In my previous articles I told you how I had bought the Pillage Introductory set for the price of 5 Space Marine Heavy Intercessors and what it was like unboxing, building and painting the models you get inside. You can read that here:

Pillage – Part One: I Bought An Entire Wargame for the Price of Five Space Marines

Pillage – Part Two: Continuing the Viking Adventure

Pillage – Part Three: Playing the Scenarios

From a Starter Game to a Complete Game

In my previous articles I’ve focused on the introductory set for Pillage and worked my way building, painting and playing the scenarios included in that box set.

Now, I’ve picked up the complete rulebook because I enjoyed the intro so much, and I’m telling you now, this doesn’t dissappoint.

What Does the Full Rulebook Contain?

A lot. There’s so much material inside the book beyond the basic rules.

The rules from the introduction are there, but the full ruleset expands on them so much and even gives you rules for naval battles.

Some of the areas covered include:

• Expanded combat rules: Charging, charge reactions and shield walls, as well as special moves like swimming and climbing, and also the rules for when an model is outnumbered in combat.
• Shooting and equipment: All the weapons and additional choices like cavalry, warhorns and standards
• Advanced rules: building rules, more in depth pillaging rules, morale, special characters like healers and beserkers.
• Historical army lists: There are army lists for Vikings, Anglo-Saxons, Normans, Irish, Scots, Picts, Welsh, Carolingian Franks and Bretons as well as a generic army list if the faction you want isn’t there.
• Different ways to play: naval battles and battles with 3+ players
• Hobby guidance: Tips on painting your models along with some scenery making advice.

That’s a large expansion on the introductory rules.

Looting

One of the things I really enjoyed in the game was the pillaging of livestock and treasures. In the book it outlines the value of these items which gives you opportunities to create linked campaigns for your armies.

It also gives you rules for searching buildings and other areas for loot that isn’t shown on the battlefield.

All of this immediately had me thinking about the possibility for a linked campaign where you could loot battlefields and use it replace fallen warriors and improve the weaponry of your warband between games.

Using the full book

Reading the book is one thing but I wanted to play a game with the actual rules before making up my mind on them.

So I arranged an evening of Pillage with my mate Ian who hadn’t played the game before.

We started by playing through the introductory book which let him get familiar with the way the game worked. Unfortunately for me, he learnt them a little too well!

He played the Irish, and tore me apart in every scenario throughout the intro book, which was helped in no small way by his slingers that seemed to have developed some crazy skills.

We moved on to a game using the full rules with same models from the intro set on a 3’x3′ board and this was where I appreciated what it adds.

Morale

Possibly the rule that made the most impact in our game was morale. During our game I had to roll morale for two of my Vikings that weren’t locked in combat during the game and I managed to roll a 1 for both, which immediately removed them from the game. That was 25% of my force with just two rolls.

Positioning and multiple combats

What I knew was lacking from the intro booklet and that I have mentioned before in the series, was what happens when a warrior faces off against two opponents.

It became very tactical and in most cases I had my warriors moving in pairs of a warrior with hand weapons and another with a spear for support.

Ian picked up on this as well and mentioned that he thought much of the game’s depth came from the positioning of your models, avoiding being outnumbered and trying to get into combats with support to give you better odds.

The combat system is simple but the decisions you make before getting involved in a fight are important, and because both players can lose a model in the same fight even what you would think would be an easy encounter can see your models taken out with a lucky hit.

It’s a brutal system but I personally think it seems perfect for the time period.

Introducing someone new to the game

I think the thing that says the most for the game is how much Ian appeared to enjoy it.

We played through the intro scenarios and a game using the full rules all within two or three hours.

Ian is now planning to collect a Saxon warband and even talked about making some terrain based around them. Considering he’d only just played his first game I think that speaks volumes.

Final thoughts

Now I’ve played both the intro rules and a game using the full rules I’m even more impressed with Pillage.

The full rulebook builds on what you know and also gives you some great additional rules, and you don’t need a massive collection of models to play it.

I’m looking forward to playing the game more and especially the naval rules that are included for boarding actions between boats.

