878 Vikings

A few weeks back I got my kickstarted game of 878 Vikings: Invasion of England from Academy Games. This game builds on the same engine as their Wars of North America series. The basic mechanics are pretty similar: random activation sequence, card-driven commands, uncertain end point, area control, icon-driven combat dice, etc.

Visually, the game is different by having plastic troops (about 10mm?) rather than colours blocks to denote troops. While there are five colours, it is a four-player game (the yellow are Fyrd who defend English towns when attacked by vikings).

After a quick skim of the rules, there seem to be two key mechanic differences. It is an invasion so the viking reinforcements arrive based upon invasion cards. This seems to give the vikings some flexibility in placement at the expense of uncertainty of numbers. It also makes it less desirable for the English player to create big troop concentrations.

The second change is that there are leaders who act before the normal activation phase. They have a movement allowance and much more flexibility in what they do than the normal activation. In theory, this allows for more dynamic in-turn campaigns than in other Academy games.

I  think I will bring this out to the club in later October (unless there is a real demand for a Hallowe'en themed game). I might like to have a quick solo game before I try to umpire. I'm currently working on some terrain (gravestones from Renedra) that I picked up at Red Claw. They also had a nice set of barrels in stock that I will look at this week when we meet.