Dark days of the pandemic. I would wander the woods near my
house alone. The skies seem perpetually grey.
The world was silent, just the odd car making its way up the
road or seeing someone shuffle from house to house in a far
away St. It felt like the world was
ending. I looked on my phone and there I
saw it, a golden crown, and pressing the button that lovely
Aussie voice from Japan came shining through.
The crown of command had been born.
Once again I hear tales of heroes, Grom the Paunch, Felix
and Gottrick, the Emperor, Karl Franz, Tyrion and Teklas.
Heroes, I thought, long gone to the mists of time, came back
into my life. And this, the Crown of Command,
which has a community like no other, full of friends from all
around the world, all with a love of bright green tables and
shining bright paints. The Warhammer of the 90s is
back, and it's back because of the Crown of Command.
Happy birthday to you Pennbloid Happis this greatest of all pods
and may your dice always, always roll sixes accepting your route
tests because that would be terrible.
Happy birthday. Hello.
Welcome to the Chronic Event Podcast to celebrate five years
since it first started on the 5th of May 2020.
Wow, five years. I can't believe it and I want to
thank Owen again and and extend my greatest gratitude to him for
his enormous talent and time and dedication to the podcast and
helping me deliver amazing stories and helping me with many
of the videos on the chronic command over the many years I've
started doing that. And our collaboration and
friendship has been really valuable to me.
So thank you again, Owen, and I know that you bring a lot of joy
and happiness into people's lives, mate.
You really do. So and I know that the stories
you're going to read today for us because it's a bit of a
special Norse, you know, Viking special here on the credit
command for our anniversary. So I hope you enjoy the Bill
King stories that Owen will read for us a little bit later.
But for now, just a quick introduction to say.
And obviously thank everybody who's been a part of the Crown
of Command since it started. And that I hope that you enjoyed
listening to yourself if you're a guest coming on and being very
brave to come on. And initially, I think for many
people, it's, it's kind of a bit of a daunting thing coming onto
a podcast for the first time if you've never done it before.
And in many cases that's the that is the case.
They've not never done anything like this before.
But I think in doing that, I've made a lot of and forged a lot
of friendships and relationships and acquaintances with people
along the way, which has been really nice.
Today I'm going to be talking about like the North for Man O
War. And I think it's an overlooked
fleet. I don't see many people talking
about it. I don't see many articles
covering them in White Dwarf back in the 90s.
And I woke up 1 morning thinking, I'm sure I've got some
of those ships lying around there somewhere that people have
sent me. And I've, I felt bad that
they've just been languishing there and I thought I've got to
get them out and dig them out. And that sort of inspired me to
do this for you guys today because I think they're a really
interesting looking fleet. They're very pretty to look at
with their wonderful striped coloured banner sails, I should
say, and lovely Shields that are adorned onto the onto the side
of the ships on their hull, which looks really, really nice.
And they look like a really fun looking fleet to play.
So we're going to go and cover that and I'm going to read
through. It's actually kind of inspired
by Johnny Watson actually, because Johnny said the other
day when I was on his live stream saying that he was
listening to those solo podcasts I did about Man of War, which I
found quite kind of interesting because I mean, that was really
back in the early days of doing that.
It was literally like a Surface Pro and APS 4 headset mic and me
risk reading through a book. So I'm glad he found that quite
valuable. He's kind of interested in in
learning about the game and playing it.
So I hope this podcast gives people out there a little bit of
inspiration, if anything, to dig out their sets from the attic
and play it and take it out. Play with their kids, play with
their friends next door, get their wives involved.
It doesn't really matter. I think it's such a fun game
that I think anybody would enjoy playing it.
It's not really a, it's not really a serious game.
I don't think it's, it's more fun and, and in the spirit of
the 90s like Bill King, Nigel Stillman and Andy Jones, weren't
they? They were the they were the
three guys behind all this. And I think John Blanche did
some really nice concept drawings in White Dwarf quite
some time before it even came out.
So that's how long ago they were sort of thinking about Metal
War. It has stood the test of time.
It is. There is no other edition.
There is just one single edition that ever came out.
If you ever listen, listen to my Mel Bose interview for the
Terrain Tutor. He has some interesting
information about it as well. So that was that was interesting
to hear. But I hope to cover Man of War
in more episodes in the future covering the two expansions plus
the Mac probably, I think the main rule book we sort of
covered before. I think I'll cover that with
Chris. I think, well, Chris and Cameron
covered it. I can't remember now.
