Ah Wales in the Summertime! I spent a happy hour prizing my wife’s fingers off the car keys: she does tend to hog the family vehicle. The sat-nav provided me with an unplanned tour of Cowbridge and there I was sitting down to my first ever game of Pillage by Victrix games.

Pillage is a small scale skirmish game. We were playing with 24 man warbands, a number not dissimilar to SAGA, our previously go- to game for skirmishes.

And this really is a skirmish. Instead of SAGA units of 4-12 miniatures, Pillage single figures are the basic unit. Similarly, the miniatures have to navigate hedges and walls rather than area terrain.

Our game lasted about two hours and it is nothing if not fast-moving. The village watch towers were the crux of the battle. Both Viking bands sent archers up the towers at opposite ends of the village. That range bonus and ability to shoot over cover was just too good to miss.

Martin was confident of skewering the novice commander and stormed forward. My archers were waiting!

It’s a simple mechanism for shooting: one D6 dice with minimal modifiers and an armour save- nothing revolutionary but it works.

Cover gives one a 50% chance of blocking any missiles. I definately got the better of the exchange. Once a number of attackers were felled, Martin was dearly missing his own archers.

Those attackers that made it to sword strokes were held up. The combat resolution is also easy and fast, but with enough coverage of two handed axe men and mushroom sniffing beserks! ( I kid you not- Ed)

The combination of arrow fire and sword strokes had taken Martin’s warband over half losses and so each turn the wily Viking was rolling to see if individuals headed back to the longship.

Martin generously conceded defeat. It had been a great two hours of combat! The rules are very fast and furious and will hopefully get the Saga-phobes in the club back into dark age skirmishes!