Sunday, January 3, 2021

Kicking off 2021 the right way? Vikings vs Saxons!

Disclaimer: This is not a historically accurate account of any battle.

Rules Used: The free rules set Swordplay 2018. It's actually Swordplay 2020, which combines 2015/2018.  I used the Battleboard to Tabletop mod. It's found in the free rules section in the link.

Miniatures Used: The Vikings and the Saxons by Vyacheslav Batalov. Despite not having front and back art, these paper minis are beautifully drawn and most are done from the side to create the illusion of front and back. I haven't seen very many historical paper sets so these will come in handy. I also picked up many other historical minis, including the Normans. I found if you print them from PDF format, 115% scale is right on for 28mm. They have low ink usage, which is nice!

 I have to mention the 2D terrain from 1985 Games' Dungeon Craft: Volume I. Not a lot shown off here but it contains a lot of cool 2D houses with interiors, various trees, dungeon tiles, etc. All are double-sided.


Halkur will be leading a small band of fellow vikings scouting for settlements to raid. He's a rep 5 Huscarl star with medium armor (AC 4). His companions are rep 4 freemen with light armor (AC 2). Let the game begin!


Initial placement of PEF's (possible enemy forces) and terrain:  

The initial moves. Halkur and his crew win the initiative.

The PEF in section 2 moves insight and resolves as two hirdsmen and three fyrd.

The two warbands size each other up...

Halkur's band fast moves into combat!

The initial battle results in one viking out of the fight and one fleeing. Halkur manages to dispatch the leader. The saxons suffer an out of the fight (OOF) and one obviously dead (OD)!

Halkur fighting three saxons as they rush him.

The remaining viking proves too much for the fyrd. Only the hirdsman remains!

But is done in by Halkur's blade.

After the battle saw both freemen come back.



4 comments:

  1. Nice stuff. How long did it take to play?

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    1. Set up and take down time was about an hour. So pretty fast. :) Thanks for stopping by, Ed!

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  2. Good-looking visuals! So the figures are one-sided? What's on the other side?

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    1. Hey, thanks for posting! The front art is the same as on the back, so there's not just white on the backs.

      While I normally only buy front and back art paper minis, these are an exception as the art is high quality and they are drawn at the side. I really like them. :)

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