Photos from Viking Raid at Buckeye Game Fest 2025

    Mounted Saxon nobles attack Bjorn Ironside while his companions leads off a string of captives

It has been a busy week here, and I am finally getting around to posting pictures and an account of my games at Buckeye Game Fest 2025. Jenny ran my Viking Raid on an Anglo-Saxon Town scenario twice -- once on Thursday evening and again on Friday morning. Both times we had the full six players. The whole point of us running miniatures games at this mostly board gaming convention was to expose new players to minis. My fellow game masters from HMGS Great Lakes were hoping to recruit folks who are already gamers to historicals, or at least miniatures.

    The players on Saturday morning study their character sheets while Jenny explains the rules

If that was a goal, it must have been a success as only one or two of our players were folks we knew. Most seemed to pick up the Sellswords and Spellslingers rules very quickly. Our job simply became flipping and implementing the event cards that come about because of player characters failing to activate (which moves or puts new defending foes on the board). It is interesting how the randomness of dice and event cards that are shuffled and reshuffled regularly begin to tell a story. One Viking player and his band of raiders may suffer counter attacks of the defenders time and time again, while another is left alone to break down doors of homes, take slaves, or steal livestock. 

    A Saxon fyrd archer leaps out of concealment and fires an arrow of Floki and his companions

In one of the games, the raiders made a concerted attacks on the church. A battle raged in the courtyard, and most of the Saxon hearthguard were fighting to protect their holy site. However, it was too little, too late, and the Saxons held out long enough for us to call the game. Still, the players said they had fun, which is the main goal of a game, right? Viking raiders did fall to the Saxon defenders from time to time, but most players had their characters survive, even if they did suffer wounds. It is interesting for me to watch the players and their different strategies in this game. Most of the time, they are quite careful, and take care of any Saxon defenders popping up before advancing further into the town. In the half dozen times the game has been run, I've yet to see a grand strategy among the Viking players. Each seems to take my advice that the game is cooperative, yet competitive, to heart.

    Bjorn's Vikings burst into a Saxon home and begin to subdue the women & children to sell as slaves

I will run the game at Drums at the Rapids next weekend -- once on Friday evening and another time on Saturday morning. After that, it will be run Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at Origins Game Fair, June 18-22, Columbus. Once Origins is over, I will likely put the game on the shelf for awhile. I have run it a LOT lately. Time to come up with some new ideas!

    Battle rages in the courtyard in front of the church, as Saxon hearthguard try to hold off the raiders

In the meantime, enjoy some of my favorite photos of the Viking Raid from last weekend. If you get a chance to sign up and try your own hand at raiding an Anglo-Saxon town, I look forward to seeing you at the table!

    Lagertha's swordsman Fafnir dashes along the walls of the church to join the battle in the courtyard

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 143
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 70 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 19
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 22

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 54
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 57

 

    Two Saxon mounted hearthguards charge Bjorn as he tries to escape with some chickens

    Meanwhile, Floki's swordsman is sorely beset by both Saxon fyrd and mounted hearthguard

    A Viking raider is overwhelmed by a horde of Saxon fyrd banded together to defend their homes

    Ragnar's wife Lagertha faces down the mounted charge of a Saxon hearthguard

    Ragnar Lothbrok & his two Viking companions cut down a horde of Saxons who have charged them

    Ragnar's son Bjorn & his men round up Saxon women & children captives they've taken

    Ragnar Lothbrok heads for the church, trading axe blows amidst the market stalls

Vikings Raid Angland Again at DayCon 2025

    Here I am at DayCon 2025, running my 'Viking Raid on Anglo-Saxon Town' game for a full table

I feel very lucky that the games that I run at our local conventions always seem to fill up. As a GM, I've been in that awful position of preparing for a game, packing everything up, hauling it to the convention, setting it up again there, and then sitting around and having no players. That's a frustrating feeling, but I feel so fortunate I haven't had to deal with that in awhile. Whether through word of mouth, or my cool-looking terrain and figs, or just luck of the draw, my games tend to fill up. And so it was at DayCon 2025 with my running of my Viking Raid on Anglo-Saxon Town. 

    My scratch-built Saxon church is the ultimate goal of the Viking players -- where most treasure is

My friends Terry H and John L both signed up, along with four other players I had not met (or don't remember meeting) previously. The rules I am using, Ganesha Games' Sellswords & Spellslingers, are quick to teach before the game and easy for players to learn. I like the idea of a cooperative game at a convention, too, but I also enjoy tossing in a little competitive rivalry, too. The player whose Vikings earned the most loot would be the winner. In this case, Bjorn Ironside just edged out John L's Ulf for most silver pieces looted. I believe the score was 33-31, though I did not write it down. The players all said they had fun and thanked me for running the game. 

