Vikings Descend in Fury on Anglo-Saxon Town at Cincycon

    Ragnar Lothbrok (near the church door) tries to fight his way into the church in search of loot

The fabled Ragnar Lothbrok of the Norse Sagas, accompanied by his friends and companions, brought chaos and mayhem upon an Anglo-Saxon town at Cincycon 2025. My convention game that I will run for at least the first part of the year is a cooperative historical miniatures game where all six players are Vikings trying to loot a town. The role of the Anglo-Saxon townsfolk and defenders is played by the game's A.I. and cards. Ganesha Games' Sellswords & Spellslingers is the rule set I am using, and did a great job throwing the unexpected at the players and making each running of the scenario unfold differently.

    A look at my town tabletop at Cincycon before the figures are placed and the Viking raid commences

I had a full table of six players for both my Friday evening and Saturday morning game. I had a great group of players both times who joked and laughed throughout despite their reversals of fortune. In addition to the players supposedly cooperating, they were also competing to amass the most loot. This could be gained mostly from slaughtering the townsfolk (1 silver piece each), levy Fyrd (1d6 silver), and hearthguard or household troops (2d6 silver). The windfall, though, would be if they made it to the central church, which stood in the center of the hexagonal board. Each player deployed their three Viking raiders along their respective hexagon edge. In Friday's game, they made it to the church courtyard, but did not gain entry. On Saturday, Ragnar Lothbrok and his son Bjorn Ironside both actually made it into the chapel and slaughtered monks, gaining 4d6 silver for each.

    My Saturday players were a rowdy bunch and had a blast teasing each other and enjoying themselves

The way SS&SS works, the player rolls one, two, or three 20-sided dice to activate one of their raiders. For each roll of 8+, they get an action (move, fight, shoot arrows, loot bodies, etc.). For each failure, a card is drawn from the deck. These cards can bring more defenders onto the board, trigger an Anglo-Saxon springing unseen from ambush, and activate defenders on the table to move towards and attack the Viking raiders. Most of the cards are bad for the players, but a few are beneficial or neutral. I had worked out ahead of time what each card would translate to in this historical version of the fantasy miniatures game. For example, a "Wandering Monster" was a mounted hearthguard who appeared on a random board edge and immediately charged the closest raider. "Trap" meant a town dog darted out and attacked a raider. Some of the cards activate the Anglo-Saxon (foe) closest to the player rolling the failure, while others activate ALL Anglo-Saxons on the table.

    Ragnar's brother, the sometimes treacherous Rollo, and his Viking raider companions

In addition, some cards dictate the deck to be reshuffled after playing that card, which keeps things mixed up and interesting. There were three levels of foes, as mentioned earlier. Townsfolk were the weakest, levy Fyrd were the next toughest, and the hearthguard were the most powerful. Hearthguard also have armor that might block a raider's hit on them. In a one-on-one fight, the raiders ("PCs" or player characters) are much more powerful. However, the defenders can form "hordes" which give them an outnumbering modifier, which can greatly reduce or negate the raider advantage. Plus, there is still good old-fashioned bad die rolling! For example, on Friday night, Ragnar's brother Rollo almost met an untimely, early end. He was quickly down two of his three wounds, but ultimately survived. Each player had a Viking hero (either Ragnar, his wife Lagertha, brother Rollo, son Björn, friend Loki the shipbuilder, or Ulf the Wise). Each player also had a swordsman or axeman, and their third raider was an archer. The archers had no armor, so were most vulnerable to counter-attacks, while the leaders and other raiders had armor and/or shields which could negate enemy hits with a good enough roll.

    Sounds of steel clashing on steel reach the Anglo-Saxon defenders in the church courtyard

Interestingly, in each game, there was one Viking band that was swarmed by defenders almost immediately. On Friday, it was the maniacal Floki, who had trouble keeping his footing on the muddy streets. Anglo-Saxon defenders sprang from nearby houses and the woods on the edge of town to attack his trio again and again. On Saturday, it was Rollo, who almost never made it off of the wharf where the longship was tied up. Mounted hearthguard came in waves after Rollo and his men, nearly killing all three. Still, in both games, most of the Vikings penetrated the outer buildings and advanced steadily through the muddy streets. On Friday, Ragnar made it to the courtyard in front of the church, but couldn't break through the solid shieldwall of the Anglo-Saxon captain and his hearthguard defenders.

    'Horde Fighter' Rollo takes on a pair of Anglo-Saxon Fyrd in the streets during Friday's game

On Saturday, the players did better. Lagertha's archer stung the shieldwall in the courtyard, prompting them to charge after the shieldmaiden and her raiders. This opened the way for Björn's band to break through the defenses and enter the church. Ragnar followed his son soon after. Monks shrieked as they fell wounded or were knocked senseless to be taken captive. Perhaps hearing the chaos in their beloved church, the Anglo-Saxon defenders began to swarm the perimeter of the table. The sound of their shouting convinced the Vikings they'd gathered enough loot and it was time to escape back to the ship before more of them fell. Both games lasted about three hours before I called them.

    Ragnar's companions, Hakon and Sigurd hurry to keep up with their quick-footed lord

The players seemed to have a lot of fun. They laughed at each other's misfortunes and howled in protest as a fellow player's failed activation rolls sent a horde of Anglo-Saxons randomly at them instead! This being only the second and third times that I had run these rules, I was pretty busy handling the arrivals of new defenders, deaths of Anglo-Saxons, and doling out silver pieces. However, the players do all the die rolling and control the action. Still, Friday night the players kept me hopping and it seemed chaotic to me, at times. However, on Saturday, I was able to relax and anticipate the rhythm of the game. I spiced up the narration of what was happening, taunting the players, "You can't miss that roll, right? You can do this all day...!" Of course, they realized that was likely jinxing them and chuckled at my ribbing.

    Lagertha's swordsman, the wounded Fafnir, is beset by two determined Saxon Fyrd

The die rolls and randomness of the frequently reshuffled deck created its own flow. For example, Blake's Rollo suffering charging mounted hearthguard after hearthguard. Dan's board edge was the unlucky recipient of an odds-defying number of Anglo-Saxon reinforcements. Derek's die failed rolls were to blame for the other players' misfortunes. It was hectic, unpredictable, but enjoyable -- at least that's what my players told me. Several of them planned on going out and downloading the rules from Wargame Vault. I got lots of compliments on how my table looked, especially my scratch-built Anglo-Saxon church. To this day, it is probably still my favorite scratch-build I have ever done.

    The decorated inside of my scratch-built church, defiled by the presence of pagan Björn Ironside

I plan on running the game again at DayCon (April 11-12) and at Drums at the Rapids (May 17-18). And then I will run the heck out of it all weekend at Origins Game Fair (June 18-22). So, if you want to give the game a try, show up at one of these conventions! I was gratified by the number of players who told me they signed up for the raid game because they love my games and always have a good time playing in them. I had a fun time, too, this weekend at Cincycon. I will do another blog post soon about my purchases I made there. Look for that in another day or so!

    Another look at Ragnar Lothbrok and his family and friends (28mm from Brigade Games)

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 95
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 15 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 5
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 9

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 9
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 5