Vikings

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Review: Great Heathen Army and the Kingdom of Dyflin by Amabel Holland

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Review: Great Heathen Army and the Kingdom of Dyflin by Amabel Holland

Great Heathen Army made my honourable mentions list of favourite games of 2022 and was my fifth most played game last year, so you can probably assume that it’s a game I enjoy. Now that I’ve played through a full campaign of the scenarios in its expansion, Kingdom of Dyflin, I feel like I’m in a better position to share my more mature thoughts in the form of an actual review of the game. For pure playability, in terms of complexity, fun, and speed of play, I think this might be one of my favourite games on medieval warfare and I fully intend to revisit it multiple times in the years to come. I still have a handful of scenarios in the base game I’ve yet to try and there are a good few I’d love to revisit as well. That said, I do have some reservations about Great Heathen Army - it is not a perfect game and some of its problems are what held it back from making my list of favourite games last year.

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Early Impressions - Pax Viking by Jon Manker

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Early Impressions - Pax Viking by Jon Manker

The Pax series is an interesting beast. First created by, let’s say “controversial”, designer Phil Eklund the series’ games differ significantly on topic, mechanics, and many specifics but generally share a distinct perspective in how they represent history. I’ve never been completely in love with Pax games on the few occasions when I’ve tried them but I was still intrigued by Pax Viking despite some of my misgivings about the series. Pax Viking’s emphasis on the Viking trade networks, not just the raiding, and its focus on the eastward expansion of Viking influence through eastern Europe and down to the Mediterranean made it stand out amidst the many board games with Vikings as a theme.

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First Impressions: Great Heathen Army by Amabel Holland

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First Impressions: Great Heathen Army by Amabel Holland

I thought it was about time that I tried another hex and counter wargame and I had heard amazing things about Hollandspiele and the designs of Amabel Holland, so this seemed like a logical next step. Hollandspiele games tend to be quite expensive in Europe, so I owe some thanks to my older brother who bought me a copy of Great Heathen Army and its expansion, which features Viking battles in Ireland, for my birthday. My previous experience with medieval hex and counter games has pretty much entirely been the Men of Iron series (which you can read about here: https://www.stuartellisgorman.com/blog/category/Men+of+Iron) so I was excited to explore another version of this style of game. I don’t know early medieval warfare to the same degree that I know the later period, and I’m not very familiar with the battles of the Great Heathen Army which rampaged through England in the 870s, so my ability to pick apart the historical aspects of the game is a little more limited here. Since I don’t have the same investment in the individual battles of this period, I just picked the first battle in the scenario book: Ashdown 871.

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River Kings by Cat Jarman

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River Kings by Cat Jarman

I have often felt like a fake archaeologist. I did my PhD on the development of the bow and the crossbow in the later Middle Ages and for much of my evidence I used surviving medieval weapons. I took measurements of five-hundred-year-old crossbows in a Swiss castle and examined an early 15th century crossbow in the basement of the Met in New York. This was, by any reasonable measure, an archaeological study. However, I’ve never been to a dig site or participated in any of the usual archaeologist activities most people picture when they hear the word. I kind of regret that I’ve never been hanging around when someone pulled something old and cool out of the ground and I am a little jealous of those who have. I really enjoy archaeology and I’m fascinated to learn what interesting nuggets of information have been dug out of the earth. That is roundabout way of saying that I really enjoyed how deep into the archaeological woods Cat Jarman’s River Kings goes in places and reading it reminded me a lot of my time as a PhD student – where I was surrounded by people doing Viking age archaeology in Ireland.