Vikings in Spain Part 1

-



 Fantastic stuff hey? Vikings raiding Spain ! Perfect for a new spin on the Dark ages… but who were they pillaging? Well there were still the Christian Spanish, there were Jewish peoples,  but the majority were Muslim emirate. 

Reading a few things on line was enough to get my imagination going.  So I set about getting a narrative going, completely imagi-nation style.

Earl Arvard “one handed” has been raiding The coastal villages of emirate Spain.  This has caught the eye of a local chieftain Al-Razi.  

Al-Razi has raised a force to stop the Vikings advance inward at a bridge nearby.  Now if only his force arrives in time !

I took a trawl through Neil Thomas’s one hour wargame book it has some excellent scenarios and found the “Bridgehead” to suit my needs.  To make things easier on myself I had a look how the forces and types of troop were set out.  I thought I could use something similar so in time honoured fashion I borrowed and here’s what I came to.


Infantry - for the emirates these would be raised local militia from the empire.  For the Vikings these could be the untested younger Viking raiders.

Warband - hired help for the Spanish emirates, for the Vikings there standard raiders.

Skirmishers - the non combatants, archers, thrown weapons, the path finders and trackers.

Cavalry - Spanish emirates light horse or indigenous Spanish horse riders, harassing troops quick striking weak spots by bow or spear. Vikings more than likely arrive by water ways or just riding to the fight would dismount so none for the Vikings.

I liked how in one hour wargame the forces are random so I created a quick force generator.


 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Training

-
 So I’ve been training for two days now, the benefits will be soon to come.  Today I felt that burn, which I used to experience many moons ago. It is a good feeling, it’s almost like burning negative energy, tiring at first but that is good that brings sleep and recoup. A succession of rounds made up of basic exercises with low minute (to start off) shadow boxing. Does not sound like much but on day two of it, I can say I feel like it’s doing something, experience tells me to keep going.   Willpower? Willingness to continue? This is not a problem as I need to, I have dependents, I deserve this self improvement. Mentally and physically this is going to put me ahead.  Plus it is so easy to fit it in my daily routine.  What I’m fighting through, physically arthritis is hitting me like a steam train, the job is slowly giving me repetitive strain.  Mentally I’m battling depression, anxiety and stress.  Obviously our current situation does not help, though i...
Read more

First Impressions

-
Image
Back on the blog, had nothing much to write about until I got to try Dominion of Spear and Bayonet. Now I’ve seen mixed reviews, but on playing through it I’ve found it engaging and just damn good fun. What surprised me most is how easy it translates into a story, a tale of the battle can be easily weaved. I’ll crack on and you will see. Welly in Maratha. I went for the first battle listed, three times I failed as the East India Company, this battle (4th) went really well. Second Anglo-Maratha War (1803 - 1805 AD) Turn 1 The Company started it's attack on the right flank with the able Highlanders of Armstrong, straight into the Confederacy line who put up such a tough resistance that both sides had to call from their reserves as the wounded fell back and dead were counted. On the left flank the Confederacy’s cannon roared at the Highlanders of McDonald, who then went on to storm the position and capture gun. Turn 2. In the centre of the battlefield the light dragoons got the messag...
Read more

Ship Ahoy!

-
Image
 So I have repurposed the old Battleships game by “merit” and used my slimmed down “accident rules” to play a simple game. The battleships locator divides handily into a grid (fancy that…), the ships easily marker penned black team and red team. To make sure I knew who’s scores was who’s, I made sure above the draw deck (the right hand side) I would place red above it and black below.. To the left hand side we have a deck made of all jack, queen, kings and on the right hand side we have a deck made up from all 1-10 cards.  From this left hand deck a card is flipped and depending on colour that is who moves first and for firing shows the lucky extra draw type for firing. From the above example the red jack show red team moves first followed by black team.  For the gun fire seems that black has scored well 5 or more and has damaged red team by floatation point.  I figured as per Battleships they should have 3 floatation points, a move of 1 square and a gun range of 4 s...
Read more