Feb 11, 2012

A long Viking ruletest


After 4 turns on the map (which apparently took 2 evenings), meaning the sacking of two monasteries, three villages, two open field battles and one sea battle, I can state that the rules are working with some minor un-scripted bits (for example, the map card 'Tired' reduces only terrain and not sea movements, so I changed it to affect both, because rowers can be tired too).

Vikings have some awesome abilities, my goal was to make the game a bit unbalanced, advantages to the Norse side. Different types of units react differently to certain combat cards, for example, Berserkers take damage instead of fleeing while Bondi in a shield wall take less injuries; Norman cavalry receives 2 damage cards, one for the rider and one for the horse etc.
We began with 3 longships, 3 armies on the Player side, 1 Dane longship NP, 1 Irish army, 2 Saxon armies, 1 warship, and 2 Norman armies, 1 longship. Seeing the tact of Norman cavalry, one player chose to switch and command the Normans while one more player joined the game so the Vikings' roles were filled again.


Villages: in the first village there were some Saxon warriors but they made little resistance and escaped from certain death, killing one player's Berserker (snap, it's really useful). The second village was quite a slaughter, but little treasure was found (third was looted by the NP Danish army).
The monasteries instead provided quite a lot of gold, and the monks didn't really resist the aggressors (when approaching a monastery, player pulls a card to decide the priests' behavior).
Battles: I fought one against Irish NP, killed one with my Berserker, then one another with some luck, the others didn't bear the fight and ran for their lives, sheltering in a fort.
The second battle was fought by Danish non-player army against Normans. In the first turn, a Dane archer died from a rider's strike, but a berserker with some divine help (in Berserk mode with one extra strike, receiving a blessing for another extra strike) put an end to the rider, then a Huscarl killed another, crushing the enemy plan to outflank the skjaldborg heading for the immobile enemy infantry line. Meanwhile, the remaining Danish archer killed a Norman infantryman in the first line. Some fight was made between the two shield walls, then the Normans fled with three casualties compared to one of Siggtrig the Dane's (Jarl Endriđi's arch enemy).
The objectives were to do some sacking for the war leader to see how trustworthy his subjects are, then gather together again after 3 turns to get reinforcements and aim for a higher goal, perhaps a bigger treasure. The armies are now retreating to an island where their Jarl awaits to receive his part of the loot.

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