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A campaign skirmish game. With vikings. Using epic god powers and pulling off awesome moves. Viking Mordhiem?  Sounds epic. I’ve actually struggled to find reviews or much online on this (a bit from a few years back, then it seems to vanish off the radar, despite sequels), so I thought I’d share my thoughts.

The Shiny

The book is a very nice, glossy hardcover. 205 pages, of which about 20 pages are the actual rules. It has a decent mix of artwork and mini photos and the text is easy to read. There is a nice index and I found it pretty easy to navigate. The lore was interesting but not intrusive. I feel it was good production value/cost. Thumbs up.

Overhead “What you need to have/know”

One criticism is the use of “stats” named HP, SP, MA, RA, DF, RS, DR, MN – mentioned through the book. There is an explanation on p.24, but I often had to flip back as it wasn’t instantly intuitive what stat “RS” referred to, for example, or why “DR” or “MN” should be effected by x. “DF” is ability to avoid hits, not toughness to resist once hit – that’s “DR.” I’d prefer they were labelled Health, Speed, Melee, etc throughout the rules – it’s only using a few more letters in a 205 page rulebook, and would make things much easier to use.  

It uses the somewhat pretentiously-named “Morpheus System” – basically rolling a 7+ on a 2d6, but modifying it based on stats of both sides i.e. a Attack 5 vs a Defence 7 would modify the usual 7+ success roll to be a 9+ as the negative -2 between the respective stats raises the target number to make success harder. I’ve used ‘stat difference changes target roll’ for years (only with 5+ on a d10 or 4+ on d6) but never thought to call it the “Monkeigh Engine.” That aside, using the same resolution consistently through a ruleset is a good thing. You only need 2d6, and a d8 for random scatter stuff.

The game is miniatures agnostic, so my Gripping Beast and PSC vikings will be supplemented by some Frostgrave barbarian boxes, I predict, along with LoTR trolls, dwarves and goblins filling in various norse mythology roles. There is actually dozens of unit and creature profiles so finding random models to match may be fun or stressful depending on how you view it.

Activation & Initiative, Movement

The now industry-standard alternate activation, taking turns moving individual models, with the side with superior numbers continuing to move once the smaller side runs out of minis to move (I’m not a huge fan of this as it can make big horde armies tactically superior). Fine, I guess, but a bit dull. Minis get “action points” which gives me a real 1990s-early 2000s vibe. Actions are very detailed. There are detailed rules for falling, climbing etc as you’d expect.

For example: Going prone may -3 SP, -1MA, -1 size, -1RA vs them to hit, and +1MA vs them to hit  

^^ It gives a bit of an old-school RPG feel and feels a bit obtuse and overly detailed. Kinda fiddly – a lot of little things to keep track of that may not be that vital.

There is a fair bit on terrain – from thin ice to thorn forests – the intent is to allow you to throw enemies off cliffs or into spikes and stuff like that.  

Combat

Melee and ranged works similarly, which is good. You compare relevant stats (MA/RA vs DF) and modify the target score from 7+. The level of success may inflict extra hits or have extra effects. Then, compare attack ST vs target RS. Despite the “HP” stat this is only 2-3 “HP” for most models so is no different from “wounds” in other games – you could track it with red paint blood spatters on some clear tokens on the tabletop. Models have 360d LoS; restricting this to 180d would allow more tactical possibilities for flanking/surprise etc. 

Melee has some variety (good) – before you just shove minis together and chug dice you have some choices, such as “clash” – counter-attacking possibly getting in a first blow but opening yourself up to be more easily hit. There is also a “MR” – a 2″ kinda zone of control which adds some depth. Ranged attack has blast, line(beam) and spray attacks (covering magic and beasts).

Mechanics can be a bit over-detailed and fiddly but are consistent.  I didn’t notice much in the way of morale rules but perhaps heroic vikings kinda ignore that.

Campaigns Godspark (Magic) & Special Rules (aka the majority 150+ pages of the book)

From page 47 on, the remaining 150+ pages is devoted to campaign rules, scenarios, weapon and gear lists, special traits/attacks/abilities and god powers (magic) and a bestiary. It really has strong RPG overtones. 

