First Game of Arrowstorm

 

Norse and Anglo-Danes deployed

Opposite side

Anglo-Danes

Norse

On Friday afternoon I played a solo, first game of Arrowstorm out in the shed. It was a small game of sixty points a side with the Anglo-Danes taking on the Norse. These Medieval rules by Dan Mersey are similar to his Age of Penda, Dark Age rules, starting out as Scottorum Malleus, a copy of which is included in an Appendix. They are available as a pdf on the Wargames Vault website:
https://www.wargamevault.com/product/454240/Arrowstorm-Battle-Games-in-Medieval-Britain

The army lists for both forces are the same so I gave the Norse four units of Warriors, instead of four units of Spears. Each unit has a Battle Rating which varies between 2 and 5 depending on the quality of the troops. This rating is the number of dice they roll in combat and the number of hits they can take. Special Tactics for the Anglo-Danes and Norse include Extra Attack, Onslaught, Reinforce and Shieldwall. I made an offset grid of dots in five 20cm squares to give a playing area of one metre by one metre. My 28mm forces were in eight figure units (except for skirmishers) with an 80mm frontage but the rules are very flexible with basing, figure and unit sizes.

Each side, starting with the player with the initiative, chooses four tactic tokens in a turn out of a possible twelve, and uses these to activate each unit in an area or grid. Combat is fairly brutal with hits on a 4+, although it is possible to rally casualties, if you have chosen that as a tactic. In my game it was all over fairly quickly with Anglo-Danes launching an Onslaught on their left flank only to be slaughtered there and in the centre. The Norse Huscarls survived and the Anglo-Danes were automatically routed as they had less than three units remaining.

As with any new set of rules there is plenty to ponder and get used to. Quite a bit is abstracted from the nitty gritty of medieval warfare but the focus is on a fun, fast game and the use of historical tactics to defeat your opponent. Other army lists include Anglo-Norman, Feudal English, HYW English, Feudal French, HYW French, Irish, Islemen, Early and Later Welsh.

Tokens on the Tactics Chart

Anglo-Danes launch an Onslaught

Norse Huscarls survive in the centre

Anglo-Danes rout

Mercian and Northumbrian Skirmishers

 

Here are some 7th century Mercian and Northumbrian skirmishers that I've just finished painting. There are three units or two bases each of javelinmen and archers. These are 15mm Wiglaf Miniatures for Dan Mersey's Age of Penda rules. They're gorgeous figures sculpted by Mark Copplestone. The rules use offset grids or hexes and all the skirmishers are treated the same regardless of weapons. I'm planning on using a 5 inch hex mat and these figures just squeeze into it, you need to be able to fit three units a side, under the rules, per grid or hex.

First Game of Battle Ravens

Last night we played our first game of Battle Ravens, the recently released shieldwall boardgame by Dan Mersey. It was really good fun - attrition in the shieldwall. I was the Norse and attacked repeatedly to little effect. The Scots were a little more canny and saved their Battle Ravens until the Norse used all of theirs, then attacked to greater effect. Each player starts with 20 Ravens and these are used to move, attack or defend individual units. The aim of the game is to break your opponent's shieldwall by capturing three of the six areas on the board. Attacks are rolled with normal dice and a 4 or 5 is a hit and a 6 a double hit with Hirdmen worth two hits and the Bondi one. Thralls allow you to reroll a failed attack. Blocking the attacks works in the same way.

At the end of the turn once both players have used all their Ravens you start again, returning Thralls to the board and players alternate placing Ravens. If a player has an area captured, with all units removed, the opposing warriors move into it and play no further part in the game. The losing player then removes a Thrall and three Ravens from their hand for each area captured. It proved to be a slippery slope for the Norse in our game and it wasn't long before the victorious Scots had easily captured three Norse areas. I'm looking forward to my next game and will try the Tactic Cards, which reflect the historical tactics, each army has ten of these and five are chosen randomly to use in a game.