Norse Gaels: Vikings in Ireland

The story of the Vikings in Ireland is a fascinating part of their history, but one that is not as often told as their role in England, Iceland and the New World.  Even Irish national histories minimize the effect of the Norse in their country. The Vikings deserve a great deal of credit for hastening the trend towards centralization and urbanization in Ireland.

Unlike England, the Vikings in Ireland were never present in such numbers as to effectively colonize and conquer large swaths of the country. Instead, they built coastal settlements and focused on raiding and trading. From these bases in the late ninth century, the Vikings formed alliances and fought alongside one Irish kingdom against another. These alliances shifted but could be strengthened through inter-marriage.  Most famously, in 999 AD the Irish High King Brian Boru was married to Gormflaith, an Irish princess who was the mother of Sigtrygg Silkbeard, the Norse king of Dublin, from her previous marriage to Olaf. Sigtrygg was then married to Slaine, one of Brian's daughters.  These Hiberno-Norse (or alternately, Norse Gaels) faded from significance after the Battle of Clontarf in 1014, though Sigtrygg held on to Dublin until 1036.

For SAGA, the Norse Gael faction is a mix of the Vikings and the Irish, leaning a bit towards the Irish.  The Norse-Gaels are fairly "shooty."  The Levy and the Warriors are both javelin throwers. Alternately, warriors and hearthguard can be armed with Dane Axes.  They cannot be mounted as the Irish can, but on the whole, their defensive values are a bit better.  Furthermore, their "gimmick" is the Challenge, in which significant combat bonuses can be achieved - if luck is on your side.

From some of my many unassembled Wargames Factory sprues, I threw together a few dedicated Norse-Gaels.  The first unit of warriors below is kit-bashed from several sets to achieve a mixed Viking-Irish look.

Norse-Gael Warriors with double-handed axes below.  The unit leader in front does not have a double handed axe, he has an axe in each hand. He was inspired by Floki from History Channel's Vikings - which is perhaps the only thing left worth watching on that channel. 

A six point Norse Gael warband below. If all goes well, this will be my army at my next tournament. 

Irish Warband from West Wind

The Irish have been my preferred SAGA warband lately for reasons of both game style and familial lineage. While most of my figures have been from Crusader Miniatures, I picked up an army pack of twenty from West Wind on a sale a few weeks age.

West Wind's Irish warband is, judging from the rest of their offerings, aimed at the early Dark Ages or Age of Arthur. Nonetheless, it is not too much of a stretch to use these for the era of Viking invasions in Ireland, especially in the ninth century.

Below, a group shot of all twenty.  For a paint scheme, I stuck with a limited palette. The shields were all red and white and I worked on plenty of variations of Celtic crosses, some historical and some improvised in that style.

The rank troops are for spear or javelin (unsupplied) and come in four different poses. Hands will need to be drilled out in order to fit the weapon.  Heads are separately cast, and there are 10 variations.  Shields are separate as well (except for the musician).  

There are also four unique figures in the set.  Two are warriors with short swords, which are cast-on and not separate.  For a SAGA warband, these can serve as your Curaidh.  

The other two unique figures are a command character with a banner and a musician.  The rough and improvised banner is the detail that most distinctly places these figures in the pre-Viking age.  Using a separate staff and Viking-era banner is easy, but the metal-cast banner is nicely sculpted and unique among my collection.  I went with it. 

These are good figures but do require a bit of prep work.  Drilling the spear holes is a plus for long term stability, but it is an extra task.  Casting quality is good, but some cleanup of jagged areas is necessary.  The neck pocket will also need to be opened up a bit on most of the figures in order to get the head to glue in properly. That is a small price to pay for having some customizeable options.   

For SAGA, these twenty figures give you two points of warriors, a half a point of Hearthguard (Curaidhs) and a Warlord.  One would need at least 12-20 more figures to get a complete six point warband out of this box, so this could best serve as an expansion to an existing army in that game.  

Open Combat by Carl Brown

Apologies to all for dropping off the blog for a while.  Work, family and church has kept me incredibly busy of late, and I can't promise that my pace will pick up anytime soon.  I do have a number of new painted figures to post, as soon as I have time to take some pictures.  In the meantime, here is a review (of sorts) for a new game I picked up and played recently.

Open Combat by Carl Brown is a new miniature rule system released through his website and company Second Thunder.   Having heard about the game from a couple of my favorite podcasts, Meeples and Miniatures and Fool's Daily, I decided to pick it up.  On the face of it, the game system is flexible for ancient, medieval or fantasy gaming with a limited number of models per side. It is easily customized to fit any miniature, and it promises to be quick to set up and quick to play.