There are rules for creating your own war clan with jarl, bondi, huskarls, skalds, beserkers, speider and gothi. As they are all human vikings they are all kinda samey. They can be equipped with the usual viking-y axes, spears, shields, leather, chainmail etc but the real difference is Godspark – as different warbands get access to different powers (either by choice or random roll).

Godspark is the “god powers” or magic system, and is generated when any roll exceeds the target number i.e. if you need a 7+ and roll a 10, you get 3 Godspark. it seems cool but I’m wondering if (a) this will incentivize a big “pile in” fight in the middle to maximise generation of Godspark and (b) it makes lucky dice rolling even stronger and making it harder to recover from early game bad rolls i.e. you are punished twice – your opponent got a good roll to hurt you and melee AND now has extra magic to beat you with further…

That said it does add an element of resource management – another ‘layer’ to the game, which is good.

There are about 40 God Powers which sounds quite a lot as they all trigger further special rules/effects/traits, however each warband has access to only 3 which makes it more manageable in practice.

These God Powers link to specific norse gods – so Balder’s powers allow you to heal wounds, while Thor’s powers allow channelling electrical shock attacks. Having a read through I’m not confident they are well balanced; some seem much stronger than others. So I’d suggest they are randomly assigned as there’d be a temptation to min-max.

There is a very thorough campaign section where you can level up warriors, gain glory, check injuries, roll for loot, purchase new gear, weapons and God powers etc. Many modern skirmish rules skimp on this section with barebones campaigns but Ragnarok is the real deal. There is equipment, magic items to buy, a detailed injury table, legendary weapons and detailed rules on levelling up warriors and God Powers. (Basically, the God Powers get cheaper to cast, until the cost reaches 0 and it is imprinted on a particular warrior – i.e. is free but cannot be used by everyone else in the warband any more)

You can recruit new warriors, but interestingly, only recruit special heroes and beasts if you have defeated them in battle (i.e. as random encounter). There is only 6 scenarios (I say “only” but that is probably because the rest of this section is so thorough) but there are 12 secondary objectives that modify them for more variety. There are also random “encounter models” which randomly deploy from a pool of models they players determine before the game – once defeated, you can recruit them. There is also a mechanic for helping warbands ‘catch up’ if they are behind.

There is a large bestiary (80~) of monsters and races, from dwarves, and swartelves, to dragons, hags, draugr, demons, direwolves – basically a roll-call of norse mythological critters.

Finally there are 70+ special abilities or traits, from attacks like toxin, drain, blind – to ‘absent minded’ healer, delusional, regeneration.  This whole huge section gives real RPG vibes and I found myself mentally comparing it to “Savage Worlds” – my usual go-to “RPG-cum-skirmish-game.” Based on the contents of this rulebook, I’m confident the author is an avid RPG-er.

TL:DR

A very nice rulebook which was easy to access, but obscure stats (MN, DR, RA) and key words were not always obvious so I had to spend time backtracking/checking. Rules were somewhat fiddly and had an old-school 1990s feel (which may appeal to some). Not as accessible as I’d hoped. 

Very detailed Mordheim-esque campaign with injuries, gear and tables; and big bestiary and magic list. The last 150 pages could have come from a RPG book like Savage Worlds. Plenty of chrome, “Godspark” adds an interesting (if potentially unbalanced) layer and the book has a cool theme and world-building. 

Ragnarok has happened – but not the way we thought. Vikings fighting for “essence” of dead gods in the ruins of the world? It’s got a good theme for sure.

Recommended? Yes. Not a resounding yes, but yes.

I could probably replicate everything in it using Savage Worlds at about the same speed, for half the price…  ….but it does what it says on the tin, and has (for once) a proper skirmish campaign and trimmings. It’s decent value for a quality book. It’s not amazing or revolutionary, but I have no regrets of my purchase – and while I suspect I won’t play it much, I’ll certainly be making some viking warbands. It’s worth a spot on your gaming shelf.

Deltavector

 Well my Battletech box arrived. I’m going to probably whack a sacred cow by stating

(a) the new sculpts are much better than the ‘iconic’ and ‘characterful’ (aka crap) older metals

(b) the rules haven’t changed from what I can see, which means they are a very clunky 1980s RPG masquerading as a miniatures game.

