Not Fjord Serpents

 "Hey Mum, I want to go and play more Fjord Serpents"

"Why? We have Fjord Serpents at home."

Fjord Serpents at home :

OK, so inspired by Thursday's game with the big beautiful Viking toys, I spent yesterday's lunchbreak playing a Viking battle using my rough and ready 3D prints and Galleys & Galleons. Two forces, Red and Blue were exploring a trio of islands looking for loot, whilst also considering whether they could get away with attacking the other force. Both sides had three C2 ships and one C3 flagship. The Red ships had an edge in boarding whilst the Blue ships had archers which improved pre-boarding shooting. I'll put the full stats below.

The scenario was the Treasure Hunt from the rules. Each side could have one go at exploring each of the three islands by spending 2 actions whilst close to the island. Sometimes you might find loot, sometimes nothing and sometimes bad things would happen.

Bad things happened to the first Blue ship to explore an island. The crew got very, very drunk on some looted beer.

The Red ship that explored the same island was set upon by angry locals (annoyed at losing their beer) and was forced to retreat with casualties.

A Red ship found beer on the second island. More drunkenness ensued. Blue found nothing. 

Both sides were beginning to think that there was no treasure to be found on the islands. Maybe their rivals had it? They edged towards each other in a threatening manner.

(If a ship finds loot or all of the islands are explored it triggers an end of game counter. You get big VPs for still holding a treasure at the end of the game. You also score VPs for sinking or capturing enemy ships. So even if there's no treasure to be had, there's still points on the board.)

Blue's drunk crew failed to find any loot on the third island.

Two of Blue's ships closed in on a couple of Red vessels. Archery from the closest one saw a Red crew disordered.

Blue closed and grappled. Their archers inflicted casualties but Red's armoured crew fought back and inflicted some in return.

A Red ship found some loot on the third island! Red now very much had the advantage.

The remaining Red ships ganged up on the two Blue ships in the centre. Thinks were not looking good for Blue.

And the other two Blue ships looked set to quit the fjord without taking any further part in the action.

Red's superiority on fighting began to tell. as well as the fact that they'd ganged up on Blue's flagship.

Both Blue ships were quickly subdued.

Red had to sail their ship carrying the loot around the third island. One of Blue's ships - the drunk one - was in a position to intercept. The crew showed some initial enthusiasm, but were then distracted by some seagulls and missed their opportunity.

Red won a decisive victory with a treasure found and two enemy ships captured. Blue score nothing.

The whole game was finished within my lunch-hour with time for a post-lunch power-nap as well.

Ship stats:

Red Flagship - Q3 C3 - Square Rigged, Sweeps, Shallow Draft, Unarmed, Intimidating, Drilled Soldiers, Veteran NCOs

Red Ship - Q3 C2 - Square Rigged, Sweeps, Shallow Draft, Unarmed, Intimidating, Drilled Soldiers

Blue Flagship - Q3 C3 - Square Rigged, Sweeps, Shallow Draft, Unarmed, Intimidating, Drilled Soldiers, Marksmen

Blue Ship - Q3 C2 - Square Rigged, Sweeps, Shallow Draft, Unarmed, Intimidating, Marksmen

Fjord Serpents

'Fjord Serpents' is a relatively new game (a couple of years old, tops) from Australia which covers Viking naval battles. It's one of those 'game in a box' offerings, with rules, templates, counters and enough models for a decent single-player force or a small two-player game all in the one box. Obviously there's extras you can buy as well.

Our club seemed to have a sudden desire to try this game last month, and four people bought sets. After lots of talented painting we had our first game last night, with six people split onto two teams of three running one ship per person.

The scenario involved salvaging cargo treasure from a sinking vessel in the centre of the table, flanked by a couple of islands. Obviously such an easy mission for each side is complicated by the presence of rivals. Both sides had a small ship (a karvi) and two larger ships (the snekkja). Ships are defined by how many hits they can take (the karvi take 4 and the snekkja 6), which is also how many crew bases they can carry as well. 

The figures are 10mm, so the ships are about 1/150th scale. They are lovely resin models and come with optional shield-racks along the side, plus a full-sail mast and a furled sail one. The interior has slots for the crew bases. Each based has eight figures, and they cover a range of different warrior types, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. Some are elite and are simply better than the common herd (or hird, I guess). This is the ship I commanded - Odin's Fury. I had six bases of troops - some elite armoured axemen, some armoured swordsmen, two lots of leidang spears and two lots of javelinmen. The latter can do ranged attacks during boarding actions. 

Here's the same ship, bit with a furled sail; with the wind against us I decided that rowing was a better option than sailing.

In fact sailing is fairly simplistic. There are two arcs - wind in front and wind behind. There's no Can't Sail Zone. Going into the wind you can only use half-sail. With the wind behind you you can use half-sail or full sail, the latter being faster. With the wind behind you you also get a speed bonus. Rowing is slower, but you can control your speed. When sailing you must move the full available distance. Turning is via turning-circle templates and is done at the start or end of a ship's movement.

Anyway, on the first move we blundered about trying the movement. On our opponent's side of the table Caesar and Mark used the fact that they had the wind in their favour to bear down on the wreck. They then discovered that collisions with wrecks can be quite nasty. However Mark ignored the damage he'd taken and started salvaging cargo. Caesar bounced off the wreck and came around it to cover Mark's flank form my ship and that of Daniel (out of shot the the right of the picture. That's Caesar's ship with the blue and yellow sail.

Mark salvaging cargo.

Keen to try out boarding, I ran full tilt at Caesar's ship and grappled him. 

On the other flank Keegan and Ralph's karvi's were locked in combat as well.

And here's a shot of everyone's ships in action.

So ... combat. The game is split up into a movement phase and combat phase. In the movement phase each ship moves twice. Then after movement there is the crew phase, with players alternating taking actions with crew stands. Obviously there's not a lot crew can do when the ships are apart - archers can shoot mostly. But when ships are grappled there's a range of combat options available. 

Combat involves rolling a a number of D6 looking to score a target number (Major Success) or the number of either side of it (Minor Success). The target number is an odd rule. At the start of a turn you roll a D6 and the score is the target number for the turn. Rolls of 6 and 1 cause the numbers each side to loop around (so if the target number is 6 then a roll of 1 or 5 is a minor success, for example). The whole mechanism could be replaced by a rule that says a 6 is a major success, a 4-5 is a minor and a 1-3 is a miss. It seems to be an unnecessary complication which, as far as I can see, has no purpose.

I digress. 

Stands roll to hit enemy stands, and stands that are hit get to save. Fail to save and minor successes wound the stand (it can take two wounds) whilst a major success destroys it. Armored troops get a second save roll to avoid wounding/destruction. Once you get going combat is pretty quick, and the different troop types and action options create some interesting decisions as initiative passes back and forth.

Anyway, whilst Caesar and I hacked at each other (and my crew threw javelins with great effect). Mark was escaping with the bulk of the cargo. Keegan (red and white stripes) set out to stop him. He failed.

Mark escaped with six of the nine cargo pieces, to give his side a win. Ralph's ship was trapped by Keegan's and sunk against an island. I was a turn or so from clearing the last of Caesar's crew from his ship; the base just before the mast is actually some of my swordsmen who had gained purchase there.

So financial success for one side and a bit of glory for the other.

It's an interesting game. We played just the basic rules; there are all sorts of traits that can be added to leader and ships, plus special crew types that can be deployed. I guess we'll see more of those as people crack on with their painting. I think a fifth person is looking at investing in a set as well, so as a club we should soon have two fairly decent fleets.