New Years Day Viking invasion of Mercia.

 To celebrate New Years day and the completion of my Anglo-Saxon army, I took over the living room for a family battle. Since I was playing with my Wife and two son (8 & 5) I chose to use De Re Belloludi rules as they are basically super simplified Hail Creaser rules. 

The game is a simple engagement where 2 Viking brothers are invading the Kingdom of Mercia with a strong force of professional fighters. Opposing them is Queen Æthelfled of Mercia accompanied by a loyal "General" (wink wink) with a larger but weaker force of local Fyrd, though they have more shooting. 

Table setup ready for battle.

Viking Leader Coleman the Destroyer.

Heavy Infantry Elite 6” Axes | Hand to Hand: 9 | Moral 5/8

Heavy Infantry 6” Spears | Hand to Hand: 8 | Moral 4/8

Combat Infantry 6” Spears | Hand to Hand: 7 | Moral 4/7

Mercian "General" Robert the Handsome

Heavy Infantry 6” Spears | Hand to Hand: 8 | Moral 4/8

Levie Infantry 6” Spears/Javelins | Hand to Hand: 5 Shooting: 2 | Moral 3/6

Levie Infantry 6” Spears/Javelins | Hand to Hand: 5 Shooting: 2 | Moral 3/6

Light Infantry 12” Javelins | Hand to Hand: 4 Shooting: 1 | Moral 4/7

Light Infantry 12” Bows | Hand to Hand: 4 Shooting: 2 | Moral 4/7

The beautiful Æthelfled (Ana) Queen of Mercia

Heavy Infantry 6” Spears | Hand to Hand: 8 | Moral 4/8

Levie Infantry 6” Spears/Javelins 6” | Hand to Hand: 5 Shooting: 2 | Moral 3/6

Levie Infantry 6” Spears/Javelins 6” | Hand to Hand: 5 Shooting: 2 | Moral 3/6

Light Infantry 12” Javelins 6” | Hand to Hand: 4 Shooting: 1 | Moral 4/7

Light Infantry 12” Bows 12” | Hand to Hand: 4 Shooting: 2 | Moral 4/7

Viking Commander Thomas the Terrible.

Heavy Infantry Elite 6” Axes | Hand to Hand: 9 | Moral 5/8

Heavy Infantry 6” Spears | Hand to Hand: 8 | Moral 4/8

Combat Infantry 6” Spears | Hand to Hand: 7 | Moral 4/7

The game began with the Viking brothers who advanced only a little while consolidating their two forces.

The Queen responded with a caseous advance expecting her General to follow. Unfortunately he was struggling to get his units in motion and they just stood around. 

The Vikings then made another small advance and focused on forming a cohesive line with support.

The Queen's forces got nervous about the solid wall of angry looking Vikings and decided not to move. This did allow her General to bring up his units to be in line.

The Viking Commander tried to get his troops to charge across the large gap into the Queens units to avoid their javelins and arrows but clumsily advanced just one move instead.

The Viking Leaders men did not falter and instead all charged across the distance into the Mercian Generals troops.

This was a bad situation for the Mercians as their line was to dispersed to offer any mutual support against the compact formation of Vikings.

A fearce melee erupted between two units of heavy infantry with the supported Vikings driving back their Mercian counterparts.

The Vikings pursued the Mercians as they fell back, catching them and destroying the unit. (These rules are quite bloody as a side effect of their simplicity).

The Mercian Light troops also where driven back by the Viking Elites but where saved from destruction when the pursuing Vikings collided with a unit of Levys. 

The Mercians managed to reposition their other unit of Levy to support the engaged unit.

Meanwhile The Viking Commanders force had closed the distance a bit and was starting to take some fire from bows and javelins. 

But before the missile weapons could inflict any casualties the Vikings charged across the last bit of ground into the Queen's dispersed force.

Similarly the Queen's heavy infantry where pushed back by the Vikings but because her overall formation was a bit tighter the pursuing Vikings hit Levys first. 

The Mercian General's force was starting to push back and his Levy's had been able to push back 2 units of Viking heavies while coming out with fewer hits.

Though it Mercians could not hold against the better trained and equipped Vikings for long. Soon one of the General's units of Levys was destroyed by the Viking Leaders soldiers who then charged the exposed flank of the remaining Levys while the Elites tore into the light troops.

While the Mercian right flank was collapsing, The Queen had started to collapse the Vikings right. After destroying one of the Viking Commander's Heavy units a unit of Levy was sent around to flank. Fortunately for the Viking Commander, his Elites where able to reposition and intercept the light Mercian troops.

The Generals forces continued to collapse with the destruction of one of his light troops which left his last unit of Levy open for another flank attack which spelled their doom. This left the General with a single unit of Light troops, braking his command.

The Queens forces fought on bravely, destroying another unit of Viking soldiers but at the cost of both her units of Levys.

With only her personal guard of Heavy infantry and a few light troops left the Mercian Queen, encouraged by her General, fled the field in order to fight another day.

A good game though playing with a 5 and 8 year old's attention span can be...taxing. My wife agreed the rules where very simple and easy to pick up and everyone said they had a good time.