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Reinforcements 1
Back in 2018 after a trip to Sicily my Condotta armies project began to go off the rails. The reason was simply that a visit to Palermo fired up my interest in the Normans rather than say the fabulous Baroque architecture of the city.
And then I picked up a copy of Early Medieval Italy by Chris Wickham (MacMillan Press) 1981 – ISBN 0 333 26672 2. I still have not read beyond page 60 yet not through lack of interest. It looks a great book (on flick through) for the period of Lombard domination of the Italian peninsula. And this period does not seem awash with books of this type.
It simply reminded me that before the Normans arrived in Italy and after the end of Belisarius the whole of Italy was subject to numerous invasions and fragmented rule. Great for wargames and as a backdrop to “imaginative wargaming”.
Within weeks my Condotta project had been abandoned and I was back in the “dark ages” or early medieval period. It was not long before I switched to Carolingian history with two books about Charlemagne.
Before that another chance bookshop visit resulted in two books I quickly read. The first “A Brief History of the Normans: How the Viking Tribe Came to Conquer Europe by Francois Neveux published by Robinson english edition 2008 ISBN-10 1845295234. The second was “The Lost King of England” by Gabriel Ronay published by Boydell Press ISBN 0 85115 785 8 (paperback 2000).
The book about the Normans is unusual I suspect – a french writer translated to english or should that be Anglish? The Anglish have written extensively about the Normans as they are a key part of the “british empire” mythmaking. After all, all Empires need to make a narrative, a back story and myth making is a key part of it. Professor Neveux comes from Caen so Normandy is his back yard, so to speak and he would have first hand slightly different source material and crucially secondary material/opinion differing in perspective. The book gets a “ok” score on “good reads” with lots adverse comments about poor proof reading. And yes there are plenty of typos. However the value of the book was its purpose to start sometime before the popular english view of the Normans as in “in 1066 the Normans appeared from nowhere and invaded England”. And of course except for a little damp eyed look at the Saxons of Alfred the English quickly move onto “Anglo-Normans” and their inevitable journey of conquest.
So I can see why this book was not that loved. It maybe reads far better in french? The point is that it made me think about that period prior to 1066 a bit more and tying into my recent discovery of Chris Wickhams book I was swirling around the 8th Century.
Gabriel Ronay’s book was a surprise – I had no idea Aethelings could travel so far. I liked the story of Edward the exile and along with it a view of a more joined up northern european world than many history books would have you believe.
A good read in my view although I am not so sure about some of the connections the author makes about the Aethelings themselves.
At least I was painting again – some strelets normans were on the paint table. I wrote about these in this blog back in December 2019. https://thewargamingerratic.home.blog/2019/12/17/basing-normans-in-the-south/
And then nothing. Zilch. I had quite a long gap where wargaming dark age history took a back seat. But boy did I read. Now reading about history is the thing for me. My wargames interests such as they are, are driven by what I am reading. If I am erratic on wargaming at least I am a consistent reader of mainly military history. The books come first not the games, figures or rules.
I read Peter Heather’s monumental Empires & Barabarians which caused me to reread his Decline of the Roman Empire in short order plus I read two crazy books (again from charity shops) plus some I bought at the Colours Show at Newbury.
The Newbury “buys” were Carolingian Cavalry published by Osprey & Vandals by Simon McDowell published by Pen & Sword.
From the Charity shop I bought Arthur & British Kings – the TRUTH! by Martin Russell published in 2016; plus St Albans – a pocket history book (published in the early 1920’s).
Martin was brave to include Arthur and TRUTH in his book title. It was on sale at Fishbourne Palace https://sussexpast.co.uk/ – a location which does convey a feeling of lived in Roman Britain to me.
Despite being written 100 years apart and under very different contexts, reading them together meant I could easily compare them. And the core story was there. So even though Martin was intent on giving us chapter and verse about an apparent medieval fiction he managed to provide the essential continuity story of what we would call today the south of england.
I suppose that would also be more the “west saxon” or wessex history as well. I actually enjoyed his book although it required a lot of concentration to retain the story line about Arthur he wanted to convey.
The 1920’s St Albans pocket history did what it said and in short order told the story of a great city with an ancient past. It was also an easy read and not too “empirish” in its style, given when it was published the British Empire was still the “force” across the globe.
