Going Viking Campaign Ideas

25mm Fight Club. PAPS. Petains against Plastic Soldiery.  "You have to be in it to win it, but only with pre 1980 style metal 25s"  The slogan needs work.

Some ideas to mull with your festive wine...

We use 4 players each of whom represents a Viking leader and follows the Longships during the campaign season, from the Viking homelands to raid, and if successful to then battle and attempt to conquer.  It is very much centred on the Vikings, and their attacks. They get their own little ship counter!

The original campaign map

I will add two more Viking tracks to the campaign map to facilitate this.  The top track will be the Isles, allowing the Celtic Fringe to come into play, then the Norse, two Danes and the Frisians.  

Each player also represents one of the 4 remaining Saxon Kingdoms in the "Inland" positions.

Northumbria

Mercia

East Anglia

Wessex

Each player also has an interest in one of the outlying nations if or when these are raided.

Irish,

Welsh,

Scots

Carolingians

OK so I will fess up that I have a plan to recruit the Carolingian army...  I will do some suitable looking cavalry and front rankers, and we pool any cavalry, fyrd or bondi units to make up the rest of the army. Cavalry need far fewer figures and they offer another dimension.  

The bottom track will have an option to attack Pepin the Fat and his Carolingian Franks. They are more dangerous than the Saxons, but are richer!  They can pay three Danegeld. Normandy is however the prize.

The Irish are bog poor, and have no ability to pay Danegeld, but will rise in rebellion year on year. Pretty place but...

The Scots are similar to the Irish, but the country is big, with mountains, and it's relatively empty so it takes ages to get anywhere.

The Welsh live up on hillsides and are impossible to conquer.  They won't pay any Danegeld, but do have good church Loot for raids.

Vikings who win their raid may opt to take their Loot home, or may stay around to offer battle. "End" on the map represents that battle option.  Winning captures the Kingdom, unless the Vikings are paid off.  

A Saxon King can pay Danegeld after losing a battle to allow his country respite, sending the winning Vikings home.  (Wessex, the richest, can pay twice) This makes those Saxons a bigger target for a second attack, where the Vikings may conquer the country. Even then the Saxons may not be out of the game, since a Royal Prince may have escaped, or may just appear 12 months later, to lead a rebellion to drive the Vikings out. (Or other Vikings attack you)

Viking Players successfully navigate stages from Outwards, The Sea, England, Inland (or the name of a Kingdom) Raid,  End.  Players get 5 turns before the natives are forewarned and it all starts to get a bit difficult.  Stages are passed by opposed dice rolls, from a dice pool of 10D6.  Players must roll 4, 5 or 6 to pass 1 point on a stage (and one stage has 6 points!) But may rest the oars to recoup D6 dice.   Even if the stage is passed the risks must then be rolled.  (any passage with an R incurs a risk roll)

1.  Rough Seas, lose a base overboard.  2-3 Fighting at sea.  Risk a base head to head. Save as per shooting hits.  4-5 Blow Wind Blow, no effect.  6  Odin’s favour add 2 more d6 to your ready pile.

I prefer 13th Warrior Quotes… ‘No boy, this is no night to be close to land!’

When a Longship reaches a Raid square a raid game is played against that enemy.  Reaching the End square gives the battle game.

The A3 map

Won't look so cluttered when I've done with it.  Still a work in progress.

I'm going to do a Michael Benteen Potty time board, for tracking a Campaign season.  If you remember my textured painting canvas you will get the idea.  Counters will be Longship models mounted on pins to allow it to be used vertically.

A3 canvas

Layer of cork for sea

2nd layer of cork as land

White cliffs, chalk white horse

Cut out the river channels

3rd layer hills

Paint layer

Flock?

Clump foliage woods

Mini piles of gold for Danegeld on pins

The locations and arrows from the rules.

1/3000 longships

1/6000 Model villages, palisades, churches.

15mm named Saxons or other Royal leaders.

A multiplayer day by day track that allows each players movement to be tracked, with a monk counter writing the Anglo Saxon Chronicle moving along the track.  This uses stages  (the S dice) as weeks.  This allows some players to get ahead of others.

It took me a while to get my head around the fact that it's the other Vikings you are competing against rather than the Saxons.

Top track...

Isles Start, 3S+R, Onwards, 1S, the Sea, 3S, splits Scotland/Ireland, 3S, splits Wales/Raid, Ireland Wales Raid, Scotland End, Ireland/Wales End.

Bottom track splits from Onwards to have an option to attack the Carolingian Franks.

Ideas for the Multiplayer game.

In many battles of the period two leaders would confront a pair of leaders on the other side.  Ashdown, Brunanburh, Clontarf, Nissa, Fulford Gate, Stamford Bridge (many others are available) It could be the King and a Prince, or a pair of veteran Ealdormen.

Two options.

1.  The army is divided between the controlling player, 3 main units, and a non interested party, 2 main units.

2.  Seven main units are used, divided 4/3 and the table is extended two hexes at each side.  An allied general is used.

3.  Double armies are used.  This may need some fudging of figures and widening of the table.

4.  2 tables 2 games?

My suggestion is that we do an initial campaign year to see if it works.  If I get my 15mm going perhaps as an email game.  I'll finish the map pretty quickly...