BORDER SKIRMISH

Angles on the Left and the Saxons on the Right

England C. 590AD

The South Angles and the Middle Saxons of the South West of England began to dispute over the borders of their respective kingdoms, so it was decided that these matters would be settled in the old ways...
 

Turn 1 to Turn 3

Saw the skirmishers of both sides move out and take shots at one another, the Saxon Skirmisher (top most) takes an arrow to the abdomen (non fatal) from the Angle Archer, the Angle Archer in turn also takes a arrow to the abdomen (again non fatal), courtesy of the Saxon archer, the skirmishers with Javelins from both sides move even closer to one another and exchange deadly missile fire, the injured Saxon skirmisher already physically disadvantaged takes another hit to the abdomen area, this time with a javelin, this shot still doesn't kill him but the combined effects of both injuries put him out of the fight, he lies there with his life draining from him and wonders what could have been... meanwhile the other two skirmishers with javelins (two bottom guys) exchange fire and this time its the Angle skirmisher that takes a shot to the abdomen (non fatal) from the Saxon skirmisher, the Saxon seeing that he injured the Angle, draws his Seax from his belt and starts to rush the injured Angle, hoping to finish him off in an act of bravery.

 



 

Turn 4 to Turn 6

These turns see both warbands start to move towards one another while the skirmishers attempt to finish each other off, the Angle skirmisher (top of pic) sees the Saxon warband move slowly forward and decides to retreat a little, while the archers turn their attention to the incoming warbands, the Angle archer fires at the Saxon warband, bypassing a ceorl's shield and penetrating his right thigh, this injury slows the Saxon down to half speed, as he winces in pain, the Saxon archer also fires but into the oncoming Angle warband, unfortunately not getting any further than the fronts of their shields, in the meanwhile the Saxon skirmisher (bottom of pic) with seax in hand is charging the injured Angle skirmisher, he finally gets to his intended target, and in the ensuing struggle he manages to add another abdominal wound to the Angle, but it seems that he just doesn't want to die... 

 

 

 

 

 Turn 7 to Turn 9

 

The inevitable finally happens, both warbands finally clash in a violent bloody mess, in one round alone 7 people were either killed in action or were put out of the fight, some notable deaths include a spear to the throat, a hand axe to the head and an axe to the collar bone, slowly but surely the Angles start to run out of troops, by turn 9 the Angle standard bearer takes a two handed axe to the shoulder which collapes him to the ground in a bloody mess, the two Local Lords finally face off but come out evenly matched and the Angle Lord then looks around him and of his 6 men that still were standing 3 of them were heavily injured, so he calls a retreat, and gives the victory to the Saxons.

 

 

 

 

 

The Saxons managed to capture the Angle battle standard and either kill or injury most of the Angles, it wasn't all bad for the Angles though, as one of their Thegns killed three Saxons all by himself, it was a fun little encounter and a good way to test the core combat mechanics of my homegrown rule set, there were no formations used, or any battle tactics that resembled how they fought in the Dark Ages, it was purely a test to see how realistic the projectile and hand to hand combat felt, it turned out ok, it was fast, bloody and fairly well balanced, but there is still much tweaking to be done, thats all for now, more later. 

 

 End Results:  Saxon Victory

 

Middle Saxons

2 KIA

3 Wounded (2 died later from their wounds)

 

South Angles

4 KIA

8 Wounded (2 died later from their wounds)

 

 

VIKING BERSERKERS

Viking Berserkers were a Norse cult warrior class who historians believed would work themselves up into a raged state and would then charge the enemy lines in an attempt to hack their way through, one Icelandic historian described them in the following way:

"His (Odin's) men rushed forwards without armour, were as mad as dogs or wolves, bit their shields, and were strong as bears or wild oxen, and killed people at a blow, but neither fire nor iron told upon them."

After reading this description you wouldn't blame me for thinking these guys had consumed some kind of designer drug, if I'm not mistaken drugs like PCP, Methamphetemines, and even a Cocaine overdose can produce similar effects, even this new stuff called Bath salts (not the stuff you put in the bath) which I think is a Cocaine Methamphetemine cross is reported to produce an extreme version of these effects, but lasting longer than the others, hours and even days in some cases, fearlessness, superhuman strength, high level of aggresion, perhaps they came up with a Dark Age version of these drugs? either way, whether they were taking anything before battle or not they certainly left their mark in history.

