Viking Conflict on the Seas

 With the cliffs of a Norwegian fjord in the background, we pitted four Longships and two Knarrs filled with warriors going aviking using the Saga II Rules...

My Warlord's men (8-man Hirdmen, 4-Hirdmen, 12 man Levy/bows, were in the Longship at right top. My allies' Knarr with his Warlord, 8-man Hirdmen and 4-Man Hirdman in the right center. Our Jarl was in the large Longship right bottom, with 12-Men Levy in the bow, followed by an 8-man Warrior, 8-man Hirdmen and 4-man hirdmen near the stern with the Jarl himself.

Our Jarl's ship makes first contact although an exchange between our Levy made no kills while the enemy, who had two 12-man Levy units up front managed to take down three of ours!

Meanwhile, we even had some spectators taking in the view of this fine fight!

One has already taken in too much (even for a Norseman), while just to his left (second from right) another has gone to his knees while he guzzles straight from the bucket! They did enjoy their mead.

(We flip the view) As the two Longships come together, the enemy bowmen (center right) take out half of the Warriors (center left) on my Jarl's vessel. You can just make out the Prowl of my own Longship at bottom...

The great Longships have now grappled each other, and our enemy strikes first. His 8-man Hirdman unit completely destroys the Levy in the forward position of the Jarl's ship, and gains the deck. 

It leaves my Jarls' four Warriors (left) what they got themselves into...

Meanwhile my opponent brings his ship along mine (about center). My bowmen only score a handful of successes while his take 9 of my12! Fortunately, I used my Battleboard to exhaust his Levy 

Then my ally brings his Knarr into the fight. He sends his 8-man Hirdmen against a 4-man Danish Axe Hirdmen. Looks good, except in the fight, the two groups destroy each other! What had looked like our advantage just soured.

The fight on the Longships of the rival Jarls. went back and forth. First our Hirdmen cleaved through two complete Levy units without a loss! Then the enemy Knarr crashed alongside and quickly changed things. His Hirdmen attacked our Jarl. He fought off the attack but used all of his Hirdmen to soak off the numerous hits, although he was driven back to his ship.  But the enemy had one more Hirdmen unit and they followed him and then finished off our Jarl! Well at least he has Valhalla!

There lies our brave Jarl...

We have played a lot of Saga, but this was certainly a enjoyable and different take on a great game system