It's all a bit of a daze. We're done about 990 episodes
and 190, let me just sorry, 119.4000 downloads for the
podcast and about 191 episodes. So I need to go and backtrack.
Sometimes I forget what we've covered and I don't want to do
it again. But doing it again doesn't
really matter because you know the new, new people coming in
and. All all all.
Listeners, they probably don't even mind so much.
So we should recap Man of War and go through those expansions,
the Sea of Blood and Play Fleet. So do a lot do love a bit of
Play Fleet. I do like my chaos in Man of War
very much so. But yeah, we should should talk
about those fleets, how they interact within the game, how
they play them, how to play them.
And there's lots of great 3D files out there, options for you
to start your own fleet and start Man of War yourself.
But without further ado, guys, let's get on with the show.
Enjoy it. And thank you so much again for
your listenership, your patronage, and for those who
have been in contact and still in contact with me, thank you
very much for your friendship. The Crown of Command is proud to
be sponsored by Scott at Black Arrow Minis.
Scott has a range of second hand miniatures from several
manufacturers which include Citadel, Grenadier, Ralpatha,
Battletech and many more. Collections that I enjoy pouring
over are the old Perry Empire, Ally Morrison's Marauder Dwarves
and the old metal models for Epic Space Marine.
So go take a look today and head over to Scott's website at
www.blackarrowminis.com. The Norse Raiders The northern
regions of the Old World suffer from extremes of climate and
geography unlike anywhere else. The dense, dark forests, high
barren mountains, icy seas and long winter nights conspire to
make life here both hard and short.
This cruel land is home to the Norse race of men that are as
fierce, brutal and unforgiving as the landscape itself.
Because little grows upon the rocky soil of the North.
The North have traditionally turned to the sea for their
livelihood. Their kingships and long ships
set out for the shores of Albion, the coasts of the Old
World and even further afield, bringing warriors to pillage and
extort what they require. Occasionally they will trade
with other races or hire themselves out as mercenaries in
return for goods, but most of the time they will simply fight
to get what they want. It is said that the Norse love
war song and ale, but most of all they love war.
All welders tell horrifying tales of these berserk warriors
from over the Sea of Claws, looting and burning from their
dragon headed vessels and ravaging the northern coasts of
the Empire and Kislev. The Norse are known as excellent
sailors and fearless warriors, given to great voyages and
adventures. The most wayward of the North,
Raiders have sailed as far as Othwan and the Southlands,
bringing home tales of strange lands, immeasurable wealth and
wild creatures. The Norsemen skills make them
ideal recruits for any Navy. Norse warriors are found
fighting for the highest bidder in many sea battles, and
Norsemen's first love is battle, whether it is as a mercenary, an
ally or as a follower of the plague fleets of Chaos.
Long ships excel in boarding action and are fairly fast,
being able to move under both oars and sail.
Each carries many warriors. Every man aboard is a
bloodthirsty fighter, able to turn his hand equally to or or
sword. The Norse scorn the use of
cannons aboard ships, keeping them as light as possible for
greater manoeuvrability. Nor ships Norse ships make a
useful addition to your war fleet if you plan to get stuck
in with some heavyweight boarding actions.
They're generally used as allies for other races, but if you want
to have a fleet made-up entirely of Norse ships, we've included a
Norse fleet list. There are two types of Norse
ship, the kingship, which is a man of war, and the Long ship
was the ship of the line. They are similar in appearance,
but the Kingship is much more powerful in battle.
Unless specifically contradicted here, all the normal.
All the normal man of war rules apply to NOR ships movement.
NOR ships have a very shallow draft.
They can sail in dangerously shallow waters and beach on
remote shores without damaging their hulls.
To represent this, the normal rules for running aground are
slightly different for north ships.
If a N ship passes over any part of a sand bank, rocks or coastal
section of an island, it must end its movement for that turn
and you must make a below the waterline, saving through.
If you fail, you must roll in the following table.
Roll of 1/2 below the waterline hits, two to five, one below the
waterline hit and six. No damage at all.
Any N ship that starts the battle phase aground may attempt
to move off by rolling a die. On a roll of a three or more,
the ship may move away freely. If you roll a one or two, the
ship is stuck fast and stays where it is.
It doesn't take any more damage and may try and move again next
turn. Combat N ships have no range
weapons at all, so all they can do during the battle phase is
move and board other ships. As it happens, they're very good
at boarding actions. Kingships Kingship crews are
made-up of a number of different warrior classes.
Though all are soldiers first, sailors second.
This doesn't mean they are poor sailors, far from it.
