More shenanigans at Piddling Parva (Lion Rampant 2E)

 "THE VIKINGS ARE COMING!"

The feared cry rang out as the church bells tolled their urgent warning.

Lady Meghain du Court summoned her retinue as fast as she could. The urgency of the situation told her that she only had time for her fastest troops and that the heavy infantry would not be able to keep up, if she were to meet the Norse raiding party in the open moors east of the village. She leapt into the saddle and led the charge. Three troops of knights, her retinue archers and some local villagers with bows would have to suffice. They raced off, with the archers holding onto the knights' stirrup leathers to help them keep up.

Meanwhile, Hroerekr ur Dölunum, jarl of Ferjaby, was leading his doughty warriors towards the village and the wealth of the local monastery. He cursed as he got a clear view of the village and saw the advancing knights.

"By Odin's hairy bollocks, we've a fight on our hands," he roared, "Form up my heroes and we shall send them to Hel, before we feast in their village! TO VALHALLA!"

The Forces

For this game of Lion Rampant, the defenders are a standard Norman from the lists in the book, with the crossbowmen replaced by archers because those are the figures I have. The whole retinue comprises:

• 3 Elite Cavalry units
• 1 Archer unit
• 1 Skirmisher unit

The attackers are a standard Norse army:

• 2 Elite Infantry units
• 2 Heavy Infantry units
• 1 Archer unit

The Norse list allows you to choose between Berserkers and Archers, but I have "views" about who and what Berserkers were, so I am not going to field them this time. I also have a feeling that the Norse archers should really be a couple of units of skirmishers, but that is a pleasure to save for another time.

The Game

Deployment of both forces focused on the terrain on the Norse left flank with the Norse warband securing their right flank between woods and hills with a unit of Heavy Infantry. The plan would be to refuse that flank, while advancing on the other and in the centre. The Norman force formed up with the archers interspersed between their cavalry. They planned to advance slowly and whittle the Norse down a bit before the knights charged.

Storming Normans at the top of the photo. Vicious Vikings at the bottom.

The two forces faced each other across a shallow valley.

"Let them take only as much land as they are tall!" Lady Meghain cried to her followers, "They shall keep that part of the land they are buried in and no more!"

She took her father's bagpipes from the saddle in front of her and began to play a rousing march. The skirling of the pipes rang out across the dale and the adrenaline pumped all the harder in her followers' veins. They truly appreciated that she had a better ear for music than her father had.

The Norsemen hammered their weapons on their shields and advanced with gruff bellows and insults. Well, except for those that could only do one thing at a time. The heavy infantry on the Norse right took some time to get moving, but were soon on the go.

As they advanced, the arrow storm began. A warrior beside Hroerekr fell with an arrow through his throat. First blood to the Norman archers. Not to be outdone, the knights rushed forward too, but it was the archers that scored second blood, while the Norse archers returned the favour, killing two Norman archers.

Lady Meghain's knights bore down on Hroerek's personal bodyguard, their hooves thundering across the sward. The rumbling of their advance could be felt in the bones of the men on foot.

"Who is this that dares oppose me?" bellowed Hroerekr, " I challenge you to holmgang! You shall dine in Hel this night, or I shall feast in Valhalla!"

The bagpipe playing stopped as Lady Meghain replied.

"I am Lady Meghain du Court and you shall grovel in the dirt before me, foul blackguard! This is my land and I shall defend it with all that I am. Though I have only the body of a woman, I have the heart of a lion, the wings of a dragon and my father's lance, which I have often bloodied in such as you!"

The two leaders approached each other and squared off. Their bodyguards stood back respectfully and gave them space.

"Die, foul Norseman!"

Lady Meghain wasted no time in attacking. With a speed and fury that Hroerekr did not expect, she was upon him, showing no sign of fear. He swung his mighty axe at her as she approached. They traded several blows and then suddenly Lady Meghain's lance found its opening and the Norse leader's lifeblood nourished Norman soil.

"Revenge!" cried Hroerek's bodyguard. They charged and in the furious melee that ensued, Norman knights and Norse champions died. But in the end, Lady Meghain was the one standing with one of her bodyguard beside her. The Norsemen lay still.

Elsewhere on the battlefield, Norman archers and skirmishers were slaying Norsemen, and other vicious hand to hand combats were being fought. The archers and skirmishers were carrying the day, as the melees were mostly inconclusive. The Norse archers were nowhere to be seen. They had been cut down in their droves and had retreated into the lee of a hill to regroup. However, as the last of the Norse champions died, taking with him enough Norman knights that he would have a story to tell in the halls of the gods, the Norse archers decided that enough was enough. They ran for their boats.

Others of the Norse free men decided the same thing. Battered, wounded and facing an unrelenting storm of arrows that not even all their shields could protect them from, they turned and fled.

A single unit of Norse warriors remained. They hesitated as the skirmishers continued to shower them with arrows, but when they saw Lady Meghain charging across the battlefield, they decided enough was enough and fled. Five ships of doughty Norse warriors had set out on this journey. Only a single ship returned.

Conclusion

I think I got most of the rules right this time. Now to work on tactics.

This game saw more units failing their activations than the previous one. The Norse warband had a couple of turns where no one moved at all, even with the leader's reroll, for example, and many turns saw only about half the troops on each side moving.

It was also my first time trying a duel. I just felt that a Norse jarl would have insisted on it. I gave the Norman leader a 50% chance of accepting. She did, and then she scored 3 hits to the Norseman's 2 hits, thus beating him. I guess Hroerekr wins either way though; taking Norman treasure or heading to Valhalla.

