The Vikings - The Saga of Argonor's Bees – The Honey Trap

Argonor is a bold and brave Viking warrior, known far and wide for his mead making and drinking but feared and respected for his prowess as a raider and warrior, you tread softly around this man. Here is his Farmstead viewed early in the Autumn before the winter snows set in.

The long house is to the right where the free folk live and sleep. In the centre is the working complex of 3 buildings where the Ale and Mead is made, cloth woven and most of the food prepared. The Granary and store house, is the wooden building on stone pillars on the far side. The bee hives next to the granary in the far distance and the building with the sloping roof nearest us is the forge and smiths work shed, it's far enough from the other buildings to avoid sparks from the forge setting them alight.

 

This is a game I posted on the LAF back in Jan 17, so yet again my apologies if you have already read it.

It had been a very successful season for Argonor, his raiding and trading had gone well, he had a beautiful dragon ship and she had come back loaded with plunder and traded goods. He had also brought a few exotic slaves, he was told they came from a large inland sea far to the south, where the sun shone all the time and it never snowed. They pleased his wife it gave them prestige. He did not believe the story – but who would.

In spite of all this he was uneasy. Things felt wrong and he had not lived to a full 50 years without respecting his instincts, he sent his wife and children off to visit her parents and told his warriors to keep their weapons close, but obviously did not tell anyone of his reasons for this, no need to look a fool if he was wrong.

It was early Autumn, the most dangerous time of the year if you were a Viking, your harvest was in, the animals were still in the fields they had not been slaughtered for the winter and so were easy to drive off. The riches from the summers raiding were still in your possession, you were still showing and bragging about them, they had not been hidden or spent.

Worst of all, the weather was still fair, good for sailing if you were a little bold, or maybe a Viking wolf returning home late after a long unsuccessful summers raiding, with little to show the womenfolk when you got back.

Rolf was such a man, he had raided, Anglia and Northumbria, taken some hard knocks with little to show, he had a large ship 50 oars and a crew of 60, but that was down to 50 after the summer, his men were downcast but well armed and still ready for a fight. They grumbled about going West this summer instead of East as usual.

Rolf had met Argonor in the summer, he had arrived late to a village, plundered and burnt by the great warrior and had to listen to Argonor's men boast of his prowess. Argonor the Mead Maker, the Mead Drinker, Argonor the Story Teller, the Weaver of Tales, the Man of many Threads. He had asked Argonor about his mead for which he was famous but all he could get out of him was that the bees liked Argonor, they flourished on his farmstead but no where else in Dane Mark, mead made him famous but also very wealthy. Are you not worried, asked Rolf - no he answered “Raiding the bee-keeper's homestead for mead is an obvious thing to do - but I should probably warn you, that this brewer has swords, shield, mail tunic, and a Gjermundbu-helmet (and a well-sized beard to show his status as an old warrior)”

Rolf lived far to the east and in the late night drunken revels Argonor had revealed where his homestead was and Rolf was sailing past there and decided to pay Argonor a visit, besides he wanted to know what a Gjermundbu-helmet was. Rolf came from Uppsala and a rich Dane was as good a target as a Saxon, except he might fight harder.

Rolfs view down the track into the farmstead.

The scenario is for Rolf to raid the settlement, looting or destroying anything of value, especially the bee hives and to kill Argonor himself, this will give him fame and status. He has to do this quickly and so must be leaving the board by the 10th move to get back to his ship, before too many of Argonor's neighbours arrive.

Argonor and his banner man are watching 2 wagon loads of ale and mead leave on the journey to his overlord. He is sending a small force of 3 warriors and a driver with it.

Rolf has split his force to attack from two directions at the same time. Unfortunately Harrald Horned Helmet got lost and is late. (Bad dice roll, as was the split of the force) Rolf only has 8 men with him, well we are Uppsala men and fear no one he thinks as he charges down the track towards Argonor, some of his men are lagging a little behind, maybe they don’t share his views.

Argonor sees them coming but is so surprised he just gawps.

But only for a minute, "to me" he shouts and runs straight at Rolf.

Their fight - Rolf is Blue Die, Argornor is Red.

In these rules good die for combat are 3 or less, what a bummer for Rolf, he goes down along with 3 of his men, the only success is the 2 warriors attacking Egil who can be seen by the horse, he is rolling on the ground, not a happy man.

The Danes shrieking their battle lust, surge forward over the bodies of the men from Uppsala.

And then they see Harrald Horned Helmet who has finally arrived with at least 18 men, things are looking bleak for Argonor. Probably as bad for Harrald wearing a horned helmet in what purports to be a historical game.