The Norths are amongst the most accomplished seafarers in the
known world. What it does mean is that given
the choice between a long voyage or taking part in a bloodthirsty
battle, the fight would win every time.
Norsemen who take to the seas in search for treasure, glory, and
war are usually one of the following four warrior classes,
Alpha, Werner, Berserkers, Bondsman, or Huskals.
The Norse warrior counter supplied replaced the normal
Manor war crew counters, which are not used for Norse
kingships. Norse warrior counters act in
exactly the same way as crew counters in that they add +1 to
your boarding action dice roll, but they also add additional
bonuses as detailed below. Note that anything that affects
a crew counter in the Manor War game, such as magic or critical
hits, will affect the Norse Warrior counter in the same way,
with the exception of their special.
Rules. They are the.
Same as normal crew counters. Wolf werewener.
Wolf werewener means wolf warriors and is the word used by
the Norse to describe those members of their society who are
able to transform their shape into a grotesque half man, half
wolf. Such individuals are quite
common in northern Norska where whole families of these
werewolves live in the forest settlements.
Orpha Warner much feared throughout the old Warhammer
world as fearsome fighters, whether in man or war form.
The black and terrible deeds of the Orpha Warner over the years
have led to many of the horror stories about the Norse and have
given them a well deserved reputation for ferocity and
battle. Awful Warner special abilities.
If the awful Warner are leading a boarding action, roll the dice
on a 1-2 or three. They enter the battle as normal
crude and have no extra effect on the result of the boarding
action. Boarding dice rolls.
On a 4-5 or six, they leap into the enemy vessel as rabbinings,
slabbering giant walls and add +1 to your boarding dice rolls.
In addition, your opponent must roll a dice for each of its crew
counters. On a score of A1, it jumps
overboard to escape the walls and is discarded.
Berserkers. These lawless, near
uncontrollable warriors are considered maladjusted even by
other Norse warriors. Before a fight, the berserkers
work themselves into a battle frenzy, ripping and biting at
their own clothes and war gear. In this state, they're highly
dangerous not only for the enemy, but sometimes their own
side. A ship that has both awful
winner and berserkers aboard is a fearsome opponent indeed, and
any ship coming too close is likely to be boarded and
captured with ease. Berserker Special Abilities If
the berserkers are leading a boarding action, roll a dice on
the following table before the boarding action starts, and
again for each subsequent round of the action.
Roll 1 to 2 -. 1 D boarding dice.
Roll 3 to 4 + 1 to your boarding dice.
Roll 5 + 2 D boarding dice roll and six roll again and add that
number to your boarding dice roll.
Bondsman Bondsman normally make up the majority of warriors
aboard A longship. They are fierce fighters and
show their few qualms about laying down their lives in
battle. Bondsman special abilities that
if they are leading the combat, Bondsman give an additional plus
one to aborting dice rolls. Whether the Norse are attacking
or defending Huskals, Huskals are the household troops, the
Norse Lords. They are maintained and well
equipped by their masters and are fierce, loyal and frenzied
fighters. When a Norse Lord takes to the
sea, the Huskals will go with him.
They fight alongside him and share his fortune, be it good or
bad. Huskals are the defenders of
their household banners and will fight with grim, determined
nation to repulse anyone who boards their lordship, giving no
thought to their own lives in their efforts to destroy their
adversaries. Huskal Special Abilities Huskals
give a + 1 to boarding dice rolls whilst leading an attack
and plus 3 when leading a defense.
Using Norse Warrior Counters At the start of a game, separate
the Norse warrior counters and place them in a cup.
Give the cup a good shake to shuffle up the counters and then
take 4 for each kingship in your fleet.
Before a boarding action, choose one of the counters.
This is the warrior class that is leading the fight.
The crew get the benefit of this warriors class special abilities
During the combat where there is an attack or a defense.
The boarding action gets the normal dice roll plus the number
as usual, plus the special of the leading warrior class.
For example, a long ship has four Norse warrior counters, 2
berserkers, 1 huskals, and one bondman.
During the game it attempts to board an Empire wolf ship from
the starboard side. The Norse player decides that
the berserkers will lead the attack.
The Norse player gets a dice +41 for each Norse warrior counter
in the attack and rolls a three, giving a total of seven.
He rolls another dice to see what effect the berserkers have
on this total. The result is 4, which means the
berserkers give an extra plus one to the boarding dice roll
for a total of 8. The Empire player gets a dice
plus three because he only has three crew counters and rolls 4,
adding plus one for the broadside cannons, and therefore
has a total of 8. The combat is a draw and both
players lose 1 crew counter. As the Berserkers were leading
the attack, the Norse player must discard one of his
counters. The initiative passes to the
Empire player, who decides to counter board the longship.
