Back to the Boats - a Ravenfeast AAR

Introduction

The Rus of Jarl Magnus have been laying waste Jarl Arne's land, while he himself has been raiding over the whale road.  Such an affront to his honour cannot go unpunished and when he arrives back to find a raiding party still active, he sets out to punish them. 

This scenario is based on the Back to the Boats scenario in the Ravenfeast rules.  I have adjusted the points values to give the Rus an extra 50 points, as I felt 200 point difference was too much.

Norse -  Jarl Arne, Huskarls x3, Berserker x1, Hirdmen x6, Bondi Archers x3, Bondi x10, Thralls x2.  25 figures total of 500 points.

Rus - Jarl Magnus, Huskarls x2, Hirdmen x4, Bondi Archers x2, Bondi x9.  18 figures total of 350 points. 

Starting positions

Turn One 

The Rus win the Movement initiative and they all move their maximum allowance. With the exception of their missile armed warriors (the Thralls and Bondi Archers) the Norse do likewise, with one of their Bondi managing to reach the Rus line.  

The forces advance on each other.

The Rus archers have moved so won't be able to fire in this round.  However, the Norse waiting in ambush can.  The two thralls throw their javelins and both miss.  One of the Bondi Archers hits but their target a Rus Hirdman is saved by his armour.  

It's a quick Melee round as there's only two warriors base-to-base and both miss with their attacks.

There's nothing to test for in the End of Turn phase so we move on to Turn Two.

Turn Two

The Norse win the Movement initiative this time.  One group of Bondi charge into the Rus archers.  The other group charge into the Rus Bondi.  Jarl Arne with his Huskarls and Hirdmen all move towards the Rus and form a Shield Wall.  For the Rus now the only way out is through.  Jarl Magnus and one of his loyal Huskarl bodyguard move into the Norse Shield Wall leading the Hirdmen into the same move.  The other Rus bodyguard is already engaged with a Norse Bondi and the Rus Bondi have to split to engage the two bodies of attacking Norse from each flank. With the exception of the Norse missile warriors all the warriors are engaged base to base now.  

It should now be the Missile phase but with everyone fighting, the Norse can't fire into the melees and the Rus archers are in melee themselves.  

And so it is on to the Melee phase.  The right flank melee is resolved first.  The Norse do well hitting four out of five times.  One Rus Archer and one Bondi are saved by their Armour.  The Rus attacks are terrible with all of them missing!

The right side of the line in melee.

The other group of Norse Bondi don't do anywhere near as well, with only one of their two successful attacks wounding a Rus.  The Rus response is better, but of their three successes only one inflicts a wound.  The Rus Huskarl involved in this melee inflicts a wound on a Norse.

The left side of the battle in melee.

In the centre the heavy infantry clash.  Norse Jarl Arne and two of his Huskarls hit.  The Rus Hirdmen's armour soaks up two of the attacks but one is caught by a swinging blade.  One of their attacks is a success and wounds a Huskarl.  

Rus Jarl Magnus attacks a Norse Hirdman but his armour saves him, and the same happens with the attack of the Rus Huskarl on another Norse Hirdman.  

Led by their Jarls the heavy infantry clash.

That's the end of the Melee phase.  

There's no events to test for in the End of Turn phase, it's just left for the Valkyrie to claim those marked with a Blood Token.  Five Rus and two Norse are removed.  

Turn Three

The Initiative stays with the Norse this turn.  

The Norse Bondi on the right flank move in on the surviving Rus Archer and two Bondi.  The Norse Bondi Archers move back to cover potential Rus moves.  The Norse Berserker who'd been chomping away on his axe hafts, now gets into the action going base-to-base with a Rus Hirdman.  The Norse Hirdmen that weren't engaged last time move to contact the Rus.

The Rus are in real difficulties now.  None of them are in a position to freely move so we go on to the Melee phase.  Do the Rus that are able try to disengage thereby exposing themselves to Free Attacks?  Or do they try and hack their way through?  

The remaining Rus Archer and Bondi are surrounded so have option but to fight.  Fortunately for them, all five of the Norse Bondi attacks miss, but they manage to wound a Norse.  In the circumstances that's exceptional. 

Surrounded, two Rus manage to hold the enemy at bay.

The Norse Bondi now slug it out with the Rus Bondi and Huskarl.  Outnumbered, all three of the Norse Bondi miss.  One Rus Bondi wounds a Norse counterpart.  The Rus Huskarl wounds another Norse.  Another good combat for the Rus.  

Bondi v Bondi (Rus at bottom of photo)

The Norse Berserker enters the fray, hitting twice with his attacks, his Rus victim's armour saves him twice.  The three Norse Huskarls now attack and cause two wounds with no response from the Rus Hirdmen.  Jarl Arne attacks the nearest Rus Hirdman and wounds the Hirdman.  His ultimate target,  Jarl Magnus and his loyal Huskarl bodyguard are now engaged against five Norse Hirdmen with two behind them.  The Huskarl has one to his front, side and rear.  He is hit twice with the rear attack wounding him.  He cuts down the enemy to his front however.  