    Ragnar Lothbrok is surrounded by a horde of Saxon fyrd and a mounted hearthguard

Unlike the last time I ran this at Cincycon, none of the Vikings made it to the church. They all got sidetracked early on by Saxon reinforcements popping up near them. It takes a concerted push by players to make it to the church courtyard, batter down the shieldwall of Saxon hearthguard, and get into the church. Of course, looting the bodies of the Saxon defenders is a valid strategy itself. Every game, it seems there is one of the six Viking raider leaders whose band never ventures far from its deployment area. A combination of random arrivals tends to hem them in early. John L's Ulf the Wise was one of those player in this game. He had mounted Saxon hearthguard gallop down upon his raiders (on the "Wandering Monster" card) more than once. John's three characters stayed close together, though, and helped each other. They also did the 1-2 punch of "You kill him, I will loot his body" that allowed him to grab silver pieces steadily all game long.

    Saxon bowmen engage in a long-range archery duel with Terry's unfortunate Viking archer

Terry and Shauna's Floki and Lagertha, respectively, seemed to have the worst luck. Shauna's rolls were so bad she handed my dice back to me and pulled out her own. Those proceeded to roll even worse! In fact, I would say in the half dozen times I've run this scenario, I think she's had the most misfortune I've witnessed! Like John, her trio of raiders did not make it far off their baseline. A steady progression of Saxons arrived from the trees to the left, often in the form of hordes (2-6 foes that activate and fight the raiders together). Her leader, Floki, was involved in a duel with a mounted Saxon hearthguard for half the battle, it seemed. Shauna would do everything she could to give Floki the best odds to wound or slay the rider, and she would flub the die roll!

    Well-disciplined Saxon hearthguard kept in their shieldwall in front of the church by their captain

Terry's Lagertha was the only group to lose a raider, his bad-luck archer. Lagertha and his swordsman Fafnir advanced quickly through a gap between houses, leaving their archer companion to shoot at some distant foes. What should arrive eventually, but a horde of Saxon archers to oppose him? The Viking lasted for a few turns, dodging arrows and picking off Saxon bowmen. However, eventually, with no shield and no armor, he suffered one arrow would too many. Like Boromir in the Lord of the Rings, he fell, riddled with arrows. 

    The players laughed and celebrated their rivals' successes, and commiserated on their bad dice rolls

At Cincycon, I accidentally left all of my Saxon archers behind. So, in the first game, I used substitute figures for the six who begin the game on the board. After that, I made all of the arriving defenders be hand-to-hand fighters. In the second Cincycon game, I even left out the archers entirely. I definitely think the Saxon defenders are more potent when they have archers -- especially if they show up via an Event Card as a horde. That's what happened in this game, and it is more of a challenge for the players. They have to spend actions on movement to close with and kill the archers. Otherwise, if they ignore them, they will get sniped and begin to lose wounds steadily. Still, at DayCon, only one Viking died. In one of the games at Cincycon, I think the Vikings lost 2-3 raiders. So, this outing wasn't the most deadly.

    Rollo (Ragnar's brother) bursts into a Saxon home and confronts an elderly Saxon couple

Sellswords is an excellent rules set for a cooperative game. I really like how the player's activation failures lead to Event Cards being drawn, which enables the foes to attack (or new ones appear on table). In fact, this usually leads to a flow, or the feeling that there is a storyline directing the defender's actions. There will be times when the players succeed on their activation rolls, and the defenders seem to be back on their heels, reeling under the Viking's blows. Then, someone will roll three failures, and they seem to be rejuvenated, and reinforcements arrive and press home the counter-attack. For people interested in a cooperative or solo game, I would encourage them to take a look at these rules. They're available both on Ganesha's website and on Wargame Vault.

    Lagertha and her swords Fafnir fight off the attack of a defending Saxon archer

The Viking Raid will appear several more times in the coming months. Jenny will run it at Buckeye Game Fest (Thursday evening and Friday morning). I will run it at Drums at the Rapids on the Friday evening and Saturday morning sessions. And finally, it will be at Origins nearly all convention long, Thursday through Saturday. So, if you've wanted to try it out, make plans to show up to one of these excellent conventions and try your luck at raiding an Anglo-Saxon town!

