Greg Schroeder Writes
  • Home
  • Published Works
    • Published Poetry
    • Published Military Monographs
    • Works in Progress
  • About the Author
  • Reviews and Notes
    • Featured Writers
  • Contact
  • Diatribes
  • Family History
  • Trouin Cochrane and Jones

Diatribes

On the Road to Paris 843 AD

10/12/2022

0 Comments

 
After successes in 841 the Chieftains Njal from the Shetlands and Grim from the Orkneys agreed to raid further up the Seine, perhaps as far as the City of Paris where Charles the Bold sat precariously on a throne. At a bend in the river near Rouen they agreed on a small side expedition to obtain some provisions. Unfortunately for Njal and Grim this allowed a mixed group based on the retinues of the Norman Duke William to bring the raiders to heel.

The raiders were desperately short of horses – not much space in a drakkar – but they were seasoned and set up watch posts to scan the countryside and give early warning if the Franks decided to contest the right of plunder. One of these, manned by Sven the Toothless, caught sight of the Norman horde and gave the alarm. Grim and Njal called in their parties and gathered their men on a series of low hills. Wagons overburdened with commandeered provisions and the wealth of the Rouen
countryside made their way to the drakkar in the Seine.

Njal aligned his band on the west side of the line, his flank secured by a hill covered in thick thorny bushes and rough rocks. He placed a motley band of Frankish mercenaries, who had hired on over the past two years on his left. The bondi led by Grieg was next occupying a low hill, then Bjork with his lightly armed bondi. Njal himself led the hird on the next hill.

Grim had set Bran’s band of heavily armed Norwegians in a valley between Njal and Grim’s own hird on the next hill. Ivor the Boneless and his bondi extended to the east and the far right was held by a band of Northumbrian mercenaries. A swampy lowland secured Grim’s right flank.

Both Grim and Njal threw skirmishing thralls in front of the main line.
The Normans advanced in five main groups. On their right (west) was a band of Swabians on loan from Charles the Bold’s brother. Then came a band of foot knights under Count Geoffrey. The Norman horse under Odo and William in person held the center. To their east was a band of bondi and finally the Norman left (west) flank was formed by Count Eustace’s foot knights. A swarm of archers was a dozen paces ahead of the battle bands.

​William had but one order – crush the invaders!

The battle began auspiciously for the Normans. Superior archery killed nine Vikings at a loss of only two Normans. Then the impulsive young leader, Bjork, charged, leading his mostly-naked band headlong into Geoffrey’s heavily-armed knights. A few minutes later, Erling led his javelin armed thralls forward to engage the Norman archers in front of Grim’s line. Better to die fighting than as mere deer under the
arrow’s fall!

William ordered the cavalry forward. “Ride down the thralls! Make the gully run with the invader’s blood!”

The gully was the gap between the Njal’s hirdmen’s hill and Grim’s hirdmen’s hill – where Bran and the Norwegians stood.

Bjork’s attack was more showy than substantive. After recovering from the sight of naked men with short spears charging his solid mass, Geoffrey split his forces and destroyed the islander bondi while attacking Njal’s Hill with half his force. Likewise, the Frankish mercenaries made little headway against the Swabians.

Geoffrey’s foot knights struggled up the little hill and were easily repulsed by Njal’s hirdmen. The islemen’s only other action was spillover when Robert, Count of Rouen, trampled Njal’s sling armed thralls and charged up the hill only to be cut down by the massive two-handed axes of the Vikings.

Against Grim the Norman attack was aggressive and fearless but met by individual skill, luck, and determination.

Aimerii, Bishop of Valery-au-Bouchonne, led the Norman cavalry over the thralls, and personally skewered Erling. However, the thralls, using agility to dodge inside the long Norman lance and use their javelins as short spears caused unexpected losses on the Norman elite. One, Svelard, forever after known in song as Svelard the Incredible, killed three Norman horse, before finally being trampled by Odo the Meek, son of the Count of Brittany.