I could probably devote a whole post on ways to ‘modernize’ and ‘declunkify’ Battletech including heresies such as getting rid of the complex hit locations/multi-stage crits, hundreds of hitpoints, and ‘bell curve’ 2d6 – focussing on the effects and streamlining procedures. Alpha Strike for me missed the mark the other way; it’s too simple and lost too much of the nuance of Battletech.

So I have these nice mechs but no rules to play them with, so instead I stalled by hunting for some other minis which I like which also have hideous rules: Warmachine. Actually, I don’t hate the rules per se – they are/were quite clear, consistent and tightly written and also, in an age where GW rules run you $90AUD, free. It’s the 101 special rules, and how it’s more how you memorize rules and combos than actual tactics – resource management, knowing combos and ‘deck building’ and synergies IS the game. Warmachine is a card game masquerading as a wargame.  I hear Warmachine is heading to 3D printing-on-demand to stave off their final fall (it really died fast a few years back – I think they shot themselves in the foot by removing Press Gangers) – but I have an even more radical suggestion for Privateer Press; scrap the minis altogether and pivot into a CCG. 

I like the minis, the factons and the lore – steampunk mechs, undead pirates, dragons and techno elves all sharing the stage.  Painting something I didn’t intend to paint instead of what I planned to paint is, I suspect, a form of procrastination.

My 9-year-old did some of the photography as she likes to pose the minis.  They are set against the toy castle we painted a few weeks back. As usual I’ve gone for speed over style; undercoat, base, 2nd layer, wash, highlight/fix.

After the nice bright Warmahordes, I found a few more LoTR lying around. That brings my 2023 LoTR painted counter to 31. The orcs are hunters or trackers – some sort of special unit. The Haradrim riders will also add a bit more flavour to an Easterling force. While exploring the box I found a LOT more mounted Rohirrim; I’ll speedpaint 6 or so to tabletop standard as Rohan seems light on specialists and needs its mounted from what I can see. I keep eying my Balrog but I bet the sucker would be a pain to paint; flame effects are seldom quick and less so when painted ‘into’ cracks on a black model….

Lying on my painting bench are aforesaid Battletech, some Heavy Gear I also found while rummaging, 1:2400 sailing ships… and a new entry, French and Indian Wars minis from Warlord which have emerged from the dust of ages…   ..and I’ll probably end up finding something else!

Deltavector

The Spotting rules really enhance the feeling you are sneaking through a jungle, know that the enemy is somewhere but cannot always see him.

The game played smoothly, giving a good impression of small unit jungle warfare in the 60ies. The impact of morale and suppression is quite limited, which I missed to be honest, but in the end this is a rule-mechanical choice based on taste since such things will slow down the game. I know for a fact that not all wargamers appreciate their little metal men to cower or run because of a bad Morale roll….

Caveat
The rulebook, it must be said, contains some choices I do not understand and a number of mistakes in rule- and example texts.

Of the latter, the most disturbing ones are dealt with in the Errata list provided on the website by Crucible Crush, together with a new QRS that corrects a few typos in the Weapon list. Mistakes will occur in any book, but I feel this one could have benefited from better and more thorough editing. Nevertheless, this can be solved by using the Errata.

The rulebook also includes stats for some weapons, like mortars, but no Force Card for such units to include them in your force. Since Force Cards are the only way to include them and no points cost are provided, you cannot play those units despite the fact that they are mentioned and detailed in the book.

I understand a number of these things will feature in future supplements.

Conclusion
For a Weird Nam Game, there is plenty of good Nam gaming going around, but not nearly enough Weird. For a modern skirmish game the effects of gunfire on group morale and movement are very limited. I personally think these effects should be more severe as that would be better suited to the period, but I understand the choice for less impact from shooting and casualties came from playtesting.

There definitely is an enjoyable game here, but it takes some work to get your hands on it.

BOHICA/Danger Close

DC is a (kind of) alternate turn skirmish system meant for modern wargames with a few dozen figures and some vehicles. The set is stunningly compact: only 2 pages plus another 2 pages fr vehicles. That’s all. 