So watch this space, as I think my next article will be about choosing my faction…

In my previous articles I told you how I had bought an entire wargame for the price of 5 Space Marine Heavy Intercessors and what it was like unboxing, building and painting the models you get inside. You can read that here:

Pillage – Part One: I Bought An Entire Wargame for the Price of Five Space Marines

Pillage – Part Two: Continuing the Viking Adventure

With the Vikings and Irish assembled and painted and the book in hand, I decided I couldn’t wait for my friends to get stuck in (a good sign for the game) and decided to play my other friend Billy Nomates.

All the thoughts I have in this article are based on playing the rules alone and controlling both sides, I will do a follow up article at a later date when I get Ian and Dave involved, and what their thoughts are on the game.

But for this article I wanted to find out whether the booklet could teach me the basic rules and whether the scenarios that taught them were fun.

Learning to Pillage

One of the first things I think needs mentioning is the book itself. It’s not the full rulebook, but it gives you the basics to fight simple games and give you a flavour of what the game is about.

Instead of listing all the rules with diagrams in one massive lump, the intro booklet instead introduces its various rules gradually over the four scenarios in the book. What I also liked about this as well was that the scenarios where all part of a larger narrative of a Viking longship arriving in Ireland and the crew making their first foray into the lands.

The basic turn sequence is easy enough, the players roll for initiative, move their warriors in initiative order, moving their warriors, resolving shooting, fighting and where you can setting various things on fire.

The whole game has an initiative order, as mentioned, where the player who has initiative, moves or shoots with all their models in that phase before their opponent does the same.

I mention this, as I have seen posts on Reddit etc where new players have been confused by this rule and have assumed that initiative order means that the controlling player chooses a model to act with first and then the two players alternate.

Each scenario adds something new, which allows you to concentrate on learning one or two game mechanics before moving on to the next scenario.

Most of the mechanics revolve around the armour and weapons rather than wounds and weapon skill like Warhammer games. Armour will determine how far your model can move and much defence it has, and the game is simple with this having only Unarmoured, Some Armour and Full Armour. The weapons all have different chances of hitting these different armour types and as expected some are more effective than others.

This all makes it easy to understand the different warriors movements and weapon profiles without constantly referring to a book.

Everyone Gets to Fight

In Pillage the melee combat is simultaneous, both warriors make their attacks, and both can potentially die in that combat. So winning a fight isn’t about who’s turn it is first.

It makes every fight dangerous even if one warrior has an advantage in equipment. It can also give you some moments when neither fighter can land a hit for several turns.

Scenario 1 – First Encounter

Unflar disembarks on Irish shores soon enough. He sets up a temporary camp and sends a few men out to scout ahead.

Erik heads north. Seeking a village or other settlement that his crew can plunder straight away, he finds himself face to face with Cian, a young Irish sentry on patrol.

A fight is unavoidable; Erik needs to silence the Irishman before he raises the alarm!

This first scenario is all about using the basic movement and combat mechanics. Initiative, movement and melee are introduced without asking players to worry about anything else.

By the end I was comfortable with movement and fighting.

And for those who are interested, Erik managed to silence Cian. First blood to the Vikings.

Scenario 2 – Ambush

Now Unlfar knows the Irish are close, he sends out a group of warriors to prepare for a larger-scale attack.

Unfortunately for him, the Irish are a step ahead, and Unflar’s men are caught in an ambush! They need to alert the camp and get reinforcements.

With the basic rules around initiative, movement and fighting being more familiar we now moved on to a game where we really focused on initiative, shooting and an objective to the game (in this case, getting a Viking off the Irish side of the battlefield).

It introduced the different armour types and two types of ranged weapons as well in the form of the sling and the javelin. The sling having a greater range but less likely to kill than the javelin.

The shooting rules were just as simple as the combat mechanics, with each weapon type having a range and needing a different to hit roll against the various armour types.

For those who are interested, the Vikings managed to fight their way through the Irish and warn the camp.

