Anglo ~ Saxons & Some Familiar Northern Fantasy Riders

The rebasing continues and this time it's my Anglo-Saxons (or generic Dark Ages if you prefer). Once again these figures were all on individual bases which made them difficult to use in large battle games. Even when put onto sabot bases mass amounts of singe figures are hard to manage as far as I'm concerned and I think they'll be much easier to manage as they are now based.

I also rebased my "Somewhat Familiar Northern Fantasy Riders." Until such time as I increase their numbers they should work well with the Anglo-Saxons to create a pseudo-dark age fantasy host.

There are 14 bases of heavy warriors: 7 bases of armoured thegns, 6 of fyrd and one of huscarls. There are also two bases of javelin armed light infantry (allied Welsh or Irish) and three skirmish bases armed with bows. This isn't a huge army but it is made up of about 200+ figures. The host is deployed with the thegns in the front line and supported by the fyrd in the rear. The kings' huscarls are also to the front, armed with Dane axes and supported by the kings own household thegns. 

To lead the host is King Ætholguy the Seeker, the heroes Ælefroth and Wilfred. There is also a priest and a handful of lesser heroes (see below). Ætholguy the Seeker features throughout this blog and is a name I chose for the very first warlord when I played Saga many years back. He has lead many warbands and fought larger battles over the years and it's about time he got elevated to the throne. Long live King Ætholguy the Seeker!

This is the right of the shieldwall. You can see the front rank of thegns and the fryd at the rear nice and clear. This host has only a few missile troops deployed as skirmishers. Their main strength lay in a solid shieldwall and little else. I have been thinking what kind of fantastic elements I can add to the army to create a fantasy version but I haven't come up with anything suitable at this stage.

You can see the kings' axe wielding huscarls standing right behind him in the image above. I actually had 14 Dane-axe figures so I decided to put all of them onto the base. It makes the unit look very big, heavy and tough.

The left of the shieldwall with the light infantry allies. I decided to keep these lighter troops on single bases and use sabot unit bases as I did with both my elves and orcs. If I want I can put only 4 figures onto a sabot and create another 4 figure unit is needed, but I prefer the 6 figure look. These figures are actually Wargames Atlantic Irish. 

Whilst on the subject of figures: the figures used here are from all over. The main bulk of figures are Gripping Beast but there are many figures from all over including, Eureka Miniatures, Footsore, Saxon (now defunct), and others.

Some extra heroes to add to the mix, and to go where they may be needed.

And here are the "Somewhat Familiar Northern Fantasy Riders," that might or might not hail from the lands of Rohan. These are my cheap-o "I'm not paying out a fortune to GW" fantasy rider. They are actually Goth Noble Riders from Gripping Beast. They look the part but they have a very limited range of poses (as do all Gripping Beast cavalry).

Visually they don't really fit with the Anglo Saxons but for the sake of creating a nice big host they can work together until I make something better. This is two  boxes so another couple of boxes would double their number an look pretty impressive. I think the Wargames Atlantic Gothic infantry would make good foot troops to supplement the horse.

One thing I don't have is Rider Leaders and I'm finding it difficult to find any suitable figures. These riders are 100% fantasy and bare very little resemblance to the historical Goths, so they need suitably impressive leaders and heroes to command them. I'm even considering GW options!!! (Gasp!)

You may note that I only put 4 riders to a base and that these bases are not as deep as my other cavalry units. I did this because I intend to make them heavy cavalry but not as strong as the armoured elf knights or orc boar riders. Heavy riders more in the vein of Roman equites.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And that's it for this post. I'm contemplating which army to do next. I'm looking at either my woodland forces or undead. I'm undecided at this time. I also need to play a game of Midgard. But finding the time is proving difficult at the moment.

