It’s time to strap on your kite shield, call up your mercenaries and unfurl the papal banner – there’s a half-wild land over the sea and only The Bastard can tame it! We’re moving from the 13th to the 11th century with the Footsore Miniatures expansion to The Barons’ War – Conquest.
Before diving in, let’s thank Footsore for sending this over for review. Thanks team!
While The Barons’ War might be a little obscure to many Goonhammer Historicals readers, the period covered by Conquest absolutely isn’t. The 11th century – spanning the famous Norman Invasion of 1066 (and all that) – is the time of the Vikings, Normans, Late Saxons and Anglo-Danes, with Welsh, Scottish, Irish and Rebellious Angles thrown in for good measure. It’s a fascinating period to wargame and one that (rightfully) holds a lot of our attention when thinking about the early Medieval. It’s also a very popular one, with at least half of the Goonhammer Historicals team currently building or playing with Conquest era warbands for Saga.
So! Given that The Barons’ War core rules received a pretty glowing review from me, I wanted to turn my eye to Conquest to talk about what it is, what’s good about it and why I want to get the team playing it!
What Is Conquest?
Conquest is an expansion for The Barons’ War that comprises of new rules for retinues to extend the same ruleset back in time to cover the turbulent 11th century. It’s a slim PDF expansion rather than a book, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth picking up! Conquest features retinue lists for building warbands for:
Normans
Vikings
Anglo-Danes (as an option for Viking retinues)
Late Saxons
That covers the major players in the many conflicts and shifting political realities of England in the 11th century, from Saxons and Vikings clashing at the borders of the Danelaw, through Cnut’s Scandinavian Empire, the Norman invasion and the decades of fighting that followed. Each of these lists is a full set of units for the factions, much meatier than I’d expected from an expansion that’s digital only!
One thing that’s not in here is the Welsh retinue rules – available as a separate PDF expansion (for only a fiver) – and Scottish and Irish lists (which don’t yet appear to exist!). I’m a bit disappointed in that as the well-researched and well written introduction to the period talks extensively about what was happening in Wales, Scotland and Ireland, and the story of the Conquest particularly can’t really be told without the resistance to the Normans that arose from across the borders of Angle-land. Still, with that relatively minor but strange omission, the retinue lists that are in the book show a good deal of variation and open up a lot of gaming possibilities.
How Are the Warbands Different?
With the Barons’ War core rules working off an essentially symmetrical list (everyone’s the same in a civil war!), Conquest tweaks the standard unit profiles and abilities into four distinct retinues that will feel substantially different on the table. Within them there’s the characteristic flexibility and focus on making “Your Guys”, where Footsore give you everything you need to build wildly varying lists within loose “national” archetypes.
I think it’s done well, and provides four distinct armies that play differently, despite the fact that this is a period where mail, axe, round-or-kite-shield, describes every single combatant. Some of this comes in unit profiles and restrictions – Vikings don’t fight mounted, Normans have crossbows, Saxons can raise the Fyrd – and the rest of it comes in a set of very simple rules and abilities for each faction which drive home theming without radically changing the rules of the game.
The Vikings are an excellent example, with five faction specific abilities and two faction traits. Abilities can be given to groups and commanders and reflect not just the battlefield tactics but the cultural milieu of the Vikings. You can take traits reflecting the psychological impact Vikings had on Saxon settlements (Terrifying), their trade links to the Arabic world (Vast Network) and their meticulous choice of raiding targets (Planned Attack). The traits reflect a little of all of these, allowing Vikings to manipulate morale dice to make you just a little more unstoppable than your opponents might like!
In the other lists, Saxon conscripts will stand and fight as one (until they suddenly break), and Norman combined arms will hit like a ton of bricks. I like this approach; it’s simultaneously quite light touch and highly impactful without having to differentiate armies with wildly gamey approaches (Pagan Rus summoning Storms, I’m looking at you here). I think it speaks to a respect for and interest in the history and culture of the depicted groups that you don’t see to the same extent everywhere. There aren’t any negative or legendary traits and abilities, so this is a little more grounded in current scholarship around the period.
Heroes and Villains
It wouldn’t be a Barons’ War expansion without a focus on leaders, and Conquest provides well thought through profiles for such luminaries as Harald Hardrada, the Brothers Godwinson, Hereward the Wake and, of course, William the Conqueror. None of these are outrageously powerful but they do provide new retinue options, special rules and twists on the core lists that will add a nice bit of character and theming to your armies.
The character creation rules from The Barons’ War reappear here with additional options for abilities, and it’s a lot of fun digging into this to create your own warlords. The leader of my Normans – Enguerrand fitz Erpen – can finally stand on his own two feet as a particularly devious bastard, drawing on his experience in Sicily and southern Italy to lead his milites to harry the north. The customisation options are massive and really satisfying to dig into, expanded in Conquest with the addition of Champions – junior level hero commanders who can slot into other groups to provide a bit of additional choppy-choppy.
Why Pick This Up?
It all builds for a fantastic framework for playing smaller battles in the 11th century and around the Viking and Norman conquests with “Your Guys”. Applying the Barons’ War core rules to the period works seamlessly, the options for major combatants are there and the game itself is very narrative-driven. With a simple set of linked scenarios I can see having some fantastic fun with the Conquest expansion fighting from Hastings to the Borders and beyond. It’s all going to *feel* nicely 11th century, grounded and “real” (whatever “reality” means), enabling you to write your saga and deeds across the bloody fields of Angle-land.
Overall, I think Conquest is well worth picking up if you have 11th century armies (and who doesn’t?) and want to get into the smaller battles, customisable and narrative play that The Barons’ War offers. I think it’s missing some things that would make it a must buy – Welsh, Scottish and Irish lists would make this an entire century of conflict across the Isles in one handy package! – but what you do get is great, and I’m looking forward to fighting my way across rebellious Angle-land with Enguerrand and his Normans in the future.
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