I took a break from working on the Battle of the Bulge board to try a game of Ravenfeast.  I couldn’t seem to find a friend to game with me on a Saturday night I struck out on my own to try it. Ravenfeast is a small model count Viking/ Dark Age skirmish game created by the guys at Little Wars TV, an awesome Youtube channel that focusses on historical games.  I wanted an excuse to put some of my new winter trees on the board as well.

I played the “Pillage and Burn” scenario where a band of vikings raid another viking settlement.  The raiders objective was to capture thralls and get into the buildings to loot and burn them down.  The raiders had 327pts and the defenders 215pts.  (Scenario recommends 500pts to 300pts)

The raiders charged into the village and hit a wall.  A couple raiders cut around to grab thralls and loot buildings.  The defenders dice defied the odds, taking out three raiders by thralls which is only made by rolling a “1” on a d6 and having the defender roll a 4+ on a d6 to fail (Low rolls are needed in this game).  The defender’s jarl felled the raiding jarl.  Only one attacker made it into a longhouse and was taken down by a pair of thralls.  Morale checks stack so the attackers had to make multiple rolls and fled the village.  It was all over in 45 minutes. 

Some takeaways from the first play through:

Cons– Everything is simultaneous so a lot of markers are placed during every round to remember who did what which creates some clutter on the board.  Its biggest strength is simplicity in mechanics, but is also a weakness, at least for me, as a little bit more crunch wouldn’t be a bad thing.  Maybe an expanded advanced rules section.  I will be curious what the fanbase has maybe put out.  Easy enough to house rule. I understand it though as it was created to get people into historical wargames in an easy and understandable fashion.

Pros– The mechanics were very simple with only a few extra special rules.  I literally skimmed the rules and played within minutes.  The best thing about the game is that it is very adaptable and could easily be reskinned to other periods.  It promotes narrative play which is awesome and I could see its strength in running a campaign.  Another good thing about the game is its FREE.  They have multiple free PDFs on their site www.ravenfeast.com.

So overall a fun and fast game.  It will be a nice way to use my Dark Age Saga minis in a skirmish game with an easy ruleset for flavorful, quick games.

– Drew

If you like Drew’s games and minis check out his Facebook Page – Misfit Machinations – for more! – Ben