Skraeling History 101

Iceland, Greenland, and North America

L'Anse Aux Meadows today

Norse settlers journeyed all over the North Atlantic, raiding, conquering or settling the lands they found there, from Scotland to the Orkneys and Faroes.  Their largest settlement was in Iceland, which does not seem to have been inhabited (aside from maybe some Irish monks) before the Norse colonization.

4Ground Games Medieval Cottage

Greetings, Sagamites!  Today I'll be taking a look at 4Ground's Pre-painted High Medieval laser cut cottage.  I picked this little beauty up for $25 at Historicon  from Brookhurst Hobbies and assembled almost as soon as I got home!  

description from their website:

[The cottage] is a great example of the 10th century development from the Saxon dwelling into the high medieval cottage with its loft room; though this building would have not been that uncommon as a rural dwelling during the Civil Wars of the 17th century. It still retains the smoke-hole gable, the through doors each side and a central firepit.

Historicon Tournament

On Friday, I participated in a 10 man, 6 point Saga tournament at Historicon put on by Joe Moore (of I95 fame) with prize support from Architects of War

The tournament was to be round Robin with a big "Feast For Crows" at the end for the top 4 places to determine final ranking!

I am notoriously bad at not getting pictures of my tournament games, so I do apologize.

12 Points, 6 Players! Vikings vs Normans

*Warlord names definitely NOT a result of Norman propaganda... We got in a big game at The Game Vault in Fredericksburg VA. 3 to a side! I faced off against Eric, and really our game was essentially a 1v1. Thus, this battle report will be focusing on Steveaux the Friendly and Eric the Cheaty!

Vikings Jon The Dirty's Vikings -Hearthguard (4) -Heartguard (4) -Heartguard (4) -Warriors(8) Scott the Slippery's Vikings -Heartguard (6) -Hearthguard (6) -Warriors (8) Eric the Cheaty's Vikings -Hearthguard (4) -Warriors (8) -Warriors (8) -Levy Bowmen (12)

Normans Brian the Polite's Normans -Mounted Hearthguard (4) -Mounted Hearthguard (4) -Dismounted Warriors (8) -Crossbowmen (8) Joe the Helpful's Normans -Mounted Hearthguard (4) -Mounted Hearthguard (4) -Dismounted Warriors (8) -Dismounted Warriors (8) Steveaux the Friendly's Normans -Mounted Hearthguard (4) -Mounted Hearthguard (4) -Mounted Warriors (8) -Crossbowmen (8)

4 Points Normans vs Welsh in The Crossing

Dirty Jon and I rode up to the excellent Game Vault in fredericksburg VA on a vacation day to get in some Saga with our buddies Scott, Joe, and Eric (plus his retinue- his 2 sons are Gods at dice rolling!).  This was not only the first time I've faced the Welsh, it was the first time I've even seen the shooting mechanics in play! I think I can safely say I learned the drawback of my poor Normans! The Mission was The Crossing where we had to try to force our way across the river.

Viking Riot Grrrls

As you guys may have figured out, I like the Ladies. I figure that if you HAVE to look at something for hours, it might as well be an attractive woman!

I had to order a few things for Arnhem from The War Store. To fill out the order, I grabbed some Foundry metal miniatures for SAGA. I love my Vikings so far, but I wanted to check out something I didn't have to assemble. When I saw that they had the same ladies Joe Moore has, I grabbed the VIK054 Valkyries, Daughters of Freya and VIK55 Valkyries, War Maidens of Odin blisters. I started with the ones that are actually clothed.

4 points Jon & Scott All-Viking AAR: The Challenge!

Scott and I got together at The Game Vault along with Steven, Joe Moore and Eric Lauterbach for some SAGA games. We played a Viking civil war, and rolled the The Challenge! This one was going to take a while...

Scott is up top, and I am set up at the bottom. I fielded 3 4-man units of Hearthguard and an 8-man unit of Bondi.
Scott had 2 6-man units of Hearthguard and an 8-man unit of Bondi.

