Want to Try Historical Wargaming for Free?

12/1/2020

About a year ago, our club started to seriously consider how to lower barriers to entry into our hobby. If you don't have a local club nearby, starting to play historical wargames can be a bit intimidating. There are a lot of questions--what era of history, what scale, which figure manufacturer, what rules?

What makes these questions even harder is that there are no wrong answers! Historical wargaming is not a hobby industry dominated by one or two big companies--there are HUNDREDS of small companies out there. This is a wonderful...unless you're a new player. For you, all these choices can be a little bewildering. The guys here at Little Wars TV want to give new players a 100% free way to try entering the hobby!

We are proud to introduce you to ravenfeast!

Ravenfeast is our attempt to get new players started in the historical wargaming hobby with a free gateway guide. This 40-page, professionally illustrated book includes a very quick set of rules, painting guides, terrain tutorials, starter scenarios, paper models (if you need them!), and a list of links and resources. Our goal is to get you started and set you on a journey to then explore new games and more advanced rules offered by other companies.

While this book is aimed at new players of any age, the guys in our club have been playing Ravenfeast for years. Even though we are veteran wargamers, there are some advanced and optional rules you can add to the game to make it a deeper experience. So no matter how long you've been in the hobby, we hope you'll check out this free resource.

16 Comments

Patrick

12/2/2020 07:25:50 am

Are you going to upload the Capturing Alfred the Great Wargame rules to the free stuff section???

LWTV

12/2/2020 08:22:53 am

You bet! Those are now linked and available to play for free!

12/2/2020 11:00:53 am

Thanks.Been a fan of the channel some time. Keep up the good work.

Kevin S

12/2/2020 02:16:52 pm

Although, this is not a period i play, i think this is a brilliant idea and I will possibly look at once i buy a few figures. I also, did enjoy the teams presentation of the game/sceniarios, Zach looks and plays the part ;)

Matt K

12/2/2020 03:44:55 pm

Very nice work on this! Looks beautiful. If I have one quibble, I’m not sure why you reversed the wording on cover rolls. I think it was easier to understand for new players when it followed the same logic as how the to-hit and armor-saves are worded (look for result or less for effect rather than look for target or higher for reverse effect)Great visuals and nice drawn graphics!

Andrew Fuller

12/3/2020 01:45:37 pm

This is excellent news. Something else I can use my plastic 28mm Dark Age figures for.

Geoff McHarg

12/6/2020 06:03:32 am

Hi all,
We played a Ravenfeast game today. Very fun. I got to use by Longship from Laser Dreamworks, so that was great. A buddy of mine posted a couple of Rules questions over under the Alfred section. Maybe take a look there and let us know what you think. If there was a way to upload photos here I would leave you a photo of poor Father Gregory being hacked down by the Merciless Danes.

Fun rules.

Geoff

12/10/2020 07:03:25 am

Email us any photos and we'll gladly post them!

Stepen

1/26/2021 11:21:31 pm

I need a longship or two for my 15mm and 25mm vikings. Who makes models for gaming those scales.

1/26/2021 11:43:24 pm

Hi Stephen, Peter Pig has produced a Viking game with accompanying Viking and Saxon figures, buildings, civilians and longships. The scale is 15mm, but there is also a range of 1:600 longships for campaign games. The 15mm ships come with sail and mast or sail down and a set of rowers. The ships also have a number of figureheads which can be fixed to the models to give variety. The Dark Age range can be found on the Peter Pig website. The rules are called Longships, and there are also some free paper sails for the longships to download from the site. Peter Pig products can be obtained directly from the UK or from Brookhurst Hobbies in the US. 28mm longships were being produced by Gripping Beast in the UK, but I am unsure as to whether they are still available.

David G Franklin

12/10/2020 06:13:05 am

A buddy and I tried a ~400pt game using Ravenfeast. It was easy and fun, definitely a "B&P" (Beer & Pretzel) game! As simple as they are, we did end up with a couple of questions/comments:
1. The QRS file is missing the end of a sentence at the bottom of the left column. When I realized this, I just printed the page from the rules, as it is fine (both versions), but figured you'd want to know.
2. Under Melee Modifiers, it says "-1 if engaged by more than one enemy (except when in Shield Wall)". Is this to a figure's Melee value or Armor value? The other two mods are explicit.
3. It seems unfortunate the "Unit Types" picture shows a Thrall with a shield, but then describes them as "Cloth armor, javelin" - i.e. no shield. Why unfortunate? In the Shield Wall rules it says "...Vikings armed with shields ... may form a Shield Wall." We had two thoughts (at the risk of being accused of overthinking...): 1) Thralls (even with a shield) cannot form/be a part of a Shield Wall (e.g. they're not trained well enough), or 2) utilize the Open Points Architecture and say a Thrall with a Shield has Armor = 2, and thus costs 11 points. Wondering how you guys play this? It seems Thralls that can form/be a part of a Shield Wall should cost a little more than the schlock who can't.

12/10/2020 07:07:40 am

Hi Dave--

1) Thank you! An eagle-eyed viewer pointed this out the day we release the game and we immediately fixed the QRS. You can go download the correct one anytime!

2) We should clarify this in the rules. It's a -1 to your Melee score.

3) Agreed, the photo isn't appropriate. We didn't even think about this, but Thralls should NOT be able to join a shield wall. We'll have to find a place in the rules to add a little note about this.

Thanks for the comments! We are still making minor tweaks leading up to the print version and these will make it into the revisions.

12/10/2020 07:27:07 am

Thanks for the reply. Funny - we noticed the ambiguity WRT multiple attackers after the game, we completely missed it while we were playing.

new wargamer

12/11/2020 09:02:50 am

Am a new player love all you guy's work great ruleset!

Gabriel Aquino

1/3/2021 05:22:40 pm

Ravensfeast is excellent are you going to publish new and free rules for any other time periods that are as quick and easy to learn and use?

Daniel J Frohlich

4/24/2021 11:20:59 pm

played our first game tonight and we have a few questions for you...

1. death worthy of a song does not seem to take the tough trait into account. is it ignored? what happens to a figure with tough 2 when hit with death worthy of a song? a) he takes 1 wound token. b) he takes 2 wound tokens. c) he is dead. d) 1 wound and 1 raven token. e) 2 wounds and 1 raven token, 3) dead and raven token.
I think the answer is b and he only gets a raven token if the 2 wounds were enough to kill him.

2. Can you form a shield wall as your vikings move into contact with the enemy? I think not...

3. when a shield wall moves forward into contact with any enemy shield wall at an angle (not head on, that is the front of your wall strikes the corner of the enemy wall..) are any adjustments made? Perhaps a free wheel to match the front lines up? Rules as written I would say no.

questions about the "Pillage & Burn" scenario
1. does the defender have any chance to win? my players insisted thre was no winning strategy.

2. when a viking is looting a house, how many geld can they obtain? is there an upper limit how many can be looted or carried?

Want to Try Historical Wargaming for Free?

We are proud to introduce you to ravenfeast!

Leave a Reply.

You Made it!

Categories