The loss of their leader did not seem to dismay the Norse warband much at all. Both elite infantry units fought to the very last warrior, aiming to join their leader in Valhalla presumably. The rest seemed ambivalent. They ran at the last, but mainly because the Norman arrows were particularly well-aimed.

All in all, another good fun game. I really enjoyed the chaos of the activation rolls, and the need to pick and choose where I would act first. I just need to make sure that I give my side the better dice next time!

Assault on Piddling Parva (Lion Rampant 2E)

 Sir Rodrigo de la Valle had been insulted by Sir Stefan du Court. It mattered not what the insult actually was, because it would shortly be erased, although rumour said that it had to do with Sir Rodrigo's sister and some bagpipes. Sir Rodrigo ground his teeth in annoyance at the thought of the insult and considered with satisfaction how the village of Piddling Parva in Sir Stefan's demesne would soon pay the price, and how all the grain stored there would soon be stored in his own granaries.

Even before the early morning mist had started to lift, Sir Rodrigo was riding into position.The ground was not good for deploying his whole retinue easily. It was too hilly, but he chose to place his skirmishers in position to harass Sir Stefan's retinue, if they dared even to crawl from their beds this morning. One group would occupy woods in the centre of his line. The other would take a hill on the left flank. His own bodyguard would take the open ground between them. On his right flank, his heavy infantry occupied the large hill there and his retinue knights took the ground between them and the wooded hill.

As the mist lifted further, Sir Rodrigo could see Sir Stefan's troops deploying in their usual lackadaisical manner, many still rubbing sleep from their eyes. They would be easy meat for his own disciplined and battle-hardened troops, even though they had the defensive advantage. I mean, they were such a slovenly lot, how could things fare differently? He ordered the advance.

Sir Rodrigo has deployed at the bottom of the photo. Sir Stefan has deployed at the top

Both armies are exactly the same in this scrap to keep things simple for me. Each army has:

• 2 Elite Cavalry units
• 2 Heavy Infantry units
• 2 Skirmish units

I diced for terrain type and location, and got rather more than anticipated. It makes sense though. As the attacker, Sir Rodrigo deployed first and I chose where the deploy the troops myself. Sir Stefan's deployment was semi-randomised. I knew I wanted his skirmishers to occupy bad going or defensive terrain and diced to see which terrain features they would aim for. The result was that they would occupy the field on the right and the woods on the left. I also chose to deploy one unit of his heavy infantry to defend the walls in front of the village because it made narrative sense. The remaining heavy troops had their locations diced for.

It seems like Sir Stefan intends to attack on his right flank, clear the hill of skirmishers with his cavalry and try to fall on Sir Rodrigo's flank, while the remainder of his troops fight defensively with their flanks anchored on terrain features.

Sir Rodrigo also intends to attack in strength on his own right flank. His infantry are tasked with taking the field and then the village while the rest of his troops provide support. I wonder how these plans will fare when contact with the enemy is made.

Like a well-oiled machine, Sir Rodrigo's troops advanced to their initial positions. But then he reined up as he saw Sir Stefan.

"Look at the coward all the way over there on the other side of the village. He clearly dare not face me!"

He blew a raspberry at Sir Stefan.

"Your mother smells of elderberries!"

Sir Stefan, hearing the cries across the field, even as his own troops moved out to occupy the positions he had assigned them also reined up. He listened carefully to the insults and chose his own words carefully.

"I taught your sister to play the bagpipes!" he cried. As if to back up this point, he lifted the bagpipes that lay athwart his saddle and began to play. A dissonant droning wailed across the battlefield and the peasants of Piddling Parva fled their homes to regroup out of earshot of the horrendous caterwauling.

Around the two leaders, their personal bodyguards chuntered and muttered at the insults, but neither unit moved forward as this important prelude to the business of the day was undertaken.

I am greatly amused by the fact that everyone else passed their tests to move, but not the two leaders' units. I suspect both leaders of preferring to let the spear fodder take the brunt of the fighting.

Sir Rodrigo's troops advanced steadily forward and the skirmishers were soon in position. Sir Stefan's troops also advanced, although in a clearly much less disciplined manner. His knights on the right pushed forward as fast as they could. They could see pitiful peasant skirmishers ahead gladly crushed them under hoof when they reached the hill the peasants were arrayed on.

Sir Rodrigo charged, but the other knights' blood was up and they countercharged, pushing Sir Rodrigo back. Casualties were even on both sides this time, but Sir Rodrigo was determined that this not always be the case.

The knights charged and countercharged in turn, and each lance was driven back in turn until Sir Stefan's cowardly cavalry were crushed by the remnants of Sir Rodrigo's own brave, stouthearted knights.

On the other flank, Sir Rodrigo's infantry was advancing but his knights had charged ahead to engage the unearthly, soul-shattering cacophany that was Sir Stefan's attempt at playing the bagpipes. The two units clashed and then clashed again. Sir Stefan's knights were cut down until all that remained was Sir Stefan himself. His unwashed, pitiful excuse for infantry climbed over the fence to aid him, charging forwards towards Sir Rodrigo's knights.

However, it was too late. Even as they rushed towards the fray, Sir Rodrigo's knights charged at Sir Stefan. He was thrown to the floor, and the sound of deflating bagpipes signalled his end. This seemed to encourage the rest of his troops who redoubled their efforts. Sir Stefan's skirmishers on both flanks were scoring hits on their foes and soon Sir Rodrigo's left flank skirmish unit was no more, while his infantry were whittled down on the right flank by skirmish fire. Annoyed beyond all endurance, Sir Rodrigo charged the skirmishers facing him.

