Sunday, December 17, 2006
Refighting The Battle of Stiklestad
Miniatures Games
This past Saturday, we refought the Battle of Stiklestad using the Warhammer Ancients - Shieldwall rules. It was our first experience with the new Warhammer Ancients rules.
Stiklestad was fought in Norway in 1030 AD between the forces of King Olav and a peasant army under Hårek from Tjøtta, Tore Hund from Bjarkøy and Kalf Arnason. Olav, who was returning from exile to regain this throne, was outnumbered 2 - 1 by the peasants.
Actual numbers and the troop types that participated were not available, so I decided to fudge it. For the game, I created two armies of equal point values, but with the peasant army outnumbering Olav’s 2-1. It was therefore the classic confrontation of quality v quantity.
The battle started as you would expect Viking battles to ... with both sides closing rapidly. The peasant army’s archer units quickly came into play, but had no real effect, as the players on Olav’s side kept making their saves.
The first real action came as berserkers on both sides shot forward like naked, heat seeking missiles (now there’s an image), crashing into the enemy lines. Olav’s forces skillfully echeloned to the left, concentrating their power on the center-right of the peasant line. My forces, on the peasant left, were left to pursue the battle lines, vainly attempting to get into action. They only got into the fight at the very end.
The peasant units were getting hammered. One fled, and was caught in pursuit, being utterly destroyed. The pursuit, however, opened a salient in Olav’s line. The unit was hit in the flank. They inexplicably failed their panic test and left a gaping hole. This let another unit of Bondi through, and Olav’s right collapsed. THe King led a valiant charge with his Huscarls into the fray, and managed to hold off the tide for several turns, but was overwhelmed by numbers.
Meanwhile, the units of Hirdmen continue to fail their leadership tests and left the field. Olav was killed after making a valiant stand.
The results of the battle were historically accurate, and had the right “feel.” But they caused us to remember why we had abandoned Warhammer Fantasy all of those years ago. Most combats require three rolls—to hit, to wound and save—and all require two. You can speed that up by rolling dice in batches, but when there are mixed units, that slows things down again.
Still, as we played, we quickly learned the numbers that we needed, and no longer needed to look things up.
The big thing I learned about the rules, though, was that movement bases are a necessity. When multiple units clashed, it became difficult to determine exactly who belonged to whom.
You can see some photos of the battle here.
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