"Svart fell forward after his thrust, and Brodd Helgi cut a his leg so that it was taken right off. 'This shows how different are our fortunes' said Svart." --The Vapnfjord Men "Let's strike with a sword-flash To shatter the shield: To batter the blade Till the enemy bleeds. --Egil's Saga Towards the end of the Eighth Century the annals of the Christian kingdoms of Europe begin to tell of savage raiding by wild heathen men from the north. Over the next three hundred years these warriors, known as the Vikings, burst out of their Scandinavian homelands to reach the gates of Constantinople, to trade for Arab silver, to settle the far western lands of Iceland, Greenland and the legendary Vinland the Good. In so doing they cast down kingdoms and raised their own. This game isn't really about that. It isn't about kings and fleets and envoys and armies. It's about poorly-behaved men with touchy tempers and big axes and how their bad manners as tourists are matched by an astonishing inability to get along with the neighbours. It's about bloodfeuds and raids and quarrels and bloodfeuds and stealing other people's stuff and taking one another to the rowdiest courts in the world and bloodfeuds and being exiled to the farflung reaches of the world and behaving just as badly there and sailing about in longships and lurking around the fjords for a chance of pirating. It's about visiting other lands and meeting interesting people and hacking them about with ironmongery before taking the more attractive younger members off into slavery, and looting churches because that's where the gold and silver are kept. It's about you and me and Onund the dog-faced and his foster father Sven and that fellow who looks after the cows going over to see the farmer across the river to tell him exactly what we think of him. These are not what you'd call nice people. The warfare we are going to look at in this game is that of small groups of men, from single combats to gatherings of a few dozen men. It's about individuals who see themselves, and are viewed by their culture, as heroes. We don't have to agree with them on this. The rules permit simple 'fight' games, with scope to expand into broader game- cycles (what we tend to call 'campaigns', though this isn't always an accurate description) which demand more characterisation and more rules about the wider Norse culture. As such it has aspects of the RolePlaying Game, though mercifully not the endless charts and pointless personal attributes (roll 3D6 against your indigestion factor to prevent belching) that bedevil that genre. The rules are as simple as I can reasonably make them while capturing a sense of the spirit of these people and their world. I have deliberately taken the Icelandic Sagas as my model for 'how things work', accepting that precise accuracy backed by archaeological evidence and comparative research (blah blah blah) may not accord with the devil-may-care leaping about reflected in the Sagas. You don't have to agree with me on this. Perhaps we should arm wrestle -- Personal combat in the Norse sagas is notable for its combination of grim humour, gymnastic violence and a graphic interest in the details of wounds, especially those with fatal consequences. Blows result in smashed shields or heads; limbs fly off with astonishing regularity, to the wry amusement of the saga-teller and the considerable chagrin of their erstwhile owners, whose life expectancy has suddenly dropped considerably. Minor wounds are seldom mentioned, except in terms of multiple accumulation; it is with Great Men, Great Deeds and, of course, Great Blows that the sagas are concerned. This short set of rules presents some basic mechanisms for modelling this sort of combat, where pithy taunts and well planned insults play their part alongside acts of the most grievous bodily harm. This is not a'complete skirmish system', as if such a thing were possible, but simply a vicariously amusing look at these appallingly bloodthirsty times, conducted in the warmth and comfort of our own homes. I've added some scenarios and other material that may be of some interest to budding sagamen. If something isn't covered by the rules, make up your own. THE WORLD OF THE SAGAS - THOSE ROOTIN 'TOOTIN' NORSE SAGAS The world of the sagas is very much the 'wild west' of the Viking experience, a world of proud and irascible stockbreeders, quarrels over land rights and turbulent single men who are good with weapons. In many ways this is the easiest way for a modern reader to look at the family sagas, connecting them with the Code of the West that we all know from western novels and movies. Here are some similarities: The feud is common to both cultures, including range wars over land use. Hunts for outlaws in wilderness hideouts. Wandering killers who bully respectable citizens and seek out notable warriors to duel with. The kind of family relationships in which the words 'you killed ma paw' are the hallmark of things. Everyone supports their kinfolk against outsiders, which makes it complicated when your uncle just carved up your brother-in-law, whose cousin is your foster-son -- Landscapes where hostile wilderness (deserts and badlands versus glaciers and volcanic wastelands) make those scarce areas of pleasant pasturelands worth killing for. Rules of daily conduct that apply to friends, neighbours and people like yourself, that are in complete abeyance when dealing with outsiders (Indians and Mexicans or foreigners in general and especially the subjects of viking raids) A respect for law as an idea, but a very rough and ready attitude to its application. Differences, aside from the obvious, include: Law in the viking world was very formal, with much respect given to men who were gifted lawyers. There's no simply 'hangin' the horse thief without proper notification and legal process, even if the deed is already done. No law enforcement personnel outside the royal household warriors of the Scandinavian kings. Justice is in the hands of posses and vigilantes, but, again, they are subject to formal law rather than simple frontier justice. More Battle Troll Battle Troll: Viking Warfare in Sagas: Introduction Battle Troll: Basic Rules Battle Troll: Optional Rules Battle Troll: Appendix 1: Hand to Hand Combat Example Battle Troll: Appendix 2: Norse Names Battle Troll: Appendix 3: Saga Categories Battle Troll: Appendix 4: Icelandic Law Battle Troll: Appendix 5: Figures, Books, and Scenery Battle Troll: Raven's Tale Scenarios Back to MWAN #99 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1999 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com