"Blast them," he cursed, "They are naught but smelly peasants and should know their place."

His horse trampled two of them underfoot, but it was to no avail for he too was cut down, his horse tripped by bow fire and the last thing he saw was a poniard being thrust through the eye slit of his helmet by one of those self-same smelly peasants.

By now though, there were few combatants left. The remaining two knights took charge and directed the late Sir Rodrigo's remaining infantry unit and skirmish unit against the lesser of the two enemy skirmish units, even as the other one sought to close to bowfire range. However, both had second thoughts upon seeing what faced them. The late Sir Rodrigo's men let them go. They were exhausted and had wounded friends to help. They also knew that the pub in Piddling Parva sold good real ale. They could plunder the battlefield and get properly drunk tonight.

That was fun. I bought the 1st edition of Lion Rampant when it first came out, and prepared a couple of 6mm forces for it. I always thought it would be fun to play, but we never seemed to get around to it.  Maybe one day I shall put together a proper travel kit with the 6mm figures, Anyway, I have managed to play the game solo now, but using the 2nd edition rules. The hardback book has much more appeal and is easier for me to engage with than the digital rules, which has contributed to me learning and trying the rules. I got things wrong along the way but I shall know better for next time.

As this was a practice game, I was not too worried about tactical finesse here and just pushed figures into contact. Then I rolled dice and removed figures. Combat was less bloody than anticipated, and the real killer was the Courage tests that saw units being whittled down slowly until they ran away. Well, except for the knights who all stood firm and died like knights.

Sir Stefan's skirmishers really played a blinder. They scored some amazing rolls and killed way more knights and heavy infantry than they should have. I also had one turn where none of Sir Rodrigo's troops moved at all, although it turned out that most units managed to activate on most turns. The leader's reroll came into its own here, except on that one turn.

The rules include a simple five game mini-campaign, that will be worth trying at a later date. It would be simple enough to assign character traits to the leaders on each side and then use a Yes/No oracle based on simple odds for how they respond to the way the battle develops. The game should also function well using Programmed Wargames Scenarios.

As I noted before, this was a fun game and not too onerous for solo play. The chaos of the activations works well, and I like rules where you do not necessarily get to activate all your troops. I shall definitely aim to play Lion Rampant again, and I rather look forward to getting Dragon Rampant 2nd Edition when that comes out later this year.

Vikings and Normans for Basic Impetus 2

 I like the Impetus rules, although I never got around to buying 2nd edition. It seemed unnecessary, given that I do not play enough to have got irritated with any part of the rules set. With all the work I have been doing on 15mm figures for Oathmark armies, I suddenly realised that I might be able to put together a couple of armies and play a bit more Impetus. Therefore, I dug out the  2nd edition Basic Impetus rules and checked what I needed. The movement trays I bought for Oathmark are only fractionally larger than the standard bases for 15mm Impetus, so there is no need for rebasing, blu-tacking to temporary bases or any of the other improvisations that might otherwise have been required to make this work. All I needed was to make sure I had the right figures. A little bit of painting and a few spacer bases later, and I had two armies with a small number of options ready for the table.

The Vikings

At this point, I should note that I have issues with the Vikings list in Basic Impetus. The core list seems oddly specifically oriented towards 1014 and the Battle of Clontarf with the inclusion of Irish troops as part of that core. I also do not agree with the inclusion of "raiders" as a troop type in any Viking list for the Viking armies that fought in Europe in this period. These people being called raiders are the same people that are normal troop types at other times. And don't even get me started on having "berserkers" as a weird and wonderful special troop type! Army lists are such strange fictions. Still, I am working with what I have, so here are some of the Vikings.

Veteran Huskarls

Viking skirmishers with spacer bases

The Normans

I have no real issues with the Norman army lists, although I suspect that this is because I know so much less about Norman armies of this period. Ignorance really is bliss sometimes!

The Norman army

By using spacer bases, I was able to set the Norman knights up in a V-formation while the Breton medium cavalry are in a single line, letting me differentiate the two from each other. Spacer bases also differentiate the Norman skirmishers. In this case we have peasant stonethrowers standing in for Breton javelinmen and Norman crossbowmen.

A Quick Game

So, with the armies ready and organised, time for a throwdown on the table. The Normans wound up defending. Not sure how that happened given their superior mobility.

Set-up as seen from the Viking side

There was little subtlety to this game. My goal was to push figures around and learn the rules. So, the Vikings set up with their skirmishers occupying the marsh and their flanks anchored. The Normans were slightly more constrained and set up in a big block. They hoped to use their cavalry to steamroller the Vikings.

Norman luck after a cavalry charge

Alas for the poor Normans, their general was insufficiently lucky. As in the example above, they consistently failed to hit even when rolling generous numbers of dice. The Viking hird troops saw off the Norman cavalry and wheeled onto the Norman right flank.

The end of all things (weirdly squished image but you get the gist, I am sure.)

Over on the left flank, things went better... sort of. The Norman cavalry charged the Viking raiders and sent them packing. They regrouped and prepared to fall on the Viking flank and roll the troops up. Unfortunately, the Viking huskarls had other thoughts and drove off the Norman infantry before this could happen. Discouraged, the Norman general decided to retreat, regroup and try another day.

