Victrix Miniatures are now taking pre-orders for the new English edition of Pillage, which they have worked on with their friends at Noodle Wargames. You can now pre-order the rules as well as four different Warbands for the game, covering the forces of the Viking Age.

Pillage Pre-Orders // Victrix Miniatures

Pillage throws you right into the middle of cinematic raids and skirmishes from the Viking Age, where you'll be racing around villages, setting fire to them or defending them, chasing down livestock to drag back to your boats or raiding monasteries to loot them of all the gold they have stashed away somewhere.

Pillage - Rules Preview // Victrix

This book focuses on the period from the 793 raid on Lindisfarne through to the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and that is echoed in the different factions and kingdoms you can play as in your games. The rules could also be tweaked to suit the Age of Antiquity and the Middle Ages if you prefer, but I reckon most folks are going to be diving right into classic Viking and Anglo-Saxon battles on the tabletop.

Pillage - Battlefield // Victrix

When it comes to your games, the focus is on cinematic action backed up by fast-paced mechanics that get out of the way and let you enjoy your skirmishes rather than pitched battles. Games take between one and two hours, based on the size of your army, and you'll be playing games on a 4x4-foot table. You'll normally find that your force contains between fifteen and thirty miniatures, which will be a mixture of infantry and cavalry depending on your faction.

If you're looking for some extra material to support Pillage, you can already download a series of free digital documents from Victrix HERE. You can also get the French version of the rules by Guillaume Rousselot HERE.

Pillage Warbands

As well as the new English rules for Pillage, you can also get one of four new Warband Sets from Victrix, so you can get started with Dark Age wargaming. You can get stuck in and pick up some classic factions from the period, like the Vikings.

Viking Warband // Pillage

The Viking Warband comes with a great selection of different figures, including bits for making your Warlord, the fearsome Berserkers and plenty of Armoured and Unarmoured Vikings that are looking for loot.

Facing off against them, you could pick up the Saxon Warband, which is a brilliant set with its own range of warriors armed with a myriad of different weapons.

Saxon Warband // Pillage

Pillage is a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) game, so you'll want to have a look at how you want to build your warband before you dive in, choosing their weapons and then building to suit. I like that the Saxons also get a Monk who could be doing a lot of running away.

If you want to fight out 1066 or the years after where the Normans were still skirmishing with a lot of angry Saxons then you can also get the Norman Warband.

Norman Warband // Pillage

Much like with the Saxons, this set introduces a few more mounted miniatures into the mix. You could also play out many of the skirmishes and frontier battles that the Normans got stuck into over on the continent as they expanded their influence under William the Bastard and his predecessors.

Last but not least, and somewhat out of left field, we also have the Rus Warband which comes with a bunch of hairy warriors from Eastern Europe.

Rus Warband // Pillage

This comes with a fearsome array of grim warriors and archers, elite warriors that you might find yourself sending off to the Middle East where they can fight in service of the Byzantians. Rules for the Rus can be found in this free download HERE plus more for the Magyars and Byzantines themselves.

Pillage feels like it's going to be the new hotness and we're very eager to try it out and see how it plays. I have a lot of Anglo-Saxons and Normans sitting in a box that could well see themselves heading back to the painting table for use in this game.

Which faction will you pick?