Dark Age Thursday

I wasn't sure who was going to show Thursday, so I dug out yet another old favorite rules set "Flower of Chivalry". For Dark Age you say? I think it works even better one of my favorite periods.

In this particular battle, Viking raiders decided they would take advantage of the current instability in England (what with a new king taking over) and raid a large village. The local Normans heard about the landing and are racing to stop them.

If the Vikings could spend 3 turns in the village, it would count as "looted", for purposes of the game, and give them extra victory points.

I had command of the Norman horse. "What? The horse killer himself in charge of cavalry yet again? He must be getting cocky". Facing me across the table and making a bee-line for the village was the Marshal. A ruthless adversary who would show no mercy.

My plan was to use my speed to reach the village first. But I forgot, horse don't move that much faster than foot, unless they charge, and I'd be blown once I got there. My first turn, they wouldn't even move, same for my ally controlling the foot. Across the table the Norse were making steady progress, although the Marshal's troops were spread out and not holding the tight formation his fellow commander had.

Well, I managed to get to the village first, then realized I would drop to a crawl once inside the village perimeter. There were a few rounds I was subjected to bow and missile fire and lost a unit. I almost dismounted, but decided not too. I'm glad I did, because once I came to grips with the spread out vikings, I slaughtered them.

On the other flank, most of the heavy Norman foot never got to blows. I single militia unit was holding the high ground against all comers, even the Viking Huscarls. We broke them, 7 stands to 4.

Saturday VSF

The Baroness took her quarterly tour of the kingdom last end of week (girlfriend's weekend), so I called for a special Saturday edition of the Basement Generals. 

"As the Great War of 1883 ignited, the Czar, in need of funds sold Alaska to the nefarious Professor Nightshade in return for his cutting edge technology. This, of  course, upset the British who were already at war with Russia, but also angered the U.S., who had been not only eyeing the territory for themselves, but had personal scores to settle with the evil genius.

America soon joined the war after  one of their frigates was sunk by a submersible of unknown origin. It was obviously another one of Nightshade's contractions. As a show of faith in the new cause, the U.S. dispatched an American Expeditionary Force to France to aid their new allies in a push into German occupied France."

The Franco-Americans were surprised to see Russanas among the Nighshade-German forces. Before they could react, Rokkittruppen took to the skies and quickly captured some ruins. With their aerial troops holding a strong position on the right flank, boilers were stoked and the German, Russian and Automated forces came to life. 

French and American contraptions fired round after round into Nightshades enormous Steam Walker. Finally one shot crippled, but didn't destroy it. It blazed away with it's main gun, knocking out the French Roue. 

Russinas troops trying a "straight up the middle" approach were cut to ribbons by the American Mobile MG Emplacement, and forced to flee. French Marines took the woods opposite the Rokkittruppen and began a fire-fight that lasted most of the game. It finally took a well placed shot from the French Spyder to break the German sky soldiers.

It was right after this small victory that things fell apart for the French and Americans. Within a few turns, all of their armored contraptions were knocked out. With no way to knock out the beats on the other side, they decided to withdraw. What started as a fairly balanced fight, turned into a crushing victory for Nightshade and his pawns.