Turn sequence is determined by troop quality, the best activating first. 

Troop quality also determines how many figures you may Activate in your turn as well as maximizes the number of actions a figure has per activation, the best having more actions. So a figure might perform 2 to 5 actions per activation and can be activated once per turn. Finally, troop quality gives modifiers based on the difference in quality between opponents in spotting your opponents, shooting in a firefight or combat. So better troops move sooner, can do more and are more effective in combat and firefights.  All based on one stat. Very elegant. 

For compactness and price this game wins everything hands down. The ruleset is clear and brief and logically structured. Being essentially only 2 pages long, it does not need an index. Just turn the page. 

Activation and Morale are quick and easy and the quality difference between troops is done very elegantly. There is hardly any bookkeeping needed besides Stress, injuries and Overwatch.

BOHICA is DC’s much bigger offspring: a fully fleshed-out ruleset based on the same mechanics but much more elaborate. Here are pictures, explanations, diagrams, scenarios and ways to set up your table, unexpected events et cetera. Where DC is a set for the experienced wargamer who doesn’t need much in the way of explanations, BOHICA can be picked up by any aspiring wargamer as a starting set. The rules are explained very well and even include practice scenarios to learn specific parts of the rules. 

BOHICA is written specifically for the Vietnam period and benefits from this. There are rules for things like helicopters, napalm and other iconic aspects of the Vietnam war. 

FNG Tour of Duty

Two Hour Wargames’ take on the Vietnam war. They use their tried and proven game engine we know from (amongst other games) All Things Zombie. 

FNG comes the closest to a RPG system in some respects. Players (or player, since his game enables solo play) step into the shoes of a infantryman in Vietnam during the 60ies. 

Troops are divided into Stars, Grunts and Non-Playing Characters and can be part of any side in the Vietnam conflict. Stars can get all kinds of traits and quirks to individualize them, something that really shines in the Saturday in Saigon games (see below). 

The system has a very elegant mechanic based on only one stat (Rep). The game is geared to the infantry, so there is a lot about infantry ground combat, boobytraps, grenades and choppers, but no tanks, vehicles, planes and stuff like that (or it would be an anonymous bombardment from above).

The game is quite versatile and offers three gaming scales/variants: 

• Tabletop style: a normal tabletop wargame on a 3×3′ table using up to 40 or so miniatures per side
• Battleboard Style: a more abstract game using a map and moving from map section to map section. The game provides counters to use a a substitute for figures. This kind of looks like a boardgame/wargame crossover, although it can be played on a tabletop too. 
• A Saturday in Saigon: a wargame/RPG-like crossover version where a handful of miniatures on the board interacts with Non-Playing Characters. This reminded me the most of the ATZ games I used to play. 

Force on Force/The Next War

TNW is a Modern-to-near-future-to-hard-SciFi ruleset and is based on the Ambush Alley reaction system, just like Force on Force. There is actually no turn order. Every turn players dice for the “active” player who is the first to do something. As soon as he activates one of his units, the other “inactive” player can respond. Because the inactive player is actually not inactive at all! 

Players test against each other (highest roll wins) whether the action or reaction takes place first. Is the active player completely at the mercy of the inactive player? No, because he can prepare for reactions by putting units in Overwatch at the beginning of his turn. They can try to interrupt or prevent a reaction. 

As a result, a simple movement of figures can have dynamic consequences. They can be shot at by units of the inactive player before or while they are moving. If they win their test, they can shoot back. The inactive shooting units, in turn, can also be shot at by active player units in Overwatch before they can perform their action. The reaction can also be used for other actions such as ducking into coverage and other things. If the active player has activated all the units he wants (maybe he keeps a few to respond to the inactive player) it’s the inactive player’s turn and the same interaction is repeated.

This cycle of action and reaction is finite. Troops cannot respond to return fire and Overwatch, may not shoot more than once per turn at the same enemy unit, and figures that have already been activated may not be activated again. 

But just as well, a single movement can provoke quite a firefight and delivers an interesting game.

TNW uses almost no dice modifiers. Instead, it uses dice with 6, 8, 10 and 12 sides. The better the quality of the troops or the cover, the “higher” the dice. In principle, a 4+ is a success. Most of the rolls are “opposed”, made against each other. This means that a result of 4+ is usually a hit unless there is a Defense throw of at least 4+. 