Conclusions

Mistakes were made. Lessons were learned. I got a headache checking the rules repeatedly, despite them being so short. It was fun though. I've always enjoyed Impetus in the past and this iteration of the rules worked for me. One thing I particularly like is the limited options in the lists. When DBA first came out, I loved the rules because each army was only 12 or so elements. It was simple, easy to collect multiple armies and the armies were cheap. Then the whole thing bloated with multiple versions and way too many options and I lost interest. I really did prefer the army lists that were aimed at getting to the core of what each army should be about, whether you agreed with that interpretation or not. Having something similar with Basic Impetus is precisely what I want, even if the armies are larger in number of figures. However, I do wonder about just using smaller armies with the full-fat Impetus rules. That would make it easier to avoid the peculiarities I noted above that I do not like. We shall see.

Happy New Year!

Well, that is my last post for this year. It has been a productive year on the gaming front and I am pleased with what I have achieved. For once, I seem to have found my painting groove and stuck with it, as well as playing a lot of games. Let us hope that 2025 is more of the same.

I hope you have a Happy New Year and that 2025 brings you what you need.

The Curse of War: Ghouls and war cultists for Five Leagues from the Borderlands

 The Curse of War faction is not part of my main campaign, but I appear to have accidentally painted enough figures to field it, if I need to. As with my bandits, the figures are largely Vikings and Normans from my wider collection divided according to armour type. That gives me three main groups of unarmoured, lightly armoured and armoured troops with missile support. All of the human figures can and will be used as whichever faction is on the table and suits their armour and equipment, but separating them out and painting them as individual factions helps keep me focused and painting, a focus that I lost in the rather shitty end to 2023.

The human factions are those who have deserted, or those who have been betrayed by their commanders and left for dead. Driven half or even wholly mad by their experiences, they roam the countryside with little purpose other than to fight. There are also undead arisen after the battle is over and fiends that seek out battlefields to feed on the dead. There is much conflict in Utavoll for them to feast on.

Craven Deserters

Craven Deserters are the least of the human groups, Pressed into service by unfeeling overlords, they have sought to escape but find themselves in a situation where they must simply fight to survive with what little they have, which is very little indeed.

Two Dragons peasants and slingers are a useful stand-in for pretty much all of the unarmoured, poorly equipped troops in Five Leagues from the Borderlands

Opportunistic Pillagers, Cruel Deserters, Torch Bearers and Forsaken Infantry

Opportunistic Pillagers, Cruel Deserters, Torch Bearers and Forsaken Infantry are regular soldiers whose experiences have broken their minds. With light armour and a bit more experience, they are one step above the Craven Deserters. They know only that they must fight to survive but lack direction in their madness.

Two Dragons Vikings and Normans provide the right mix of light armoured warriors for these groups

War-mad Roamers, Torn Flags and Forsaken Elite

War-mad Roamers, Torn Flags and Forsaken Elite are warriors born and bred, who find themselves consumed by blood lust and well enough equipped to slake their bloodthirsty obsession. They fight because in their battle madness is the only time they are truly alive.

More Two Dragons Vikings and Normans, this time in mail to represent the best equipped reavers

War Cultists

War Cultists are among the strangest of the blood-crazed human bands. They worship the battlefield itself. Their cry of "Blood for the Blood Gods" is the prelude to carnage that can only be stopped by killing them all. Their god gives them the power to summon powerful half-man, half-bull warbeasts to aid them in this.

The Brothers of Battering Blows led by their most fearsome captain, Friar Chuck (Essex Miniatures monks and warrior monks)

A powerful half-man, half-bull warbeast (Alternative Armies Tabletop Fantasy Minotaur 578)

Gibbering Corpse Crawlers and Battlefield Stalkers

The battlefields of Utavoll are also populated with Gibbering Corpse-Crawlers and Battlefield Stalkers, undead monstrosities raised by evil necromancers for the sole purpose of wreaking carnage wherever they roam.

Gibbering Corpse-Crawlers (Alternative Armies and RPE Demonworld)

Battlefield Stalkers (RPE Demonworld)

Soot-Stained Fiends

Soot-Stained Fiends are demonic flies attracted to the battlefields of Utavoll, where they feast on the bodies and souls of the slain.

Halloween flies. The golden ones are the leaders. In Utavoll, demons often take on the form of flies and other nuisance creatures to torment the inhabitants and drive them mad

Welcome to Haitabu! (some town terrain for 15mm fantasy and medieval)

 Welcome to Haitabu. Haitabu is the central marketplace in Utavoll. It was once a small nomad encampment but its central location has made it a meeting place for all who travel across Utavoll. Merchants come here for the big markets and the chance to hear of lucrative opportunities across the land, and many have made Haitabu their base. Unfortunately, this has also made it popular with the Thrappled Lemmings too, but they are out of town, so let us take a look around while the chaos they bring is at a minimum.

I needed buildings for my games and bought the Usborne cut-out models Make this Viking Settlement set because it was cheap, readily available from the local museum, and would only require the effort of building the houses. I do like a set where I don't have to paint anything! The set is closer to HO/OO or 20mm than 15mm, but that is a compromise I am willing to make in favour of the price and the ease of getting it to the table.

The Viking settlement is a card-model set that I have reinforced with foamboard inside. The roofs are removable, as is evident in the pictures below, because some have been knocked and sit slightly out of place. All I did for them is to add a triangle of foamboard to keep each roof in the right shape. Because the roofs are removable, the interiors are playable spaces, even if they are not pretty and decorated at all. The buildings are all stuck to mdf bases and some texturing added. I hope that this makes them prettier and more durable, even if my terrain making efforts are never going to win an award.

The base for the town is the Dave Graffam Cobblestone Streets mat that I printed out and put into a cheap picture frame. I play Five Leagues from the Borderlands at 60% scale in 15mm, so this 70cm x 50cm picture frame offers a playing area equivalent to approximately 45" x 33", which makes it ideal for Rangers of Shadow Deep and Frostgrave too (and, no doubt, many other skirmish games).

