'One Hour Wargames'...

[Harry Faversham]

Finally got round to having a pop with the 'Dark Age' rules, Vikings agin Saxons. I you're defending a river or hilltop, you're casualties are halved. The rules state that armoured infantry halve their hits. One of the Beserkers wondered if you halved for defending then halved again for the armour. We compromised, as usual, and went the whole hog the first round of HtoH, second round we just halved for the armour... does that make sense?

[Argonor]

Didn't know about this - please tell me more! 

[Harry Faversham]

You can get the general drift of things here, the scenerios at the back of the book work really well...

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=xvZsBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA63&lpg=PA63&dq=one+hour+wargame+scenarios&source=bl&ots=ICrayA3FmP&sig=YDAEyG2CFwaQu9rGDBbqlhCsc1M&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CF4Q6AEwCWoVChMI3fu077moxwIVwgjbCh1j-g6w#v=onepage&q=one%20hour%20wargame%20scenarios&f=false

 

[Argonor]

Interesting concept that you play with randomly composed forces. I may want to try this out a some point, when I have painted up some Vikings and Saxons. 

[Harry Faversham]

We've fought several of the scenarios, Danes v Saxons, all played out very enjoyably. Having to get the job done in 15 game moves gets things moving at a cracking pace. One tweak I picked up from a blogger was having a Chieftain/king with your forces. He can attach himself to a crumbling unit and deduct a dice roll from it's hit total. He must stay with the unit till it either wins or goes under, each round of combat a dice is rolled for him, if it comes up six the baddies have nailed him! Kind of works well with our view of Vikings, pointy cutlery and slaughter... the main man and his bodyguard pushing to the front to hold the line in a crumbling shieldwall. It's all very simple stuff from Mr. Thomas, but trust me on this, it works on several levels.
Not trying to tell granny how to suck eggs, but when you've painted your Vikings and Saxons have a look at 'Ancient and Medieval Wargaming.' by the same author before basing the figures.