He rolls a three, adds +2 for his remaining crew counters,
giving a total of five. Note that as he is attacking, he
may no longer add +1 for the cannons.
The Norse player decides to lead the defence with his Huskulls.
He gets a dice +3 for the number of Norse warrior counters he has
left, plus another +3 for the Huskull special defensive
ability. He rolls A5 which gives him a
total of 11. The Norse win the round and the
Empire plays. Player loses another crew
counter. The Norse player decides to go
on the offensive again, this time with the remaining
berserkers leading the attack. He gets a dice plus three for
his remaining Norse warrior counters and rolls a three for
the total of 6. Rolling a dice for his
berserkers, he gets a 5, which gives him another +2 to his
boarding dice for a grand total of 8.
The Empire player now gets a dice plus one as he is only one
crew counter left. He rolls A5 which gives him a
total of 6. Although he can add +1 for to
this for his cannons, giving him a seven, he still loses the
fight. The Empire player is beaten and
the wool ship is captured. The Norse player boards it with
his bondsman and captures it as a prize.
This leaves him with his husk gulls and his remaining
berserkers on board his long ship.
Long Ships. Long ships are nor ships of the
line that accrued by thralls, the lower class of the Norse.
Despite their lowly status, thralls are are as bloodthirsty
as a Norse society and relish the chance to suspend the
monotony of their daily life for the excitement of battle.
When the Norse organise themselves for a major battle
and launch a full scale war fleet, it is the thralls that
make up the bulk of the fighting troops in the fleet.
Longship Special Rules Long ships are board as a squadron of
three ships. A squadron of long ships may
lash their vessels together to make a kind of fighting
platform. To do this all the ships of the
squadron must be touching each other at the end of the battle
phase. At the start of their next turn
they are considered to be lashed together.
While lashed together, a squadron of long ships may not
move under oars and has a sailing speed of 4 inches.
In the boarding action all the ships crews fight together. 3
ships lashed together will have 9 crew counters in total.
For example, ships that are lashed together must be boarded
as one vessel. You cannot capture one of them
independently of the rest. However, each ship may be
individually fired at and sunk within the normal limitations of
line of sight, etcetera. If a long ship that is lashed to
other long ships is sunk, its crew may move across onto any of
the other ships in the group as long as there is room for them,
IE at least one of the other ships in the group is at less
than 4 crew strength. Boarding Actions Long ships have
three normal crew counters and get no special bonuses in
boarding actions. They are not crewed by Orphaner,
Berserkers, Bondsman, or Huskarl.
Long ships are worth 2 battle honors.
Buying N ships. Any fleet may buy Norse ships as
allies. You may never have more than one
kingship for every squadron of ships or the line in your fleet.
You may never have more than one squadron of long ships for each
matter war in your fleet. If you would like the complete
Norse fleet, you may use the fleet list opposite.
So let's have a look at that. The North Fleet and N Fleet may
consist of the following Admirals flagship. 1A fleet must
have at least one kingship to be your Admiral's flagship, the
Admiral flagship. So the Admiral's kingship is the
same as other kingships in your fleet, except that it has 5.
N Warrior counters cost 100 points, Men of war, so they can
have one or more of these, and you must have at least one
kingship. Now you cannot have more
kingships than you have Ships of the line.
Squadrons cost 100 points per kingship.
Ship of the Lion Squadrons one plus at least one squadron of
three long ships. You cannot have more squads in
the long ships than you have. Man of War cost 150 points per
squadron. Wizards 1 Variable seat Wizards
and Magic Admiral 1 cost is free and Man of War cards one plus
cost one. The first card is free with the
Admiral's flagship subsequent cost of cards at 25 points per
card. So that's basically the rundown
of the North Fleet. I will now go through and have a
look at my collection of ships here and see what I can make for
1000 points for an upcoming Man of War battle.
So let's have a look guys. Leaning far out over the
Dragon's plow of his kingship ulfric Grondal shielded his eyes
from the spray and pulled his furs around him.
Four months earlier, he and three other captains had set
sail from Norska in search of booty, plunder and more
hospitable climes. 3 kingships crammed with proud Norse
warriors and their war gear and with enough supplies to last any
eventuality. The legends of the Southlands
beckoned them, telling of riches beyond measure and they were
theirs for the taking. No one could have foreseen the
wild shifts in temperature and the changes in the weather as
the ships had skirted the seas of chaos, nor the all consuming
storms which ravaged the fleet, ripping sails from masts and
snapping oars as if they were much wood.