    The deadliest defenders on the board are the mounted Saxon hearthguard who charge into contact

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 119
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 54 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 10
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 17

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 53
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 39

Massive Horde (well 8...) 28mm Dark Age Cavalry

    8 Gripping Beast Dark Ages cavalry from the "Mounted Welsh reinforcements box"

Through the years, my "batch size" has morphed. When I first started painting 15mm Ancients, it was "all of a certain troop type" -- heavy infantry, skirmishers, etc. Then, once I realized how a never-ending run of painting flesh or leather can kill motivation, the batch size began to shrink. It settled on roughly a dozen or so at the end stages of my painting 15mm troops. The same thing has happened as I adopted 28mm for pretty much everything except my 20mm moderns. For 28's, I have settled on a batch size of about six -- sometimes one or two more if foot, or less if mounted.

    A look at the 28mm mounted figs from the side so you can see the horse coloring clearly

So, when I decided to paint up a Gripping Beast reinforcements box containing 8 Dark Age Welsh cavalry, I went back and forth whether to break it over two batches. Finally, I decided that I would try to paint it all at once. After the experience, I now remember why I'd gone with smaller batches! This group of eight miniatures seemed to take forever! I honestly believe that I have been working on them for more than two weeks. Why Dark Age cavalry, in the first place? Well, when we did our six-player Lion Rampant game the other Sunday evening, that was the one troop type I ran short on. So, it was obvious that I -- and we all use this word -- needed more! I believe that I'd won this Gripping Beast box in a tournament. The figures are relatively generic for Dark Ages, too, so it was a natural fit.

    The clothes and equipment is relatively generic so they can be used as other nations of the Dark Ages

Except the batch size was way too big! I am telling myself (but will I remember it?) to never do that again. For these figures, I first had to glue the weapons and shields to the riders. I had decided to paint the horses without the riders on them first, so it would be easier to get to all of the spots. So, when I brushed primed the horses, I left the saddle blanket area bare. I painted the horses first, using a variety of colors and styles that I admit have become somewhat routine for me. After painting my 28mm Mongol Saga army, I definitely experimented a lot with horse colors, so kind of innately know which ones should look nice. I try to make the overall effect brown, as that seems to be the most common horse color. I want some variety, too, so thus you see blacks and duns and such.

    The horse with the rider with the cross on his shield is probably my favorite of the batch

Once the horses were done and the weapons and shields glued on, it was time to epoxy the riders to the saddle blankets. Now that I have found another decent source for two part, 5-minute hobby epoxy, I have gone back to using that in preference over super glue. The hardware store epoxy I had bought, back when all the hobby and craft stores seemed to be out of stock, stinks to high heaven! It will literally smell up the house for the entire day, which doesn't make me the most popular person around here...ha, ha! I took to going out in the garage to epoxy things, using our giant green trash can as my "desk." As you can imagine, that wasn't the best solution. So, I was happy when I saw some 5-minute epoxy in Hobby Lobby a month or so ago and snatched up a package (I would have bought two if they had another in stock).

    I switched out the spears on four of the figs, giving them axes and swords instead

I did kind of make a mistake when putting the shields on the arms of the riders, though. The reinforcements box came with larger and smaller shields. I used the bigger ones because these are meant to be heavier cavalry -- not light skirmishers, necessarily. However, there was a problem. The shield sometimes got in the way of the rider sitting flush on the saddle blanket. Oops! There are four poses of horses, so I played around some mixing and matching the riders to the horse poses for the best fit. It really came down to only two riders who sit somewhat awkwardly on their mount. See if you can pick them out in the pictures! I think it is fairly obvious, but it may not be.

    A look at the cloak border patterns that I did for the 5 figures that had cloaks over their tunics

For the colors of tunics and cloaks, I went with paler and duller hues. I always assume Dark Age dyes aren't exactly colorfast, and that many items of clothing fade in color over time. So, faded yellows, blues, greens, and reds. I probably need to make a trip to the craft store and pick out more variety in my faded colors, one of these days. I am tending to use the same half dozen ones on lots of figures -- especially my Dark Ages ones. Of course, my paint rack is overflowing now, which means I will either need (there's that word again) another rack, or I need to purge colors I am not using. For example, I have WAY too many shades of blue and probably don't use 3-4 of them with any regularity. I probably have one or two more grays than I need, and I think almost never use the palest of my yellows. So, yeah, if I bring more colors online I will likely purge some I don't use.