Enjoying Simon McDowells “The Vandals” (published by Pen & Sword 2016 ISBN 978 1 47383 770 6) I descended back into the Later Roman period – another of my favorite reading subjects. “The Vandals” does a good job of explaining the journey of a much maligned tribal grouping. The authors passion for his subject shines through.
“Patricians & Emperors” by Ian Hughes (published by Pen & Sword 2015 ISBN 978 1 84884 412 4) shows an equal passion. He has been a prolific late roman period author. Ian’s writing style was harder for me although I admire his dedication to dig out effective mini biographies of the various shadow like players at the end of empire. This makes it an unusual book style unless I am mistaken?
I enjoyed both these books and they drew me into the period. It was not long before I was thinking about Visigoths and Merovingians though. I am digressing yet again!
The Peter Heather double header of “The Fall of the Roman Empire” and “Empires & Barbarians” (published by Maxmillan 2005 ISBN 0-333-98914-7 and 2009 ISBN 978-0-333-98975-3 respectively) are worth the read and with a combined page count of 1077 give you lots of background on the main story. It never ceases to amaze me that Apollinaris Sidonius still seemed to project an almost classsic roman world when the dark ages were apparently already well underway in places like the british isles.
These led me to the Penguin Classic of Gregory of Tours and his history of the Franks translated by Lewis Thorpe. I bought the 1974 paperback publication in a charity shop by chance again. I tend to browse randomly and just buy these older books on the hoof. It leads to my meandering across subjects, one of the pleasures of history I think.
Already a good read, I have yet to finish “Gregory” as my mind was turned yet again this time by a magazine article about “The battle of Vlaardingen” in Medieval Warfare VIII-3 published by Karwansaray B.V.. That sent me forward into Ottonian times. And before you know it another charity purchase brought me back to “Charlemagne – The Great Adventure” by Derek Wilson published by Hutchinson in 2005 ISBN 0-0917-9461-7. I enjoyed this book which at just over 200 pages sticks to the subject. Derek even ventures into the more modern usage and views of Charlemagnes Empire.
So back to Gregory then – nope – Another Pen & Sword publication took me sideways into the anglo-saxon world of Offa or should I say Mercian? This is the underated King of the Mercians – note not angles or saxons or english as that is reserved for the ever popular King Alfred. Chris Peers booklist is african and asian so this seems a one off by him. It shows I think in some of the content he chooses to dwell upon which reduces the books value. The fact that I have never read any book before on Offa means that he has done some good though in atttracting me to this subject. In fact my tortured view of the dark ages of these british islands is – the end of Roman rule, celts again, lots of squabbling anglo saxon visitors – british/welsh in retreat – sutton hoo – then the vikings and alfred (brief recovery), vikings, norse, danes visiting and staying again before the great fall after Hastings. Not much else. The Mercians seem mercurial.
“Offa and the Mercian Wars has got me thinking otherwise. And the net result is more dark age “anglish” history to consume before I get back to Italy and the Normans. Still it has sustained my painting of anglo saxons or maybe thats now mercians as well.
Having reviewed my thoughts on horsemen for my Normans in the South project I am going to take a quick look at infantry. Did you spot the SHQ 20mm in the lead photo?
At least tumbling dice and SHQ are still offering metals in the traditional scales of 20/25mm and 1/72. And they carry good detail, have realistic posing and are not too bulky. I may mix in some command foot with strelets figures on some of my fighting bases.
Without drifting too much into the issue of scale in wargaming, this post covers my solution regarding mixing metallics and plastics for my Normans in the South project.
So the lead in photo shows horsemen because this is where the most pronounced differences tend to show up.
left to right we have
Strelets 1/72 Norman cavalry
Tumbling Dice 1/72 Norman and Saxon cavalry (command figures!)
Citadel 25mm Mongol cavalry
Citadel 25mm Saracen cavalry
Lamming 25mm Norman Cavalry
Greenwood & Ball (Garrison) 25mm Viking Cavalry
Lancashire Games 25mm Malburian Cavalry
Typical BIG 28mm cavalry (ok he gets a base as well to make the point)
It is also worth noting the base thicknesses in these photos.
What I have found is that in the raw you notice height, bulk and head size. These then affect how you see the figures. Once painted and based the differences seem to be less pronounced.
The last shot shows – SHQ 20mm saracen; strelets 1/72 norman; Hatt 1/72 ElCid cavalry; Tumbling Dice 1/72 norman and lastly another Hatt 1/72 Hun.
