Fyrd Focus

 Never one to let a project sit idle, I have finally finished the Anglo-Saxon army I started in [checks notes] ... 2015.

Battle at the Fords: Anglo-Saxons vs Vikings

And now for that most festive of Christmas traditions - Dark Age slaughter!

"Dear Lindisfarne Monks,
You were out when we called, so your sack and pillage has been left with a neighbour.
Love and hugs, The Vikings."

Ketill was angry after the attack on the tower failed. "If even the peasants in this land can beat us," he said, "there is little chance any of us will be remember fondly back home." His men didn't agree, as they all wanted nothing more than to go home and lick their wounds at this point, but they were all too scared of Ketill to say so.

Ketill made them row the boats a way up the river during the night while the Saxons were still celebrating their victory up on the hill. The river soon became marshy on one side, then the other, and finally there was nowhere to row as the bottom was too shallow and covered in reeds. Ketill knew where the Saxons had come from and reasoned their towns must be on the south bank, so he gave the order to put ashore there.

It was hard going wading through the marsh at night, and the men moaned a lot. But after some tough going, they reached a causeway made of reeds that clearly led somewhere.

"This is our chance for revenge," Ketill said. "Their town must be over there. We will burn it before dawn. Draw swords and tread light..."

It's All-Skype Fight Night!

I Fyrd The Bells On Christmas Day

On the sixth day of Advent, the WoffBoot brought to me ... Six Anglos Saxoning!

I know 2016 is unlikely to be remembered fondly by history, but it looks like we're going to get through it without a second series of The Last Kingdom, so it could have been far, far worse...

All Fyrd Up

It's been a whistlestop December, but we have one last stop before the annual review: The Anglo Saxons!

Freeman's Catalogue, 872AD

PROPER Anglo-Saxons, that is. Not the BBC's cack-handed adaptation of an historical tour-de-force. (I mean come on - ITV did a cracking job on Sharpe. Where was the electric guitar intro?)

Clash of the Warlords: Anglo-Saxons vs Vikings

We're heading back to the Viking Age of SAGA! Having decided to make a proper go of it, we'll be sketching out a narrative as we play our way through the scenarios.

(this may be a different challenge to narrating fantasy, as you can't just make things up for historical fiction)

Erik the Viking, for example, was practically a documentary

To the longships and start the outboard motors!

King of the Hill: Vikings vs Anglo-Danes

On the same evening as our latest SkypeBoot, and as a change of pace from Age of Sigmar, we decided to play a skirmish game with a low model count, deceptively simple ruleset and faction-specific augmentations.

Pack up your horned helmets - we're off to the Viking Age to play SAGA!

Bagsie I get to play Kirk

Age of Sigurd

A quick retreat to the Age of SAGA this week, in advance of a match next week. Time for a change of pace from 40k for a little, a felt, and indeed GW products. Also because who doesn't like Vikings?

Err, medieval monks? Anglosaxons? Probably quite a long list, actually.

Anglo-Dane Huscarls: The 'Tache Stash

Final batch of SAGA miniatures for the moment - these are also Hearthguard, but armed with the universal hand weapon and shield, rather than the unique Dane Axes.

Another brick in the shield wall.

Anglo-Dane Huscarls: Axe Me Nicely

Next up for the Anglo-Danes are the warlord's loyal hearthguard. They come with a choice of weapons, so I'll begin with the Dane Axes (which gains in killing power, but loses in defence - I've yet to be convinced of their virtue).

The Axeman Cometh

Anglo-Dane Warlord: Special Offa

I realise that Offa was an Anglo-Saxon king, but the only Anglo-Dane I know is Cnut - and where's the pun in that name?

Of course, Offa had a Dyke.
The whole Dark Ages is a linguistic minefield

And now SAGA!

And so, on the 19th day of Einmánuður, Kraken and I departed from the true path and took a voyage into historical skirmish.

(On the downside: you get fewer Mutalith Vortex Beasts. On the upside: it's a lot harder for the creators to flush the entire fluff into a warp portal - not without some serious historiography at least)

What had caught my eye was SAGA, a Viking age skirmish game from Gripping Beasts. The basic rulebook incorporates everything from the Lindisfarne massacre to the Battle of Hastings, allowing you to play Vikings, Anglo-Danes, Welsh (yay!) or Normans. There are also expansion packs that add Irish, Anglo-Saxons, Scots etc.

I don't know why the whole word is upper case.
I think you have to shout it.