The trees are from a local model railway shop and I really need to get more of them. The figures in the images below are a mix of Essex Miniatures, Alternative Armies and Two Dragons.

So, let us start our tour of the town.

Haitabu overview shot

Another overview shot

Young Ketil is throwing stones at a rabbit, while Gunnar is planting turnips in the back yard. Jarl Atli has sacrificed a pig on the platform over his door recently and stands there taking in the view, while one of his serfs, Marit and her child Moldi, watches over his sheep. Jarl Atli hopes that the pig will bring him favourable attention from the gods.

It is turnip planting season all over. Helgi the Leatherworker and Thorbjorn Hammerbreath are also planting turnips on their plots

Meanwhile, a thirsty traveller takes a drink from the town's freshwater spring. (This is a rock pool from the Warlock Tiles Mushrooms and Pools set. It's nominally 28mm but it works for me)

Lady Greta chases sheep and goats from her plot. Her serfs must soon plant turnips too, but she sent them on an errand to collect mushrooms earlier, so her turnip crop will be planted a day later than everyone else's

Lars the Apprentice and Guthorm the Boatbuilder are discussing the best ways to split logs. Lars has lots of ideas and thinks that Guthorm does not think big enough, but he is wrong as usual. Old Forsi, Guthorm's father has just got up and is off to see what the market has to offer. Meanwhile Young Forsi Guthormson is planting turnips just like so many others.

Svarti the Swineherd is tending the pigs in the woods near Haitabu. He knows that the winter sacrifices will be along soon and he is planning on making a lot of bacon out of them. It is traditional to sacrifice a pig at midwinter for luck and good fortune in the new year.

A merchant caravan passes through the streets of Haitabu watched by Jarl Atli and Lady Greta's husband Jarl Tovi. Jarl Atli dislikes Jarl Tovi because Tovi's house is bigger than Atli's. The merchant notices them watching and orders his slaves to stand straighter and put on a show. He hopes that Atli or Tovi will buy the slaves and the other goods he has brought to market. His assistants hope that they will buy the other goods first, because they are sick of carrying them. A goat and a sheep look on incuriously. They know from experience that merchants are not a good source of food for them.

The Ruin Within: Bandits and brigands for Five Leagues from the Borderlands

I've been a bit distracted from playing my Five Leagues from the Borderlands campaign, because I got into sorting out and painting figures. Some of the figures here were first painted in the the early 90s. Some others of them were bought then and have languished in the Unpainted Lead Pile until now. Thank goodness the desire to play Five Leagues from the Borderlands took hold, as it means I am really making progress on clearing up the unpainted figures of the past.

The Ruin Within

The bandits and brigands who seek an easier life than one of honest toil tilling the land to provide for their families can be found in Utavoll too. Not everyone who came here came with good intent or for an opportunity to improve their lives. Some were fleeing the judgements of the Thing, the parliament in their homeland, or the vengeance of those they had wronged. These people are The Ruin Within. Even in Utavoll one can gain bloodstained gold for the bounties on their heads or bribe one's way out of a fight with them. As long as they get gold for carousing and wenching, they don't really care, and they will happily milk you for gold another time, if you do not annoy them too much now.

I did not really need to paint up these guys as a faction. They are the dregs of all the other factions so I can happily mix in any suitable figures from every faction to represent them on the tabletop. However, I needed to push myself into painting a bunch of figures from the Unpainted Lead Pile, so here is the result of that. The figures are from Two Dragons Productions. As usual, the humans are all Viking Age humans and the force mixes Vikings, Normans and peasants. As the forces for this are fairly generic, I have simply divided the bandits into unarmoured, light armoured and armoured groups and will field the appropriate ones according to the armour and toughness of the hostile force. The numbers present here are based on the maximum number of hostiles I can encounter with a party of 6 heroes.

So, who are these poor souls, who never got a break and could have been someone if only their village leader had not been jealous of their talents and pushed them out? The Desperate Mob and Sneaky Thieves are peasants whose abilities were not appreciated in their homes so now they roam the countryside and take what they need. Some of these are people who lost everything to other raiders, while others are just malcontents. They have no armour and carry an assortment of improvised weapons.

Unarmoured melee troops (Two Dragons peasants)

Next up in the pecking order are more organised group of Slave Raiders, Outlaws and Blood-stained Renegades. They have proper weapons and light armour or shields. They may have been peasants at one point, but now they are moderately experienced practicants of the idea that wealth is for circulation and redistribution, especially when it is circulated in taverns by them and redistributed to them.

Light armoured melee troops (Two Dragons Vikings, Normans and townspeople)

At the top of the tree are the Grim-faced Rebels, Deserters and Well-armed Brigands. They have good weapons, armour and shields, and have prospered at the expense of those that spurned them in the past. Some are leaders of communities who went too far. Others were members of local and invading armies, who tired of being told what to do by the nobility. All are focused on enriching themselves further.

Armoured melee troops (Two Dragons, Vikings, Normans and Rus)

Finally, there are several groups who don't really belong in the other categories. The Hired Murderers are assassins and killers, who are in it for the blood and gore. Their business is killing, and they are killing it. The Murder Cultists and the Order of the Snake are similar to the Hired Murderers, but they are in it to appease their nameless god with the blood of those that reject it. The last group to mention is the Penitent Zealots. They are going to save the world and everyone in it, no matter how many they have to kill to achieve their goal. They don't really have a uniform but can be recognised by the tin stars they were as pendants around their necks (conveniently not visible in 15mm!).