With the work of the thralls, Bran still faced hard work in the gully. He would have likely been done for but for the work of Grim and Ivor the Boneless on Grim’s Hill. Assaulted by Eustace, Duke of Rheims, and his foot serjeants, Grim and Ivor absorbed the first shock in their shield walls on the hill. Then Grim, with a roar heard in Valhalla, led his men forward. Eustace was slain and the cavalry assailed from the flank. Hugh, Count of Vergennes, shouted, a bit too loudly for William’s taste, “Time to go home!” and led the retreat. Afterwards Hugh was known to say, “I knew they couldn’t catch us if we rode away!”

On Grim’s right the final scene played out as the most lightly-armed footmen in the Norman battle-line attacked the Northumbrian mercenaries. Here the story was that of luck and pluck. The Northumbrian band had but a single archer, Fredrik. As the footmen charged down he shot one and then another whose spear missed the intrepid archer by inches. The charging men bypassed him to hit the main line but even then, he shot two more before the tide ebbed back past him.

William’s men, led by Hugh, withdrew from the battle. Geoffrey and the Swabians were mainly intact, having been on defense most of the day. The vaunted cavalry had suffered 70% losses and would be hard-pressed to oppose any more forays. Eustace’s band was likewise decimated.

Grim and Njal had suffered heavy losses but not enough to stop their expedition. The continued up the Seine, terrorized Charles the Bold and eventually retired the next year, drakkars full of loot.

Svelard the Invicible Thrall was given a warrior’s funeral. Fredrik was offered (and accepted) the vacant post of Thrall-Captain, replacing the dead Erling.


0 Comments

Dyrrhachium

11/4/2021

0 Comments

 

Tsar Ivan’s scouts had returned with a message that Tigranes would soon arrive to break the siege of Dyrrhachium. Facing a choice he broke his army into three parties and ordered an immediate storming of the castle.
 
The cataphracts were expected from the north so Ivan’s northern attack party was given only two ladders and expected mostly to raise a feint and be on the lookout for Tigranes. The main assault, by Ivan’s turncoat Varangian guards, would utilize a battering ram against the castle gate. Another strong assaulting force, armed with 6 storming ladders, formed on the south face.
 
The approach took three turns during which Nicetas’ 20 archers did their best, killing 16 attackers. The Slavic archers were much less effective, killing only 5 defenders.It was a good start. But, when the attackers attempted to raise their first ladders only Nikos, on the northwest curtain wall managed to push his back down. Simeon from the northern attack group and Aspaurakh from the southern secured ladders and up they went!
 
Turn 4 was decisive. The cavalry failed to appear, rolling an even number, leaving Nicetas and his shrinking band without succor. For Ivan’s attackers things developed swiftly. The southern attack group succeeded in getting three more ladders up and, even more decisively, pushed three men over the battlements. The Varangians began to batter the gate and rolled an incredibly high damage number (9).
 
The Byzantines had three heroes of Turn 4. Nikos, again, successfully kept the assault ladder from being set. Hylax, defending the northwest corner, was assaulted by two men at arms and felled both. Finally, Stenech, above the gate, began hurling his stack of small boulders on the heads of the Varangians, crushing the skulls of two.
 
On turn five the cataphracts, delayed by the need to detour around some swampy ground, arrived off the northeast corner of the castle. They immediately charged, riding down three men-at-arms who had been set as a flank guard.
 
Stenech felled two more Varangians, but there seemed to always be another to step forward. The ram got another exceptionally high roll and the gate came crashing down. Hylax fell as more Slavs surged up the only ladder set by the northern force. (Perhaps spurred to get away from the heavy cavalry!) On the south wall more Slavs cleared the parapets; only the southeast tower still held. By now Nicetas had lost 16 men, but all his lightly armored defenders were now confronted mano a mano by their more heavily armed and armored attackers.
 
Turn six saw Stenech’s last hurrah, killing one more Varangian with his rocks before an attacker from the southern party forced his to defend himself. The cataphracts continued their charge, riding down another 5 Slavs, but the first horseman was also slain. Inside, eight of Nicetas’ defenders were cut down and they only killed two .
 
The medium infantry of the northern party took their pound of flesh turn 7 when they killed 4 of the cataphracts and only lost 5 themselves. Inside the Varangians cleared the courtyard. Only a handful of the defenders survived, scattered amongst the part of wall and tower not yet reached by the assaulters.
 
