Luke Payne of Hammer of the North is back on Kickstarter with a brand new Viking-themed wargaming project. Following on from Fjord Serpents, a game which we really enjoyed, we're diving into some larger land-based battles now with Blade Wrath: Fury of Vikings.

Blade Wrath: Fury of Vikings // Hammer of the North

Blade Wrath has been designed as a mass skirmish wargame that reflects the raids and conquests that took place in Scandinavia during the Viking Age. The game is based on the author's experience as a reenactor as well as a wealth of historical knowledge, researched to help replicate the raid-sized battles of the Viking era.

As with previous titles like Fjord Serpents, Blade Wrath gives you the breadth to customise your leaders, heroes and warriors with enough depth for you to dive into matched play and campaign-based games where your warbands grow and evolve over the course of multiple games.

Blade Wrath Rulebook // Hammer of the North

At the core of the game is the new Rulebook, which contains all of the core rules for Blade Wrath, plus rules for making your warbands, including four Viking subfactions and six unique warband types. This is then backed up by the Army Book, which gives you more options for playing the different armies that would have battled against the Vikings during this age.

Blade Wrath Army Book // Hammer of the North

I like that, in addition to all of the rules, Hammer of the North is making sure to include the hobby and historical articles within there too, so that someone starting out in Historical wargaming has a bit of a helping hand when it comes to painting and designing tabletops to suit the era.

Backing all of that up from a gameplay perspective, you can also get the Card Pack, which comes with information covering all of your miniatures so you can reference this rather than flicking back and forth through the rulebook.

Blade Wrath Card Pack // Hammer of the North

If this ends up being of interest to you (you can never have enough rules to try out), then you can check out a sample game below where they showcase how the mechanics of Blade Wrath work.

Blade Wrath // Sample Gameplay

As noted above, there is a lot of customisation in the way you build your warbands worked into the core mechanics of Blade Wrath. Twin that with action versus reaction combat, means that you're always going to be thinking on your feet. Gameplay has also been designed to match real-world battles, so it's frenetic and brutal. Don't just charge in without thinking about the consequences!

The game has also been designed to be fully compatible with Fjord Serpents, their naval wargame, so if you already own that, then you've got a head start on your collection for Blade Wrath!

15mm Scale Blade Wrath Miniatures

Blade Wrath has been designed to be scale-agnostic, so you can use whatever figures you like. However, Hammer of the North has produced their own range of 15mm miniatures so you can get stuck into the game using their extensive collection of Vikings.

Hirdmen Swordsmen // Hammer of the North

All of these miniatures from Hammer of the North are 3D printed in-house with a mix of resin that is both detailed and robust. They have even thrown spear-armed figures against the wall and they have survived, so that gives you an idea of what you're getting when these land on your hobby table.

Bondi Spearmen // Hammer of the North

All of the miniatures are also cleaned and prepared before they are sent out, so you should be getting miniatures that can be undercoated and ready to paint out of the package. You have an extensive range of different miniatures to choose from, including Hirdmen and Bondi armed with different weapons.

Bondi Archers // Hammer of the North

You even have some of the iconically "Viking" miniatures that everyone wants to add to their warbands and armies, the Ulfhednar. You can even get your hands on two different sets of Heroes, which allow you to add unique leader figures to your warbands.

Ulfhednar // Hammer of the North

You've got some unique options here that would be great for representing your traditionally martial heroes as well as others who perhaps take up a more tactical role. You could also use these miniatures as the command structure around your warlord, especially with the addition of skalds and seers in the mix.

Heroes A // Hammer of the North

Heroes B // Hammer of the North

If you're interested in how all of these miniatures come together to form a warband, you can check out the Kickstarter page, where Hammer of the North has gone into detail on how you can quickly form up a warband and then play around with how they work using the customisation options within the rules.

Blade Wrath // Miniatures and Models

There is also the video (above), which showcases more about the miniatures from Hammer of the North and what you will be getting when the Kickstarter bundle lands with you. The team behind the game clearly love what they do and has a real passion for the Viking Age. Maybe consider picking up the rules if nothing else to make use of the Viking miniatures in your collection!

What do you think of Blade Wrath?