It was a perfect weekend down in sunny Winterhaven, Florida, and I was at the Winterhaven Community Center running my Viking Slaughterfest Battle at the newly revived Suncoast Skirmishers Convention. My battle was scheduled to run for two sessions; I ended up running it four, due to popular demand. The game was set on the Emerald Isle. There was a monastery full of monks and several villages to be pillaged, along with several herds of cattle to be carried off. Loot consisted of several cans of soda pop, inspiration points which gave the players a chance to do extra actions in their own turn, trail mix if you looted the forest village or the monastery building itself (if you burned it down along with the contents of their wine cellar, you received another can of soda pop). The monastery building was donated by MODELER'S MART who also donated a selection of their Frontier Vikings for the First Prize. Enough prizes were provided for the two games that were scheduled.

THE WARGAME TABLE (8'X 16')

Large Map - (slow 87K)

List of Units
18 Huscarls
4 Berserkers (50% chance of being "Bogus" Berserkers)
1 Wolfman
2 Mounted Huscarls
24 Bondi
8 Bondi Archers
1 Light Archers
2 Light Slingers
5 Thralls
1 Monks (NPC)

All units consisted of six stands of troops except for the Mounted Huscarls who were two stands each.

Each village had a 90% chance of being defended; the monastery was always defended. The attacking player would arrange his men in the formation he wished to attack the village Or monastery. I would then arrange the defenders to face him if there were any. The battle would go on from there. Each player started out with 1D6 inspiration points.

The Viking Slaughterfest Battle continued to evolve as each game session was played. The first battle was between two roughly equal armies with the Thralls and the Monks acting as Village defenders. The Ships were also divided equally between the armies. This battle started in the evening session and continued well into the night. It was my plan to sleep well into the morning and show up for the afternoon session to enjoy someone else's game. However, I was surrounded by one of the players from the night before and his friends and it was either another Slaughterfest Battle or my life. You know what I did. First, I drafted their assistance and got them to help me sort out the troops. Then we divided up all of the inspiration points which were gold coins from a craft shop. Then, we proceeded with the auction, and divided up the ships. Then all unspent inspiration points were turned in. Each player got his 1D6 inspiration points. When a player captured a village or took the Monastery or carried off a herd of cattle to his baseline, he got 123 more inspiration points. We did this in all the battles.

Here is the system I devised. Each stand of Huscarls, Wolftnen, Berserkers (including the "bogus" type) and Mounted Huscarls were worth two points. Each stand of the others were worth one point. Each pillaged village held at the end of the game and large Viking ship was worth five points. Each small Viking ship was worth two points each.

In the second official Viking Battle (the third one fought) I just had the players pick their units. They would roll to see who would get the first pick on down the line with the third player picking two and the others picking one more. We then selected one player to sail onto the battlefield with the other two starting out on their side of the table. The player who controlled the Viking fleet decided to set up a defensive formation on the island where the Monastery was with his ships parked along the river and his men defending the stream bank. The other two players accepted his challenge and went after him. One of the players managed to capture one of the Viking ships and then proceeded to hijack one-half of the fleet commander's ships. The other players declared him the victor because of his audacity! They also asked me to conduct another game for the Sunday morning session.

The last session was another three player game organized in a similar fashion as the third, with one player controlling the fleet. There were several other differences. In this game, all villages were to be defended and the thralls were added to the troops that would be selected. There was one more feature. Each player was allowed twelve units; four he selected for himself. The other eight were selected for him by his opponents. One thing you can be sure of was that each player tried to provide his opponents with the crummiest kinds of troops he could find! By this method, two of the players ended up with all of the thralls between them. This was the only gaming session where all of the Berserkers ended up being real (very unfortunately). All the other games before all but one were "bogus". I think the next time I run a Viking Slaughterfest Battle the Monks will be given the power to bless the Berserkers and Wolfmen to remove the Berserker "spirit" from them and turn them into "ordinary" men.

In this game, two of the players were instantly at each other's throats. As they battled away the third player was out looking for villages to plunder and cattle to rustle. Later in the game, the other two contestants realized that their third opponent was getting all of the loot and got it all without barely suffering a scratch. They then turned on him!

One of the players had the Wolfmen in his army. He also had the world's "coldest" dice! He had two special dice which he insisted on using and he couldn't "kill" anyone, even with his best troops. He finally relented and starting using my hoard of little dice that I so generously provided. Then his luck got a little better.

The "Great Plunderer" meanwhile was attacking the monastery while the good Monks held their ground. It was then that his opponents decided that his time had come. When the smoke of battle cleared, his armies were formed in a defensive square around the forest village with his opponents attacking him from all sides. One stand of Monks remained, with Berserkers and Wolfmen locked in combat. Believe me, if it were not for the "cold" dice of their Jarl, the Wolfmen would have prevailed long ago. For those of you who want to know who won the game, it was the "Great Plunderer." He was the same fellow who hijacked the fleet from the game before!

In this game, I saw the impossible happen many times. I saw Berserkers who couldn't even "kill" Thralls, and Bondi who slaughtered real Beserkers and Huscarls by the handful. This was a game where the unusual was the rule. And what a game it was!

Regarding "inspiration points": these were provided to give the players the chance to initiate extra moves. They could be used, for example, if a player wanted to move one unit further than he did on that turn or to get an extra attack in combat. Although if the player bought an extra attack, the attacked unit got to fight back for free. Only one inspiration point could be spent on one unit per turn.

VIKING BATTLE RULES by Jon Laughlin

Types	AC Melee/Missile	Figures per Stand	Morale Class	Movement March	Maneuver or Attack	Charge
Huscarls	*2/1	3	B	24"	6"	+3"
Huscarl Cav	2/1	3	A	36"	9"	+3"
Wolfmen	0/0	3	A	24"	6"	+3"
Berserkers	1/1	3	A	24"	6"	+3"
Bogus Berserkers	4/3	3	C	24"	6"	+3"
Bondi	*3/2	3	C	24"	6"	+3"
Bondi Archers	*3/2	3	C	24"	6"	+3"
Lt. Slingers	+3/1	2	C	24"	9"	0
Lt. Archers	+3/1	2	C	24"	9"	0
Thralls	+4/1	2	C	24"	9"	0
Monks(NPC)	*4/3	3	A	0"	6"	+3"
Viking Ships	-	-	-	48"	9"	0

1) * Huscarls, Bondi, Bondi Archers, and Monks get a +1 AC in melee if they are two or more ranks deep in Attack Formation.
2) Troops defending fortifications (excluding Wolfmen and "real" Berserkers) have +1 AC; the same applies to men inside woods vs. Missile fire.
3) + Light troops and Thralls are +1 AC in woods or swamp.
4) Combat: First rank only fights or shoots. Only one type of attack is permitted per turn. Extra ranks support the first. Lapping around opponent is not permitted but one stand of troops overlapping count as fighting.
5) Troops attacked while on march or in the rear do not fight back during the first turn. The second turn they may be rearranged in a fighting formation facing their opponents as long as they are in their original position.
6) Attacking troops must attack the side of the enemy they are facing. To get around an enemy they must maneuver which counts as a march for movement purposes. Wheeling is permitted at the start of a turn in an attack or charge.
7) + Light troops and Thralls may skirmish if they wish. To skirmish, they do a partial move, discharge missiles and complete move in any direction.
8) All stands fight at full strength till destroyed. After each turn, all stands with partial casualties are fully restored unless the unit is routed, then partial casualties are lost. Wait till all missile and melee combats are over.

MOVEMENT

MISSILE RANGES

Kill Rolls

Extras