Thanks for reading,

IanKH

 

 

The Erlking and the High Elven Host

After a bit of a hiatus whilst I readied the orcs for battle, the elfin folk are now ready to take the field against them. Where the orcs are dark and grim, my elves wear burnished mail with bright banners flying and glittering spears held high. Whereas orcs are generally considered all-round evil-doers, I don't necessarily think of elves as being the good guys. I see them as aloof and removed, caring only about otherworldly concerns and their own elfish schemes. More like the elves depicted by Poul Anderson in The Broken Sword rather than the common Tolkienesque view. 

I had a few little elements to complete for this army and I'm still not 100% finished, I'm still working on the chariots and I have one more eagle that isn't based and I'm looking for another so that I can make a second eagle base (for a future big, big battle!).

I'll start on the right flank. This should really be the place of honour for the King and his guard but instead there are some chariots, light infantry javelineers, Swan Knights and The Guard of The Tower of The Sun. There are also some skirmish archers at the front but this army doesn't have many skirmishers and relies on formed archers backed by solid phalanxes of spears. They are lead by the shieldmaiden Ælfgifu at the moment as I'm a bit light of heroic male elf figures. But this is a striking figure that fits the role well... And so she may remain.

Eagles, the King's Guard (in blue) and The Rose Knight mounted on her steed: the war dragon Blue Fang. I'm of two minds whether to include the Rose Knight in this army or to put her in my army of Forrest Folk. She can fit in either army and I want her in one or the other as I do like to theme my armies and don't like to swap models between them.

The Erlking - High King of the Elfin Folk standing before the Royal Guard (in blue). These troops were originally made to be a large 36 figure phalanx but they have now been organised into three 12 figure units. I think I might have to create a 4th unit to balance the whole regiment. Beside the king is a she-elf spell caster and a low level hero which, in the past, I've usually used as the captain of the guard.

This regiment is the largest, having 6 units. They are organised differently to all the others in that they're mixed bow and spear. This can potentially make them pretty lethal on the battlefield. They are lead by The Prince In The Scarlet Robe.

Next in line, on the left wing, are some lighter troops. These are medium infantry warriors with sword and shield. I'm not exactly sure how to represent them in Midgard at this stage. With them are another two units of javelineers - light infantry skirmishers - straight out of the rule book but with some extra fighting ability. This wing also has a couple of bases of standard, bow armed skirmishers.

Knights of the Three Keeps - Heavy Riders (Knights). I've made them knights because they're virtually cataphracts which gives them a nice archaic aesthetic. Here' they are on the extreme flank although they could just as easily deploy in the centre as they are a hard hitting strike force. Their proper role is to charge the enemy with full force. They're not really suited to working around the flanks to harry the enemy.

Another shot of the Rose Knight and Blue Fang.

The whole host deployed for battle.

A close up of the javelin bases. I originally created these as you see in two 12 figure units and although the sabot bases they are on are 8mm wider than the standard bases I'm using (11.2 cm) they are close enough to use together (I'm not fussed over a few millimetres). Using these sabot bases also gives me the option to keep some of my elves on single round bases for other possible rules sets.

Scorpions - Just like with my orcs, these are from the WizKids range. A little modification and they work great. Again I'll say: A set of 2 for about $10/$12 and you can't beat them.

Another shot of my javelins, medium infantry and skirmishers. The sabot bases work well for the lighter troops and I have the option to keep a bunch of single base figures.

Another angle.

And, once again, The Erlking - High King of the Elven Folk.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So that's it. One thing I'm working on is this: I actually have three chariot models and I'm looking at putting each chariot on it's own base with a few chariot runners armed with bows. This will create an independent, strong chariot force of three units for fast skirmishing and flank attacks. A good match for the orcs and their warg riders.

The Goblin Host of King Gorgol the Mighty

It took me much longer that I expected but I finally finished re-basing my goblins. This was a much bigger project than rebasing my elves. It didn't help that Christmas limited my time a bit, but the effort of doing these bases in the style I wanted meant that each base needed four different stages of work - adding the basing muck and placing the figures, stones and grit, grassy flock and finally adding the tufts to bring it all together. 

