Let me hear your battlecry! - part 3

My final post on building my force for Dux Britanniarum, any further post will be battle reports or campaign updates. Below is an overview of Sigeric's band of warriors now ready to plunder the riches of Britain. Chronicles note:  Alas Sigeric memory of his band may not match actual history (AKA what I actually roll up for Sigeric may be different than below!)



Sigeric “Always Victorious” is the second son of Maganradus and has already established himself as a proven warrior with several victories over Frankish Foederati.   Though it is this success that has caused friction with his older brother and in turn put his life in danger! His mother (Giselberga) pressed him to leave and strike out his own before something "terrible" happened to him. With the knowledge that his older brother will inherit his father's lands, it is an easy choice to flee danland. He buy's himself and his small band passage on a ship to the British Isle in a quest to carve out lands for himself.

As always, Leofric “Friendly Blade” his trusty champion, accompanies him as he sets sails for the British lands with fourteen other Vikings.   They land at Iceni and soon travel through Mercia to Catuvellauni, as he has heard that there are plenty of warlords aspiring to take lands from the weak British lords. At Catuvellauni, Ecbald, Hamrolf, and Leofric spread tales of Sigeric might of arms and it is not long before he comes to the attention of a Walord. Auduin must have seem something in Sigeric as he allows twenty two other raiders to join his band. His warband is now large enough to begin raiding the British lands of their riches. With success he hopes his band will grow and allow him to become a warlord in his own right.

Except for his two trusted friends, Sigeric will keep his best warriors by his side. They will form the elite of his warband and will be counted upon to vanquish any resistance encountered. Adorned in their heavy mail, with blade and shield they should excel at this task.

 

Ecbald “The Bold” is Sigeric’s oldest friend, and he will lead the bulk of the other warriors. In particular, the brothers Forwin and Frotfird were placed under the watchful eye of Ecbald. While the two are excellent fighters, due in large part to their constant fighting between themselves, they need a strong commanding presence to keep them from “accidentally” killing one or the other!

 

Hamarolf “The Hammer” will command the other six warriors. They are the fittest and fastest of his warriors and Sigeric expects he will send The Hammer on numerous flanking attacks with these warriors. Dagaleich, Brandulf, Hroddag and Ganefard are the youngest warriors in the band and should test Hamarolf with their youthful agility.

Sigeric is also accompanied by four woodsmen with bows. While they are not much use in battle, they provide Sigeric with some scouts and hunters. The best Sigeric can expect of them in battle is to harass the enemy with their arrows.

Of the four, the boy Wulfstan "Stone Wolf" has some talent. Though he is a British slave (won by Sigeric while gambling at Iceni) he is an excellent shot with the bow. The boy's British name was Teutorigos but he was aptly given the Danish name Wulfstan by his former master after he calmly faced and brought down a charging wolf. However, his real value is his knowledge of the area and his mastery of the British language that Sigeric will utilize from the boy.

UPDATE
I have finished the Saxon mounted contingent ...

Let me hear your battlecry! - part 2

It has been two months since I last posted, but I was not idle during those weeks. I have for the most part finished all of the leaders and elite troops, as well as the normal warriors.

Nobles and Elite Warriors

I tried to layer on the paint to give some definition to the clothing, not sure it was worth the effort (aka time) but it does really make some colors stand out.


No shield transfers for these warriors.

Next up were the warriors for the warband. I was going to go hog wild on patterns, but after a couple of less than successful "designs" I decided to just paint plain colored cloth for the rest of the figures. It has been my experience, that once a figure is on the table, all the "fancy" work on the figure disappears.
I gave most of them spears, as another subtle difference between the armored and non-armored troops when playing the game.

Another Noble if needed

Speaking of shields, I unfortunately discovered that the small shield transfers for the gripping beast figures were to big to fit! So I ended up having to hand paint the shields. Some of them turned out good, some not so much, though as a bonus they all fit in with the painting style of the figure. I had about fifty to do at once, so after priming them, stuck them to "dull" tape to paint up ... this worked really well.

Extra Shields

I still have some archers and light cavalry to finish, which I hope to get to next week. The archers will painted just like the warriors, but might spend some extra time on the horsemen as I only will ever paint up four of them.


