So I set myself a project..a 300 point Viking army for Impetus , all in plastic , no two figures the same, lots of extra hair..looking like how I think a viking army looks, all sort of crowding closer to the big men, none of this nice neat front rank heavies, back rank mediums ,all nicely spaced ever so girly 80s like ..I want a shield wall to look like a shield wall.I want the more influential warriors closer to their leader.A mans power and esteem was measure by how close he stood to his superior. that is why skirmisher were such low lifes., and then those not so well off,snot o brave or not so well connected lurking on the edges , or at the rear..shield walls with shields overlapping..all that sort o thing. This army satisfies me on so many levels. It was conceived and executed in under a month..160 infantry, and I had enough to make a spare heavy huscarl unit.
It has two guard huscarle units. The biggest bananas of them all, a King and a very powerful Jarl respectively , with their huscarls, and lesser Jarls and chieftains , with their huscarls, and a berserker, to represent the fact that this is where you find them, in the retinues of very important men.These two units have larger banners.I actually don't think this banner thing was anywhere near as prevalent as gamers seem to think.all the members of these unit, except the berserker , are clad in mail and are well equipped with shields,swords ,axes and spears.
The comes the 4 units of "veteran huscarles". minor Jarls, well off pirates, bored ex military, free booters on the roll, the better equipped young bucks on the make, bored rich sons, those who like a fight and a bit, a lot, of looting...Units formed by all these type coalescing into friendship, community , merely expedint coalitions, or kin groups, or a mix of all four, "when the word gets out" that a big stonk is on and goodies in the shape of goods, slaves or land was to be had.these units don'y have as much mail but are otherwise well equipped with sword, spear or axe, shield and helmet and they have a bit of an edge.
Then come the four "huscarl "units. not quite as much mail, not quite as much of an edge but reasonably well equipped. The forces of Chieftains and Jarls probably required to turn up for any variety of reasons, or the better equipped colonists or settler, or their descendants. My units display more darker hair and the odd saffron dyed tunic , nd much less mail..
The two units of Hird. Men required to turn up. probably less inclined locals whether in Scandinavia or in occupied lands. Spear ,seax shield being their minimum requirement weapon wise..
and two S bow and 2 S javelin.The very poor, the outcast the very youn or the very old..unlike most war-gamers these chaps din't see themselves anything but expendable, and neither did anybody else. They were too poorly connected or not wealthy enough to get into the shield wall, which is where anybody of note would want to be, so they mucked about on the edges of things. not a socially prestigious job being a skirmisher.
The project took a bit over 3 weeks to do. The paint job is very much my fast standard job and most of the basing is dirt/flock. No two figures are identical, attached hair is either sculpted sprue using a pyrograuve or pigtails made using the cords from the WSS plastic Wargames Factory box. bodies are a ixe of Wargames Factory Saxons, Vikings, Early Germans and Numidians and Gripping Beast Vikings and Saxons. Often figures are mix of box types and brands. all are undercoated with Tamiya hull red applied with an airbrush and then painted with as bewildering assortment of manufacturers acrylic paint..washed , after initial blocking in, with Vallejo sepia, varnished initially by brush with Jo Sonja Matte varnish and then via airbrush with Gunze Flat Clear. All based on landscaped 3mm MDF. This army, and the extra unit of heavy huscarles will be for sale at Can Con.
and the extra unit of huscarl
