Longships Campaign - Spring Update

We now have all the pledged units in with the addition of the final Viking army (MS).

Pledged units:
General Egil the Grumpy
Unit 1 Bjorn Raven Head with 1 Berserker, 3 armoured, 3 unarmoured
Unit 2 Einar the Grey Wolf with 1 Berserker, 3 armoured, 3 unarmoured
Others:
Unit 3 Hakon the Mental with 1 armoured, 4 unarmoured, 2 Levy
Unit 4 Ulf the Mad with 1 Berserker, 1 armoured, 3 unarmoured
Unit 5 Svein the Perplexed with 2 armoured, 3 unarmoured, 1 Levy

In other news the start date for the campaign is officially July.

We have had one playtest of the raid game so far and hope to try out the battle game next week. After that we will have a better appreciation of the terrain requirements and how many markers will be needed.

The armies are still gathering but I can report that the Saxons are complete and I have finished painting my first Viking boat crew. I believe Harald the Barrel's Vikings are pretty much finished as well. (How about some photos Harald?)

So without further ado, let's meet the Saxons.

Ealdorman Odda's Saxon Army

As per the initial brief these are mainly vintage 25mm figures; largely Viking Miniatures plus Minifigs with the odd sprinkling of other makes such as Corvus, Essex, Irregular and the odd Dixon. As a nod to their vintage (and Uriah's static grass allergy) I've also used a slightly retro basing. OK I've used a slightly more sophisticated basing technique than back in the day but I've essentially gone for green flock.

Each army consists of five main units plus a general. The Saxons are under the command of Ealdorman Odda - who I believe is an Essex figure on a Prince August homecast horse.

Ealdorman Odda

Each unit has one base designated as the leader. Here I have deviated slightly from the brief and used newer 28mm figures; I had some Tanatus Miniatures (my favourite Saxon figures) left over from another project. These figures are very nicely proportioned and essentially just look like tall people. As leaders they work fine - the 'Big Man' principle in action.
Each base consists of a leader, a hornblower and a standard bearer.

A leader base

The Saxon army is allowed a small number of Champion bases; these are equivalent to the Viking Berserkers but are armoured. Again I have gone for a single 28mm figure on the base in addition to two 25mm figures. I think the figures are Gripping Beast and hence quite hefty; seems appropriate for a Champion.

A champion base

Now to the main fighting bases. The best of these are classed as armoured. I have gone for 3 figures per base, one of which is an axeman. The double handed axe is possibly something of an anachronism for the 9th century, particularly for the Saxons,but I had rather a lot of these in the lead pile.

An Armoured base 

The standard fighting base is classed as unarmoured. Again I have gone for 3 figures per base and tried to use figures either without armour or non metallic armour.

An Unarmoured base

Lastly, the worst troops are classed as levy. There is little visible difference between these and the unarmoured bases but I have gone for four figures per base to distinguish them. 

A Levy base

 The best unit in the army is a fully armoured unit. The Saxons are allowed 5 armoured bases and nothing else other than the leader in this unit. As the unit contains 3 or more armoured bases it counts as a superior unit. The unit is led by Thegn Osric and represents the Ealdorman's household troops.

The Ealdorman's Household

Next up we have two unit's from the Shire fyrd. Unit 2 is commanded by the Shire Reeve Hrothgar (or Sheriff Roger!). The unit contains a champion (Steapa) and 3 armoured bases; hence superior.

Shire Reeve Hrothgar

Unit 3 is another from the shire fyrd but this time with only 2 armoured bases and a champion (Clapa). This unit also contains some levy. The Reeve Stuf commands here.

Stuf's Fyrd

 Next we have unit four commanded by Aethelhere Spear Chucker. He's spear chucker as no matter how many times I glued it the spear would just drop off! These are local troops from the nearest burgh. They contain a high proportion of unarmoured and levy.

Aethelhere Spear Chucker

 For the last unit we have the Bishop's men. These are drawn from the Bishop's estates and contain 3 levy bases; hence an inferior unit.

Bishop Dunn

Dunn is something of an in joke, although it is actually a real Saxon name. Many years ago, when we were mere teenagers, we played mainly WRG rules. As an IGOUGO system, at the end of every move we would ask the active player, 'Are you done?'. To which the invariable reply was to point at a random figure and announce, 'No, he's done.' What can I say? We were young, silly and easily amused.