Bucellarii: First Game of Pillage

Monday, July 14, 2025

First Game of Pillage

Vikings initial deployment

Irish initial deployment

Irish warriors

Irish slingers

Irish chieftain and warriors

Irish warriors

Last Sunday Rick, Gary and I met down at the Vikings Club in Conder, for the monthly meeting of the Canberra Regional Wargame Group. We played our first game of Pillage, a new set of Dark Age/early Medieval skirmish rules written by Guillaume Rousselot. The English version has just been published by Victrix and is available as a 131 page pdf or hard back rule book that is beautifully illustrated. We diced for sides and played a pitched battle with Viking and Irish forces of about 1020 gold pieces which is the point system used. Each side had a chieftain with two traits, there are no fixed unit sizes, with movement, shooting, combat and morale done with individual figures. Rick said many of the basic mechanics of the rules are derived from the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game.

We deployed twelve inches in from the table edge to speed things up. The Irish had a slight advantage in numbers with twenty seven figures, while the Vikings had twenty four figures who were more heavily armoured. The Vikings also had a berserker, banner bearer and figure with a war horn. The two forces closed with Irish slingers and Viking bondi archers shooting. Irish warriors charged the Viking bondi on the right, after several round of combat, the Irish warriors were destroyed. On the Viking left the bondi archers shot at the Irish warriors, forcing them to charge, eventually picking them off with bow fire. Back in the centre the Viking hirdmen formed into shieldwall to reduce shooting casualties against the Irish slingers. The hirdmen advanced in shieldwall and were charged by the Irish chieftain and warriors. Eventually the more lightly armoured Irish warriors were ground down by the hirdmen, losing more figures after failed morale tests.

This wasn't a very satisfying or balanced first game of Pillage, the Irish didn't have much of a chance. The rules are very simple which may appeal to some but for me they are far too simplistic. There are more nuanced and satisfying skirmish sets already available with Lion Rampant, Saga and Barons' War. There is no index in the rules and specific rules are hard to find. There are also typos in the rules and QRS with the armour class abbreviations, some of these still have the French rather than the English version. The faction lists have limited options with the Irish, Scots and Picts lumped together but have no option for cavalry, while the Welsh have no option for armour. There is a generic list of costs so you can choose your own force regardless.