What is perhaps the most unique aspect of the game, one that sets it apart from other miniature wargames, is the creation of your army list or warband.  Warbands are based on a point system ("renown") and can be set at various levels for desired length of play and size of the warband.  One hundred points will get you a small force with some average to good characteristics. Points are assigned to each individual model for five basic statistics - Speed, Attack, Defense, Fortitude and Mind.   Weapons and special abilities (Aim, Inspiration, etc.) add points as well.

The mechanic for combat is based on adding up modifiers to the character's attack value, such as cover, high ground and so forth.  The number of points greater than the defender's total (if any) determines the amount of dice the attacker rolls, with a maximum of three.  The attacker takes the best value, and this should give him a greater chance of scoring a hit.  There is no save roll if a model is hit, this is built into the modifiers and the fortitude (i.e. "hit points").  This makes for a quick resolution of combat.

Initially, I was a bit perplexed by the lack of lists or standards? What is the typical defense value for a Viking in chain mail?  What sort of attack would a Roman legionnaire have? And, if we're getting into fantasy, what about a goblin, an orc or a werewolf?

Lest you think the lack of lists can be attributed to the authoer's laziness or inattentiveness, it was purely intentional and it may be the key selling point of the game. In a true skirmish game, each miniature is an individual and all individuals are distinct. Not all Vikings were equally tough. A quick but naked Celt could have a defense of 6 and a clumsy Roman in armor might have a defense of 3 if you so choose.  This gives you the freedom to create a warband with a few powerful heroes or a swarming mob, or somewhere in between.  You could even create a warband made of a single god-like character (25 attack! 25 defense!) but the rules system naturally limits such pointless overpowering.  No matter how high your attack, you still roll only three dice and pick the best, and no matter how high you defense, your opponent still gets to roll a single die. Regular players of the game should find an equilibrium based on their style of play.

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For my initial game, I decided to test out character creation and put some Skraelings up against Vikings.  The Skraelings were initially for SAGA, but I never had a great desire to play their battleboard. Loved the figures, so now I can play the Indians as I envisioned them.  The Vikings were led by an 11 year old son of a friend, a Boy Scout with an deep interest in history - definitely a future war gamer.

The Indians are low on defense and fortitude, but I spent points on Speed, Aim and Nimbleness. Run and Gun! 

Above, the Vikings advance to the tree line. 

Initiative is the usual IGYG system, but rolling a "1" during combat ends your turn.  The does bear some similarities to the Song of Blades and Heroes iterations, in that a poor roll ends your turn before all the models have moved.  

Position matters in Open Combat.  This Viking about to get shot in the back will only be able to apply half of his Defense value.  

Above, the Jarl successfully defends against a Brave attacking from the high ground and then pushes them back,  He has taken some damage, however and...

another Brave activates and takes him out.   

With their Jarl slain, the Vikings reach the breaking point on their renown, and the game is called in favor of the Skraelings.  Total game time is under an hour, not bad for two players, one completely new to miniature wargaming.  

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Open Combat definitely fills a niche in my gaming habit.  The DIY nature of warband construction allows me to field some figures and forces the way I think they should be played, all within a balanced game mechanic.  It is quick to learn, and quick to teach, but not at all oversimplified.  

Currently, it is only available as a PDF from his website, though a published edition may be down the road if the game catches on.  I hope it is because Carl Brown is very supportive of his product through forums and outreach.  

Update:  Apologies to Carl BROWN for originally listing his name as Brand.  Not sure who I can blame for that, but if I find the culprit I'll be sure to identify him!

My Vikings are bigger than your Vikings

On my last post about Black Tree Design Vikings, there were some comments and questions about their relative size and scale, specifically the fur clad Vikings.

The photo below is a sampling of my various BTD Vikings.  Even without drawing a reference line, the bald guy with the axe is noticeably (but not excessively) taller than the rest of the warriors.  The archers were, I think, the slightest of all the BTD Vikings.

Vikings are perhaps the most ubiquitous ancient/medieval range of miniatures.  They offer a lot of reward for collectors who like variation in their painting routine.  Plus, they can often do double duty in fantasy gaming.  That may explain why there are so many Viking manufacturers out there. 

Here is a size comparison of the BTD Vikings with some other popular manufacturers.  From left to right: Gripping Beast plastic hirdman, Gripping Beast metal (?), BTD and Crusader hirdman,  Again, the barbarian Viking comes out the tallest.  

On the last big Black Tree sale, I also purchased a few packs of Dark Age/Viking villagers. Below, a group of Viking elders (DA1011).  It offers a nice social cross section, from a poor thrall to a well off village elder. The wealthy beardless gent on the right would make a more than passable Njal from the great Icelandic Saga.

The pack (DA1070) shown below is the only one to offer a female figure, and it was out of stock for quite awhile.  Apparently, a mold was lost, but it is now available.  

