The Northmen Cometh!

As many of you may know I love to play lots of Wargames and have played many genres but my favourites are Fantasy Settings and Alternate History. This year seems to have a theme in the games that I am buying, building, painting and playing with and that theme is Alternate History.

This year has seen me return to a game that I had lost the love for towards the end of its last edition (Malifaux), Received my Wild West Exodus Kickstarter stuff (which I intend to be collecting a new force for in the near future) and of course the reason that I am writing this……

So Darklands???? I hear you cry…..this is probably the best game you’ve never heard of!!!! A bold Statement I know but I believe this, and as such I will say it again………PROBABLY THE BEST GAME YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF!!!

So what is it and why am I so in love with it????

Darklands is a 30mm Dark Ages Fantasy Game, an Alternate History game if you like where the forces of the Dark Ages march forth unto battle accompanied by the creatures of myth and legends….everything from beastmen to dragons!!! The miniatures are huge so I am now using the term Bigatures! Speaking of the Bigatures, these are things of absolute beauty and cast in resin with the highest quality control…I am not just saying this, these models have been sculpted by some of the worlds best freelance sculptors!!!

So the Northmen Cometh!!!

From the bleak lands of the painted to the soft coasts of the south, from the icy shores of Thule to the windswept beaches of Frankia, the Norsemenn are reviled in the darklands as murderers of women and children, pillagers and slavers without mercy, wild and savage killers that destroy almost everything they touch and take the rest for themselves. The fury of the northmen sweeps all before them, and yet the Norse, the Skilfing kingdom in particular, are not so barbaric – nor so different from other humans – as many would choose to believe. To live upon the cold edges of the world where the soil is poor, with the incalculable threat of gods and jötnar in the mountains around them, who is to say other men would not take to the seas to plunder and raid to feed their children? To the Norse, the weak are nothing, for their realm has taught them that only the strong and the ruthless survive, and their victims that see clearly understand that one day the strawhairs will not merely raid their coasts; they will surely take them and the lands beyond. Led by the Seven foot tall and near as broad, Eirik Longaxe. He is almost as legendary as the longship he is steersman of, Hrafnen. A mighty Skei of sixty oars, Hrafnen bears the raven’s head on its prow, a powerful symbol of Odin’s favour and a reassuring presence to Hrafnen’s crew – but a terror to the villages and towns that the mere sight of Hrafnen brings. Eirik himself believes that the wrath of Odin travels with him upon his raids, a belief that holds greater the further he sails and the more treasure he plunders, for he and his crew have always returned home, bruised and battered maybe, but always with gold and silver from the monasteries and halls and villages of the weaker peoples to the west. Indeed, such is his reputation in the shieldwall and on the seas that many other longships and steersmen are drawn to his banner, greedy to take a slice of the pickings from his raids and his battles, for all know that Eirik understands the sailing of all Midgard and where to strike for plunder like no other Norseman. 

I have received my 499 gold Norse Army. The army consists of Eiric Longaxe – Steersman of Hrafnen, Brynhild Gunnblindi – Gyhtja of Hrafnen and 5 Norse Trolls.

The models all arrived well packaged inside a cardboard postal box with ample bubble wrap to keep my goodies safe and sound while in transit. Once I had got all my items out for the photograph above it was apprent the they were all well packaged in blister packs for the most part. I have to say that the Laser Cut MDF tokens set is lovely!!!

The models are cast in resin to a VERY high standard of quality control as you can see from the pictures below of the unpackaged miniatures:

Here you can see my assembled Eiric Longaxe,  he is a 7ft warrior and as you can see the model is bigger than a Games Workshop Space Marine!! The rest of my models are shown below assembled and ready for paint. I have washed these models in soapy water prior to assembly!  (Space Marine used as the Measuring Stick so to speak):

The Invasion of the Darklands is soon to begin, SCORPIUS GLC OUT FOR NOW!!!