Normans vs Vikings- The Challenge (3 points)

Jon and I got in another 3 point game (again sorry, I'm the bottle neck!  Painting horsies takes extra time!  My 4th point is done as of now though!) The mission today was The Challenge.  Our Warlords basically start battling in the center of the board, with our armies racing in from behind.  In this scenario your Warlord has 12 "wounds" (rather than the normal 1).  To win you either need to kill the enemy warlord OR (if neither warlord dies), your warlord must have suffered the MOST wounds without dying!  Awesome!

Dirty Jon's Viking Warlord

This is just a quick post to show you my new Viking Warlord. He is assembled from parts in the Gripping Beast Plastic Viking Hirdmen box set. I think he turned out pretty cool.

3 Points The Escort AAR

Jon and I got in another 3 point game (sorry, I'm the bottle neck!  Painting horsies takes extra time!) over the weekend.  We rolled up "The Escort".  I didn't really have a suitable model for a baggage train, so we used a magically levitating stack of crates and barrels.  Use your imagination! The mission calls for 3, but since we were playing at half the points we reduced it to 2.

Anglo-Saxon History 101

A reconstructed Danish Axe.

Anglo Saxons and Anglo Danes, Oh My!

This is a brief review of the history of England during the early middle ages, from the end of Roman rule until the Norman Conquest in 1066.  It should provide some background for Saga players of "Anglo-Saxon" and "Anglo-Dane" warbands.

The End of Roman Britain

During the Roman Empire, the southern part of Britain was a Roman province.  The majority of the population spoke Celtic languages, related to Welsh and Cornish, and there was a Roman-British fusion of culture.  As the western Roman provinces began to disintegrate under the pressures of the Migration Age, the western government withdrew its armies from the island.  Romano-British life continued without much imperial oversight or protection even as invasions of Germanic-speaking "barbarians" began.

3 Point Sacred Ground (Normans vs Vikings)

By the time Jon and I played this game we had already been gaming for several hours so there are some definite gaps in the pictures- I apologize for that!  But, for our second game of Saga I think we both felt much more comfortable with the mechanics and started opening up with our Battle boards a bit more.  Again this will be mostly pictures, but in the future you can expect a format more similar to our FoW battle reports on WWPD.net In this mission (Sacred Ground) 3 terrain pieces are placed on the board.  At the end of each of your opponent's turns, you score points for having troops in/on that terrain.  If I remember correctly it's 3 for your Warlord, 2 for Hearthguard, and 1 for warriors.  Who cares about those Levy peasants, I forget what they earn.

Steveaux The Handsome's Normans Warlord on Horse 4x Norman Knights (hearthguard) 4x Norman Knights (hearthguard) 4x Norman Knights (hearthguard)

Jonvi the Dirty's Vikings Warlord 4x Hirdmen (hearthguard) 4x Hirdmen (hearthguard) 8x Bondi (warriors)

Writing My Own Saga- Getting into the Game

Jordan Carasa is a new writer for the Tapestry and wanted to chronicle his getting into the game!

Greetings Readers,

            The concept of a Saga is an amazing thing.  As a gamer, the thought of committing acts so great that generations from now, my name will be spoken with reverence is simply awe inspiring.  Wikipedia defines a Saga as ‘A story about ancient Scandinavian and Germanic history, about early Viking voyages, the battles that took place during the voyages, about migration to Iceland and of feuds between Icelandic families.’  Hearing the word, Saga, puts an image of hardened warriors around a fire, telling their younger kin stories about epic wars and glorious battle. I got into Gaming with Sci-fi games and then was introduced to Flames of War.  Since then, I have gotten into more then my fair share of Sci-Fi, Steam Punk, and Fantasy but, I had only ever gamed in World War II.   

          

How to Read in the Dark (Ages)

During the time period covered by Saga (and just after) there was a flourishing tradition of literature in northern vernacular languages. The pre-Conquest Anglo-Saxons left a hefty corpus of prose and poetry.  The later Icelanders, particularly in the 13th and 14th centuries, recorded an enormous corpus of material about their legendary Viking ancestors.  Much of this literature is in fact quite readable and exciting by modern standards, and far less turgid than the contemporary writings in Latin or French.  (Maybe I'm biased though.)

Here's my top five:

1) The Prose Edda

The Poetic Edda (18th c. ms.)