Review: Ragnarok - Heavy Metal Combat in the Viking Age

[Neldoreth]

I got my hands on this book because I really like the Viking age, and full-color illustrated miniature rule books always get me for sure!

The book itself is nice to hold, hefty, great cover art, and beautiful illustrations throughout. The images of miniatures though, they take me back to those old miniature magazines from the mid 1980s... The miniatures' paint jobs are barely table-top paint quality, the scenes have uninspiring terrain, haphazard scene preparation, and poor lighting and contrast. I feel like it's really unfortunate that the authors and the publisher didn't insist on higher-quality miniatures presentation in the book, specifically because the miniature showcases are what really sell miniature games... it can't just be about the rules guys, it has to be about the miniatures too. The illustrations are fantastic though.

The rules are interesting... there's some time spent explaining that these rules can form the basis of any kind of miniature game with a few additional tweaks, and that consolidating miniature games under the same core set of rules will make life easier and better for miniature gamers as a whole. It's a noble cause, but there are two things that the author might want to consider:

• Adding yet another core set of rules to the mix ironically makes the problem they are trying to solve even worse... If we started with 1000 different rule sets, now we have 1001 different rules sets.
• Players who go out and buy a new rule set despite living in a world with so many different rule sets maybe enjoy the idea of learning and playing new rules... Yes, I am describing myself.
So, I was kinda put off by that part of it... there are other games that I already like that would get my vote if we all had to choose a single core rule set... but gladly we don't!

That being said, the rules are pretty straight forward, and very reminiscent of other warband-based skirmish rules: Necromunda, Lord of the Rings, etc. Movement with action points, alternating activation, etc. I really liked the technical simplicity but tactical depth of the Lord of the Rings skirmish game from GW, and this game is quite similar, except perhaps more technically complex with more detailed options of what a character can do, etc.

As for the theme, well who wouldn't like to do battle with super-hero like Viking warriors and Norse-themed monsters? Definitely a cool setting. Is it different enough from Gripping Beats' Saga or Frostgrave? I'm not sure... I've never played either of those.

Thanks
n

[James Morris]

Interesting thoughts - thank you. Good to hear that the internal art was impressive.  I think that Osprey rely on authors to solicit photos for their rules, hence the variable quality. If Northstar are involved (eg Frostgrave, OGAM) you’ll get some top of the range Kev Dallimore paint jobs & photos, but obviously that’s not the case for all books.

[Nord]

Thanks for the review. Interesting point about the minis. I personally prefer rulebooks to skip photos of minis, much prefer art or just extra content. For example, would I prefer 8 pages of pictures of minis, or 8 pages of scenarios, campaign rules, etc?

[Easy E]

Interesting thoughts - thank you. Good to hear that the internal art was impressive.  I think that Osprey rely on authors to solicit photos for their rules, hence the variable quality. If Northstar are involved (eg Frostgrave, OGAM) you’ll get some top of the range Kev Dallimore paint jobs & photos, but obviously that’s not the case for all books.

Yes, you nailed it. 

If an author is really, really lucky a company that makes a range will offer to provide promotional photos of their line to support the book.  Typically, Northstar but sometimes others will too.

[Andrew_McGuire]

There seemed to be a suggestion a few days ago that Osprey had 'recalled' this book for an overhaul because of serious confusion in the rules, but maybe I extrapolated a little too much from the thread in question. In any case, it would be too much to hope they'd redo the photos at the same time, I'm sure.

[spacecowsmith]

I had emailed the folks at Osprey about the issues with the rules after getting really frustrated with the book and they have indeed pulled the physical book at present.

They are going to sticker over the success chart as it is currently the wrong way round, essentially meaning that the better you are in combat, the harder it is to hit anything. Other than that, I don't believe they are planning on doing any more, such as checking the wording of some of the rules concepts or adding any examples of how they play. The PDF or Ebook version should now have the correct chart in it though.

The artwork in the book is indeed stunning and I was also saddened by the rather poor quality of the miniatures pics that were featured throughout.

[Andrew_McGuire]

Thanks for the clarification. I'm on the fence for the time being, awaiting further reports with details of playability. It's a pity Osprey couldn't have gone a bit further with the revisions, but I suppose issuing what would have amounted to a second edition within a few weeks of publishing would not make them look very good, quite apart from the expense. There's no real excuse for producing the rules with such a fundamental error as the backward chart described, however.

[craigjwoodfield]

I know that when I wrote for Osprey my material was proof read within an inch of its life, so I find it interesting that major errors have snuck in.

It only takes a little effort to source good quality miniature photos, so disappointing that they couldn't pull that off.

Appreciate the review, I will give it a miss...

[Neldoreth]

Great feedback all, thanks for the replies.

It's really too bad that Osprey doesn't do what they can to ensure quality photos of miniatures. I would have donated photos of my figs just for a complimentary copy of the book! But I know how expensive and difficult finding good photos for books are.

Thanks
n.

[seldon]

I had emailed the folks at Osprey about the issues with the rules after getting really frustrated with the book and they have indeed pulled the physical book at present.

They are going to sticker over the success chart as it is currently the wrong way round, essentially meaning that the better you are in combat, the harder it is to hit anything. Other than that, I don't believe they are planning on doing any more, such as checking the wording of some of the rules concepts or adding any examples of how they play. The PDF or Ebook version should now have the correct chart in it though.

The artwork in the book is indeed stunning and I was also saddened by the rather poor quality of the miniatures pics that were featured throughout.

Quick question...

I’m looking at my book, which I preordered on Amazon and it seems that that table is correct...

Can you explain how it was different or wrong originally ?

[Harry Faversham]

Article in this month's WI about the book.

 

[spacecowsmith]

Sadly I returned my copy due to the issues with the book.

From subsequent posts, the success chart should show that the average dice roll on 2d6 to succeed in an action is 7 but if your model has a higher stat than the target, this becomes 6 or lower but in the original chart it showed that it became 8 or higher as it was recorded the wrong way round.

Essentially it meant that your Jarl armed to the teeth found it very difficult to beat the lowliest Bondi armed with a stick.

I must admit I also found the rules a bit vague when it came to what stats one was supposed to compare and it could really have done with examples being put in to show how they worked. For example close combat seemed a bit wooly and could only be done if the attacker charged that turn more than half it's move. As mentioned, I returned my copy so I'm possibly remembering it incorrectly now.

[LeadAsbestos]

I wanted to play and was very excited and then I got the book and I'm not excited any more.