Another evening with what becomes one of my favorite light wargames – 878 AD Vikings. This time we tested a 2-player variant, when one side controls both Viking factions and the other English ones. That allows for better control and coordination but on the other side provides less fun from sometimes not-so-well coordinated actions of the allies 🙂

878 AD – Vikings in action – first impressions
878 AD - Vikings – really, a game for everybody!
878 AD - Vikings conquering England!

We played in following set-up:

  • Vikings – Norsemen & Berserkers – Lukasz
  • English – Housecarl & Thegns – Michal (me)

The session report

Detailed actions of the game, divided per turn and with major events marked

Turn 1-2

  • Lukasz decide to attack in the middle, burning and pillaging central England.
  • I am building up my forces in south, getting ready for inevitable strike.

Turn 3

  • Another invasion, this time in the North. And here I manage to surprise the Vikings – playing two special events and amassing whatever forces I have I manage to destroy one Viking army – Lagertha dies…
  • In the end Lukasz concludes the invasion successfully. Still, the price paid is dire and the lost warriors – hard to replace.
  • At this time I am more or less mustered almost everybody in South and will be ready for the Vikings drive in that direction.

Turn 4

  • First and foremost, the Eastern Kingdom falls – another invasion, another Vikings success.
  • Central England is witness to a chain of very brutal and bloody battles, where attrition and causalities on both sides are enormous. As a result one, full-strength Viking army is destroyed – Ragnar Lothbrok dies…

Turn 5

  • The things start to accelerate! Alfred the Great enters the game and leads a brilliant counter-attack into the center of the England. He smashes through barbarian hordes killing right and left!
  • All in vain! Vikings leads another 2 invasions – from East and South, smashing through country side and taking control over the cities.
  • At this moment the game ends with Treaty of Wedmore – both sides are too exhausted to continue. And what was the score? The Vikings were controlling 11 cities while the English still hold to 6 cities. A very close an climatic finish!

Summary

Tons of fun as always and we will play for sure more!

We decided to utilize three extensions for this session – one with additional Viking leaders (Ragnar and Lagertha), one with epic events to Fyrd card deck (peasants) and one regarding mission cards. The last one was very interesting and made our actions more focused on achieving particular goals.