I do think it was worth the effort though.

I'm very happy with the results however, there is still a little bit of work to finish the project 100%. For instance I have a unit of werewolves and a bunch of regular wolves. I've been debating if I should include them in this army or add them to my undead hoard. Same with a bunch of giant spiders: this army or add them to my woodland army? Give me your opinion.

The whole army deployed takes up more than the 6' edge of a table. I had to deploy them deep so that I could fit them in and photograph them (they only just fit the table and I used the photoshop AI function to extend the background and widen the table edges). There are 12 bases of heavy warriors, seven skirmish bases, elite warriors, crossbows, wolf riders, boar riders, giant scorpion riders, mountain orc light warriors, ogres, a giant, a wurm, light artillery, heroes and a couple of shamans.

The Orc King Gorgol the Mighty, an uruk of great stature and evil cunning! This is a Mantic Games figure. He's nice and big and looks like a mean kind of guy. I'm not sure where the drummer came from but he looks cool.

Below is the newest addition to the army. This is my version of a pretty popular Reaper Bones giant. He normally has his right arm extended, parallel to the ground holding his club out. I did a bit of modification and added a bit of (green-stuff) armour to his right shoulder to cover up the modification marks. he looks like a pretty tough customer.

Starting on the flank are some warg riders. These will be classed as light riders with some missile capability. I don't want them to be too powerful but good enough to harass and capable of attacking vulnerable enemy units. The boar riders below will be a more hard hitting cavalry arm. They are from Mantic and they come as a unit of 10 figures so I was thinking of making 3 units of 3 figures and setting up the remaining figure as a hero but the units looked weak so I made two regiment of 5 figures and I'll have to find a suitable mounted hero.  The hero on the dire wolf is better suited to lead the wolf riders in my opinion.

Here's half of the heavy warriors. There are only 10 figures on each base as I wanted them to appear as more of a rabble when compared to my elves. By doing this I also turned my existing 10 regiments of 12 figures into 12 regiments of 10 figures! Two extra units! It meant that I had to make two more standard bearers but that was a pretty easy task (I just converted a pair of existing spear holding figures).

I decided to not give them any formed archers and, instead, made 7 bases of skirmishers. This is a much stronger skirmishing element that the elves who's main skirmishing is provided by javelineers. I think this is good as it will create very different tactical doctrines between the two enemies.

Below are the big hitters of the army - the giant and a wurm/dragon. The dragon is based weirdly. I didn't want to destroy the original base so I ringed the edge of the plastic base with thin strips of bark and added some magnets to the bottom. I then made a square base with magnetic sheet on it. It's very sturdy and I can remove the model from the big square base.

Above & below are some crossbows that I kit bashed using Oathmark Orc bodies and pieces from a Perry War of The Roses box. I'm going to make one or two more of these and they will constitute the army's formed missile elements. There is a noticeable gap in the picture below... I made a 12 figure unit of big tough chaps by doing the same oathmark/Perry conversion. These are designed to be the elite troops: bigger goblins (Oathmark Orcs) wielding two handed polearm weapons. I only made 12 so I need to kit bash more and fill that gap in the line.

A pair of ballista using the great WizKids set - you get a pair of these for about 10 bucks. Bargain! Just add a couple of modifies goblins and they're ready to go.

On the other flank are the poor relatives - The Mountan Orcs. These figures are from Wargames Atlantic and they are very different from the Oathmark figures so I decided to paint them with tan skin and give them a completely different aesthetic. The infantry are light warriors. They also have ogres in their ranks and these units will be classed as regular warriors with added traits to boost their hitting power. The idea of these units can be attributed directly by a quote from Boromir in the Mines of Moria: "They have a cave troll."

