Pillage: Ransack the Middle Ages.

[MusingWarboss]

A new skirmish game from Victrix is coming! Currently on pre-order.

It seems like it’s going to be very narrative driven - with each individual fighter being… an individual. Not sure if it will include Necromunda/RPG style levels of individuality yet.

One thing that’s interesting is that it heavily places emphasis on being interactive with the terrain, not just moving around it and the like. There’s a whole phase of the game given to setting buildings on fire!

As the name of the game suggests pillaging is also a key aspect (but not any other words associated with it in a Viking context thankfully - that would be a bit too much - though you can kidnap civilians).
Want to grab some loot? Chickens? Barrels? Anything you can possibly grab - it seems like you can.

So coming up to support this release will be some rather cool plastic sets of farm and domesticated animals along with a markets worth of goods.

Quite frankly set dressing like that in plastic is welcome in many many settings, not just in this game.

For a full review check out Goonhammer’s article:

https://www.goonhammer.com/goonhammer-reviews-pillage-ransack-the-middle-ages/

In a very welcome move the physical game book also comes with a free digital version in PDF, so you can take it on your digital devices if you prefer. Or you can just buy the PDF.

A few starter sets are coming and all in gloriously crisp plastic!

Pillage - Ransack The Middle Ages!

www.victrixlimited.com

 

[CaptainDangerous]

I just love Victrix minis, so this is right up my street! Im 100% picking up the animal and furniture kit, but the warband sets are abit of a dream for anyone wanting to get into historicals or just looking for a small project!
The upcoming Scot’s and Irish sets look neat too, might end up getting them just for the dogs!?

But from what I gather, it plays like Lord of the rings, where the exact placement of a mini is quite important, and lines can get pushed back and fighters are safer in numbers.

But I’m looking forward to having a go, and can’t wait to see what folks come up with!

 

[Punktaku]

Those minis do look lovely.

 

[Tiny]

This one has me really drawn in. Been looking for a decent Medieval skirmish game that uses D6s for a while. Rules look very similar to the LotR game by GW. It also helps that modern Victrix minis are awesome.

I already have a Viking warband on the way (ordered the individual sprues), and in the process of building a Saxon village leaning heavily on this article, but from card instead of MDF (so many coffee stirrers). I'll add a Saxon warband and probably a Welsh one at some point.

 

[Stoof]

I might have to get myself some Picts but they seem like the least interesting set of sculpts. Rather like the Normans & Saxons though.

 

[Tiny]

Silly Scottish folk and their boring rags.

Although...

Footsore have some cool Picts with their dicks out.

 

[Stoof]

Cry havoc and let slip the chodes of war!

 

[Punktaku]

I like the Vikings. Because Space Wolves, but on the ground!!!

 

[Ben_S]

coming up to support this release will be some rather cool plastic sets of farm and domesticated animals along with a markets worth of goods.

I'd heard of this, but hadn't really looked into it until now. This sounds interesting. Mind you, I already have a sprue of farm animals from Warlord and Wargames Atlantic do a market/barricade set for Barons' War. But the more the merrier.

 

[MusingWarboss]

I’m tempted because I’ve been tempted to create a warband of Normans for ages!
It’s just that I’ve never really settled on what rules to play. SAGA seemed the most likely but Pillage sounds like it could be a lot of fun and isn’t just a battle, sounds more like you can generate narrative fun with it.

The plastics from Victrix are superb - plus at the price, very good value really.

Previously I’d seen SAGA sets in metal but they’ve always been very expensive and the Normans with their horses make them incredibly expensive. Though cheaper than GW!!

 

[Ben_S]

The good thing about historicals is that you can often use them for more than one game, at least so long as they don't have particular basing requirements.

 

[Tiny]

Yep, build a warband for Saga and it'll be (mostly) perfectly usable in Pillage. There's a few things like chariots that aren't, and the Pillage forces are slightly smaller, but you'll have the minis you'll need to play both.

Also, my first sprue of Vikings arrived, so naturally I built them immediately with absolutely zero thought to any rules.

These Victrix minis are awesome. Detail is crisp, on par with the new GW LotR sets IMO (in fact, they'd make great Dunlendings). They have a bunch of options for each guy and a lot of character. Only complaint is that none of them have their feet on any rocks, so you can't tell who the leader is.

Edit: I realise I may have made an error giving the guy at the back a banner and a warhorn. Not sure if I can do that. Will fix him once I get the book.

 

[Punktaku]

Are they the same scale as LotR models?

 

[Tiny]

They're taller than the old ones, which are shorter than the new ones... so... I dunno.

Here they are against some older LotR minis (not my photo)

 

[CaptainDangerous]

Iv began my Pillage with the plunder!:

Got these with a toy set and they’ve painted up really nice I feel! There was also some geese and chickens, but the scale of them was abit too…immersion breaking? Like, my brain can turn a moose into a raindeer, but can’t accept a 5ft duck!?

 

[Ben_S]

Random question perhaps, but is there anything that ties this to a specific setting?

I assume it could easily be re-skinned for, say, orcs (or even fimir...) pillaging an Empire settlement. Right?

 

[MusingWarboss]

Random question perhaps, but is there anything that ties this to a specific setting?

I assume it could easily be re-skinned for, say, orcs (or even fimir...) pillaging an Empire settlement. Right?

Without seeing the rules it’s hard to say fully. The Goonhammer article talked of strict WYSIWYG - though that seems to apply to weapons and armour mostly.

So if you’ve got an Orc and he has a bone club - you might have to agree as to what that counts as. Though that’s an issue with proxies in general.

With enough imagination you can slot any like for like models around in any system even the official rules don’t like it.

 

[Stoof]

You could sub models quite easily. It's equipment that determines what stats a model has, so WYSIWYG is important.

It would mean that massively muscled Orc with a spear and shield is functionally identical to that weedy Imperial soldier with a spear and shield, but that's not different to a starting Goliath ganger meeting a starting Escher ganger in Oldmunda.

 

[Tiny]

Everything is a man so there are no real stat lines. Difference between fighters is down to armour (unarmoured, some armour, fully armoured) and weapons.

There are a couple of special fighters for different factions so you could use Orcs or Fimir as Viking Berserkers (2 wounds and 2 attacks and optional magic rage mushrooms) or as Chieftains (normally one per force, 3 wounds 2 attacks).

 

[Tiny]

WIP Saxon village. Just need to decide whether or not to base them.