Scenario 3 – The Attack

Having been thwarted by the Irish warriors (or not in our case), Unflar accompanied his men to the battlefield. Surrounded by his most faithful fighters, he launches a lightning raid to avenge Vikings who fell in battle.

His goal is clear: to overawe his enemies enough that the locals give up without a fight. But he hasn’t accounted for a young Irish chief called Aodhan, who has been preparing his defences for some time…

The third scenario was a lot of fun and had a simple objective for the Vikings of burning down the Irish house.

This was a great way to introduce the Chieftains and the Fire phase of the game. Chieftains are a little different in Pillage, as they’re some of the few models with multiple hit points, and they can also make two attacks instead of one in the fight phase.

The Vikings has burning brands and the defenders just had to stop them getting to the house to set it alight.

In my game the fighting quickly became a number of smaller one on ones allowing the Viking brand bearers to pass through and get to the house.

The two Chieftains fought each other in personal combat . There were some interesting dice rolls where at one point the Irish leader rolled snake eyes for his attacks while the Viking leader hit twice, the Irish leader then rolled double 6s for his saves.

The Viking javelin thrower picked out the slingers defending the house allowing his and another to set fire to the house.

The objective gave the battle a sense of purpose and it was a good introduction for the chieftains and the fire phase.

Scenario 4 – Pillage

The lightning raid failed (though it didn’t), and Unflar hasn’t convinced the locals to submit. No problem. He’ll steal their livestock and their riches. They’ll keep him going for the rest of the season, and those impoverished peasants can thank him for their lives….

Unflar assembles his whole crew to go pillage the Irish.

This was the final scenario and this time it introduced the looting rules. The battlefield featured everything in the introductory set.

The Vikings needed to capture and carry off enough loot to claim victory, while the Irish are there to stop them (obviously).

It was an interesting scenario, because the Vikings needed to get as much loot as possible without being slowed down by the combat. While the Irish were out numbered and couldn’t chase down every Viking.

It started with the Vikings having initiative but the Irish defenders made a good start and managed to kill one the of the more heavily armed Vikings with a lucky sling shot.

In the second turn the Vikings began getting their hands on some loot, rushing into the farmstead and grabbing a chest and three of the animals in the pen. But the Irish charged into the pen themselves and fighting broke out in animal enclosure. Another Viking fell to one of the slingers while the Irish chief killed the Viking javelin thrower. The Vikings did manage to slay one of the Irish near the house and the raid was quickly becoming very bloody.

The Vikings retained the initiative for the three turns in a row and the Vikings started taking revenge for their slain comrades as they brought down two Irishmen, including the one with the Dane Axe. The Irish chief caught up with a Viking that had stolen a chicken but lost a wound to the chicken wielding Viking.

In turn four though the chicken thief got his just desserts as the Irish chief hacked him to the ground, but did take another wound in the process. The Irish lost another slinger to a Viking javelin and the Irish were running out of men to defend the settlement.

In the fifth turn the last Irish slinger was taken out by a Javelin just leaving the Irish chief who challenged Unlfar to personal combat. But neither of them landed any blows and turn six saw that fight continue while the remaining Vikings made off with their loot.

This scenario was easily the highlight of my introductory experience and it wasn’t because the rules had become more in depth. I can see two players trying to outmanoeuvre each other rather than just charging headlong at each other and I think this is something that Pillage does well. The games, especially the final one, felt like little narrative events.

What About the Rules?

After the four scenarios I came away impressed with how easy they were to learn. The turn sequence is easy to remember and the weapon and armour mechanics make sense and are easy to follow. I also like simultaneous combat and the chance that both fighters have a chance to be slain.

But there are limitations to the book in this box.

During the scenario 3 I had a situation where I could have two warriors against one in combat, and the introductory rules don’t cover this.

I also suspect that while the rules have been streamlined for the intro (as they should be), there are no doubt rules around ranges and moving and firing that may not be covered in this set, and this does raise some questions for me about introductory sets.

Would I rather have the whole set of rules explained to me from the beginning, or would I prefer a simplified version that lets me get playing quicker?