WARNING

If you are reading this and know very little about drugs, what I dont mention in the above paragraph is all the other side effects that go with taking these types of drugs like extreme agression, agitation, paranoia, hallucinations, chest pain, suicidality, psychosis, and other stimulatory effects, this stuff is really bad news, you may end up harming someone or even end up harming yourself, so, stay well away from drugs... of any kind.

 

 



These miniatures are from Khurasan Miniatures and they are 15/18mm in scale, nicely posed, managing to capture the Dark Age Viking feel very well, they have plenty of character and there was minimal prep work involved in getting the miniatures to a primed state, the painting part as you know is the most enjoyable and these miniatures were no exception. More Vikings still to come.

SAXON CHAMPION - BEOWULF

This week I painted up a few more Saxons from Splintered Light Minis, Beowulf (pronounced bearwulf ) the Saxon Hero from Geatland (Scandinavia), slayer of Grendal (Troll / Giant) and Grendal's mother, this mini shall come in handy for some Mythological type skirmishes or I can simply use him as a Saxon Commander, a nice sculpt posed well, a pleasure to paint, for the shield I used LBM transfers.

I also painted up a couple more Saxon skirmishers, an archer and a Ceorl with Javelins, the guy with the javelins is a veteran of a couple of campaigns complete with bushy beard and cloak, again these are SLM minis and are 15/18mm scale.

MORE SAXON FRYD

We have more Saxon Ceorls this week, these guys will fill the bulk of the Fryd strengthening the shieldwall, theres not a whole lot to say about these guys, they would have typically been farmers working the land for most of the year, and taking up arms as needed in the defense of their homeland, in modern day terms they would be known as a militia, As with all my Saxons they are SLM miniatures 15/18mm, beautifully made and pretty easy to paint.

HENGIST AND HORSA

I painted up these two guys as special characters that I will use for my early Dark Age skirmishes, Hengist and Horsa were a couple of Legendary Saxon figures, it is said that these two guys originally served as mercenaries to the then High King of the Romano - British, Vortigern, they were hired to help stem the incursions of the Picts in the north who were sailing down the east coast and raiding the british from the south, and the Irish in the west, who were sailing across and raiding the north western british coast, in return, the british payed the Saxons and allowed the Saxon / Jutish forces to settle the Isle of Thanet and what is now known as the area of Kent. 

It was not long before trouble broke out between the Brits and the Saxons, the Saxons claiming that the Brits were not keeping to the original deal, and the Brits claiming the Saxons wanted to much of their land, in an effort to keep the Peace Hengist offered his daughter in marriage to the High king of the British, but during a peace meeting (everyone was meant to be unarmed) the Saxons butchered most of the British cheiftains, these events are now seen as marking the start of the Anglo Saxon invasion of Britian.   

Miniatures are 15mm SLM Anglo Saxon cavalry and the shields are 15mm  LBMS shield transfers.

1066 BATTLE FOR MIDDLE EARTH

I watched this movie the other night, '1066' dubbed the most famous date in English history, for those that have not seen this movie here is a quick summary,  this movie plays out from the perspective of a couple of Saxon Ceorls who are called up for service in the Fyrd (local militia force), they get marched up north to tackle the threat of the Vikings in two decisive encounters, the Battle of Fulford and the Battle of Stamford Bridge and then they are marched south again with whatever troops they have left to face the menacing Normans in the Battle of Hastings.

The movie is no 'Braveheart' and the acting is OK, but still convincing enough to enjoy, it has a basic plot with a couple of likable characters as leads, costume wise the uniforms are faithful as is the armour and weapons, but everything is to clean and shiny, in fact the documentary style in which it is portrayed almost leaves you thinking that this is a high budget reenactment ! but don't let that scare you off, if your into the Dark Ages, then get your hands on this movie, bang it on and enjoy what it has to offer..... 6.5 /10  

AGE OF WOLVES

Well, the last three weeks have been a bit of a challenge, I started painting a couple of items for two potential posts and only got half way through both before I picked up a nasty Man Flu Bug, this thing laid me out for a good couple of weeks, missing many days from work, and not being able to get even close to a computer, here I am three weeks later, and the mojo is starting to come back again.

