Blood Eagle - Prelude to The Raid...

Johan jumped down from his longship and waded through the shallows. He knew that glory and riches lay ahead, but night was nearly upon them so they must make haste. Leading his men from the river they skirted around an area of marsh and came to a narrow but fast flowing stream. A rickety wooden bridge could be seen in the distance. One by one, they crossed.

"Hmm..." thought Johan, "this could prove useful in a tight spot!"

Beyond the bridge lay a vast forest full of untold terrors. Not daring to venture forth in the fading light they made camp.

The church was surrounded by fields and hedgerows. Villagers piled the last of the hay into large stacks before returning to the shelter of their homes. A low mist started to rise, engulfing the distant trees.

 

 

Wulfestan looked up from his broth and with a scowl he studied the forest.

"Death stalks the greenwood tonight lads"

"Aye Lord" replied Ailred.

Sigered wrapped his cloak tighter about him and eyed the Huscarle. Ailred's mighty two handed axe glowed red in the fading light. Sigered gently reached for his staff and grasped the bronze crucifix at its tip. Sigered had seen visions before and knew them to be the work of the devil. But now, he could see nothing. It was as though his friend Ailred was no longer there.

 

 

 

 

Wulfestan stood and turning his back to the forest he said in a low voice.

"The pagans must have landed by now. But not even they will cross the greenwood till the 'morrow".

"Time to sleep..."

 

The Raid

 

SAGA Invasions

Finally! Straight from the horse's mouth! Studio Tomahawk have finally divulged some information on the SAGA supplement hitherto known as Age of Arthur. Well, it looks like the supplement will actually be called Invasions. Here's what Studio Tomahawk had to say on their Facebook page (translated from French):

 

Hello, happy Easter.

The absence of publication of the last month was only due to the preparation of an important part of the history of saga.

While with the croissant & the cross, we were exploring the destinies crusaders of the knights parties in the holy land and of the struggle of oriental to defend their land, with the next volume of saga we're going back further in time and explore the origin of the Dark ages.

Imagine 6 new factions featuring of Britons, Saxon invaders, Romans, Huns, the goths and picts. To lead them to the battle, heroes colorful as aetius, Attila, Arthur, vortigern and other will carry you in an era where the borders Roman suffer the battering incessant barbarians at their doors.

New factions, new mercenaries to join your tapes, a system of campaign and a range of figures are in the programme. Your habits of games will be to review, to reform to establish a new style of play in a system of campaign very original and unexpected.

Latest tests have been carried out there's a few days by our team of valiant fighters. They have experienced the trays, the scenarios, and the infernal campaign: defend the frontier to face the invaders!

Saga: invasion is now entered into production.

It's for when? I see you in advance, we ask the question... Not before the end of the year. The rest is in the hands of the gods...

 

Thoughts?

Firstly - it won't be available until the end of the year - boo! But at least this will help save further damage on my wallet at Salute...

Secondly, Britons, Late Romans, Saxons, Huns, Goths and Picts! Fantastic! Fits in perfectly with the historical period I am collecting for Hail Caesar.

Thirdly, a campaign system? Hmm?! I wonder how this will mesh with Gripping Beast's soon to be released Age of the Wolf? Presumably each campaign system will be specific to their respective time periods so there won't be too many conflicts. I wonder who is actually authoring Age of the Wolf though?

 

 

 

BattleSystems Dungeon Terrain

Last year I backed the BattleSystems Kickstarter for their dungeon terrain. I missed out on the SciFi terrain Kickstarter, but was able to add it to my dungeon pledge. Well it's taken awhile, but today I went from this...

 

 

To this...

 

 

 

 

The terrain is all made from pre-printed cardboard and is modular so just fits together with small plastic clips. I have a few Doctor Who scenarios in mind for both the dungeon and SciFi sets - more on that soon (ish). But we intend on playing a game of Frostgrave first...

Update (Easter Sunday)

Despite Sunday's hail that made us stand in the conservatory with our ears plugged, we had a cracking game of Frostgrave today. Both wizards went down, but survived to play again - Mighty Kyle's wizard now achieving level 6... Still, my Necromancer managed to grab a couple of treasures, just as well since my Captain died from his wounds and I had to hire another! Here's a few photos from today's game (we found it very useful that the dungeon tiles were 1 inch squares - no need to measure for movement).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Congo Close to Publication?

Wargames Illustrated will be showcasing the rules for Studio Tomahawks new game Congo in the April edition of the wargaming magazine. I'm guessing it may well be released at Salute.

I know a few people who are interested in these rules. Looks like my painting schedule will be speared once again this year!

Blood Eagle!

Blood Eagle, a new skirmish game set in the Dark Ages has just been released - ahead of schedule!

 

 

The book is available for £14.95 and can be ordered from North Star.

Just ordered mine!

 

Bróðir of Man

Bróðir of Man was a Norse Gael warlord who lived in the 11th Century. As the name suggests, Bróðir is associated with the Isle of Man. However, his claim to fame is the alleged slaying of Brian Boru, High King of Ireland at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. What is interesting is that following a series of omens, Bróðir and his brother Óspak fell out and ended up fighting on opposite sides during the battle (on diagonally opposite flanks). According to folklore, Bróðir's chainmail protected him against all blows until he was repelled by Wolf the Quarrelsome. Bróðir fled the scene and hid in a wood. As can be imagined this led to his men becoming demoralised and they were slain to a man. Some tales suggest that as he fled the battle, Bróðir came upon the elderly Brian Boru who was sat in his tent. Norse and Irish accounts of what happened next differ, but Brian ended up dead.

In SAGA, Bróðir is represented as a Hero of the Viking Age and has a number of special abilities (SAGA The Ravens Shadow, pg. 15). In summary, he generates 3 SAGA dice, has magical chainmail that gives him an armour of 6 that cannot be reduced below 5 by any means (in both shooting and melee). But his warband may only consist of Hearthguards ("murderous foreign Danes").

 

 

I've therefore decided to play Bróðir alongside three units of Hearthguard. One 12 man unit will be armed with hand weapons, whilst the other two units of four will wield Dane axes. If you know the Norse Gael battleboard, you'll have a pretty good idea how I intend to use them!

 

 

Finally, Bróðir's Sorcerous Divinations introduce further excitement. Using 'divination tokens' both players will randomly determine the game turn when Bróðir is especially difficult to kill (cancelling all hits on a 2) and the game turn when he meets his fate (all hits are doubled). Hopefully in my game next week against Anthony's Normans, Bróðir won't meet the same fate as his real life counterpart....

"Wolf the Quarrelsome cut open his belly, and led him round and round the trunk of a tree, and so wound all his entrails out of him"

Nice!

 

 

SAGA - Age of the Wolf

Here I was looking forward to Age of Arthur, when Gripping Beast announce Age of the Wolf!

 

 

A campaign system for SAGA, focussing on the Viking Age! Here's hoping it's available at Salute!!

 

edit: and I now have my copy! I've written some thoughts on the supplement here.