Finally, mixed pics from a couple of other packs that I have multiple copies.  Useful for populating your village with artisans and workers.

Vikings from Black Tree

This past summer, Black Tree Designs had one of their massive 50% off sales. I hardly needed anymore Vikings (as if "need" is a word any wargamers ever needs to utter) but I really liked the look of some of their packs.

I've been rereading some of the Icelandic Sagas lately and these Vikings seem to fit into the aesthetic of those tales. Survival was more precarious in Iceland, and minor transgressions could be a cause for murder. With their furs and axes, these Vikings seem more like men out to settle a feud rather than hop on a longship.

DA1105

DA1015

The unit below will be fielded as Norse-Gael hearthguard in SAGA, which I hope to focus on in the future. Their Challenge mechanic is interesting, but I've not played them enough to make the most of that faction's abilities. 

DA1008

I also purchased three packs of the Viking villager packs that should be finished soon.

Reading Recommendations

Any of the Viking Sagas are recommended. On one hand, many can be tough to read, for they contain genealogical lists and side stories that are tangent to the narrative. Overall though, the sagas are a fascinating look the social values of the Norse people in the dark ages - as viewed through the lens of the thirteenth century Christians who wrote down the sagas.  Two of the best (and most violent) are Egil's Saga and Njal's Saga. 

I have previously recommended Finn Gall by James Nelson . The second book in that series Dubh-linn continues the story of Thorgrim, a dour Viking and his son Harald. Tired of raiding, Thorgrim is stuck in Ireland without a way home and becomes caught once again between Vikings jarls and Irish kings and princesses. The books bear some resemblance to George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series with its multiple POV characters and political machinations for control of a throne. However, Nelson's books are fast moving and efficiently-told tales that have come out twice in two years.  Sorry, George.

Dubh-linn at Amazon

The Khitans in SAGA

I've seen the Steppe Tribes faction do some pretty nasty stuff in SAGA and have been thinking it would be fun to give them a try. Where to begin, though? "Steppe Nomad" is very broad and nonspecific compared to, say "Norman" or "Welsh."

Nonetheless, warfare in late Antiquity and early medieval was similar across the Eurasian plains. It's just a matter of picking which variety of horse warrior you prefer or can find.

As it turned out, I came across a sizeable number of Khitan, Chinese and Tibetan figures on closeout this summer. Here is the first completed set from that purchase.

The Warlord - This Khitan commander with his falcon is a really nice sculpt. Hunting birds should be seen more in character minis, given their popularity in both Europe and Asia.

The banner was lifted from the Osprey book on Medieval Chinese Armies. Steppe armies, both pre and post Mongol era used color names for the divisions of their armies.

Hearthguard - The Noble Cavalry shown here here are heavy cataphracts. The Khitan's control of northern Chinese towns gave them access to artisans and markets. With this, their weaponry and armor was of better quality than most steppe armies.

Warriors -or Ordo, were free warriors who served for honor, status and plunder. They were expected to provide their own horses and weaponry. 

Here are 3 points of light horse I've posted before. They are a mix of Khitan and Jurchen warriors from Essex.

Levy - for the Khitans, skirmishing troops were drawn from tribal archers to Chinese and other conscripts. 

These six representative archer figures are a mix of Khitan, Chinese and Tibetan ranges.

Far East SAGA

This is the first of three Asian forces I'm putting together for SAGA. No custom battle boards this time, because I will use existing battle boards that are most analagous.  The Khitans will obviously use the Steppe Tribes board, and I have some ideas about China and Tibet.  The goal is the end of the year.

Later this week, more Vikings!

Anglo-Saxons

The Gripping Beast plastics are a fantastic product, and I have purchased at least one box of all of their releases.  However, the Saxons were one that never caught on for me.  Originally purchased for some Viking and Saxon matchups inspired by Bernard Cornwell's Uhtred series, I assembled the Saxon Thegns, but never got around to painting them.  Other new shiny things caught my eye and a couple of years passed by.

As a firm believer in delayed gratification, I thought I would attack the Lead and Plastic mountain from the direction of items that had been in it the longest, rather than recent or more desirable projects.  So pulled them out last week and got to work.

After painting up a unit of 10 (SAGA's magic number for Saxons), I based them on 25mm round bases from Proxie Models.  Then I hot glued the figure, and filled the lipped base with some PVA glue:

I then added some bits of rock leftover from a Woodland Scenic kit:

After drying, I add bits of moss (green foam) and grass clumps.  

Now only 30 more to go...

I have no real plans to ever play the Anglo-Saxon board in SAGA nor do I have the time or money to build a Hail Caesar size army so maybe they will end up for sale.  I might interested in seeing what is the going rate for some painted minis on eBay or TMP.