    The one with the red cloak is the only one with chainmail and an almost Late Roman uniform

One thing that is different about painting 28mm miniatures over 15's, is pretty much every article of clothing gets a dry brush highlight in addition to its base coat. So, this means my day's painting typically begins with dry brushing yesterday's base coat and then adding a new base coat or two. So, if it is a big batch (like, say, EIGHT mounted), each step takes that much longer. These Gripping Beast riders were wearing a lot of steps, so to speak: tunic, cloak, trousers, shoes, and leather belts and sundry. I usually try to make the highlight a very light version of the base coat color. So, I have a very, very light blue, an almost straw color for yellow, and so on. I was recently reading a thread about how some painters struggle to highlight red. I typically use a salmon color. 

    Another look at the whole batch, slightly from above - I am 'so-so' about the shield patterns I did

For the inside of the shields, I use a dark brown with Camo Brown dry brush. Weapons are done in Iron Wind Metal Steel and a silver highlight (or Bronze, for metal parts that would be made of bronze). I gave them hair and mustaches in a variety of colors from black to brown to blond. Although I know it is not that common of a color, at least nowadays, I love how an auburn hair looks on a miniature -- particularly Celtic types, like the Welsh. I use a Red Brown base coat and Howard Hues Middle East Flesh for that. 

The last stages were to do the patterned trim on the cloaks and the shields. I Googled Dark Age Welsh shield patterns, but most were a little too Roman looking for me. So, I tried to go with a theme of crosses and variety. Remember -- these are not mean to strictly be Welsh, but any generic Dark Ages cavalry. I'm so-so on how the shield patterns came out. Some worked better than others. I probably should have dug out my painted up Dark Age mounted warriors and looked them over for ideas that worked first, then execute them in different colors. I was definitely suffering from "get these guys done!" fatigue, by that stage, though. 

    The trees in the background are the ones I just bought from 'A Critical Hit' at Cincycon 2025

Prior to flocking, the last thing I do is a dark brown wash on flesh tones and whites, yellows, and tans. I do a black wash on everything else. I am thinking I need to remix my black vehicle wash, though, and water it down even further. Right now, I believe it is about 50%, but I still think it makes certain colors too dark. There has been some discussion on Lead Adventure Forum (home of figures painters better than I...) about brightening miniatures back up. Too much realistic dust, dirt, and grime makes them look like dark blobs on the tabletop, and actually detracts from your painting. I don't want to go back to my 15mm days when I didn't do a wash at all, but perhaps my miniatures need some lightening up? I'd be curious to hear your opinions!

    The 3-D printed trees from above - I did end up repainting them with base coat, dry brush, & wash

So, what else is on my desktop? The next two things I paint will be terrain/scatter. I have my two buildings I converted from Reaper shipping containers. I also have three sets of clothes lines from Miniature Building Authority. They are clothes lines all primed up and ready, while the shipping container buildings have their base coat completed. Stay tuned to see how they turn out...!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 100
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 31 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 10
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 14

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 51
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 26

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

Ragnar Lothbrok and Family & Friends

    Ragnar Lothbrok and his family and friends from the Vikings TV series - 28mm Brigade Games

Since I am going to be running my Viking Town Raid game at a number of conventions this year, I decided to spice up the interest level a bit by using characters from the 2013 History Channel's Vikings series. They will lead each player characters' band of raiders in their attempt to gather more loot than their fellow Vikings. I asked for input on the Lead Adventure Forum and did some searching myself, and eventually decided to go with 28mm metal miniatures from Brigade Games. Besides the series star Ragnar Lothbrok, the set of five also included his brother Rollo, wife Lagertha, son Bjorn Ironside, and friend Floki the shipbuilder.

    Vikings series characters in front of a 28mm Acheson Creations Viking Turf House

I preferred to order all five from the same manufacturer so that I didn't end up with scale issues. Plus, Lon Weiss at Brigade Games always has excellent service and sells quality miniatures. Shipping from the USA, rather than an overseas manufacturer, was a plus, as well. I really liked the figures when I unpacked them, and continued to like them through the painting process. There was almost zero flash and the detail was crisp. I detest "slotta" bases, so snipped them off of their metal tabs and shaved the bottoms of their feet flat so that I could epoxy them directly to the base. I primed them with white Gesso, and the Vikings were quickly ready to be painted!

For their flesh, I use a ruddy craft paint but then apply a wash of darker orange color. I don't know why a matte clear paint and a matte dark orange combine to give me a glossy finish sometimes, but that's what I have to deal with. I fix that anyway during the final wash and clear coat stage. I decided to do all five at the same time, painting their flesh, then clothing, then weapons, etc., at the same time. I wasn't under huge deadline pressure, as I wouldn't be running the game till Cincycon weekend, Feb. 28-March 2. For those interested in playing, the game can accommodate six players (all Vikings) and will be on Friday at 7pm and Saturday at 10am. It uses the cooperative miniatures skirmish rules from Ganesha Games called Sellswords & Spellslingers.