No one had expected the distorting effects of these
dread waters on the fabric of time itself and its effect on
the men. The three ships had drifted
through storms and had been be calmed for months.
Disorientated, tired and hungry, the proud warriors had run the
gamut of emotion from frustration and wild eyed anger
to despair and hopelessness. Now all thoughts of the
Southlands were gone from their minds, their only hope lying.
Finding land, any land, after months at sea, the Norsemen
resembled wild men or animals. Their furs were matted, their
chainmail battered and rusty, their faces weather beaten and
their hair straggling and unkempt.
Squinting through the murky fog bank, Alfred's suspicions were
confirmed. He spotted the hazy outline of a
headland no more than two leagues distant.
Turning to face his crew, he cupped weather calloused hands
in front of his mouth to help his words carry over the crash
of the waves and the harsh shrieking of the wind.
Land ahead lads, make fast for beaching.
The words had a profound effect on the crew.
Where they had been tired, beaten men rowing mechanically
with no aim or direction, now there were ranks of steely eyed
warriors shrugging off their fatigue as if waking from a
terrible dream. A wild looking warrior clad in
thick matted furs leapt up beside.
Ulfric, where are we by your reckoning, Lord?
He addressed Alfrick, his eyes gleamed in anticipation.
Alfrick pointed towards the land now scarcely 10 ships length
away before replying in a fierce whisper.
I know not, Haftag, but be sure that whatever lies on those
accursed shores will feel the wrath of the Alfan Wana before
the day is out. Hafta grinned wildly, revealing
sharply pointed canine teeth. Throwing his head back, he let
out a year splitting howl, a feral hunting scream that any
might hear as one voice. His hunting pack in the bows
replied, and the sound of howling carried over the water
from the two other long ships. Soon swords were drawn and
Shields buckled on, and all thoughts of fatigue or despair
were forgotten. The Berserkers were nearly
uncontrollable, their hideous war cries joining with a rising
battle song of the Hascals and bondsman standing ready at their
battle stations. As the hulls of the ships grated
on the sands, Ulthric could see no sign that any alert had been
raised by the inhabitants of this gloomy island.
The Norse warriors leapt over the side into the freezing waist
high waters. As the ships ground to a stop.
Fog swirled about them and a sharp tide tugged at his legs,
but Alfred laughed and led his men up the beach towards the
lights. With swords drawn and battle
lust cursing through their veins, they ran.
There were over 100 Norse warriors in all, as fine a
fighting force as would be seen anywhere in the known world.
The shadowy forms of the werewolves bounded ahead of the
main force, closely followed by the screaming, enraged
berserkers. The lights of the building
loomed near, and through the fog Alfredk discerned a wall.
Beyond it huddled what could be a monastery.
Pale lights gleamed in the windows, and a sad, mournful
chanting carried on the wet air. Alfrec urged the berserkers to
smash down the stout gates. Take the gold from their foul
gods and sack the monastery. It's their curse which has
caused such a hardship and now they must pay.
Elfrick's voice was a frenzied roar, urging his warriors to
heedless violence and retribution.
Time to take a swig out of the bubble there and to make our
lists. Now.
This list will be for 1000 points of Norse and I'm really
looking forward to. I'm quite excited about it.
I think I had the idea when I woke up 1 morning, I thought,
hey, and I've got some N ships down there and somewhere in the
box, bottom of my box there. And I'm going to say a massive
thank you to Cameron and Courtney for just donating them
to me, which is amazing of them. And it allows me to now
construct a fleet and I can present it on the YouTube
channel. And my intention is definitely
to play it. I don't know if I can do it this
month, but definitely in the near future, take it to the high
seas and play it against one of the other guys with another
fleet. And they're really colourful
looking fleet as well. I love all the tiny little
Shields on the outside of the that sort of flanked the top of
the, of the longship and king ships and how the studio paint
them with all the different kinds of designs, quartered
them, half them. And and they're really, really
quite nice. And the sails sort of remind me
of asterisks and go tricks, that kind of thing, you know, So
yeah, it's kind of really fun to put this all together.
So for our thousand points, we have the Admirals kingship, of
course, are coming at 100 points and then we have two other kings
ships. Now I can't take more kings
ships than long ships. I actually got a fourth one, but
I only have 3 squadrons of long ships, which are my sort of, you
know, ships of the line. So I can only take a maximum of
three. So I've got the Admiral,
kingship and then two other king ships with their crew.
