Viking

Navigation - HomePage - The Rise of Rome - Storm of Arrows - Immortal Fire - Legions Triumphant - Swords and Scimitars - Eternal Empire - Decline and Fall - Wolves from The Sea - Swifter Than Eagles

Historical Overview

"In medieval Scandinavian languages, a vikingr is a pirate, a freebooter who seeks wealth either by ship-borne raids on foreign coasts or by waylaying more peaceful seafarers in home waters. There is also an abstract noun viking, meaning 'the act of going raiding overseas'.... Strictly speaking, therefore, the term should only be applied to men actually engaged in these violent pursuits, and not to every contemporary Scandinavian farmer, merchant, settler or craftsman, nor even to warriors fighting in the dynastic wars of their lords or in their own private feuds. However, it was the raiders who made the most impact on the Europe of their time, so that it has become customary to apply the term 'Viking Age' to the period of Scandinavian History beginning in the 790's (the time of the first recorded raids on Western Europe) and petering out somewhere round the middle of the eleventh century (by which time raids and emigrations had ceased, the settlements established abroad had become thoroughly integrated with the local populations, and social changes in the Scandinavian homelands had marked the transition to their true Middle Ages). Indeed, the term is such a convenient label for the distinctive culture of this period that one now talks not only of 'Viking ships' and 'Viking weapons' but of 'Viking art', 'Viking houses', and even 'Viking agriculture' - expressions which would have seemed meaningless to people living at the time."
(Jacqueline Simpson. Everyday Life in the Viking Age. New York: Dorset. 1967.)

Using the army in FoG

• This may be a challenging army to use in open competition, however if you love the Vikings (as most of us do) then it wont matter.
• The lack of Cavalry (or the small amount of cavalry you can have - at the expense of your superior foot) will make it difficult to attain any kind of mobility, but the good quality foot will make it far from being a walk-over.
• A useful supply of different allies gives you the ability to counter the inherent problems with the terrain control difficulties of the core army.
• This isn't going to be a rapid moving army, but it's not going to be a push over. You won't like taking on mounted armies, but mounted wont like taking you on either.
• In open competition the 'slice and dice' type Superior Romans are going to be the biggest headache, at least that's what I've found with my Syracusan Offensive Spear so far, but maybe the Dice God's just have been going against me.
• An option a competative Viking player may with to consider is taking one of the other armies that has Viking allies. To me, this is a sell out. If you're a lover of Vikings take Vikings. If you don't have what it takes to win the competition with this army and winning the competition means more than being a real Viking then other options are available. For instance, you can take Carolingian Frankish with Viking Allies. The excessive amount of mounted plus an Inspirational General will give you more control of the terrain and still fill your desire to field Vikings, but as I say, this to many ways of thinking is a sell out.

UK Tournament Results with this army

Australian Tournament Results with this army

• Finished 3rd in the 15mm Leviathan. Not as good as it sounds as there were only 6 in the comp and that included the organizer. Keeping that in mind, for the majority of the competition the Vikings were at a strong chance of winning the competition, and snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in the last game where they lost 25-0 (or something similar). Overall a good result I thought.
• Strengths discovered in open comp: They are tough as nails. The only loss they encountered was due to stupidity (and impatience) on the part of the General in charge.
• Weaknesses discovered: Have no answer for shooty cavalry. First game was against Huns which ended 10:10 due to me not being able to do anything to him, but then he couldn't do anything to me either!
• Result of experience: I've tried a few lists including Frankish cavalry, and am considering the 866AD Breton allies. I don't like this as you lose the Heavy Weapon Huscarls, but it might be worth trying. Have additionally decided that picking a Coast and two open areas if you get initiative is worth it. If you lose the coast it's still an effective use of terrain choices and if you get it will establish a secure flank which doesn't give you a -1 on the cohesion test for being within 6" of an edge.

Useful Links

User-contributed links about this army:

• Fanaticus Banner download page with useful banners for this army
• Viking Flags and some others from Don't Roll a One
• Raven Banner More flags
• More flags from an Hour of Wolves site
• http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/ A very useful link to a universal site. Not going to be a great use for figurine painting etc, but a great resource for knowing everything there is to know about Vikings. There are links within links too. Check it out.
• Norse Viking/Leidang DBA Figure Gallery for this army - from Fanaticus
• Vikings DBA Figure Gallery for this army - from Fanaticus
• Vikings DBA Figure Gallery for this army - from Fanaticus
• Vikings DBA Figure Gallery for this army - from Fanaticus
• Vikings DBA Figure Gallery for this army - from Fanaticus
• Vikings DBA Figure Gallery for this army - from Fanaticus
• Vikings DBA Figure Gallery for this army - from Fanaticus
• Vikings DBA Figure Gallery for this army - from Fanaticus
• Leidang DBA Figure Gallery for this army - from Fanaticus

Allies

This comes down to personal choice.

