Dr. the Viking and I played another game of Lions Rampant This time we are technically in the middleages as it takes place after the Norman invasion.
In 1070 William the Conqueror decimated the north of england. To quell both a growing rebellion and to get rid of the Danish army that had landed. Eventually he payed of the Danes to go back. But one little village stayed.
And this is where the action takes place.
A part of the Danish army that had sailed to England with Swein II Estridsson had settled in an abbandoned village and named it Torsteinsted after their Jarl Torbein Torbeinson (Whose father had been a notorious plunderer up and down the British coast in his day. They enjoyed their life in Northumbria extorting silver and labour out of the local population. but one day the Norman troops of William the Conqueror showed up!
A lookout spots the Norman warband comming up the road from the south. The Danes hurriedly take up defensive possitions.
The Norman warband lead by Seigneur Adhemar de Graville.
The Dane skirmishers open fire at the Norman lords retinue, killing one of them. A cheer rose through the Danish lines as the lord turned his tail and fled. Viking warriors surge ahead eager to take the fight to the enemy.
But it was all a trick! Lord Adhemar turns his knights back around and thunders into the danish warriors routing those he does not kill.
On the left flank Jarl Torbein and his warriors start to take casualties from the Norman archers.
Suddenly Normans attack the village from the North as well. A group of Normans have succeded in sneaking past the Viking defenders and now attack them from the rear.
But they are quickly taken care of by the viking reinforcements from the center of the village who had been eagerly awaiting to get into the fight.
To the south however the battle is balancing on a knifes edge. The Danish shieldwall is holding Jarl Torbein calls out Lord Adhemar to single combat and brutally cuts him down. That causes some of the more inexperienced norman troops to loose heart and flee the battle.
The Vikings who had held the shieldwall to the south break formation to take care of some straggeling norman warriors.
That was the moment the battlehardened Norman knights had been waiting for! They charge in and kill the danes with a mighty charge.
Jarl Torbein makes a stand to try and stop the charge of the Norman Knights.
But he too is ridden down by the Norman knights who procede to burn down the village and the surrounding fields.