The village of Holmkelsa:

The Viking warband:

The Viking Warband

Warband Leader Unn Galtisson and his trusted companion (hero) Volg Maksson

Housecarl Toki Ingermarsson and Berserker Grim Liefsson

Bondi (1) and (2) – who cares what their names are!

“No Name” Bondi Archers (1) and (2)

Viking Skald Bragi Boddason

Sorry no pictures of the Norman warband which consisted of the Duke, 5 Norman knights, 3 with sword and two with lance, a dismounted Sergeant and a Seer.

Turn One began with the Norman Duke gaining the initiative and asked the Vikings to move first.

The Duke, a mounted hero, a dismounted Sergeant and the Norman Seer deploy on the left flank.

Two Norman knights with lance and two with swords deploy on the centre cross roads.

Unn Galtisson and his trusted companion Volg Maksson with an archer, a spearman, and the Berserker, Grim Liefsson, deploy on the Viking centre.

The Skald, a bowman and a spearman deploy on the centre road. The Housecarl, Toki Ingermarsson move to secure one of the Norman objectives to prevent them from seizing it.

The Norman cavalry advance along the road to the church and the Norman Duke moves to assist them.

Unn Galtisson and a Bondi spearmen move through the ancient tunnels towards the centre crossroad.

The first turn ended with no side obtaining any victory points (objectives controlled or any enemy destroyed).

Turn two began with the Viking Skald moving through the tunnels and emerging to unleash a spell from his Grimoire. A the start of the game the Norman Seer and the Viking Skald dice to determine randomly what single use three spells they had for the game:

• 1 Acrobat =-1 defence die
• 2 Medic may remove 1 hit per character per turn
• 3 Inexperience -1 attack die
• 4 charm – another character
• 5 Control for 1 turn
• 6 Exploding fireball – 3inch template.

The Viking rolled a 6,a 3, and a 1 and the Norman a 5, a 2, and a 1.

With the Norman cavalry near the church bunched up Bragi Boddarson unleashed the exploding fireball as he emerged from the tunnel, taking down one cavalryman and wounding another.

A Norman cavalryman charges the Bondi spearman and cuts him down, but is subsequently destroyed by the Viking Leader.

A second Norman knight charges the Viking leader and using the reach of his lance attacks without being able to be harmed himself. The Viking shrugged of the attack swearing vengeance against the use of such an unchivalrous attack.

Meanwhile the Berserker is tempted foward by a Norman cavalry advance as the Berserker must be moved if he has not already done so towards the nearest enemy in charge reach. The move back-fired on the Norman as the crazed Viking warrior almost cut him down for the loss of two wounds on himself. The Norman Duke decided to finish of the Berserker but found the Berserker, Grim Liefsson, a fierce warrior and suffered two wounds for daring to attack him.

The situation in the centre of the village.

A Viking archer moves through a tunnel but is unable to move on to the objective until next turn.

A Bondi spearman seizes the Apothecaries healing potions which counts as both an objective but also has the capacity to remove one wound on any Viking warrior at the end of the turn.

A brave Viking archer shoots at the Norman Sergeant but misses. The action also meant the Norman objective was contested and would not count as victory points for the turn.

At the end of the turn with three Norman cavalryman down to one Viking spearmen, and the Vikings holding one objective to nil the Victory points were massively in favour of the Vikings seventeen to two.

At the end of turn two the Apothecaries potion was used to remove on of the two wounds from the Beserker.

The Normans again won the initiative and decide to finish off the Berserker with the Duke. The fight showed what a seasoned warrior could do to a lord softened by a lavious lifestyle full of indulgences. A massive nine victory points were won by the Berserker.

With the Viking turn the berseker was required to attack the nearest enemy in charge reach which was the hapless Norman knight with two wounds already. Having already dispatched the Duke, the Norman knight was no match for Grim Liefsson, and yet more Norman noble blood was shed.

The Viking leader also quickly despatched another Norman knight.

The Norman Sergeant attacked the Viking archer inflicting a wound. The Viking Hero came to his aid causing a wound on the Norman. The skald unleashed the “inexperienced” spell on the Norman Sergeant and charged into the fray. With the Norman now only rolling one attack dice (minus 2 for being outnumbered twice and one for the spell) the result was never in doubt and the Sergeant was slain by the skalds staff.

At this stage with only the Norman seer left we decided to call it quits, saving Dave K the embarrassment of adding up the Victory points..

I would like to say that it was the Vikings (Nick) superior skill and tactics, but in all honesty I cannot. I have never, ever, ever, ever seen such magnificent dice rolling in fifty years of gaming. The one saving grace was that it was Dave K and not myself on the end of it.

Nick, I am willing to sell the dice, but because of their recent performance severe inflation has now increased their price to that of a Harley ……….. each, and I am not talking about Dr Quin here either!