I may swap out the various assassin and cultist types with more berserks and ulfhednar figures, once I get them tarted up, because that will mark these guys out more and the mythology that has built up around berserks since they became a part of popular culture kind of fits these groups.

Penitent Zealots (Two Dragons Vikings and townspeople)

A selection of missile troops are available to provide ranged fire support. Slings and bows are most common, but the assassins and cultists have a thing for throwing knives.

Unarmoured slingers and archers (Two Dragons Vikings and Normans)

Light armoured archers (Two Dragons Vikings)

Armoured archers (Two Dragons Vikings and Normans)

'Knife' throwers (Two Dragons Vikings)

The brigands also need their leaders, so I have a small selection of command figures to throw into that role when the dice call for them.

Leader figures (Two Dragons Vikings)

New Book: Myths and Realities of the Viking Berserkr

 My new book will be published on 24th December 2021. It is available for preorder now, currently with 20% discount on the Routledge website. Even with that discount, the hardback is eye-wateringly expensive, but the e-book may be a more realistic solution for most. There is also a Kindle edition that is heading towards cheap enough, if you prefer that format. Unfortunately, it is in the nature of academic publishing that prices are through the roof and that the author does not benefit from those costs. I doubt I shall earn enough from the royalties to pay the licensing costs for the images I used. Still, it will be nice to finally have this book out there. I've worked with this material far longer than is healthy! I should note that there will also be a paperback edition available one year after the publication of the hardback. That is likely to be the most realistic prospect for those interested in hardcopy.

The book is substantially a reworking of my PhD thesis and draws largely the same conclusions. It refocuses the thesis, brings the research up to date so that the most recent academic work, as of mid-2021, is addressed, and expands some of the sections to make my reasoning clearer. It is clear from responses to my thesis online that this was needed. I have also used this opportunity to add a short discussion of approaches to researching this sort of topic that I hope will prove useful to future researchers.

In the book I demonstrate that most of what we believe about berserkir is a product of later research and is not actually reflected in the primary sources. I show that not everything written about berserkir should be taken literally. Those who wrote the sagas down were perfectly capable of using figurative language, hyperbole, etc. and often did; any reading of the sagas shows that many of them were adept with words and storytelling. I also demonstrate that the medieval audience for these sagas would not have understood the action in the same way as we do now. All of this affects how we interpret the Viking Age berserkr, and I use my analysis to create a model of the Viking Age warriors who went by that name.

Publisher blurb:

The viking berserkr is an iconic warrior normally associated with violent fits of temper and the notorious berserksgangr or berserker frenzy. This book challenges the orthodox view that these men went ‘berserk’ in the modern English sense of the word. It examines all the evidence for medieval perceptions of berserkir and builds a model of how the medieval audience would have viewed them. Then, it extrapolates a Viking Age model of berserkir from this model, and supports the analysis with anthropological and archaeological evidence, to create a new and more accurate paradigm of the Viking Age berserkr and his place in society. This shows that berserkir were the champions of lords and kings, members of the social elite, and that much of what is believed about them is based on 17th-century and later scholarship and mythologizing: the medieval audience would have had a very different understanding of the Old Norse berserkr from that which people have now. The book sets out a challenge to rethink and reframe our perceptions of the past in a way that is less influenced by our own modern ideas.

So, what do I need to say here, as this is a gaming blog? For the wargamer, this work may appear too focused on language and meaning. However, words mean things. The way they are used affects how we interpret the past. Without analysing what the words mean, we cannot understand who and what these men were, or where they fitted into Viking Age society. That, in turn, affects how we model them on the tabletop. About the time that my thesis was published online, I wrote a blog post addressing my views on how berserkir should be depicted on the tabletop, and I am largely satisfied with that post still.

It's hard to reframe and reassess things we have grown up with and that are so much a part of our daily existence. This applies as much to the vocabulary we use as it does to the broader questions of our identity and lives. The word 'berserk' is so inextricably linked to ideas of loss of control these days that it is almost impossible to imagine it meaning anything else. I know that it took me a while, even after I had begun my research, to question whether berserkir went berserk or not, and to realise that no one had seriously asked that question and researched it. The question arose as I examined the less commonly read primary sources and looked at broader usage of Old Norse berserkr beyond the most commonly read sagas.

When you combine this underlying assumption with translations that unthinkingly use the word 'berserk' in the modern English sense and that favour readability over accuracy, you have a recipe for serious misunderstanding of what is going on in the narrative. This problem is further compounded by the fact that some of the texts I have analysed are not available in translation. How do you analyse the meaning and usage of a word when you cannot access the literature it is written in?

I don't suppose I shall convince my critics who deploy (often older and unreliable) translations of sagas as evidence that I am wrong. I do hope that my new book will help people question those ingrained ideas anyway and approach reading the sagas afresh, learning to question better what they read. I also hope that it leads to Viking army lists with no 'lunatic nudists' (to quote Bernard Cornwell) and wargames figure ranges with no naked berserkir, but I suspect it will be some while before that can happen. Sometimes the legend is just too popular, and, to be honest, in a fantasy context I would deploy them too, complete with (fictional) mushroom pot.

Micro Ancient - A trip down memory lane

My first exposure to ancients gaming was the old Tabletop Games Micro Ancient game. This was part of the Micro Warfare series that covered warfare from the ancients period through to WW1 naval. It came in an A5 sized ziplock bag and contained a simple rules set and two army cards to cut out and use. The base game modelled a battle from the Punic Wars. The two army cards were a Republican Roman army of around 22000 men and a Carthaginian army of around 30000 men. You had to cut out the unit counters and could then play games on any flat surface. Terrain would generally be templates cut from card. The cool thing was that this set was cheap enough to be affordable, and that here was a supplement with Normans, Saxons (Anglo-Danish really) and (most importantly of all) Vikings. Just the ticket for a cash-strapped youth.

