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