Half a unit is better than nowt!

I managed to get half a unit of bondi assembled and painted in the last fortnight, alongside a minor excursion into huts. Well, half a Lion Rampant unit that is, they are only two men short of a point for Saga. One thing I can say about blogging, it certainly spurs you into painting things, just to have something to put on the blog instead of waffle. Well...alongside waffle in my case.

Gripping Beast plastic Bondi - charging to the front!

The bondi are made up from the Gripping Beast Dark Age Warriors plastic set, with additional bits such as heads, belt-pouches and seaxes taken from the spares in the Viking Hirdmen box. I am not as keen on these as the Hirdmen, the bodies tend towards a rather hunched look, unlike the generally upright Hirdmen. Another problem is that the shields don't fit into the hands of a couple of poses. The hand is held at the waist but the chest and hem of the tunic prevent the hand fitting behind the shield boss without major and rather ugly re-sculpting. This is largely unseen if the shield is glued onto the arm but it is a minor annoyance. Minor gripes aside, they paint up lovely and there are plenty of characterful options between the two boxes.

...and charging away again!

I did have a slight disaster with my talc/varnish mix, one of the bondi (probably the last one in the line for varnishing) ended up looking rather frosty but fortunately a light coating of GW Nuln Oil shader followed by a fresh coat of varnish did the trick.

Well, it is the Winter Solstice and I aim to be quite drunk for a few days so maybe there will be an update before the New Year, maybe not. In any case I will wish you all a Joyful Solstice, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year in that order!

Viking Hirdmen for Lion Rampant (and maybe Saga)

Well, less waffle and more pics this time. I finished my first unit for my Viking army today, a unit of six Foot Men-at-Arms in Lion Rampant terms or a unit and a half of Hearthguard for Saga. This means that the two Men-at-Arms units I need for Lion Rampant will give me three points of Hearthguard for Saga, two birds, one stone.

Gripping Beast plastic Viking Hirdmen - Front View

As you can see they are Gripping Beast plastic Viking Hirdmen that I made up straight out of the box, with only minor adjustments to the way the arms fit. Some of the arms have a slight shoulder attached which looks a lot better if it is filed flat and any gap filled with liquid greenstuff (from Games Workshop) or just bunged up with gesso at the undercoating stage if I forget.

...and from the other side...

They were an absolute joy to put together, very few bits and they all fitted reasonably well. The separate shields were the best bit, one of my bugbears is cast on shields. While cast on shields are good for painting as they shadow all the bits you would otherwise have to paint, you can't just take out a bunch of shields and paint them when you have five minutes to spare. Plastic shields are also easier to attach after painting than separate metal shields, just scratch away a little paint and use polystyrene cement, wiggling until the melted plastic is fully mixed for a stronger bond.

...and my usual view of them on the table (hopefully!).

Overall I am very happy with the way they turned out, especially as I now have flat varnish again so it is on to my next unit, twelve Bondi to back them up. More next time.

Vikings in Lion Rampant

As well as the Wars of the Roses, I am interested in using Lion Rampant for games set in the early medieval period (or late dark ages if you prefer), specifically the period from around 950-1066 CE. The three main armies of this period for me are Vikings, English and Normans with a possible foray into Wales, Ireland and Scotland should it all go well. I am using the term Vikings to cover any Scandinavian group such as Danes, Norse and everywhere they settled, such as Ireland and the Danelaw. Not technically correct but everyone knows what you mean by Viking without going into details. The same goes for English covering both Saxon and later Anglo-Danish. All the units and rules are there in the book for this end of the period but they are not explicitly covered in the suggested army lists. This leaves a little work to do in order to field an army of vicious Vikings or steadfast Saxons.

So starting with the Northmen it is merely a matter of choosing how I want my little Danes and Norwegians to perform on the battlefield. In my (admittedly amateur) understanding of the subject, Viking armies can be broken down into the following broad divisions, excluding allies, for gaming purposes:

• Hirdmen – the more professional end of the spectrum including the leader (King, Jarl, Hersir etc.) and his bodyguard or just bands of seasoned warriors in helmets, chainmail hauberks, carrying a shield and using a spear, axe or sword. The backbone of any Viking army, probably available in reasonable numbers even in smaller warbands. I will depict the Hirdmen as Foot Men at Arms in my retinues.

• Bondi – less professional or merely less well-off types, usually sporting a helmet and shield and carrying a spear, with an axe or sword in reserve. These would probably be fairly numerous second-line troops in a large army and well represented in a typical Lion Rampant retinue. For me these are Foot Serjeants, with the ability to form schiltron depicting the shieldwall.

• Levy – thralls and paupers, told to bring a spear and shield and to try not to mess it up or run away. Not much used outside the homelands due to the logistics of moving large numbers of poor troops but could be applicable to a Viking vs Viking game or one set in the borders of the Danelaw. Probably best represented as Serfs.

Which is all easily translated into Lion Rampant units but lacks a little flavour. To these I would add a couple of other types:

• Raiders, youths and other enthusiastic types – not even remotely trained in forming shieldwalls, battlefield tactics or restraint. These are the expendable first few off the boats or into the fray, possibly including the odd berserker or two and a lot of nobodies trying to make a name for themselves. These obviously lend themselves to Fierce Foot in Lion Rampant terms.

• Missile troops – not as numerous or as well formed as in Norman armies but could be found among the Bondi, sporting either javelins or bows to harass the enemy and keep their heads down. The lesser classes of missile troops in Lion Rampant are best represented by Bidowers with bows, javelins or a mix of the two.

So they are my five preferred troop types for my Viking armies. Fortunately Dan Mersey has posted his own idea for a Viking army on Boardgame Geek (http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1223593/1066-retinues) where he gives his 24pt Viking army as:

2 Foot Men-at-Arms* @ 12 points
2 Foot Serjeants @ 8 points
1 Fierce Foot @ 4 points

This translates as 12 Hirdmen, 24 Bondi and 12 Raiders in my own terms. The Hirdmen and Bondi are easily put together using a box each of Viking Hirdmen and Dark Age Warriors that I bought from Gripping Beast for use with Saga. I am not sure how I am going to represent the Raiders yet, they may be best served by using more dynamic poses in metal. Now all I need to do is paint all these plastic Vikings up! Pictures soon.