Romans (purple) versus Carthaginians (red)

The rules required you to track actual losses in each unit, so the unit counters had unique identifiers for every counter and you needed a roster to track these things. I know I tried the game a couple of times as a teenager around 1980 or so, but I cannot remember what I thought of it. I have vague recollections of being a bit confused about things because I was not an experienced gamer at that time. That confusion probably led to the game being put away. I also have no idea what happened to my copy of the game. I may have traded it away or it may have been destroyed or lost as a result of the various vicissitudes of life. Either way, I no longer have my original copy.

Enter Hurlbat Games. They released the game along with its supplements as a pdf download from WargameVault in 2012. I noticed this at some point recently and was struck by nostalgia, so I bought a copy of the base game and the Normans, Saxons (and of course) Vikings supplement. I printed out the armies onto label paper and stuck that onto matte board to make slightly more robust counters than the original game. I then spent a happy weekend cutting out the counters and edging the coloured ones with Sharpie markers to make them look a bit neater. There is something quite peaceful about this activity, much more so than painting figures to my mind.

Vikings (black) face off against an Anglo-Danish (blue) army

The end result was that I now had five armies for Micro Ancient. I suppose I should read the rules and set up a game soon. First, though, I need to make terrain. Fortunately, I have a large sheet of cardboard in the flat that protected the table I shall be playing on when it was delivered. Time to dig out the scissors and cut out some randomly oval templates. Using the Sharpie markers I can mark crestlines for hills and draw on tree or rough ground symbols for other terrain. I'll maybe need some roads and rivers too, but there is plenty of cardboard for all of those.

The Anglo-Danish (blue) army defends a hill from the Norman (purple) army

One thing that I find particularly interesting is the presence in both the Viking and Saxon/Anglo-Danish armies of mounted contingents. In recent years, I have seen and been involved in some quite heated debates about the presence of cavalry in both Anglo-Danish and Viking armies, so it is particularly interesting to see mounted combat units in these armies in a game from 1976. Personally, I think that half the problem here is 19th-century antiquarianism/historiography and the other half is the terminology. The second you talk about 'cavalry', people get in their heads permanent formations of mounted combat troops and this obscures the probable reality of elite warriors who could fight mounted or dismounted as needed, like the medieval knights of whom they were the forebears both socially and literally. But, that is an argument for another time.

So, what next? Well, I really do need to try the game out again and see what I think of it. It would be awesome if it worked well. As a readily portable game set, it suits my needs beautifully and does not require a huge area to play on. It also has me wondering about using the counters with other miniatures rules sets, or making counters of the right size for those other games. It also has me wondering about Kriegsspiel blocks and whether I would find 18th-century warfare as interesting to play out using counters or blocks. The flexibility of having a red army and a blue army without worrying about uniform details appeals a lot. We'll see. I need to get these bad boys deployed in simulated anger first, and see how the reality matches up to my nostalgia.

The Thrappled Lemmings Ride Again - Rangers of Shadow Deep

"A pint of your finest ale, barkeep," slurred the rosy-nosed elf as she staggered up to the bar, obviously three sheets to the wind already.
"Make that four," piped up the skinny human behind her with a glance to his two other companions to assure himself that they would order their own drinks.
"Ah, shite," muttered the landlord to herself, "it's the feck'n Thrappled Lemmings."

Her heart sank as she contemplated the plain, or minimalist, as she liked to think of it, tavern interior, which she was certain would soon be redecorated beyond recognition. She knew who the Thrappled Lemmings were, and she knew that their 'help' often left everyone around them considerably poorer and frequently homeless.

"Never fear, dear barkeep," announced the stout warrior who stood behind the others, "the Thrappled Lemmings are here to investigate your mysteries and to make you safe. We just require a little refreshment before we embark on our latest foray against the Shadow Deep. After all, we have to slay our thirst before we can slay the monsters!"

The Thrappled Lemmings are one of the most infamous ranger groups in Alladore. Led by Warrior-Scribe Aethelwyrd Hawksfield, the group is always willing to run to the fray. In her quest to rid the world of evil, Aethelwyrd is supported by Aelfwyn Swiftshot (archer), Diarmuid Oakstream (conjuror), Onund Clovenshield (man at arms), Kalf Longsnake (man at arms) and Ash the Scop (rogue).

It's not that the group starts fights everywhere they go, but fights just seem to follow them around looking for an excuse to happen. It might just be bumping someone's drink, or Ash singing the wrong song in the wrong town. Whatever triggers it, there seems to be little that can prevent a simple trip to the local tavern turning into a massed brawl whenever the Thrappled Lemmings hit town.

I've been looking forward to trying Rangers of Shadow Deep for some time now, but have not been in the same country as my figures for all of this year. I managed to get this group and the monsters for the first mission painted when I was home last Christmas, but I did not have time to fit in a game. It's time to rectify that situation while I can.

I'll be playing in 15mm because it fits the space I have right now and plan to play using 'hinches' as my measuring standard. This is something that I first encountered on the Command Decision forums. Instead of halving or measuring in centimetres, each inch is reduced to 2cm, approximating 2/3 scale. My 2'x2' gaming board thus becomes, in scale, 30"x30". It's fractionally too small for the first scenario of the first mission, but I think that will benefit the monsters more than my team. I am not certain how it will look on the table, but it should reduce the movement of my figures sufficiently that they do not look like they have jetboots on. I chose this option because the footprint of many of my terrain pieces just seemed too large if I simply halved movement and ranges or converted every inch to cm. I may change my mind in future based on how this looks in my first few games.