    Ragnar Lothbrok from Brigade Games -- I think they did a nice job recreating him in 28mm

I am hard pressed to pick a favorite among the five miniatures, so I will just go over them one by one. Starting with series star Ragnar, I did numerous Google Image searches to try to get his costume from the series right. The chainmail is my usual recipe -- an Iron Wind Metals Steel base color with a Silver dry brush. Seeing the images for the characters I found online, there would be LOTS of varieties of brown in these five figures. So, I did my best to differentiate tones so each figure didn't look like one big blob of brown. For Ragnar, that meant a dark brown tunic (with my own addition of a dark red trim), medium brown trousers, and lighter brown boots. Googling his shield came up with a red shield with a strange bird emblem, so I took that as liberty to create my own Ragnar shield design using a bird head. The tattoos on his head came out well, I thought, as did his lighter tan colored hair.

    I like how Ragnar's brother, Rollo, and his tattoos came out (which I did with a black micron pen)

Bare-chested Rollo was probably the easiest to paint (at least until it came to the tattoos). More brown's with some leather straps and tan boots. His shield also came up in a Google search. Incidentally, I think the design is similar to one of the flags of the Nordic nations today. His dark brown hair and slightly crazed looking eyes came out well, too.

    Ragnar's wife Lagertha is a definite fan favorite in the series -- a tough, no-nonsense shield maiden!

Lagertha gave me the opportunity to do the most detail and creativity. Blue seemed to be her color in the series, so I gave her a light blue tunic with a decorative darker blue and yellow band at the hem. Her trousers were brown (what else?) and I made her boots a bit fancier looking, painting them reddish brown. Her blonde hair was more striking than the other characters in the images, so I used a brighter yellow. The shield design is the one she and her shield maidens used later in the series and is based on a Viking rune, I believe. In fact, I admit the chronology of the characters and game are a bit mixed up. By the time Björn is old enough to go to war and lead men, Rollo is in Normandy. But hey, it is a game and most of the Ragnar legendary sagas are liberally played with by the show's writers.

    I'm satisfied with my job on Björn Ironside's animal skin cloak - Ragnar would be proud of his son

Björn's figure was the one I was least looking forward to paint. The images I saw online of his animal fur cloak looked challenging. Still, I persevered and did my best. I began with a light tan base coat on the fur, then white dry brush in what would be the animal's (wolf? fox?) lighter sections, with medium brown patches here and there to darken it up. A brown wash over it all and I am actually very happy with how the cloak came out. The rest of the figure is various tones of (wait for it...) brown and gray. The "< >" shield came up in a Google search, so I went with it. I gave him lighter blond hair than his mom, but more yellow than dad, which I thought made sense.

    I managed to hold off mimicking Floki the shipbuilder's insane giggle as I painted his figure

Finally, Floki -- a very interesting character in the series. The shipbuilder is not named as such on Brigade Games' website, but is obviously based on that character. He holds an awl (wood carving tool) and axe. In the series, he rarely carries a shield, if I remember correctly, but I attached one to his back anyway since it was included in the pack. Here the Google searches were particularly helpful. I replicated the reddish brown vest, gray under tunic, brown pants, and dark boots as closely as I could but to also allow for contrast and a more interesting looking miniature. I gave him the tear tracks tattoos that this devoted follower of the Norse gods wears in the film. His unruly hair was done in a medium brown and he looks equally sinister and crazy like the character is at times in the events in the series.

All in all, I am VERY happy with how Ragnar and his crew turned out. When I left for vacation Feb. 4, everything was done on these figures except the wash and flocking. I finished those when I came back, two weeks later. It is also less than two weeks from my Cincycon game, now, so hopefully you will soon see action shots of them looting an Anglo-Saxon town and cutting down hapless villagers!

    A final look at the Brigade Games' take on the characters from the History Channels series, Vikings

What else is on my paint desk? I have the two trailers I purchased from Bad Goblin Games at Siege of Augusta. Both have their primary base coat and dry brush done on their exteriors. I have begun painting the exterior details and then will switch to the interiors. They also have to be done because I will be bringing them down to Cincycon to be used by Bad Goblin Games when they run their Trailer Park Warlords of the Apocalypse game Friday, 2pm, at Cincycon. A couple of the owners just happen to be in Cincinnati from Florida for work, and they decided to run one of their games and attend the show. Since they're flying up, I am helping them out by bringing a mat and some terrain to use. If you get a chance to play in their game, I encourage you to do so. It is a lot of fun!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 7
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 15 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 5
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 7

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

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