The rules are clear, uncluttered and displayed in a logical order in a pleasantly readable font and each paragraph contains a clear summary in an easy-to-find text block. 

The rules start with a table of contents that is so detailed that it can actually double as an index. There are scenarios, ready-made units and vehicles and the so-called Fog-of-War cards, which are intended to make scenarios a bit more unpredictable.

There are different classes of troops, from angry civilians to elite commandos and all kinds of specific traits for troops, some of those specific to SciFi games. 

Being a generic modern ruleset, tailoring it to Vietnam is quite easy. An additional advantage is that the rules are retro-compatible with all scenario books that AA has ever released. Arguably the best in the entire hobby and including a Vietnam book: Ambush Valley. This book, still available in PDF format, will provide you with all the details to play the Vietnam period. 

NB: TNW in this stage is a PDF document in development and therefore a bit Spartan in layout. No pics and no diagrams, so for the experienced player. Buying it gives you access to all subsequent editions to be published in the future, including, I understand, the final and complete PDF book. 

Spectre Operations

SO is written for 28mm Modern Warfare. This is a wider scope than one might suspect, since the ruleset essentially covers all forms of skirmish combat using modern weapons. And by modern weapons I mean everything from the bolt-action rifle and Maxim gun onwards. It can be used for everything starting around 1900 and I played 21st century conflicts with it as well asWW1 with equal ease and success. 

The secret of this lies in the set’s flexibility regarding tactics and weapons. Regarding tactics things like formations and movement are quite free-flowing, and and are basically only important when orders need to be passed on. Very green troops, like militia, benefit from close formations where morale is concerned but all other troops can adopt tight or loose formations as desired for practical purposes. 

Weapons are dealt with in categories, for example the Assault rifle. This line gives stats for all assault rifles, be it M16s, FALs or AK47s. The game assumes that difference in details between weapons within a category is way less important than the level of training of the troops.  

Being a Modern ruleset weapon categories cover everything from bows to laser guided bombs and drones. Vietnam era weapons translate flawlessly into the SO weapon categories. 

Giving importance to troop training levels, the set is eminently suitable to assymetrical play which is so defining for a large part of the Vietnam conflict. Assessing troop levels is also a tool that can be used relatively to balance the scenario. So Special Forces Recon may always be Professionals but may also be Elite, Professional or Trained depending against who they are pitted. Between troop levels Civilan, Militia, Trained, Professional and Elite you will find a place for everyting. 

Although not meant for lage numbers of vehicles, the game handles them quite well. These too are put into categories. While it might not be to everyone’s taste to assess both a Patton and a T54 as “Cold War Era Tank” it works quite well game wise.  

There is no exhaustive list of Vietnam era vehicles compared to SO vehicle categories, so some creativity and period knowledge is needed to differentiate between a T54 and a PT76. But there is a category for everything. 

NB: Spectre Miniatures has announced it wil cease supporting Spectre Operations as a ruleset, since it was licensed from its author and that license will expire soon. The author has made it known he is working on a successor ruleset under the working title of Assymmetric Warfare. I refer to the Facebook group for news.  

Bello Ludi Vietnam

To be commented on in this spot in the near future.

 NB: Charlie don’t surf

I am of course quite aware of the existence of the excellent ruleset Charlie don’t Surf by Too Fat Lardies. However, since my focus for gaming Vietnam is 28mm Skirmish (be it small or large) and CDS is aimed at 15mm Company level wargaming, I have omitted the ruleset from this review. 

Hopefully I will get to play it one day, but lacking a 10 or 15mm Vietnam collection, including terrain, this might be a while…..

Conclusion

It would be a bit premature to choose a “best” set before I have played them all and I am loathe to do that anyway since so many of the aspects of the best set for me are ultimately a matter of taste. 

However, when asked to voice a “preferred” ruleset I would opt for Spectre Operations for being immensely flexible, quick-playing, relatively uncomplicated as a ruleset and still providing interesting choices during the game while maintaining a recognizable feel for modern combat as far as I can be the judge of that.  

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