UPDATE 05/2024: Following my experience of playing Five Leagues from the Borderlands at 2/3 scale with a ruler printed out at 66%, I shall be doing that for all new scenarios instead of playing in hinches. I really don't know why I did not think of that when I first played these scenarios!

The two Viking man-at-arms figures are part of a huge pile of Two Dragons figures that I bought in the nineties. Many of these are actually painted(!), and these two required little fettling other than sorting out chips in their paintwork and rebasing them. The Elves were new to me but I managed to put paint to metal when last home and am quite pleased with how they look. Definitely good enough to hit the table. So, let's see what happens when they actually face the bad guys. I suspect ineptitude and chaos will be fairly evident, but you never know.

Elf figures: Ral Partha Europe (originally Demonworld)

Viking figures: Two Dragons (now available from Caliver Books)

Viking berserkers in wargames - a thesis and some notes

Gosh, it's been quiet round here. I have several games to write reports on, although they may just be short notes and photos at this late date, but they are languishing in the doldrums of lack of desire to edit the photos and write about them. However, I have just been informed that my PhD has gone live on the Nottingham eTheses website, so, instead of writing battle reports, and while my work on turning my PhD into a thrilling bestseller falters along like a 3 minute old foal, I offer the chance to read my deathless prose offline by downloading my thesis, while waiting for the next gaming related post. Alternatively, you could wait for a more reader-friendly version when the book is finally published. Click the title below to go to the page for my thesis. It's a 31Mb download. You have been warned. I've also added some thoughts after the abstract on what my conclusions mean for a Viking wargame army.

Berserkir: A re-examination of the phenomenon in literature and life
Abstract
This thesis discusses whether berserkir really went berserk. It proposes revised paradigms for berserkir as they existed in the Viking Age and as depicted in Old Norse literature. It clarifies the Viking Age berserkr as an elite warrior whose practices have a function in warfare and ritual life rather than as an example of aberrant behaviour, and considers how usage of PDE ‘berserk’ may affect the framing of research questions about berserkir through analysis of depictions in modern popular culture. The analysis shows how berserksgangr has received greater attention than it warrants with the emphasis being on how berserkir went berserk. A critical review of Old Norse literature shows that berserkir do not go berserk, and suggests that berserksgangr was a calculated form of posturing and a ritual activity designed to bolster the courage of the berserkr.

It shows how the medieval concept of berserkir  was more nuanced and less negative than is usually believed, as demonstrated by the contemporaneous existence in narratives of berserkir as king’s men, hall challengers, hólmgöngumenn, Viking raiders, and Christian champions, and by the presence of men with the byname berserkr in fourtheenth-century documents. Old Norse literature is related to pre-Viking Age evidence to show that warriors wearing wolfskins existed and can be related to berserkir , thus making it possible to produce models for Viking Age and medieval concepts of berserkir .

The modern view of berserkir is analysed and shows that frenzy is the dominant attribute, despite going berserk not being a useful attribute in Viking Age warfare which relied upon men holding a line steady rather than charging individually.

The thesis concludes that ON berserkr may be best translated as PDE ‘champion’, while PDE ‘berserker’ describes the type of uncontrollable warrior most commonly envisaged when discussing berserkir .

Most illustrations have been removed from the digital version of this thesis for copyright reasons. The references in the captions guide the reader to the original source for those illustrations.

What this means for Viking armies in wargames
In the first instance, it means an end to psycho nutjobs with no clothes and lots of special rules, not that I am the first to have written this. Berserkir were champions and bodyguards. They fought in the same manner as the other warriors in the army, but better. Their defining features such as the howling and shield-biting (or spell-chanting as I have suggested as an alternative interpretation) happened before the battle and were not part of an intrinsic berserk state, despite what popular culture says. To reflect their attributes, they would be the best armed and best armoured troops in the army, and they would be grouped around a leader. How this applies to your games will depend upon the scale of the game.

You might have an entire warband of these guys in a skirmish game, reflecting a lord and his immediate retinue going off to do a bit of plundering, or to rescue a foreign lord from the monster plaguing his hall. Your leader might be a berserkr with a following of local levies and assorted warriors. You might have one or two berserkir with a leader and then a group of levies and assorted warriors. The permutations are as many as the possible scenarios around why a leader is on his own or only accompanied by a couple of his champions.

In a big battle game, the representation will depend upon how you perceive the structure of the army. If you think the best warriors could be spread among the rabble to raise their discipline, then you would simply improve the average quality of many/all units in the army. If you think, as do I, that the berserkir would be gathered around their lord and his standard, then you should use the highest quality troop type in your army for the stands of your leaders/generals. This does not mean picking the highest quality in the army list. I doubt all lords and their retinues were of equal quality, and the number of men in a lord's personal retinue is highly unlikely to be equal to the notional number of men comprising a unit or stand in most big battle games. This means that the effect of the best troops will be diluted, so you might have a unit of veteran huskarls to represent the berserkir and the best troops, instead of automatically representing the unit as elite huskarls.

The actual physical representation of these troops is more difficult. They may have worn bearskins or a bear's mask, but the evidence is not present to state whether these accoutrements were worn, if at all, in battle or only for rituals and ceremonies. I would suggest going for what you find aesthetically pleasing. As long as your berserkir are not naked, you are not leaving yourself open to criticism by pedants like me!

So, that's a few thoughts on berserkir in wargames. They are certainly not complete or comprehensive, but I hope they provide food for thought.