Now the king ship for the Admiral can take 5 crew and the
other two king ships can take 4 crew.
So I've got the crew in this little bag here.
So I put all the counters in here.
I'm going to draw them at random.
That sounds like a really fun process for every time you play
Norse. So former Admirals kingship, his
first crew counter is berserkers.
OK, that's a good start. OK, that's the first one.
The second one is berserkers beautiful.
OK, it's a very berserker heavy Admiral ship.
OK, next one Huskalls. Cool.
That's my third one. The 4th 1 is huskalls.
OK, they're sort of competing with each other there for the
for the Admirals love I think. And the last one is if I can get
it out things something stuck to my husk skulls again.
Wow. OK Huskulls have dominated.
So there's my 5 tokens for the for the Admirals kingship.
OK, so for the next kingship now Liang at 4 crew this time.
So the first one is bondsman. OK, here we go bondsman.
I'll have to record everything as well.
Of course. Berserkers.
That's good. We want the Berserkers, but I
know the Berserkers and Huskals and not, not not the best
combination, I don't think. Bondsman.
That's the third one for the first Kingship.
We're gonna make some names for these guys and Berserkers.
So a mix of the two equally. OK, Kingship.
OK, the first crew counter is Huskals.
OK, now there are four different types.
If just in case you're wondering, I'll put them all in
there. So next one Ah, here we go awful
winner. OK, so the awful winner
represented finally for the second kingship third token is
bondsman. OK, so it's got a nice mix so
far. Can we get the the 4th one
there? Awful winner.
OK, so they've got more awful winner than the other ones.
OK, so that's all the crew that have that have drawn now.
So as part of that the Admirals kingship gets a free Man of War
card. So I've got Man of War card
here. You can probably hear me
shuffling in there near the microphone and let's draw one of
these at random. I'll just take one in the
middle. What we get?
Oh no villainous crew. The ship carries a company of
condemned convicts, and cut throats are always thrown into
the front line of any boarding action.
The convicts. The convicts give plus one to
your boarding dice roll, and this card may be given up
instead of losing a crew cutter if you are beaten.
OK, well actually that's not too bad.
I thought it was really bad at the beginning, but they should
be all pretty good. So I don't think we're going to
get beaten. But you never know.
With two Berserkers and three Haskells, you never know.
So I can use this to to stop me from losing, so stop losing a
crew counter if you're beaten. So I can I can take the visit
Villa villainous crew, sacrifice them instead of sacrificing one
of my great Haskells or Berserker crews.
OK, so I have actually purchased two more Man of War cards.
I hope the draw's going to be better for the other two.
Now the first kingship, I'm going to make names for these
ships as well. Maybe you have some advice on
those. The first one, Master Gunner.
OK, now it's got guns. Now the cards have guns.
Crew and armour like like you know, as in terms of if you can
get extra armour plating or something on your on your hull
or something. I think they're called hull
cards. Actually now, as they don't have
any guns, I can't take this one. So I'm going to have to discard
it and draw another one. What's this one?
Guns OK, discard. OK.
Special magic standard. Oh yeah.
OK. Flying proudly from the main
mast is the great of this great vessel is an ancient battle
banner endowed with magical abilities.
This venerable banner battle banner brings good luck to the
ship throughout the battle. You may re roll any single dice
roll affecting this ship per turn.
OK, so that's on the second king ship.
All right, now the last card I'll draw.
What's it going to be? Guns.
OK, discard hull fire pumps. This ship, It has roof
revolutionary equipment mounted on its builders, rudimentary
beam engine driving a pump for putting out fires.
It is linked up to hoses capable of directing volumes of sea
water onto any fire which breaks out on the ship during the
battle. In the end phase, on each turn,
roll the dice for each blaze on board.
On a score of 5 or 6, the blaze go out.
OK, so they're all legitimate cards I can take and I'm just
going to fix those to the to the ships.
I'm not going to mix them around.
I suppose that's probably a choice that you can make.
I prefer to draw them for each ship as you do it that way you
don't have that, you know, they have to be all random and they
have to be randomly assigned. I think that's better than
having to randomly draw them and then assign them to your ships
are kind of like that. So you just sort of you just
sort of fix with that and you just got to deal with it.
So but yeah, that's not a bad one.
The magic standard is a really good one.
It's a re roll and that's for the bondsman berserker ship.
So that might come in handy. And the fire pumps is a good one
to you because you do get blazes on your ships and it's a real
pain that it's so hard to get them out because you're
basically hoping and praying that they don't spread and that
you roll. I think it's a one.
And then they extinguish themselves naturally.
