More 6mm West Frankish Cavalry for the Viking age Campaign.

Hi everyone.

Sorry for the slow start to the new year and for updating my blog. Winter is in full swing here in Sweden but the sunlight is slowly coming back.  Once the darkness passes I seem to have more energy and motivation to do more things.

I have been doing a little painting but not too much.

Here is the latest addition to my West Frankish Army for the Viking Age Campaign I am running.  I am changing the number of miniatures placed on a base for the Cavalry since a little space helps to display the miniature more and you can see the details better with less figures on a base.

Let me know what you think of the number of figures on the basses.  Here is a shot of all the West Frankish Cavalry that I have painted up so far. These basses represent regular Cavalry not light Cavalry. I will only use about 6 miniatures on a base in one line per stand to represent the light cav.

Well that is all I have for you today. I am working on some 2mm Miniatures for the ground portion of the Scanian War. I have a fair number of ships for the naval combat that took place during that time but now I want to fight the ground battles as well and I have selected 2mm for the scale of this project. Stay tuned for more on that in the near future.


Skål!

Vikings Campaign Update

Hi all!
Well last Wednesday I ran a game of Sword and Spear for three club members. The scenario was a pitched battle between the invading Danish Vikings and the defending troops from Wessex.

Here is the results of the first turn of the Campaign. The year 840.

The Norwegian Vikings invaded and defeated the Scottish troops so now Scotland is under Norwegian control. Also with the victory over the troops of Wessex the Danish Vikings claim title to the lands of Wessex.

 Here is an updated map with flags that I could find that are close to historically correct. so in the year 845 the Danish Vikings will attack West Frankia while West Frankia attacks East Frankia. This could be a very interesting turn for the Frankish Empire.  It means I have to get painting!!! more Franks!!!

Below are some pictures of the game. The game went well and after a few turns everyone was into the rules and I did not have to guide the play much. It was a good battle, very close run game for the Vikings, who were able to win but they almost lost the game.

The initial setup, Wessex on the left and the Vikings on the right

Hand to Hand combat!

Close up of the Vikings line of battle!

The Troops of Wessex put up a good fight!

The Armies start to move closer to battle.

More hand to hand combat!

The Wessex Cavalry catch the Viking archers in the flank.

Close up of the action

One of the Viking Huscarl units fights to the death!

End game. The Wessex troops reach there Army break point limit and call it a day!

2mm Experiment!

Hi all!

I have been busy doing a little gaming and some painting. I will have some more posts up soon on the naval battle that Soren and I played at the club two weekends ago.  But first a little something different.

The green stuff covered 2mm thick base with the article below.

Another view of the base

I have never worked with 2mm miniatures before, but it has crossed my mind in the past. To try and get the effect of thousands of warriors or soldiers on the battle field. I recently got my digital copy of WSS # 93 and there was a great article titled “DIY Epic Legions: 2mm Roman Triplex Acies Made Easy” by Mark Backhouse. I thought the idea was brilliant and It could work for many different time periods. Well I contacted WSS and I got an email from Mark Backhouse and we exchanged some emails and I was convinced that this could work for the Viking era. 

Painted, top

So here is my experimental unit. It is not historical to the Viking age as it is a huge massed phalanx. I have some sources that describe the Vikings as fighting in 5 rank deep formations that were in the hundreds in a file. So, I have some warbase bases on order and we will see how I can simulate a group of Vikings in a few of the known formations that are recorded and see if I can create a force of Vikings and Anglo Saxons to use for some games of Sword and Spear.

Here is the shield wall!

 

Shield wall with grass. I might need to use a thinner grass next time.

A side view.

Stay tuned for more on this lite project.

Have a good weekend!

First Battle of the Viking Age Campaign

Hi everyone!
Yesterday I was able to fight the first battle of the Viking Age Campaign. It was a solo game and it saw the Norwegian Vikings fighting the Scottish for control of Scotland.

The game was enjoyable and it was close up to a point. I have leaned more about the rules but I still have some questions about some of the finer points of hand to hand combat. I will try to read some more and try to get a better understanding of the rules.

The starting positions of both forces

The end of turn 1

End of turn 2

End of turn 3

End of turn 4

End of turn 5

End of turn 6

End of turn 7

End of turn 8

The End of the game, the Scottish leave the field of battle

Well a long story short the Vikings won the battle and now Scotland is a satellite state of the Norwegian Vikings. There is a possibility that they will revolt and that they will contribute some forces to future battles along side the Norwegian Vikings.

Here are some close up of the battle!

Below are the pictures I will try to explain what is happening in the captions of the image.

The Scottish dead

The Viking dead

Enjoy!

Mark