In this case, Pillage has made the right decision and I really enjoyed the introductory book. It meant I could work through the scenarios without becoming overwhelmed.

I do think it perhaps needs a couple of extra points in the set to explain what to do around combats where a model is outnumbered but I appreciate why the designers have kept it deliberately simple.

Does Pillage Work Solo?

Playing the rules solo does change the experience, especially as you don’t have someone to share the story you’re telling with. But that is another point I want to raise, as it did feel like a story was being told within the battles and as a narrative player this was important to me.

But going back to solo play, there’s no hidden intents and no surprise tactical decisions, but as a way of learning the rules, playing it solo worked well.

The individual warriors are easy to manage and the turn sequence is clear with the scenarios providing enough structure to keep things moving along.

Looking Beyond the Introductory Set

Pillage really caught my imagination and I can easily see a campaign in the future with rival warbands raiding settlements and competing for resources.

Loot recovered during battles could be used to replace casualties or recruit more warriors. You could even track the stories of individual warriors across a number of raids.

I did have the Last Kingdom novels by Bernard Cornwell front and centre in my mind while playing this game and I can imagine the game working really well with a campaign set around this.

I haven’t explored the full Pillage rules yet to know if campaign support exists but the fact that I’m thinking about campaigns says a lot for the rules.

Introducing Pillage to the Gaming Club

Perhaps the biggest indication of how much I enjoyed the set is that I’ve already started talking to friends about playing it and I’ve even ordered the full rulebook.

The idea of stealing animals and setting fire to things seemed to appeal to Dave…

I’m going to run an intro game with me acting as a GM to help explain the rules and keep things moving for them. It’ll also let me see how Pillage plays when two people are competing against one another, which I will cover in a future article.

Final Thoughts – Any good?

Yes. I enjoyed the experience especially the final two scenarios with the fire phase and looting added in.

The rules are straightforward and the combat system is interesting with the gradual introduction of mechanics being very effective. It was a great way to learn the rules.

As mentioned, I do think the set could benefit from one or two additional rules, especially where a model is outnumbered in melee, but that frustration didn’t distract me from the enjoyment of the game and the story it told.

By the time I reached the fourth scenario I wasn’t worried about how the game worked, only who was going to look after the chicken.

If you’ve never played a non-Warhammer game, or you’re considering dabbling into Historics then I would urge you to give the introductory set a go, I think the Warhammer fans among you may be surprised at what you’ve been missing.

In my last article ago I told you how I had bought an entire wargame for the price of 5 Space Marine Heavy Intercessors and what it was like unboxing and building the models you get inside. You can read that here:

Pillage – Part One: I Bought An Entire Wargame for the Price of Five Space Marines

Now, there’s something I need to clarify from Part 1. Despite my headline about buying an entire wargame for the price of five space marines, the Pillage introductory set doesn’t actually contain the complete Pillage rules. Nor does it contain two warbands. It has 14 warriors, 6 Irish and 8 Viking, which are enough to play through the scenarios given to you in the introductory book, but they aren’t wo full size warbands.

So thank you to everyone who commented as such on the article, Facebook and Reddit.

Now on to Part 2 proper….

A Week and a Half in the Dark Ages

I decided early on that I would paint the entire set before diving into the game. We’ve all been there, I didn’t want it to sit on my shelf staring at me for the next 6 years just undercoated. So I promised myself I wouldn’t write part 2 until they were done. Which was enough to give me the drive to get them done.

You don’t have to of course. There’s nothing stopping you painted with unpainted miniatures, we’ve all done it. But I felt I wouldn’t be doing the set justice as a review unless I finished it all. Plus there was something about Pillage that really made me want to see everything painted and on the mat together.

It could have been the low model count, painting something that wasn’t fantasy or sci-fi or it could have been I just fancied painting a sheep. Whatever, over the last week and a half I spent somewhere between 20-23 hours working on the models in the box, and I have to say right now, I really enjoyed it.

Where are the Skulls?

One of the first things that hits when you paint something that’s not a Warhammer model was how simple the models were to paint.