Primed and Ready for Paint

I have yet to fully decide on whether to "Dip" the figures or not. I am leaning toward dipping as I have been doing that to all my miniatures for years now. Though I do like how the color pops off the figures and know the dip will dull those colors down. I am also worried about the shields getting to much dip on them.  But I suspect once I have finished the skirmishers, I'll dip the whole batch of them in on go.

Then it will be on to basing ... which I have yet to decide on 20mm or 25mm rounds? I am leaning towards 25mm but several others seem inclined toward 20mm rounds. I suppose at the end of the day it won't matter much, though basing is kind of a pet peeve of mine.

In between painting the different class of Saxon warriors I have been finishing up a second unit of Austrian cuirassiers.

And while I am at it ... a few more Austrian generals as well.

I really need to get the above finished as there are several store projects piling up. Boromites for Beyond the Gates of Antares and US/USSR tanks for Team Yankee!

Let me hear your battlecry! - part 1

I finally received the Saxon figures from Gripping Beast last week and have started working on them. See a previous post on my latest project.

There was a little more clean up of the figures than I expected, especially as I had to clean up the hands to receive a weapon. But they are overall decent figures and am looking forward to getting them painted and on the gaming table.

I am starting with the leaders and elite troops ... the warband will need sixteen to start with, but have decided to paint up some extra's for potential upgrades throughout any campaign, so am painting twenty two.



As you can see I started with a quick application of silver on the chainmail and helmets. Except for the leader figure which I am going for gold armor. I'll add in the flesh next, then work on all the cloth. I am still debating on whether to paint the small shields or use shield transfers.

 

After the elite troops, I will work on the basic warriors ... another 24 figures. I plan on panting them in basic colors. Same for the archers which I'll do after the warrior figures. The last group I plan on doing is the four light cavalry figures ... not even sure the campaign will last long enough for them to be added to the warband, but it is only four figures so why not!

Dark Age Arthurian Church

So why I am waiting for the figures to arrive for the Dux Britanniarum project, I decided to work on a building we'll need for one of the scenarios, Raiding a Church.

I searched the web for some inspiration and ideas, though settled on mashing together a few images. Got out the graph paper and penned the design. Then cut out the basics shapes and glued them to the foam core. Which in turn I cut out and glued to the shape below.

 I decided to keep the area mostly open, to facilitate easy figure placement and movement. The top half is removable.

 I read that many churches in Britain had round apse, so cut out one end of the building and a section of a cardboard tube. This turned out to be the most difficult part of the whole build and would do it differently the next time I do this style of building feature.

I assembled the pieces, made a couple of doors and putted up the walls. Then hot glued it to a base. I added some stone patches for a walkway.

 The top went through several modifications, but I settled on using rare earth magnets to keep it in place. I really needed to add some strength to the roof and may go back to add them in.

 The painting was pretty straight forward ... went with a non-white, beige tan color. The roof tiles look good, much better in person than the picture shows.

The flocking around the stone pathway worked out really well and to add some "spice" glued on a couple of trees to the front. I was talked out of putting any kind of cross on the front, though may go back and add a Celtic or "Romanized" cross at a later time.

Plenty of room to move figures around. When I have time, I am going to add some interior features to the building; marble flooring and tapestries around the sides being the easiest.

But for now it is ready to use in our first Church raid ... now for the troops.

New Mini-Project: Dux Britanniarum

I have been tapped out on painting Napoleonic figures the last month. So decided to start a new small project. I wanted to do something dis-similar to Napoleonic's but small in scope.

So pretty much any Horse and Musket era was out. Also not keen on any of the 'Moderns' as I already have much of that. At first I was leaning towards a SAGA warband as it is gamed at the store and generally a small warband. But while I generally like the SAGA rules, I find they get repetitive. I have always been keen on the Arthurian legend, so took a look at Dux Britanniarum rules from Too Fat Lardies ... Sold!

I went ahead and ordered up a Saxon raiding force from Gripping Beast which is about 45 figures. I am patiently waiting for the figures to show, as I am looking forward to painting up some chainmail and earthy colors, with a splash of color throw in.

What I am up to waiting for the figures to show.