Blood Eagle from The Ministry of Gentlemany Warfare

[wulfgar22]

The Ministry of Gentlemanly Warfare (authors of In Her Majesty's Name and Daisho) have started a Facebook page for their upcoming Viking skirmish game, Blood Eagle, due out sometime next year!

From the Facebook page:

"This has been set up to allow the designers and future players to discuss the game while it is still in development.

Blood Eagle is a new project by the Ministry of Gentlemanly Warfare, using the core rules from In Her Majesty's Name and Daisho to allow people to play games in the legendary 9th and 10th centuries in Northern Europe."

Intended for warbands of around a dozen or so figures with 3 or 4 characters and several warriors, the game will include the mythical side of things. A provisional list of warbands includes: Danish Warbands, Frankish Patrols, Hiberno-Norse, Frost Giants, Irish Chieftains, Lord Uhtred, Jomsvikings, Pictish Raiders, Saxon Eorls, Scandinavian Jarls, Viking Raiders, Welsh Warbands and Heroes of Legend!

I am very much looking forward to this!

[Captain Blood]

Thanks for the news.

Must admit, I would have thought after the craze for Saga and the various 'Dux' games over the last couple of years, not to mention Shieldwall, Valhalla and so on, the market for Viking era wargames rules would be pretty saturated for a while.
But I guess the authors have a good following for their other rule sets, so maybe...

[Atheling]

Somehow they invited me so it seemed to be impolite to turn them down

Could be very interesting

Darrell.

[Scorpio]

Eager to see what they produce. They've got a good track record of fan-friendly games.

[Atheling]

Eager to see what they produce. They've got a good track record of fan-friendly games.

For me it's the feel of the game- does it have that Early Medieval feel to it that counts

I await to see what they produce

Darrell.

[Nord]

Must admit, I would have thought after the craze for Saga and the various 'Dux' games over the last couple of years, not to mention Shieldwall, Valhalla and so on, the market for Viking era wargames rules would be pretty saturated for a while.

Dark ages are the new WW2. 

From what I could gather, this ruleset is based on IHMN and thus the numbers are more likely to be 8 -12 per side, rather than the 50ish of Saga and Dux. Not seen Shieldwall or Valhalla. IHMN is verging on the rpg, whereas Saga and Dux are more traditional wargames, to me at any rate, so they should give a different experience. This is me just surmising based on my experience of these games, I know absolutely nothing concrete about the plans.

[wulfgar22]

Dark ages are the new WW2. 

From what I could gather, this ruleset is based on IHMN and thus the numbers are more likely to be 8 -12 per side, rather than the 50ish of Saga and Dux. Not seen Shieldwall or Valhalla. IHMN is verging on the rpg, whereas Saga and Dux are more traditional wargames, to me at any rate, so they should give a different experience. This is me just surmising based on my experience of these games, I know absolutely nothing concrete about the plans.

You're right. Craig has confirmed on the FB page that it will be a few main characters and around half a dozen or so warriors, the same as IHMN.

[Paboook]

I'm curious which new ideas has The Ministry of Gentlemany Warfare brought into their gaming system. I am sure we won't be dissapointed 

[Craig]

Hello Gentlemen and Ladies,

The concept for Blood Eagle is to produce a skirmish game for 5-15 figures that captures the feel of the 9th-10th century period.

Like its stablemate Daisho the game will be playable at three levels:
• Historical; just using the standard arms, armour and abilities.
• Heroic; adding heroes and heroism to the mix.
• Legendary; adding everything else including mystical powers and legendary creatures.

All of the heroic abilities and mystical powers are based on those you can find in the literature of the period and is what the people thought were real or that could happen. So we are not going off on a D&D-style romp.

We are currently writing up the first dozen of so warbands, and these include:
•   Danish Warband
•   Frankish Patrol
•   Hiberno-Norse
•   Frost Giants
•   Irish Chieftain
•   Lord Uhtred
•   Jomsvikings
•   Pictish Raiders
•   Saxon Thegn
•   Scandinavian Jarl
•   Viking Raiders
•   Welsh Warband
There may be more, depending upon on the space we have left.

Future expansions may take us into the realms of the Rus, down to the Mediterranean and even across the Atlantic.

Add to these such legendary creatures as the Jotun (frost giants), trolls, svartalf, Grendel, Fafnir, the Sidhe etc., for those that want them.

Like IHMN and Daisho, there shall be a supporting blog which will host lots of extra material both written by us and by players of the game. We hope to be active both here and on the dedicated Facebook page so people can contribute to the game as it develops and after it launches.

[charla51]

Spread eagle?

[Ray Earle]

Spread eagle?

Pub? 

Look forward to this and watching it develop. Have started to convert figures for my Jomsviking already. 

[Atheling]

Really interesting stuff and good that you've taken it into the realms of the imagination.

Will there be more Norse Mythological themes to the warbands?

Darrell.