Most GW models (even the battleline ones) are little works of art. They’re covered with so much detail from belts, buckles, scrolls, skulls, jewellery and other decorative things that a unit can keep any painter going for days at a time.

The figures that Victrix have made are so much more simpler. They’ll usually have mail armour, a tunic, trousers, belt and weapons. A couple had necklaces, but there wasn’t the amount of details on the model that you get with GW. I loved it.

But I need to be clear, I’m not saying that the Victrix models are lacking details, there’s plenty of folds in the cloth, the faces are diverse in their appearance and the poses are great. I never once felt like I needed a break from painting the models, and I could easily finish one model to a fairly decent standard in about an hour or two.

I stuck with a muted palette of browns, greens, blues and earthy reds and I wanted them all to look like they fit into the period. I also chose to paint them in the traditional way rather than using speed paints (which I personally don’t get on with).

There’s nothing wrong with Speedpaints and I think they’d go well on these models, I’m just crap at using them.

Shields, Transfers and an Unexpected Expense

I enjoyed painting the models so much that I thought I would pick up the shield transfers for both sides from Victrix as well.

You don’t have to buy transfers, but I wanted to give the shields a little more character without free handing every one.

The transfers were £8.50 per set and I was more than willing to pay this to save you all from looking at my attempts at freehand.

The transfers are awesome and I really think that GW could learn a thing or two with theirs from other companies. They come pre-cut in most cases including the hole in the middle for the shield boss. They have a film on the front which you peel off, this exposes the sticky side of the transfer which you then place on the shield of the model. You dampen then back with a brush and after 30 seconds you peel the paper backing away to reveal your shield design. Awesome, I’ll never paint another shield again.

Building the Farm

The model warriors are important, but they weren’t the only miniatures in the set, and I think the house and fences may have been the easiest models in the set to paint.

The building is a great centre piece and it’s sculpted roof has leads of texture which made it really easy to drybrush. I started with Zandri Dust undercoat and then washed it with Agrax Earthshade. Then it was a simple case of drybrushing with Morghast Bone and a little Wraithbone over that (I also used this recipe on the fences). I picked out the roofing straps (if that’s what they are, you’ll have to excuse me, my knowledge of early mediaeval building processes is lacking) in dryad brown.

The walls of the house where painted Dryad Brown (army painter), then highlighted with Zandri dust and a little Morghast bone. I then added Agrax Earthshade to the recesses of the logs.

The Important Business of Painting Sheep

Most people are probably more excited about painting warriors when they get a new wargame, yeah, not me…

I was weirdly excited about painting some animals. The set includes a Pig, sheep, calf, goat and a chicken.

They’re all small and uncomplicated but have lots of character. They all have textured coats and can easily be drybrushed which I did with the calf and the pig. The sheep I spent a little more time on and built the coat up from a dirty grey/brown underneath to an off white on the top.

Then there was a tiny chicken, and I don’t think I’ve ever spent so much time wondering how to paint a miniature before, honestly, I toyed with painting it white, brown, green feathers. I even looked up chickens on the internet. There’s something wrong with me.

But aside from chicken paint schemes, all of these felt like they would give a bit of character to the battlefield and a purpose to the game.

Barrels, Sacks and Other Things Worth Stealing

The smaller scenery pieces were also fun but simple to paint. Most just required a coat of Dryad Brown, a wash of Agrax Earthshade and a light drybrush of Zandri Dust.

The barrels have clear wooden staves and the sacks had lovely deep folds in them, while the chest had a little metal work so that they all stood out in some way.

From a Box of Plastic to a Battlefield

Then I was done and it came around to placing everything on the battlemat that came in the box.

The building sat at one end with the fences dividing the fields on either side where I placed the animals.

The defenders are all set up near the building and the Vikings are approaching down the path to… pillage.

£42.50 and the this box looks like a proper historical skirmish game. I’ve enjoyed the building and painting so much, a lot more than I have done any project in a long time, It’s a small farmstead with enough details to make the battlefield feel believable.

Worth the Time?

20-23 hours of time and what have I got to show for it?

