the elf knights mounted on pegasi took to the air; the battle was about to begin. 

Here is the rough outline of how the table was set up. 

Deployment before mishaps.

Undead to the left, Elves to the right. 

We were using the Objectives chart on p23 and a quick dice throw each decided that the Undead had to try and capture the high ground (there were no hills so we swapped this to capture the woods instead which would upset the elves) and the elves had to rescue a damsel in distress. Ian placed a single figure in contact with one of his toughest units to represent the damsel (we called her Princess Marielle). 

Mishaps forced one unit of undead forward and another one backwards. 

The elf pegasus riders were sent forwards by mishaps too. 

Undead dragon withdrew from a poor mishap throw. 

Turn 1 and the elf pegasus riders moved forwards again, taking up a blocking position against any undead who may advance between the pond and the wood. 

A good birdseye view of early movements as the elves advance to get into missile range of the undead. Elf shooting proved to be quite effective early on.  

A random event causes a unit of undead archers to swap allegiance and join the elvish army! We decided the story behind this random event was that Princes Leofran used her mysterious magical powers to cause this. Ian then charged the treacherous unit to destroy it before it could cause any harm on his own troops. 

Elf eagle allies swoop in and kill an undead wyvern. 

Over on the left flank a unit of centaurs supported by mounted elf archers take on undead infantry and after a couple of rounds of melee destroy them.  

In the centre the undead Hydra and his skeleton supports were also killed/destroyed by a unit of elf rangers.The undead casualties were starting to mount up. 

The undead rogue known as 'The Piper' attacked the elf rogue Emyn Lockhard and kills him in a duel. The Piper then went on to attack and kill an elf captain called Cadvan Longspear. This was starting to reduce my command capability. 

Sensing the end of the battle the elf pegasus riders charge into skeleton archers to try and destroy them.  

The elf rangers get caught in another fierce melee with another unit of skeletons. (the purple dice are a reminder of their 'empowered bonus in the melee from a spell).  Warlord Kroogan Hymax waded in to assist the undead but gets killed by the elf rangers who are also killed. However, the death of Kroogan Hymax causes a huge 'resolve' loss across the undead army which now collapses in defeat.  

My Treemen had just charged into melee with an undead dragon which with the help of the resolve loss caused by Kroogan's death is also slain. A great victory for the Wood Elves (it is not often I win at Fantastic Battles against Ian, a true master of using traits to great effect). 

Neither side achieved their objectives. The undead were nowhere near capturing any woods and the Princess Marielle was escorted from the battlefield by one of the few remaining undead units (a quick 50:50 dice throw decided this which could be an objective for another game?).  

Ian and I both had great fun playing this game which left us wanting to play again soon. 

We both think that Fantastic Battles is one of the best fantasy rulesets around.

Normans v Anglo Danes and Vikings, game 2.

 This week Charlie took on the role of scenario creator with a game inspired by last week's encounter battle won easily by the Normans. It was Charlie's Normans against a combined Anglo Danish and Viking force although sadly Ian (Ianberht) was ill and missed the game so I controlled both the Anglo Danish and Vikings forces with Charlie in charge of his Normans.  

I set the table up as described in the map that Charlie drew. A few quick dice throws soon decided which side deployed where and who was the attacker. I had to deploy the Anglo Danes in the lower deployment zone whilst half of Charlie's Norman force then deployed in the upper deployment area. The other halves of our forces were in reserve and it was going to be dependent upon the draw of a card as to where they came on. 

We also used my random cards to vary the quality of our leaders. 

Sir Robert de Baskerville was leading the Normans this week and this is his deployment.

Lord Ianberht was back to lead the Anglo Danes despite the Normans calling for the Pope to 

ex-communicate him for being so troublesome. 

The Viking allies turned up before the Norman re-enforcements. 

The Vikings, led by Svend this week happily entered the table close to my right flank. 

(however I forgot that units moving in column still get one move even if the order roll is failed and the new Viking leader proved to be not very good at throwing for orders). 

Charlie moved his Normans quickly across the board to threaten the Anglo Danes. 

Ianberht held his troops secure atop the hill. 

The view of the Normans approaching the Anglo Danish resolute on their hill. 

Then, Ianberht threw caution to the wind and with a wild yell of 'Ut, Ut followed by a few Godemite!' the Anglo Danes charged down the hill at the Normans before they could form their proper battle line. With my order dice allowing me the two moves I needed my guys crashed into the Norman infantry destroying an archer unit and forcing a unit of heavy infantry to withdraw. 

At the left end of the Anglo Danish line one unit of Ceorls were defeated which helped spin the battle line around a tad. 

With the archers gone my Housecarls swept on into a unit of Norman knights , nearly catching them in the flank but they turned to face the rampaging Housecarls and got battered as the Housecarls swung their huge dane axes to great effect. 

It took two rounds of melee to defeat the Norman knights and the Norman commander Sir Robert de Baskerville was killed in the melee. His son was quick to take over command but he was a lesser man.  

My Thegns were pushed back onto the hill (content to Rally up there). Happily the Anglo Danes caused enough damage to the Baskerville's Norman division that it broke and fled the battlefield. 

Slowly the Viking allies were starting to feed into the battle. 

At the top of the picture you can see the Norman reserve moving in column fast down the road . 

Charlies mounted units from his reserve arrive and try to sneak past a unit of Vikings who by now were mostly in position. My viking bondi archers hit the Norman knights with bow fire, killing two and forcing them back in disorder

With the combined Anglo Danish and Viking force only one unit down and a few points of damage rallied off they adopted a strong defensive position with most units also having support. 

Thegn Ianberht looked on in wonder as the remaining outnumbered Norman units decided to withdraw leaving the Anglo Danish/Viking alliance victorious. 

With a huge roar of victory the cry of 'Ut, Ut' was taken up again. Lord Inaberht who had fought in almost every fight was declared 'man of the match'. 

Thanks to Charlie for devising a hugely entertaining scenario which did seem to backfire on him a bit with his reserve entering the table at the furthest point away from the action. 

Hopefully we can fight a third and deciding battle in this series of games soon.  

Finally, here are a few photos of my latest unit for my Macedonians, the Silver Shields. 

It took me a whole month to paint these. They are mainly Wargames Foundry with a few Crusader Miniatures. The standard bearer is from WIP Games and Miniatures.