But yeah, once the once things start ablaze on your ship, it's
a real, real pain and it just starts spreading and causing
more damage to your ship. So, OK, so I'm happy with that
draw. We've got our crew, we've got 3
squadrons of long ships, which is nice.
And I looked look forward to sort of grouping them all
together. They'll be quite a powerful
squadron there. And then I had some points
leftover because that that in total was 450 for the squadrons
and 300 for the king ships to bring it to 750.
So I decided to buy Master Wizard because I can get access
to a wizard, which is really cool.
I think Man O War does play really nicely with Wizards and
it's not too powerful. You only get one spell per turn
to cast and casting it can be really difficult.
So, and there's also also that very slim chance that will be
dispelled by your opposing wizard if they have one.
So I bought that for 100 points. It's a master wizard and you got
to, you got to randomly assign what college the wizard's going
to be. I'll do that before the game
starts. So and then I'll get the cards
and, and all that kind of thing, the spell cards.
So that brought us up to 850. Then I've got the two metal
cards that brought us to 900. So I had 100 points left in the
Kitty and I thought, well, I'd really like to take sea monsters
when I can. I think they're really fun, but
not too many. I think we've, I think we've
had, we've had our experimentations with sea
monsters. And I think if you take too
many, they can be too powerful. So I think 1 is just fine.
And there's always that chance that they, you roll that double
and they just disappear to the seabed and, and to the corner of
the seascape or whatever. So you always get that they're
always a random sort of gamble in most cases.
So I took a sea elemental. Now the sea elemental should be
not the strongest one, but I thought it fitted the IT fitted
the theme of the Vikings because along the, in that in the
treacherous seas that they are during the times when Vikings
were around historically, yeah, they they and their belief in,
in their, in their gods and that kind of thing.
The the, the sea was at their mercy really.
Or they were mercy at the sea or, or Mother Nature.
So I thought the sea elemental would be a really nice one
because yeah, it uses the sea to basically damage other enemy
ships. So it's pretty good.
It's got 3D33 dice inches in movement rate.
It's got 3 wounds, which is not a lot, and you don't really want
to get it boarding anything because of three wounds you're
going to lose it pretty quickly. But to hit it is 5 or 6 and it's
got a 5 and 6 saving through. But it's worth 4 battle honors,
which is huge. So I've got to make sure it's
well protected. But it does have a couple of
special attacks and CCC Elementals are immensely
destructive and have control over the seas that surround
them. They can bury their opponents in
tidal waves or summon storms, whirlpools and hurricanes.
They often fall upon their victims as a mighty deluge,
sweeping them from the decks and sinking their ship after it has
finished moving. This sea elemental may either
create a tidal wave or try to change the winds direction.
So if you choose the tidal wave attack, choose any ship within 9
inches of the Sea Elemental as the target and roll 4 dice.
If you roll any double s, the target is swamped under tons of
water. All fires on it are put out
immediately. I don't know if that's a good
good good good attack really. And it takes A4 dice attack.
Now I'm assuming you can either take low or higher high if they
if they have locations on their ship to do that.
Of course you want to take low to try to.
Especially on damage locations, so you can get some extra
critical hits. And so that one's not bad.
A4 dice attack is pretty powerful.
And then it's got changing the wind direction.
So roll a dice on a result of five or six.
You can move the wind compass so it is blowing in the direction
of your choice. So we'll give him a go.
Like I haven't painted him yet. He's part of another set.
And that's the, I've got the Beasts of the Deep painted.
Where are they? I can't see them now, but
they're they're on my shelf somewhere.
But I think because they're the beasts of the deep, I think
monsters of the deep. It's a 5 set one in that one.
So yeah, I'm, I'm really looking forward to painting them.
I love painting the other ones and I can't wait to paint the
other one, the other set and complete them.
So that brings back to 1000 points and yeah, let's just give
it a go. I mean, playing Man O War is a
lot of fun and I don't care if I lose.
Well, it depends. It depends how you lose.
I played against cast wars twice now I'm I'm still not giving up
on I'm trying to trying to beat them, but both times have been
absolutely pulverized by them and I haven't even got in got
into boarding action with them. So but I was against dwarves.
So we'll have to give them a go again and put them on the
channel too. I don't know if we've had them
on the channel before. Maybe we did.
I can't remember now, but Paul's got that fleet and yeah, they're
super, super tough. So I was going to go nasty and
dirty and take Dark Elves next time.
But then I just don't think that's going to work either.
So I'd have to, I'd just have to think of something that's that's
going to be up to their level. I think maybe, maybe, I don't
know, I should maybe take Chaos and Chaos magic.
