More Vikings and Anglo-Saxons

Over the past few days I've slowly been chipping away at the rebasing project for the Vikings and Anglo Saxon forces.

First up the Vikings

I've enough for 8 units worth in Dux Bellorum or 2 divisions in Hail Caesar. I'm keen to expand by another 4-8 uiits but will wait till the new Victrix Vikings are released later in the year- which is when i intend to add some more lightly equipped Bondi units to the force.

The Anglo-Saxons

A smaller force. I've quite a few more metal Ceorls to base up but am replacing the old soft metal spears with plastic Fireforge ones and am awaiting for more to arrive.

Currently there are 3 units of Thegns- each base has 4 spearmen and a single axesman or swordsman as the plastic GB Saxon Thegns boxset does not have enough spears for everyone to be armed with a spear. I also had a few GB kite shields left over from the Gondor project so added those for more variety(and to help differentiate them still further form the Vikings).

The plan (in Hail Caesar) is to run divisions of 2x Thegns and 2x Ceorls as the core of the army.
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There is one of Huscarls armed with Danish axes to differentiate them from the rank and file.

I also painted up my last 20 plastic Saxon thegns to add two more units to the force.

Lurking in the background is 1.5 units of lighter armed Ceorls- I've only completed 1.5 units (3 bases worth) as I've run out of plastics spears at present. All the Ceorls are metal Gripping beast figures.

Both forces.

The Vikings

The Anglo-Saxons

Craig

Conquest Normans

My first four units of Conquest Normans are finished and ready for action- they are very nice figures. In the end I decided to stick with 3 figures per base to match what Kent is doing.












Craig

Gripping Beast Dark Ages Village

I ordered from War and Peace Games in Australia and they took less than a week to arrive- since the were out of stock on the GB site I was not sure they'd have any in stock but at $20 Aus or less + postage (fixed rate to NZ) they were a damn good buy!

I don't have much in the way of 28mm terrain and at present with so many figures to paint it isn't high on my priority to make any- although I am starting to think about ideas for camps. Anyway, these fill a much needed gap and I will probably add a few more of them in time, I am very happy with the price and the quality of the buildings.













All are painted with a mixture of test pots from a local DIY store.

I intend to make balsa doors for the two with open doors and also make a palisade and watchtower to complete the village- but I' not sure when these projects will get done!

Impetus- Vikings vs Norse Irish

Time for some revenge vs Kent and the Norse Irish with their nasty FL VBU 4, javelin armed bonnachts. Each army was about 300 pts

I had come up with a cunning plan- more skirmishers to screen more heavy foot and and big blocks of infantry to soak up the losses!

Norse Irish (quantity/unit/pts per base)

2	FL Nobles	19
8	FL Bonnachts	19
2	FP Mercenary Islemen	14
2	S Kerns	12
1	S Archers	12
	Viking Allies
2	FP Huscarls	15

Vikings
2	FP Guard Huscarls	26
2	FP Vet Huscarls- large	32
4	FP Huscarls- large units	26
2	FP Huscarls	15
2	S Archers	7
2	S Javelins	7

The Vikings got to defend. I split my command into two equal(ish) forces. I had a cunning plan- big blocks of infantry screened by skirmishers, with their flanks supported by smaller blocks of Vikings- what could go wrong?


Kent also created two commands- he used his best troops (Huscarls and Islemen allies) to secure his flanks and his bonnacts held the centre.


Kent's other flank.


The two lines advance.


My troops take some minor losses from javelins- thanks to the skirmishers. But I completely forgot about using a Shieldwall!


To show I'm not completely biased- a view from the Norse-Irish lines.


Vikings prepare to charge.


The first melee- Vikings vs Higlanders. Alas it was a draw with neither side taking any losses.


In the centre one of my guards huscarls pulls up milimetres short of the enemy- whose idea was it to send my best troops through the broken ground?


At last progress is made on my left flank- but discipline category C with no commander handy do struggle to get rid of disorder! (Hence all the red counters)


Kent's skirmishers backed up by noble bonnachts clear the bad going of my vikings!


Norse Vikings clash with their Norse-Irish cousins.


Having cleaned up some Norsemen the Norse-Irish Vikings advance on a very badly mauled unit of my vikings (only 1 VBU left)


Kent's other flank stands firm- and has hardly been touched. At this stage I was staring down the barrel of another routing!


