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