Easing back into things, I started working on a Dark Age rules set, not that there is a lack of rule sets or anything, and not that I wouldn't try any other sets, of course I would, but I wanted to create a skirmish rule set that mimicked reality as much as possible, a rule set that encompasses everthing Dark Age combat stood for with lots of detail, I want the individual combat to be quick and bloody, and the realism as accurate as possible without ruining the Fun factor, the weapons must be reflected faithfully and they must function like there real life counter parts.

So much realism only means one thing, lots and lots of research, I wanted to run a quick test game this weekend gone by, but quickly realised that there were so many aspects of the rule set I had not resolved yet, this will need to be done as soon as I can, so far I have nutted out the game structure or sequence, I also have resolved all movement and have made my way through most of the projectile fire side of things, once I sort out projectile fire I still have to work out hand to hand combat and combat damage, once I am sorted on these issues I can run a test combat encounter to see how balanced things are, still lots of work and research to be done, I shall post more on this as progress is made.

GROWING THE FYRD

Managed to paint up some more Saxon Ceorls this week, they have come up well I think, everything from the colours chosen to the way they are posed, I really like them, this month is really turning out to be a Dark age month for me, I wouldn't be surprised if I end up finishing the whole Saxon warband, as mentioned in a previous post there is not that much more to do, let me see, 7 more ceorl warriors to paint up, 2 more skirmish ceorls, a Saxon war flag, a few cavalry (in two minds about this) and a couple of Saxon Heroes.
After the Saxons I think I will start on the Picts, I want to paint these guys to match their reputation, Barbaric and mysterious even by Saxon standards, but I don't want to do this at the expense of historical accuracy, I want to fulfill the above mandate but still have them look fairly accurate, any ideas out there? 

I watched Beowulf and Grendel on dvd (G.Butler version) the other night, this really bolstered the Saxon fire, Visually, the whole movie set up felt very authentic, weapons were spot on, armour and helmets looked very Saxony even right down to the small shaggy horses that were available at that time! good movie, if your into the Dark ages and haven't seen it, check it out, its well worth the watch.

Gerard Butler In 'Beowulf and Grendal'

 

SAXON WARLORDS

As promised, this post I am delivering a couple of Saxon warlords, a pagan battle standard and a horn blower, as with the rest of the Saxons, these minis are from SLM  and are 15/18mm, SLM sculpt some very good poses on their minis, very natural looking poses, which is a welcomed sight, these days there are way to many 'awkard' looking poses out there in miniatures land, there casting process must also be good as there is very little prep work needed to get their minis ready for painting, this is a big bonus for me, I think there is nothing worse than having to repair or adjust newly bought minis.

Only one way to settle a land dispute...

With my Dark age project, most of my skirmishers will probably take place in the earlier part of the Dark ages, so they will most likely be small affairs, One Saxon Lord disputing with another, or a Saxon Lord fighting off a cross border raid curtersy of the dreaded Picts or something like that, so I painted up two Saxon Lords that can be used together as part of a bigger warband or separately as two smaller bands, theres not many more Saxons left to paint, actually 6 to be exact, but, I recently ordered even more Saxons, a small cavalry group and more lads with spears, so I will keep plugging away for now, but we are not far from finishing the Saxons.

The last couple of weeks I've been a little side tracked, I started going to a new gaming group whom I believe are called 'Peninsula Praetorians' we meet up every Friday night at one of the guy's house and so far its been a real blast, with this new group I have played Ambush Alley's Enduring Freedom (played at the show), FOGN Field of Glory Napoleonic and for the next few weeks we are doing it Old school, we are play testing the new DnD rules called simply 'DnD Next', which feel very much like the Basic version of DnD (think Red box set) published by TSR but revised/ simplified by Frank Mentzer, which happens to be the set I played with when I was in School, all this dungeon dwelling could see my DnD Fantasy project revived, stay tuned for more.