One more turn for Tiganes to finally push to the gate, but by then there was no one left to save. The archer, Ephedius, killed the cavalry captain by driving an arrow through the horse’s eye and then a Varangian cleaved helm and head from shoulder and neck. The last three cataphracts turned and made for Tirane at their best speed. Nicetas threw himself from the east tower to avoid the depredations of Ivan’s horde. Six hapless defenders were all that surrendered.

0 Comments

Defending Northumbria

3/21/2019

0 Comments

 
     The Great Summer Army arrived in Northumbria in 870. Promptly there was trouble. One of the raiding earls decided to have a bit of fun. But he ran into one of the local earls at the river Oxno.
     The east wing of the Northumbrian army held the bank of the river which had a short stretch east of a plank bridge that was fordable. To the west half of the raiders, who had come all the way from Kiev for a Brittanic holiday, had managed to work across the stream and faced off against a force of mercenaries from the Saxon plains.
     The Rus immediately sent a force along the river to try to help secure the bridge. A valiant group of Saxons, led by Njal, raced to intercept. The plains of Kiev are more vast than the plains of Saxony and, on this day, Njal found himself the last man standing, his entire retinue killed. With one last invitation to the Valkyries he charged to his death against a dozen Rus.
     Meanwhile the Norse leader sent his large command in two assaults - one across the bridge and one over the shallows. The Northumbrians, outnumbered, fought desperately but vainly as the northern steel cut deeper this day than that forged in more southerly climes.
     The Rus, too, on the further west flank, triumphed in a wildly swirling melee, their massive two-handed axes splitting many a shield.
     In the end the Earl of Northumbria fell with his men at the foot of the bridge and the Saxons bought their passage back to the mainland, what few remained, with the gold they had been paid by their vanquished employer.
     There was much feasting by the few Rus and Norse survivors on the rich cattle and sheep of the earl's lush holdings.

​Game played using 25mm figures and home rules by Chris Anderson.
0 Comments

August, 1024, somewhere in what will be Scotland

11/12/2017

0 Comments

 
Magnor Bloodax had led his Danish band to capture the fine castle of Helgor in the late spring. However, Sven the Swede and Hedin the Isleman decided the castle would be a great place for them to spend the coming winter. Magnor’s brother, Issjelgard, led away a raiding party leaving the castle only lightly defended.
Hedin led the main body forward in two waves toward the castle. To the east the lightly armed and armored hird led a feint with ladders against the open wall. To the south, against the main gate, Hedin himself led his best troops forward with a powerful bear’s head ram and more ladders. Sven kept his personal retinue of Norwegians together to the west to block the returning Issjelgard.
Issjelgard never had a chance. His men, laden with stores taken from the countryside were first astonished and then crushed by the battle-ready Norwegians. So much so that as Issjelgard fell and his men ran toward the safety of their longships, Sven led a contingent over the wall, actually getting onto the parapets before Hedin.
Hedin’s archers made it difficult if not impossible for Magnor’s defenders to expose themselves over the merlins and the ram smashed through in only ten minutes of concentrated work. A few rocks dropped desperately from the top of the gatehouse caused the only casualties amongst the rammers.
Valiantly portraying the forlorn leader on his way to Valhalla, Bloodax slew four attackers on the parapet before finally succumbing himself. Sven proved again his extreme prowess in battle, crushing three defenders as he led the assault over the crenels, before the defenders cried for quarter. 
Played using 25mm figures and OxNard Siege Rules by the Long Island Irregulars on 3 November 2017.
0 Comments

    Author

    Diatribes are simply often humorous recountings of the games played by the Long Island Irregulars. We play with toy soldiers and are unabashedly happy to have never lost this part of our childhoods..

    Archives

    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    February 2021
    May 2020
    March 2020
    November 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017

    Categories

    All
    American Civil War
    American Revolution
    Ancients
    CNJ Rules
    Greeks
    Napoleonics
    Naval
    Vikings
    World War II

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Published Works
    • Published Poetry
    • Published Military Monographs
    • Works in Progress
  • About the Author
  • Reviews and Notes
    • Featured Writers
  • Contact
  • Diatribes
  • Family History
  • Trouin Cochrane and Jones