Recently I acquired the new Victrix dark ages wargame rules, Pillage, and that looks like a good opportunity to shuffle the restoration of my SAGA figures a bit more to the front.
Okay, so "to the front" meaning probably near the end of the year, but a buddy of mine, Philip, is intrested as well so we are going to give this game a try for certain.
The book is just short of 140 pages, coming with great artwork and pictures, a really well done, high quality set on that regards. I myself got the PDF version, but I have been looking through the physical one as well before biting the bullet and get them.
Seperated into various sections, like the Generalities, Game Turn, Advanced Rules (like pillaging, because guess what, that is a big part of a ruleset called Pillage), the Factions (currently you can choose between 7 to 11, depending how you count), Playing the Game which has the scenario's, and Collecting which has about all the hobby related things.
About those factions, what I mean is that the Picts, Scots and Irish are all covered by a single list with minor special rule twists, and there is a Generic list as well.
The book also has a nice "history lesson" introduction, without it becoming way to big and boring for the non-historical player. But it gives a good idea of the setting and the forces involved further then "Vikings!". The game is usually played on a 48by48 board, but can be gamed for smaller encounters on 36by36 so I see the options here for an occasional solo game try-out in the future on my kitchen table!
The scenarios define the normal size of a force used there, and all models should be represented by WYSIWYGG, of which I can only agree to be honest. Now, I played quit a few games and gamerules in my 30+ years of wargaming, and if I should have to draw a line to more well known sets in "my" usual field of gaming (aka Fantasy), I would say this set leans closest to the Lord of the Rings rules from Games Workshop. Except like in the old days, no pre-measuring allowed.
The majority of the rules will quickly feel pretty familiar, especially if you played something else in your lifetime then "just one game". There isn't anything really revolutionary or special in them, which is a good thing. This just feels like a good, solid set of rules anyone can quickly get familiar with.
It also helps in this regard in that the armies generally use the same equipment. Sure, things like Dane Axes are more prelevalent with Vikings, while Picts run around mostly unarmoured, but the forces are on the same levels generally speaking. What sets them apart are their "faction special rule" and the gold cost (aka points) of models and equipment. You can also purcahes Talents, which are special skills for your models, but these tend to become very expensive very fast, and you must weigh of if you are not better off with a warrior or two extra instead.
Talking models, for most scenario's you will be set with the contents of a single box of plastic figures out there, like from (ofc) Victrix, Gripping Beast, Wargames Atlantic etc... though for more specialised units, many manufacturers are out there. Dark Ages has been a popular era for as long as I remember wargaming after all.
So all that remains for me to do now is to get 250 GP of figures restored to try the game out (which would be a skirmish on a 24by24 surface) and get a hang of the rules as such, and I'm looking forward to doing so. After that, we will see how much GP of value we end up with once all models are done *cough* famous last words.
Now to get ready to do some Pillage-ing!
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