Two of Argonor's men hear the noise and come running back to the farmstead, but they are a long way from the fighting.

It’s carnage on main street.

Harrald has split his forces, Belit the pirate queen leading her men into the work complex, drawn by the food and fire I expect. What that slave is doing sat on the ground tending the food with these wild men all around him I’ve no idea, maybe he’s deaf. The other group lead by the mad Elf is heading north for the bee hives and Granary. Sorry about the alien blue object that has appeared like a Tardis.

Argonor has beaten one of his opponents and the other one ran off but his 2 companions are down, his banner is in the mud and there are 2 enemy to his right and a horde of enemies coming up fast, this is the critical activation of the game. The 2 closest enemy activate 1st but fail their nerve test and don’t attack but don’t retreat either. Then Argonor activates, passes his nerve test and also his brains test and his fast move test and scampers off round the back of the longhouse.

Look he’s on his own, no one is going to see his valiant death fight against huge odds, therefore no one will sing songs of his death and besides he still has mead to drink. Harrald is not so fleet of foot and can’t catch him.

This was the activation roll. If Harrald had got a better roll Argornor would probably feeding the worms by now, but that's the stuff Sagas are made of.

Belits men got bored and broke the unbreakable Viking code, they burned before looting. In case you don't know the code it is - Loot Pillage and Burn, in that order. Anyone who Burns before Looting is going to be poor.

Over by the Granary 2 more of the men working in the fields have arrived, joining up with the sole survivor of the fight by the long house. Argornor is no where to be seen.

This is the 1st of Argornors neighbours to arrive. It was typical of the way the game was going, the number of men arriving was 1D6 and I threw a 1. He roared his battle cry and charged across the field towards about 20 men. Fortunately for him no one heard.

The men from Uppsala break in to the long house, a sleeping hut and the mead and ale store and start looting and destroying stuff. (I was most disappointed that they kept passing their control test and so didn't start drinking the ale.)

There is a fight going on top left of the picture the Danes are trying to protect the granary and the bee hives and with the small group in the middle top is Argornor. You didn’t think he had run off did you, he just skipped round the back of the longhouse and is ready for another fight.

Argornor back in the thick of the fighting but it’s not going too well.

Having taken everything they could carry they set fire to two more buildings. And I spent so long building these.

Here are the plunderers, just getting out of the longhouse in time.

Turn 9 and the tide turns. In the far distance is a banner, this is another of Argonors neighbours, brought no doubt by the smoke, he arrives with 8 men, fully armed and ready for a fight. Harrald calls his men back, some of them have anticipated his every wish and are already on their way.

Argonor – centre stage in all his battle finery, a weary but not unhappy man. He has saved the granary so they will not starve this winter and as importantly his bees so his wealth is assured for the future, on the cart are 2 barrels of his finest mead so there will be feasting to celebrate his great victory and as importantly he will get to hear the songs of his victory. Long Houses can be re-built, but once mead is spilt it can no longer be drunk, an old Viking saying.

Some of the Uppsala men in retreat.

Harrald Horned Helmet shouts his defiance but the words are lost in the crackle of the burning long house. Rolf is on the cart and they are ready to roll. Game over.

I spent a few weeks building the Viking village and posted my endeavours on the LAF Workbench board, and if you look in labels under Terrain you will find a synopsis of the posts here on the Blog. This was the 1st and so far last time I've used the buildings on the table!!! There is another game to be played - Argonor's Revenge, but its a long time coming.

The scenario grew from wanting to make the bee hives as an unusual piece of scenery something that I hadn’t seen on a wargaming table before and so I built the hives, which it turns out have been done more than once. The bees led to honey which led to mead, and that made me think about some comments Argonor a member of the LAF had made and that led to this game.

As Argonor was the unwitting inspiration I felt he had to take part in name at least. However as they say “no resemblance to actual events or characters is portrayed in the making of this game”.


The game was pretty much a draw as Rolf scored 47 points - left 3 men behind injured but 23 got away with loot even though 4 of these were wounded.

Argonor retained 51 points, he lost 1 man dead and 5 hurt and in the end had 19 men un-injured on the table. He held the field of battle and of course gained renown as a lucky leader.

My parcel from the States still hasn't arrived so I'm still in the UK waiting for it, but the sun is out and there are worse places to be. I hope it arrives today because I want to leave tomorrow and catch the ferry on Monday, that's looking very unlikely :(

Well if you are still here - thanks for reading and any comments or thoughts you make are warmly welcome.
Cheers