Boernward Oferheah - the 'magnificent'

Boernward masses his force

Last night saw the latest instalment of our ongoing Dux Britanniarum campaign. With the previous death of Eadwulf the Good the tribes on the west coast of Cumberland had rallied around a new leader. Boernward Oferheah (a giant of a man). But whilst he organised his forces Ivar the cowardly northman had laid siege to a coastal town. Boernward would need all his great strength to break the siege and defeat Ivar in open battle.

Boernwar formed his troops together with his new champion Gudrum of Ellenfoot seen here carrying the banner. As a pitched battle you can roll for special events so Boernward broke open the beer barrels in the hope of giving his men some extra courage. It worked giving them an additional D6 in each first combat (it would have been good if I had remembered this).

Ivar's horde came running out of the trees splitting their units in two, in what looked like an attempt to surround Boernward outside the town gates.



Battlefield set with Northmen entering from the left

The best Cumberland troops pushed forward to attempt to delay the onslaught, but caution in such an open battlefield is often the best approach and Boernward ordered his army to lock shields. There was a tense pause as the Vikings came on readying themselves for the charge. Luckily a small copse forced the Vikings to remain split into two groups, this would at least mean the battle wouldn't be decided in one huge mele.



Boernward orders his men to lock shields

Ivar cunning as ever sought to boost his first charge in an attempt to break the shield wall in the rush (several good cards played to help the Vikings) only to find the Vikings charge came up short, they threw their spears but to little effect. It was now too late to hold back and the Vikings charged in. The first real clash of the battle immediately saw Boernward and Ivar up against each other, but the Vikings were out numbered. After weathering the first rush Boernward called in support from his bodyguard.



Bracing for the first clash

On the other side of the battle field the Vikings seeing their Lord charge in advanced towards the Cumberland levy. Was the order mis-heard or was it the magic mushrooms ? we'll never know but in the confusion of battle they immediately charged headlong into the levy shield wall. Although much better quality troops they were out numbered and the Levy not only weathered the storm but pushed them back suddenly the Vikings were looking shocked and anxious.

The question now was how would Boernward convert this good start. It is really difficult to push forward an advantage in shield wall formation, which is slow and inflexible. But Boernward was determined to use his early advantage calling his troops out of their defensive formation and aggressively charging forward. Clearly Ivar had not been expecting this and the shock was immediate.

English levy shield wall holds firm

Suddenly the Vikings were being pushed back on both sides of the battlefield. Things were turning nasty. Ivar sought to rally his units on the left trying desperately to pull them back in some order and re group. In the confusion Gudrum of Ellenfoot stepped too far forward and was cut down, luckily this prevented Boernward being wounded himself by the thrust. With a roar Boernward shouted for revenge, there was to be no mercy now and his men rushed forward not allowing Ivar to reform. In the struggle that ensued Ivar was lucky to survive (some say it might have been better if he had fallen!) with two wounds he limped and was carried from the field by his bodyguard.



Ivar wounded twice and forced to flee

The loss of Ivar and his champion, together with both nobles being wounded meant the morale of the Vikings had all but disappeared. The remaining Vikings shocked to see Ivar being carried from the field also decided to break and flee. But Boernward wasn't in the mood to let them away (declining the option to end the battle and choosing to pursue) , pulling his best troops forward he moved across the field seeking to block their retreat back to the coast. The vikings were already week and badly shocked. It was now only a case of how many would survive as they ran.

Blood lust - cutting off the retreat



Exhausted Vikings turn and flee for their lives

The final combats of the battle saw Boernward cutting off and smashing into the remaining viking formation from the rear. As the weakest men fell to the sword the last few turned and fled. This had been an extraordinary victory for Boenrward and it would take a long time for Ivar not only to get over his wounds but to amass enough men to again trouble the Cumberland coast. Boernward return to the town a hero and the townsfolk took up the shout Boernward the 'Magnficent' what a reputation. From the dead he was able to plunder coin sufficient to build watchtowers right across the coastal territories and to hire a new unit of archers to add to his army.

Footnote : not sure where it all went right but luck always plays a part. Choosing to pursue was a great option as I was able in the last few turns to collect 5 pursuit cards in my hand which massively boosted the victory up to +8, this far outstripped our previous best.

Boernward will now wait to see if Ivar has the will to raid his lands again !. Check out the Hobby horse for more pictures.

Boernward Oferheah

After his galant death Eadwulf the Good was put to rest. That means I needed a new lord for the campaign. My sense would be with the Vikings invading and The Lord dead local tribes would look to a strong man to lead them. Step forward  Boernward Oferheah.