My left flank may be on the verge of collapsing but nobody told the vikings at the top of the picture!


The first flank charge ever! My vikings had turned to face the Noble Bonnachts and were overwhelmed by the other bonnachts surging forward- as it turned it to win Kent the game!


The final postions.



The last couple of turns were bloody as my vikings finally started to do damage in hand-to-hand.

Final losses: Norse Irish 14
Vikings: 18

Kent was one stand away from also breaking and so this one was much closer than our last encounter and would have possibly been more so if I'd remembered Shieldwall! A fast and furious game with lots of losses on both sides- using skirmishers to screen my main units , while also using the big units of vikings almost paid off. I will deal to those nasty javelins armed Irish yet!

Craig

Vikings for Impetus

I've managed to paint up another two bases of Vikings tonight and two on Thursday night so now have 12 bases worth completed (or 72 Vikings). Tomorrow night's job is to finish basing these four stands. I still need another 4 stands for the Viking army and also another 4-6 for my Norse-Irish army.

My basing system has become a bit more complicated so takes longer than it used to.
1. Base figures- to make it easier I usually base 3 figures before painting and paint them on the base, the others are superglued to a spare offcut of MDF and are added to the base once all are painted.

2. Use Selley's Permafilla for texture and add either a few stones or barkchip to represent larger rocks (if I use barkchip at this stage I also cover the barkchip in a layer of PVA which seals it and also shrinks as it dries to give it a protective coating -an old trick learned painting Esci/Airfix/ Revell 1:72 scale plastics many, many years ago- the PVAs makes a flexible protective coat which paint will adhere to and not flake- an issue anyone who used to paint the old style plastics will not doubt be familiar with)

3. Once the permafilla is dry cover base in PVA and add a layer of beach sand with some larger rocks.

4. Once that is dry undercoat with a black interior house paint- test pot form local DIY store)

5. Dry brush with a dark brown (and dark gray for the rocks) followed by a drybrush of a light brown.

6. Add patches of static grass the base

7. Add clumps of Silfor late autumn grass and also some dark green Woodland Scenic clump foliage for contrast.

A bit involved but I like the finished product.

Here are a few pictures of the Vikings- I'll get some decent ones once the last four bases are finished.


In the foreground is the remains of a LBM transfer- I accidentally cut out a large shield transfer which was too large! What a waste!








Basing System
The bases are 8cm x 5cm- which is what I use for FP (foot protected- heavy foot), my lighter troops are on 8cm x 6cm bases. I now have settled on 6 figures per base 4-5 figures in the front rank with 1-2 in the second, it gives it a nicely animated look.

I have been tempted to make "official" Impetus width bases (12 cm) but our games on a 6x 4 table have found that 8cm (essentially the 15mm scales suggested widths) means we still get to use flanks a lot more than is possible with the larger bases on this size table- and I'm so far down the path with this system now I refuse to change!. If I ever play Jamie or Jason in Christchurch (they are starting to get into Impetus) I will either develop some sabot bases to fit these smaller bases on, or even add some 4cmx5cm bases with 2-3 additional figures to bring them back up to 12cm width. I really don't see it being too much of an issue. Kent is now working on his Crusader army and will be using the same basing system as me and since we are other only 28mm ancients players down here it doesn't matter what system we use!

Vikings, Saxons & Normans

More 28mm plastics have arrived- more Gripping Beast Vikings and the new Saxons as well as 3x boxes of the new Conquest Normans- I now have a serious backlog of 28mm figures to paint for my Dark Ages project!

I'm pretty impressed by the Normans- plenty of poses, in fact enough figures for 15 cavalry per box (only 12 horses though) and they will be used for a number of armies.

The GB Saxons seem pretty good too. I've so far based up 6 just to see what they look like and they make a nice shield wall. The two sets of GB plastics should interchange quite nicely for even more variety in poses.

My only disappointment with the GB Vikings in that I have just finished a base of metals and some plastics and there is a very noticeable difference in height, the metals stand taller than the plastics (some of whom are hunched over.

Conquest Normans


GB Saxons




Vikings on the left, Saxons on the right.


The closest figure in a BG plastic viking, the taller figure beside him is a GB metal viking.


From another angle, again the figure closest to the camera is plastic the other visible ones are metals- and much taller- although he squat pose on the plastic may account for some of the discrepancy! The flag comes from Ray's excellent collection at Don't throw a 1.