• Breton give decent Mounted support, but only in one year, and that year means you lose the choice of the heavy weapon Huscarls.
• Cornish give decent all round support, and I'd take the mounted, and the spearmen as Medium infantry. This covers you in both the mounted and rough terrain capability deficient in the core army.
• Franks give you excellent mounted (for the period) but no rough terrain capability. I wouldn't bother with these allies, but others may find them perfect. One combination that may work well is 866AD taking both Breton and Frankish allies. You will then have an incredible mounted capability that your opponents will not be expecting, however this means that you also have effectively no rough terrain troops. It may work, but is too risky in my opinion.
• Irish are the pick of the bunch. The unprotected heavy weapon troops will need some guarding against shooters, but they are going to really hold the terrain you want to hold. To that end, if you manage to get initiative, or your opponent lets you get ahold of some decent terrain I think you'll want to take gentle hills with plantations on top. This will help counter the +POA for being unprotected with the -POA for being under cover. Taking a village wouldn't be too bad either. Sure, you're going to be disordered, but so is everyone else you care about, and means that any shooters have to come in close to do any damage - risking being caught when you charge.
• To my way of thinking it is a close tie between the Cornish allies and the Irish allies. The addition of mounted with the Cornish isn't a big enough bonus for me to forgo what I believe will be the better troop type that the Irish give.

15mm Manufacturers supplying figures for this army

A full listing of all known 15mm manufacturers for all ranges with details of who supplies what can be found in my 15mm Suppliers directory. You can see some of these figures in the Ancients Photo Gallery also on this site

• Essex Miniatures 12 Vikings including a nice mounted warrior carrying off a young lady..
• Gladiator Miniatures by Fighting 15's (Gladiator Games) Half-dozen Vikings and many similar figures in the Dark Ages range
• Old Glory 5 packs of Vikings
• Minifigs UK In their Dark Ages range
• Irregular Minis 6 Vikings, sold singly
• Lancashire Games 5 pacs of Vikings
• QRF Models (Feudal Castings range) 8 packs of Vikings. Other possibilites in the Saxon and Isleman ranges, maybe one or two in among the Dark ages Scots too.
• Tin Soldier 9 in the range
• http://www.dixon-minis.com/dixoncatalogue.php?maintype=37 Viking specialists - large range
• Isarus 15 variants, including (unusually) some mounted
• Khurasan New range
• Viking Forge 9 strong range
• Battle Line (NZ) former TTG Ranges, as Isarus
• Camelot Games (Italy) 4 "Vichinghi" !
• MY Miniatures 6 Vikings from the era of American Vinland C.1000AD. Ideal to fight Eskimo's with!
• Gallia 12 figures, sold as singles
• Baueda Now carry the former 50 paces Viking range
• Donnington have some "New Era" (ie brand new) Viking and Irish castings
• QR Miniatures Polish manufacturer - Vikings, Early Polish, Early Germans, Slav, Wends

Core Troops

• Naturally you will need one BG of 6 Huscarles and several BG's of 6-8 Freemen. Since both the Huscarls and Freemen can have supporting archers (Light Foot) you will probably need some of those as well.
• Many (and discussion on the slitherine site) think that using the archers for the Freemen is overkill. The light foot only add against mounted, and for the most part you are pretty fool proof against mounted in the frontal charge. Perhaps you may wish to take some 'knight killer BGs' and have one or two BG's with archer support just to help out. The Huscarls benefit from having archer support simply from the point of view of cheap 'bulking'. The BG can be 6-9 in size with 1/3 of the army as rear supporting archers. This mean for 18 points you can increase the size of the BG from 6 to 9. That will make them a lot more able to take damage with the 1:3 going from 2 hits to 3 hits and the 1:2 going from 3 hits to 5. Well and truly worth the points if you have them left over.

Army Lists

Sample army lists for this army

Name of Army / Date

• Using asterisks inthe edit mode creates a bulleted list in the actual site
• This is a lot easier to do than easier than setting up tables
• For FoG I suggest listing your army in order or march
• with troop desctiptions on each line, for example
• 4 HF Armoured Average Drilled Impact Foot Swordsmen
• 8 LG Undrilled Unarmoured Poor Bowen
• Dont forget to include your Generals !!!

Include any notes you want here, including comments on how to use - or play against - the army.

Remember to leave a line before you copy the above section as a template for your own list

eBay Listings

UK Bookstore