Battle of the Frozen Lake.

Even as a solo game,this gave both commanders little "problems" as per my blog entitled Game Preview,mainly that Magnus' men had to contend with Stakes in the woods,and the village commander had to rely on the peons(peasants) manning the village number 2 against experienced and battle-hardened Viking warriors!!

Top photo shows Magnus' troops trying to hack their way through the stakes-this was almost impossible for them and eventually had to retire(it's good being retired!) due to heavy casualties,and had to await support from Sven on their right flank! Bottom photo shows Brian's warriors trying to gain access to village number 2 but failing,as the peons had decided to wear their underpants on the outside of their trousers and became "Supermen"-Eric came to the rescue of Brian,but not before Brian's men had also taken tremendous casualties!!

Top shows the main Viking advance against village number 1,and the flanking troops-they had to advance slowly in case the ice cracked-this put Magnus and Brian in a spot of bother until they could get support from their "mates".Bottom shows the main line contacting the Spanish defenders,resulting in "cracking" melees taking place-dice throws galore and nail biting from me!!

These two photo's are about how Sven saved the Viking left flank! By attacking the stakes in the flank,Magnus could now renew his attack and take the position,and by driving the Spanish troops, stationed outside the village,back,the whole flank was secure-hurrah!!

With Eric's support,Brian has renewed his attack on village number 2 and has eventually taken it-the peons were slaughtered-of course!!-but what of village number 1-attacked by Bloodnok's warrior elite??

What a fight this turned out to be-the elite status was evened up for fighting troops behind a wall,so it was down to dice throws!!-for 4 rounds of melee,neither side had an advantage,so I decided to put Bloodnok himself into the fray to "gee" his men up,and it worked-the wall was breached and Bloodnok's men set-to slaughtering the defenders without mercy!!

Top photo shows Sven's success,bottom shows Eric's success-with both villages captured,the Vikings had more supplies than they needed and would live like Kings for the next few weeks!

However,Bloodnok is not to be trifled with,and had scores to settle with the Santiago cavalry and the king of Leon,Rodrigo.He sent his new mounted force to Santiago,burned the town to the ground and  killed all the horses they could find!!-they then sneaked into Leon in the middle of the night and kidnapped all three of the Royal children,threatening to have them sold into slavery or killed if King Rodrigo attacked him!!-Bloodnok is not to be messed with!!

This was probably the most exciting solo game so far this year but still can't beat playing against Brian,Paul,Dave or Graham-let's beat this bloody virus and get back to normal!