SAXON SKIRMISHERS

Continuing on with the Dark Ages Project, I slapped some paint on four Saxon ceorls (churls) to complete a small group of skirmishers, I don't believe projectile weapons were a major part of Saxon tactics, a lesson they would learn at the battle of Hastings, but they were definitely present in battles from a historical perspective, so I will include a small group of them, again these are SLM miniatures and the scale is 15/18mm, up next will be some Saxon Lords / Rulers, maybe even a battle standard.

ANGLO-SAXON CEORLS

Next to march off the painting desk are four Dark Age Ceorls, pronounced (churls), these made up the bulk of a dark age Militia / Fyrd, if you were a freeman between the age of 16 and 60 then you were required to take part in military service that could be called forth by a local Thegn in times of crisis, these guys formed the basis of Anglo Saxon society, labouring away on the land and on the livestock, but would also have to participate in the general fyrd when the need arose, sounds like a tough life!

Each Saxon warband will have six Ceorls in service, so thats 12 Ceorls in total for both warbands to paint up, I dont mind painting these guys as there is plenty of colour and lots of variety, These guys are from SLM, they are 15/18mm scale and are pretty easy to paint with heaps of detail.

Have a look at the guy with the two handed axe, this guy towers over most of his peers, the majority of my other saxons only reach up to his armpits in total height ! no doubt he will assert his axe's authority over most of his enemies, probably my favorite Saxon thus far.

ANGLO-SAXON GESITHS

 I decided to start with the Anglo-Saxon war bands, I believe I will be painting up two small bands, so about thirty men in all, 15 men in each band, I was excited about getting into the 'Dark Ages' so I got stuck into it real quick, painting up a group of six Gesiths to start proceedings, for those of you who dont know what a Anglo-Saxon Gesith is...  basically it is a term used to describe an Anglo-Saxon nobleman in the early part of the Dark Ages in England, these guys were land owners and usaully had peasants or Ceorls working the land for them, Gesith's often also served as retainers to a king or a Lord.

so while I am talking about Anglo Saxon classes I thought I might aswell include this small table which offers a simplistic break down of classes at that time, this will help you guys follow what I'm saying when I use the proper historical names for the different classes:

Slave            Thrall      I may use these in my games.
Peasant        Ceorl      will be used as militia / light infantry.
Nobleman     Gesith    will be used as med inf, well trained.
Lord              Lord       unit leaders, well armed and armoured.

There were more classes than this but this is what I will use within my skirmish games, just to keep it simple and fun, basically warbands led by local leaders with all there troops. 

'Form a shieldwall !'

So, as metioned before these are 15mm (18mm) miniatures from SLM, good sculpts, good detail, I had a few mold lines to remove, and a few rough spots in the wrong places to smooth, they could do with more variety in there poses but outside of that they were fun to paint, and I can recommend them to whoever wants to get into this period at this size, more Saxons to come soon, stay tuned fellas...

                                                  

                  

THE DARK AGES

 'The Picts attacking Hadrians wall'

So this is my new project for the year, the 'Dark Ages', I will be concentrating/gaming the early part of the history, so to set the scene, here is a brief overview of what was going on at that time, around 410AD,

Roman military rule in Britain has been withdrawn by the Emperor, due mainly to barbarian pressures in Europe, these were taken to be the early signs of the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, Briton is left to fend for her self against a variety of invaders, there were the Picts from the north and the Irish-Scots from the west and to make matters worse the British high king of the time hired Angle and Saxon(Germanic) mercenaries to help keep the invaders at bay, in exchange for land and royal favor, but the Anglo-Saxons seeing a vulnerability decided to exploit it, they rebelled and took more land by force of arms, in the end becoming an invader themselves, history tells us that the Anglo-Saxons went on to establish kingdoms of their own in the southern part of Briton.

This is the time period and setting in which I will play some skirmish games, featuring war parties from the Anglo-Saxons, Romano-Brits, Picts and the Irish-Scots, all of this will be done in 15mm with all miniatures from Splintered Light Miniatures , the terrain I use will probably be my Tusk terrain, but I may make a Dark Age Saxon village or a Romano-Brit frontier fort as well, I will keep you posted.