Quite a bit actually. I’ve two painted forces, animals and quite a bit of scenery that makes up a complete little battlefield that I’m looking forward to trying out. I haven’t spent months getting to this point either.

We often spend a good few months on our armies of 60-80 models and sometimes we don’t even finish them. With Pillage I felt like seeing it all painted up as easily achievable.

I did buy the extra transfers at £8.50 a pop for both sides, so my total cost so far is:

Item	Cost
Pillage Introductory Set	£42.50
Victrix Shield Transfers	£17.00
Total	£59.50

So roughly £2.80 for each hour I’ve spent on it, not a great scientific measure of value but its something.

We usually talk about it all in terms of the model count or the points value of an army and we don’t always think about the pleasure of building and painting the models.

But on this, Pillage has definitely been very enjoyable so far.

What’s Next?

That just leaves us the important question of:

Is it actually any good to play?

I have spent a good chunk of time getting it ready and it would be disappointing to find out the rules are crap (which I’m sure they’re not).

So I’m going to draft in some help for the next article. I’ll be asking Ian and Dave to play through the scenarios with me (both GW fanboys) and we’ll compare notes and let you know what we think.

We’ll look at how easy the rules are to learn, how they work and whether the games are fun. But for now I’m happy with my spend, after all, if I don’t like Pillage I can try out one of the other multitudes of Dark Age wargames.

Gallery

I’ve played Games Workshop games since the early 90s, which probably means I’ve been a bit desensitised by the price of miniatures. But this week I spent £42.50 on something that made me think about what we actually get for our dollar.

For the price of five Space Marine Heavy Intercessors I bought two opposing warbands, a medieval house, fences, livestock, a gaming mat, dice, tokens and a rulebook. An entire wargame, so naturally I wanted to find out if it was any good.

The book deserves a lot of praise as it acts as an all in one with build instructions for the models, an introduction to the period, painting guide, and a playthrough of scenarios that slowly teaches and expands upon the rules as you go.

What is Pillage?

For those not familiar, Pillage is a historical skirmish game set during the early middle ages in Europe produced by Victrix Limited. It allows players to take control of small warbands of Vikings, Anglo-Saxons or other warriors as they fight raids, capture settlements and make off with treasure and the occasional cow.

It’s very different to Warhammer and focuses on fights between perhaps a few dozen models at most. The rules are relatively straightforward, with a focus on narrative scenarios, terrain and objectives rather than simply wiping out your opponent. Combat is deadly, so charging headlong into the enemy isn’t always the best idea.

Building the Warbands and Village

Assembling the models in the set took me about two and a half hours which isn’t too bad considering I ended up with warriors, a house, some fences and livestock.

The warriors were straightforward enough to build, with each having only five or six pieces and the joins were all clean and I had no fitting issues.

The build instructions were excellent, using full scale pictures of the sprue and colour coding the locations on each piece to show which were to be used with each figure.

This made it really easy to find them on the sprues. It’s a simple idea, but one that makes assembly so much easier. There’s also plenty of spare pieces so that you can customise your warriors rather than building them in the poses they suggested. But for this, I decided to follow the recommended builds so that I could play through the introductory scenarios.

The house was a little different, the roof required six supporting pieces four of which are already assembled and just needed gluing into place. The other have to be assembled from different bits before being attached.

Unfortunately the instructions don’t really show how to put those pieces together and I struggled with this part, so rather than messing it up completely I just placed the four ready made scaffolds on there.

But overall, I’m really please. £42.50 and two and a half hours gives me two assembled warbands and a battlefield ready for the first raid.

At this point, I did notice when I places the models on the paper mat, the creases in the mat caused the fences to fall over fairly often. The mat may need to be flattened out between books etc before it can actually be used.

So, for £42.50 and two and a half hours of assembly, I’ve got two warbands, a small farm and everything I need to start playing. The miniatures went together easily, the terrain looks decent, and the only real frustration so far has been the house and a gaming mat that refuses to lie flat.

Read the next article here:

Pillage – Part Two: Continuing the Viking Adventure