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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| 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!
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| 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
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| Two Saxon mounted hearthguards charge Bjorn as he tries to escape with some chickens |
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| Meanwhile, Floki's swordsman is sorely beset by both Saxon fyrd and mounted hearthguard |
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| A Viking raider is overwhelmed by a horde of Saxon fyrd banded together to defend their homes |
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| Ragnar's wife Lagertha faces down the mounted charge of a Saxon hearthguard |
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| Ragnar Lothbrok & his two Viking companions cut down a horde of Saxons who have charged them |
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| Ragnar's son Bjorn & his men round up Saxon women & children captives they've taken |
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| Ragnar Lothbrok heads for the church, trading axe blows amidst the market stalls |
Looks like a great time, Mike. Great missionary work out among the board gamers! Hope your games are full next week at Drums as well.
ReplyDeleteI have a feeling that they will be. Thanks for the kind words. The great thing about this game is that it scales down so easily, too. I've seen too many convention games where the GMs are put on the spot on how to scale down their game to fewer players than they had called for.
DeleteSuper looking game, the table and miniatures look great.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Donnie! I have a feeling that after running it twice at Buckeye Game Fest, twice again this weekend at Drums, and six times (!) at Origins, I'm going to be ready to unpack the boxes and put this on the shelf for awhile...ha, ha!
DeleteIt's not too late to run it at Historicon.
ReplyDeleteI went back and forth a number of times, but have decided NOT to run a game at Historicon. My GMing schedule was so busy this year. By the end of Origins, I will have run (or helped run) it 15 times five months...!
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