Ravenfeast

Viking Age Rules — A Fan Page

Some of you here may only be Sci-fi or Fantasy fans. If that is you, I encourage you to try something a little different. If you are unfamiliar with Ravenfeast or the work that that the folks at Little Wars TV are doing you really owe it to yourself to check them out. Ravenfeast is a super fun set of rules for wargaming in the Viking Age. It is sponsored by Little Wars TV, HMGS, and Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy (WSS) Magazine. The rules are very professionally produced and are available as a free PDF at ravenfeast.com. A print copy is also available for $10 on littlewarstv.com. These rules were intended to be a fun gateway into historical miniatures wargaming and it succeeds abundantly.

The rules are easy to learn but LWTV folks went the extra mile to have a brief introductory YouTube video for those that need a little extra help or want to see a preview before jumping in. Check it out here: Learn to Play Ravenfeast. They have many other great videos that support this game (and a host of other games). After the short learn to play video, I recommend the longer one for their Capturing Alfred the Great Wargame to get an even better feel for the rules and to start to see its potential. Hopefully, watching these will get you wanting to start collecting dark age minis, building terrain, and playing the game. And speaking of building game terrain, they have a series of videos for that as well. These are the most helpful in my opinion for this particular game:
3 Wargaming Terrain Basics – Disclaimer: They recommend Woodland Scenics trees in the video and we are a seller of Woodland Scenics products, but the focus of the video is to introduce the viewer to getting started building their own terrain rather than just being a crummy commercial.
How to Build 28mm Stone Walls – It says 28mm but you can make them any size.
How to Make Flexible Rivers – I make my roads and rivers using a modified version of this. I apply the caulking directly to felt fabric. It is quicker and easier in my opinion, and it bonds better. I also like to add some sand and pebbles along the edges to give the pieces a little extra weight. Give it a try. The roads shown below use this technique (the field does too technically… it is just wider and has rows made with a comb). You can also see in the photo below how the road flexes or bends up to go over the hill terrain piece. They are much better than roads made from ridged materials. Note: For roads, I use the brown colored calking to save a bit of painting time. Just make sure you get paintable calking. Then drybrush some tan over the top for a more natural color and flat/dry appearance.
How to Make a Viking Longhouse
How to Make a Dark Ages Hut

Though many people play Ravenfeast using 28mm or larger figures, I wanted a ‘travel size’ set so I made my initial set using some 15mm minis that I had just sitting around. Of course now that our Warlord Normans & Vikings line is released, I’ll also do a proper gaming set in 1/72 scale. Details on those figures is listed on their individual page (here).

The LWTV folks also have a great introduction to painting minis (here). It refers to a 28mm Viking in the title but it contains good advice for any mini/scale. Just keep in mind that the smaller the mini, generally the less detail there is to paint. There was one thing skipped over in the video because it did not pertain to the metal washer used for their base, but it is important to note. Metal washers are stamped out of a flat sheet during production which creates a burr on what is typically the bottom side. In the video, they used a more expensive washer that was ground down so the burr was removed. If the washers you are using have a burr (you will be able to feel it or see it under magnification), make sure the burr side faces up (toward the mini). This is considered upside down from typical washer use. There are three reasons to use it this way. First is if you are wanting your washer to interact with magnets in a movement tray, storage box, etc. The burr will provide a very small area of contact with the magnet vs the huge flat surface of the the other side giving great adhesion. Second is if the mini is place on a wood table or similar soft surface, if slid, the bur will leave a scratch. Third is that the burr will help keep the glue and basing material on the top surface until it dries. This will give you the best looking and performing base available at a very reasonable cost.

Ravenfeast rules are Viking-centric but folks on the Ravenfeast Facebook group have been sharing troop lists and ideas for other factions such as Saxons and Normans. We’ll post our post-1066 raid on the English coast scenario here for free once it is complete. And later, we’ll be offering a boxed set of minis, terrain, etc. to go with the scenario (similar to the Fictioneers : Legacy Starter Boxed Sets seen here).

Ravenfeast primarily is a set of historical skirmish rules but they offer two other options in the rule book as well. First is BIG BATTLE RAVENFEAST. Instead of each figure representing one person, here 1 base (or movement stand) of 4 minis represents a formation of 100 or 200 warriors. Second is MYTHOLOGICAL RAVENFEAST. Norse Myth & Magic: Enchanted items, Dragons, Frost Giants, Trolls, etc. Both of these are super fun as well.

Having a special interest in the battles in 1066, we decided to make up our our mini-campaign of linked scenarios for Big Battle Ravenfeast. Back in 2021 when I stumbled upon Ravenfeast, there were not many scenarios for the Big Battle format. I had hoped these will fill a need for some folks, although it is quite late in the Viking history. In this mini-campaign, players or teams of players refight the battles of Fulford Gate, Stamford Bridge, and Hastings. The interesting mechanic is that we did not force history to repeat itself. Depending on the outcomes of the early battles, the Norse may end up fighting the Normans at Hasting and could possibly win it all. Of course, if you only want to fight one battle, you may. Each file contains its own troop list so they can be played as standalone battles. Here are the links to our (fan made, not official) PDF files. If you give them a try, please let us know how it went. We will update/improve them as feedback is received.
Mini-Campaign Guide
Battle of Fulford Gate
Battle of Stamford Bridge
Battle of Hastings

In Dec. of 2021, the LWTV folks had asked for ideas to be shared on the Ravenfeast FB group, stating that they wanted to do something new for Ravenfeast. I proposed the three battles of 1066 as linked scenarios and provided our fan made works as examples. I didn’t hear anything back for quite some time but then I got chills while watching the Season 4 preview video when this image popped up:

Possibly… maybe… hopefully… was 1066 going to get some love and attention from LWTV? YES! Season 4 starts off with a bang (check our their videos):
1066 Fulford Gate Wargame
1066 Stamford Bridge Wargame
1066 Hastings Wargame
Hastings Battlefield Tour
The videos contain great scenes from their recent visit plus a lot of valuable background information. Their take on the games are slightly different than ours. It would be fun to play each of them back to back to see how they go.

Check out our Dark Ages items for sale in our Ancient – Renaissance category here. More will be added shortly, including buildings from Diabolical Terrain.