If you can be bothered to search the name I have tried to give it some sense. Boernward is a giant of a man, clearly descended from strong mountain stock just the kind of man to push the Vikings back into the sea.

The figure came from the bring and buy at York show, where I picked up loads of dark age figures especially characters, to play in both Dux Britanniarum campaign but also SAGA. Pretty happy with the painting but I'm not great at eyes. The shield is a spare transfer of my viking boat, but I wanted something fancy !

Death of Eadwulf the Good

Our next instalment of Dux B campaign played out last Friday night and saw a dramatic shift in power in the west. Ivar the Coward having been pushed back into the sea came back in force. In our second straight battle scenario the Vikings rushed onto the field. Broadly speaking the quality of the troops on the Viking side is better as they have no lower quality levy troops, but the British here have the advantage of being able to form a defensive shield wall. Nothing for it but to form up and await the onslaught. This came in two directions through the trees and eventually straight up the hill. It was going to be tough to hold them back. The initial shock hit the levy who bravely held but where eventually overwhelmed and broke up or fled.


Vikings rush on through marshy ground

British form shield wall a wait

Eadwulf and Athelgard form up on the hill



Levy take the full force of Viking charge

The second and larger attack saw Ivar the Coward charge directly up the hill. Perhaps his reputation wasn't deserved, the pictures show the clash of shields as the forces met. This rapidly turned into a push of shields with shock developing on both sides and the dead mounting up each turn. You can see at one point Eadwulf's unit had 8 shock. Eventually Athelgard the champion was killed defending his Lord. But Eadwulf was able to pull Noble Godwald into the fight as well.


Push of shields on the hill

Shield wall against aggression in the balance

Eventually it looked as though the British were getting the upper hand, loses were great but they had pushed the Vikings back down the hill, the danger was they had been forced to break out of their defensive shield wall to pursue them.


Vikings pushed back ....but wait

The Vikings came back up the hill and with terrible losses the British started to break, Eadwulf made a hasty break for safety, but exhausted from the battle he just wasn't quick enough to get away and Ivar the Coward true to form chased him down an axe blow to back saw Eadwulf the Good hacked down. Although his two nobles eventually survived the battle it had been a grievous blow to the British and a new Lord would need to be found to unite the tribes and raise any siege the Vikings undertook. A very close battle which could have gone either way but suddenly slipped into a major win for the Vikings.



...........Eadwulf run down and butchered in the back !







Eadwulf the 'Good'

Our latest instalment of Dux Britannium saw us finish off our first year, roll for any special events, luckily none of our Lords or Nobles died ! In the New Year Ivar decided to bring it on in a very Viking way choosing to play our first full on battle rather than raid. The set up saw Ivar rushing across the battle field with Lord Eadwulf apparently holding back close to the settlement. Luckily he had his better trained Warriors with him and he had the sense to form up in to a shield wall but would they hold........or be overwhelmed

In his haste what Ivar hadn't noticed was Eadwulf's hidden levy ! (Eadwulf had chosen to pray for a miracle and this had allowed him to hide a unit with a noble somewhere on the battlefield - causing shock to the Vikings if they arrived at the right time a gamble, but a miracle is what they needed)



The trap was sprung and the photo above shows Eadwulf's levy under the command of Noble Godwald literally leaping out of the ground, well actually they were probably lying down in amongst the long grass. Caught completely by surprise the Vikings were immediately shocked, but they kept their focus on the main British shield wall.  Godwald formed up his lightly armoured levy calling on them to lock shields and they plunged into the flank of the Vikings.

Some lucky dice (not my blue dice !) saw the levy hacking chunks out of the Viking left flank. They were immediately shocked and ran for their lives. Despite then bringing reserves up as quickly as possible the situation suddenly looked dire for Ivar if he couldn't hold back the levy his force would be surrounded and slaughtered.

A couple more turns of desparate fighting, with the Eadwulf pushing forward with all his units and having the advantage of being in shield wall formation with locked shields, saw the Vikings pushed back or running for their lives. Reputations are hard to gain and even harder to lose and sadly Ivar had no choice but to flee, he can be seen above running for his ship leading the remnants of his bodyguard. (we are still using white dice as shock markers and yes 9 is very shocked)



When we tallied up the points it had been an unbelievable victory for Lord Eadwulf. In recognition of this he is seen here receiving the blessing of Abbot Cuthbert. From hence forth he would be known as Eadwulf the Good for the service he had done for the church. He would also be able to hire two new warriors and found enough coin on the dead Vikings to make a sizeable donation to the Abbot for the construction of a new church. After all it was only by the grace of god that they had won the day. It would be sometime before Ivar the Coward would return.