The Scorpion Riders came about because I don't like spiders. I'm such a pathetic arachnophobe that I cant even touch spider models that look too realistic (I'm okay with those old, stupid looking GW ones). So I bought a bunch of Reaper Bones giant scorpions and made these. I'm not sure how to class them for Midgard at this stage. I want them to be fast (scuttling) powerful (big snapping pincers) and difficult to control (insect minds), with missile capability.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And that's it. There is still a small amount of work to do to get this army finished and that will be pretty easy to do. I will add to their numbers in time and I especially want to build up the elite element. I have another box each of Oathmark and Wargames Atlantic goblins so the whole army will grow in time. I could combine elements of my Undead Host with these chaps to give them a boost it needed, but there are enough of them that they can stand alone in any sized battle.

Next thing is to complete the rebasing of my elves.

Cheers and thanks for reading.

It's Orcish Re-Basing Time

I haven't quite finished rebasing my elves but I was getting bored with doing the same bases over and over so I thought it must be time to start getting my orcs into order. These bases took a bit more thought and effort than the elves and a fortuitous trip to my closest wargames supply depot (House of War) saw me buy all the supplies I needed in one fell swoop.

The basic item I needed was a basing past. The one I wasted was European Mud from Vallejo, and I was lucky in the fact that the shop had a delivery and the stuff was put on the shelf an hour before I got there. So I bought two tubs along with a large bag of stony grit and several packs of tufts.

I started with some infantry. I wanted to make the units as looser formations compared to the elves and as a result I only used 10 figures per base instead of 12. This will end up giving me two or three extra units buy the time I get them all done.

The vast majority of the heavy infantry are Oathmark Goblins plastic figures. However, there are a few other figures including a couple from Mantic some conversions of human figures. 

The bases are the same as I used for my elves - 11.2cm blank cup coasters that I get from my local hardware shop. I cut them down to 7cm depth, round off the cut corners and add a 12mm dice frame. After that I slather on the basing past and add stony grit and foliage. I like the result although it is time consuming.

I also did a couple of bases of skirmishers. This army won't have formed archers but they will have formed crossbows.

Next are what I'm calling Mountain Orcs. These are Wargames Atlantic goblins. I initially made these as light infantry but I decided to change them a bit. I have three Reaper ogres/trolls and I could put them together to create a unit but I decided to add them to an infantry unit. I like the idea of a troll escorted by contingent of smaller critters (to make them feel braver) so that's what I did. Sort of.

As you can see I painted these orcs with a dark tan skin to differentiate them from the regular orcs. I think these figures they look better with this skin colour. The idea of these bases is to create a hard heavy warrior unit and not a monstrous creature unit. They will be Heavy Infantry Warriors with a couple of appropriate traits (Spears as Tribute and Brutal).

However, The trolls are not permanently fixed to the bases. I made a plateau using 3mm cork sheet and cut out a 40mm x 40mm square. I put a magnet into the bottom of the creatures bases and a square of thin metal sheet onto the base (after photo). In this way I can actually group the three creatures together into an dedicated troll/ogre unit.

And now, here's in one of my favourite and weirder units: mounted bows on giant scorpions - Scorpion Archers!

Hey, I forgot to add tufts to the second unit and I also forgot to paint the bases edges!

These were made using Wargames Atlantic Goblins and Reaper Bones giant scorpions. I used the saddles that come in the goblin box and fitted them onto the big stingers with some minor modification and some greenstuff. I'll make these Heavy Riders with bows and the traits Fearsome and Spears as Tribute.

I had to put these onto fairly large bases. I tried mounting two of them onto a shallower base but they didn't project the same sense of power and awe as the single base with three. I was a bit sad to have to remove these from their single 60mm bases but the big bases wouldn't fit on to a sabot with the same frontage as the rest of the units.

And, that's it for the orcs so far. I still have a lot to do including warg-riders, boar cavalry, spiders, werewolves and a dragon! I'm sure there are other things too that I can't remember off the top of my heard right at the moment.

Thanks for reading,

IanKH

P.S. Since I began writing this post I've done another 4 bases of heavy infantry bringing the number up to 10 units and I still have plenty more to do.