Maybe that might be sort of evening out the score in terms
of what I can do to it magically, because in scathing
is probably not a bad choice as well.
So we'll see. Anyhow, look, I hope you enjoyed
that might me drawing up the tokens.
I thought it was a lot of fun and I'm going to record that on
my sheet now and let's hope and let's start painting the
miniatures and everything. I hope to have some photos up at
some point on the channel and on Instagram as well of that of
that fleet finished. And yeah, it's gonna look
really, really pretty. So and I'm really looking
forward to playing them because I do like the idea of just, you
know, like scave and we just have like tons of crew and
they're just like, you know, these violent killers.
And as and as soon as you board something, it's just, you know,
it's just a foregone conclusion most of the time anyway.
So, yeah, look forward to that. And now, guys, I'll wrap it up
here today. Thank you so much again for
listening. Thank you so much again to Owen
Stayton for his amazing renditions of these Bill King
stories. I absolutely love them.
And I, I loved his intro as well, which was a really nice
surprise to send his birthday wishes to the crown of command.
It was beautiful. So thank you, my friend.
I really appreciate it. And as I've always said, I'm
very lucky to have you on board helping me out with this and
yeah, to, to, to be a friend of yours, if anything.
So it's been really lovely, mate.
OK, guys. Well, let's hope for another
five years, eh? Let's have spin up some content.
I'm trying to get some, some interviews with people.
I've got some epic podcasts coming back.
We've got some Warhammer deep dives.
I want to go grab some more people that I've met through
YouTube on here as well. And, and I want to do some 40K
second edition discussions or find people who want to do that
with me and who want to collaborate like the guys are
doing with the deep dives and Warhammer.
They know a lot more about it than I do.
I don't know much about 40K second edition, to be really
honest with you. So it'd be nice to get some,
maybe some Aussie voices. We'll have to see after get in
contact with a few guys and and ask them if they want to jump on
board with that. But until then guys, I'm sure we
have years of podcasting coming to your ears as you paint and as
you commute. But until then, let's just get
to 200 episodes, eh, We're all, we're pretty much, we're very
closely, I think we've got another 9 episodes to go and we
hit the 200 mark. So we're looking forward to
that. Until then guys, take care of
yourselves and I'll catch you again in the next one.
The gates collapsed inward under the force of the blows, and the
Norsemen streamed into the darkened courtyard beyond.
Dimly lit figures emerged from the building, their heads bent
as if in prayer. Not one of the Norsemen noticed
the great gates swing shut behind them, so intent were they
on revenge ulfric ran at the head of the berserkers,
screaming with rage and hate. Reaching the cowled figures, his
great sword fell in a glittering arc as it thudded into them
again and again. In a few seconds, it was done.
Alfred and his men stood panting amongst the bodies of the
priests, the mist swirling about them.
No, Rasped Alfric. Now we burn the monastery and
take the gold within Dime Dal. You and your huskals take the.
Alfric's voice was cut off abruptly as he felt something
cold and hard grab his leg. He stabbed at it with his sword.
Then the fog cleared for a moment, and ulfric screamed.
He stared at the rictus grin of a long dead skeleton whose
grasping fingers had a firm grip on his ankle.
Around him, the cowled corpses began to move.
His men backed off, fear in their eyes.
Around the Norsemen, the earth was moving, fingers poking
through the soft soil like worms surfacing after a rain shower.
Make for the ships. This is the island of Lord Moore
himself. Elfrich shouted.
He knew he had to stop the retreat becoming a route.
Grabbing the skeletal hand at his ankle, he held it aloft and
hurled it into the air. Stick together for our sword,
smash bone as well as flesh. He shouted, grinning at the
nearest warriors. Taking heart, they regrouped and
began a swift retreat to the gates.
But the gates had been locked behind them, and this time,
Alfred realized, they would not open so easily.
All around, cowled figures staggered towards them through
the fog. Form a shield wall, he cried.
If we are to die, let us go to the gods with honour, standing
on a pile of bones and broken skulls, unfurl the banner and
sound the war cry. We are Norsemen and will not be
taken easily. Ah.
Hello my friends, my name is Owen.
If you enjoy what I do, why not follow my podcast, Time Between
Times, which tells myths, legends and ghost stories from
all around the world? Or you could buy me a coffee at
coffee.com/owen Staton or become a patron at patron.com/owen
Staton 7. I'm also available for any voice
over work you might want doing. Go to welshstoryteller.com and
get in touch. The Arthritis.