I always liked the Vikings, why not? Here you have an army of raiders…successful raiders who shook the very roots of the early Medieval world. Invaders and conquerors of parts of Ireland, notably the Dublin area as well as England (the Danelaw) and France (the future Normandy), the Vikings sailed their longships far and wide.

From the famed tales of the Orkneyinga Saga to the Icelandic tales, the Vikings stride across history as larger than life adventurers, taking what they wanted and burning what they didn't. Even the very names stir the blood, Hardrada, Cnut, Lief Erikson and so many others. Yes, a Viking army is colorful and fun to play. Yet….

How do you win with them? They have no cavalry in an age dominated by the feudal mounted knight. They are also woefully lacking in heavy duty missile weapons; no crossbows, no longbows and no artillery. What can you possibly do with an army of Vikings?

Building the Army

So, what do I like so much about these guys? Well, I like the fact that you can use them on ships. I like that you can have a large number of axe-armed heavy infantry in both close and loose order. I also like the very cool raven standard…expensive, yes, but worth it as I will explain later. And I like the Viking archers…no wimps like the Saxons! No, the Viking archers can fight as well as shoot.

Let’s start with the required troops first. You need a CinC, a HI elite commander with axe* & shield costing 47 points if in loose order (which mine is in order to facilitate movement). Next, you have to have 12 stands of Huscarls; heavy infantry veterans with axe and shield. These can also be in either close or loose order…I use both in order to have some delaying terrain foot as well as steady close order types to deal with enemy horsemen.

*Note: The axe is very deadly, getting a +3/+3 in the initial combat and fighting a rank and a half deep!

Added to this list are the Huscarl archers, 4 stands of them, all heavy infantry veterans and armed with bow, various and shield. You now need to buy 18 stands of bondi, lightly armored warband foot with various and shield. I know, these don't sound that good, but we will work on that later! Add 6 stands of bondi archers, also lightly armored (but warriors, not warband) and armed with various, bow and shield. That's it for the required stands. Let's see what we have so far.

1 x CinC HI Elite Axe & Shield Loose @ 47
6 x Huscarls HI Veterans, Axe/Sh Loose @ 36
6 x Huscarls HI Veterans, Axe/Sh Close @ 42
4 x Huscarl HI Veterans, Var/B/Sh Close @ 28
18 x Bondi LAI Wb(F) Various/Sh Loose @ 72
6 x Bondi LAI Warriors Var/B/Sh Loose @ 24
Total so far: 249

We have almost used up half of our allotted points (for a 525 point tournament army).

Now we will flesh the army out. I would like more Huscarls as they are the backbone of this army. I decided to purchase another 2 stands of the close order Huscarls in order to form two units of 4 stands each (I'll show you my actual army units later).

I also want as many archers as I can afford, so buy another 4 stands of the Huscarl archers in order to also have two units of 4 stands each of them.

The bondi also have to be fleshed out a small bit, so I purchased another 4 stands of warband and 6 more stands of archers as well. Again, this is simply to give me the unit sizes I am comfortable with.

Lightly armored infantry are vulnerable to both missile fire as well as cavalry charges. Because of this, I opted to upgrade 16 stands of bondi up to heavy infantry. Since Vikings can be in mixed armor and weapon units, I will use the HI in the front ranks of those units still containing LAI.

Okay, this is good, but I want some different types of fighters…berserkers! These are the psychopaths who scared the hell out of their opponents. One unit of 4 stands is enough as they are expensive unarmored infantry, being fanatics. I also want a unit of Gall Gael, the 'sons of death' who are lightly armored infantry fanatics with axes and various! These guys and the berserkers are in loose order.

In order to screen the Vikings and prevent premature missile losses, I also decided to get 10 stands of skirmishers, half with bow and shield and half with javelin and shield. These two units will be invaluable for keeping my army from being pinned against its baseline as they get to move faster in Strategic Movement than any of the other troops in this army.

Oh…one more thing…the Raven Standard! This is the thing that makes the Vikings so powerful…any unit within 1/2 command range of the Raven Standard gets a huge +2 on any morale rolls!

Here is the final Viking army.

Using the Vikings

First: Organize units into commands.

Obviously, with an army like this (total of 30 scouting points and NO cavalry), getting some terrain is essential. You will opt for hills, woods, a water feature to cut off one part of the board from flank attacking skirmish cavalry and perhaps a bog.

I like woods in that the berserkers, warbands and Gal Gael can be set up in ambush in them. They all count as Fanatics, (even the warbands until they fight a close combat round) and will charge out when first sighting an enemy. Ouch!

Hills provide that very nice superior tactical position modifier. The close order huscarls, in shieldwall and with defend orders will be very tough to dislodge if in this type of tactical position.

The loose order types can effectively be of use in bogs, but are very susceptible to enemy missile fire, hence their up-armoring to front rank heavy infantry. Even so, if you can use them in woods, by all means do so. They will count both shielded and in cover.

Another neat ploy would be to not use the skirmish infantry 6 stand unit and instead buy 4 ships. If you manage to get your water feature, you can place four units of four stands each on them and really have some fun sailing up and down the enemy flank. He will go nuts wondering where you will finally land!

Note that I have left the CinC as a single stand with the Raven Standard. This is to not only be a rallying point for the whole army, but also will keep you from throwing him into a close combat! Use the other generals (who are with an extra stand each) to fight but keep the CinC out of it if possible. If you lose both him and the Raven Standard, your army will be forced to take some very inauspicious and highly penalized morale rolls!

Use the large number of missile troops to wear down enemy units before hitting them with axe-armed huscarls. Disordered enemy are easy to rout if you hit them with frenzied huscarls or even warbands. I don't bother with supply wagons as you are not a missile dueling army. Use your archers until they are out of missiles, then charge in with them…remember, they can fight too!

Concentrate fire as much as possible on individual enemy units, wearing them down and hopefully causing morale checks.

Keep your warbands and fanatics back out of range until you are ready to use them as attackers, They will automatically charge anyone within charge range, so keep them back until the right moment.

Finally, use your CinC as a rallying point. Move him to points where he is most useful with the Raven Standard to rally routing or poor morale units. That plus 2 does wonderous things!

Have fun with the Vikings and see how successful you can be with them. I'll be writing a scenario or two at a later date.