The final combat of the round is Rus Jarl Magnus.  Both attacks against him miss, and he cuts down the enemy to his front.  

Jarl Magnus and his bodyguard fight on

End of Turn and there's a lot of work for the Valkyrie.  Five Norse and two Rus are off to Valhöll or Sessrúmnir.  The Rus are one casualty off having to test for Morale but otherwise they had the better of the turn.

The marked ones await the Valkyrie.

Turn Four

Once again the Norse keep the Initiative.  Their missile troops move back to position themselves to cover the Rus if they start to advance.   Jarl Arne leads his Huskarls against Jarl Magnus.  The Berserker attacks the Rus Bondi and Archer.  The last Bondi survivor is surrounded and unable to do anything.  Leaving two Bondi to finish off the lone Norse Bondi, the Rus Huskarl leads two Bondi to attack the Norse surrounding Rus Jarl and even things up.  

Melee Phase.  In the play of spears, the lone Norse Bondi thrusts desperately to try and keep the two Rus at bay.  He fails to hit and is hit once, twice and falls to the Norse. 

Outnumbered the Norse Bondi falls.

The howling Berserker cuts down a Rus Bondi in a whirl of axes, with the Rus unable to respond.   

Beserker!

Surrounded on all sides and against all the odds, the last remaining Rus Archer survives four attacks, but fails to attack successfully himself.  

Now the main combat.  A Norse Hirdmen wounds the Rus Bondi, but as he falls he strikes back and the dice rolls denote A Death Worthy of a Song.  It's now Norse Hirdman against Rus Huskarl.  Neither land a telling blow.  A Norse Huskarl wounds his Rus Bondi adversary, who hits back successfully but the blow is stopped by the Norseman's armour.  A Rus Huskarl goes against a Norse Huskarl and Norse Hirdman.  There's a flurry of blow but all are unscathed.

The chant of weapons swirls.

Finally the Jarl's come face to face.  In the shield strife, neither Jarl penetrates the other's defences.  The Norse Huskarl also fails to successfully attack the Rus Jarl.  

The two Jarls fight it out.

End of Turn phase.  The Valkyrie harvest more warrior's souls.  Another Norse and three Rus are taken to the afterlife.  The Rus have now suffered more than 50% casualties and every warrior must take a Morale test.  One Huskarl and one Bondi fail and are marked with the Coward token.  

The Rus near where the Death Worthy of a Song occurred have to test again but pass.  As the Rus Huskarl retreats he is wounded by a Free Attack from his Norse counterpart.  

Turn Five

The Initiative stays with the Norse again.

In the Rally Phase the Rus Huskarl who had retreated in the previous turn, fails his Morale check and is removed from play.  

In the Movement Phase, the Norse move to surround Jarl Magnus, the remaining Rus Huskarl and Rus Archer.  The Norse Archers make a half move to bring the last Rus Bondi within range.

Missile Phase.  The three Norse Archers all fire at the Rus Bondi, he falls with two arrows in him.

The Norse Archers finally get into action.

On to Melee.  Can the Rus Archer survive another turn?  No, but he dies a Death Worthy of a Song!  This valiant warrior will surely join the ranks of the einherjar.  

Defiant to the last the Rus archer falls!

The Rus Huskarl is living a charmed life as all four attacks miss! He also misses though.

The Rus Jarl Magnus has a similar experience albeit down to his armour, but he still comes to no harm.  His attack is stopped by Jarl Arne’s armour.  

End of Turn.  The Bondi that witnessed the Rus Archer's Death Worthy of a Song all throw low dice and pass their Morale test.  

Turn Six 

With just himself and one Huskarl still fighting, Jarl Magnus realises the futility of further resistance and offers his sword to Jarl Arne.  Only the Lords of Asgard know what fate awaits as he is forced to hand over his longship.

Jarl Arne takes his prize.

Conclusion

This was my second game of Ravenfeast, the first being almost two years ago back in October 2023 (AAR here).  Even though I'd read through the rules again before this game, the time elapsed probably accounted for me forgetting some of the nuances until the later turns!  

The game quickly turned into a hackfest, which is entirely plausible for a crew being ambushed and desperately trying to get back to their ship.  However, I have to admit it became a bit dull as a game.  I played more or less to the scenario, but I think I should have broken the Rus up into different groups and had them trying to escape at different points to make it more interesting.  I could also have let the Rus get nearer to their longship and/or had a small group of Rus sally forth from the longship to help out.

This game was the first outing for my Victrix Vikings and Rus.  In my first game I used my old Gripping Beast collection of figures.  This highlighted an important point in that metals are so much more robust when playing.  I was very careful how I handled the figures and I still had an arm and a few shields come off.  A real dismemberment on the table!