Bases are similar thickness so no adjustment needed or to be exploited.
OK last point – my solution.
Using some maths – 12 inches or a foot being 304.8mm for my purposes. Now assuming someone 6 foot high you get the following in real height of 1828.8 mm; at 1:87 (HO) = 21mm; 1:76 (OO) = 24mm; 1:72=25mm; 1:65=28mm and 1:56=32mm (fractions ignored)
So marrying 20mm (1/87) and 25mm (1/72) figures should be tricky although apparently less than 25 to 28mm.
But here is the rub research by a top university shows that the average height of people living in england changed as follows.
167cm pre roman; 170cm roman; less during the dark ages (no figure given because it was dark!) 172cm circa 1066 and 173cm by the 1100’s. Then it drops until recovering to 173-174cm during the period 1400 to 1650. Heights then declined to less than 169cm by the 1800’s! by 1970 we were averaging 177cm.
So that means for a 1/72 warrior he could a 23mm celt; 23.6mm legionaire; 24 mm norman; or a 23mm british redcoat again in the 1800’s. In short averages throw up millimetre differences so actual variations in height will be even greater. So in 1/72 a 21mm (4foot 11inches) high figure next to a 24mm (5foot 11inches) high figure is possible. Add to that variations in helmet shape and size and freedom beckons.
Finally it really comes down to the figures you like, I like the SHQ Saracens, I like the tumbling dice norman and saxon commands and I like the strelets norman and saxons (yes with hands the size of heads!)
so my solution has to be : I will take some notice of scale, maybe more about bulk than height, and paint the figures I like. I can always squint at the jarring mismatches when they do happen.
Happy Painting & Wargaming.
postscript – scale creep was always with us and good enough in “charge or how to play wargames” anyway. Are those “half round lancers on ponies?”
So I have progressed my Saxons which will make two elements using my 80mm x 60mm IMPETUS style bases. I had used a colour theme from an article about the battle of Vlaardingen in Medieval Warfare (vol 8 issue 3). I then decided to add to the red/green/yellow mix by using a few shield transfers.
I used “Little Big Man Transfers” and followed the instructions about fitting to shields with large bosses. Because I am working in 1/72 or 20/25mm I had to choose to cut down 28mm transfers or use some 15mm ones. I think I got lucky because there are some small shield 28mm saxon transfers in the range that just about matched what I needed.
In the event some transfers were a great fit like the figure with axe and shield raised. Others like the soldier with the whirly black and white design at bottom left (above photo) needed the transfer extending as there was too much unused shield at the rim.
For some of the designs I ended up overcoating with the nearest colour I could match. Yes I lost some of the dirt and sword cut markings but compromise was required.
Overall I am pleased with the result.
I just need to add some vegetation and then its on with another batch of these saxons.
Categories
VE Day
Today marks the 75th anniversary of the end of war in Europe.
The generations of the early 20th century had fought two world wars in quick succession.
They lived, worked, fought, suffered and died to give us 75 years without another world war. At the time I suspect they would have simply dreamt of survival. They enabled most of us to live life largely free of war and able to make choices about our lives.
So it is all the more relevant that the 75th anniversary falls during a period of restricted movement and activity across society in ways not even seen during World War 2.
We should remember all those who made sacrifices so we could choose to live freely and in peace.
I am grateful for the freedoms I enjoy – thank you.
Neil Thomas has published quite a few books and initially I ignored them. Some of the reviews objected to their simplicity. And then I read a review in Slingshot, magazine of the Society of Ancients (SOA), which was very positive, extolling the virtues of his simplicity which still provided interesting games.
I have enjoyed his One Hour Wargames book complete with very simple rules for armies of no more than 6 elements. For my current plans I have chosen to take some of his ideas in his 2007 book published by Sutton publishing. It goes by the unoriginal title – Ancient & Medieval Wargaming.
The section that interests me is Dark Age Warfare and specifically Dark Age Armies. His rules limit troop types – in this era just 4 types of infantry and 3 types of cavalry. Some armies fielded Elephants so they are permitted.
The Infantry types are Dark Age Infantry to contrast them with classical Heavy Infantry of say Rome or Greece; Warband; Heavy Archers and Light Infantry.
The Cavalry are the usual Heavy and Light plus Cataphracts.
The period covered is 300-1100 which for some people may stretch the limits of what the Dark Ages means but in terms of fighting styles is fine with me.
His basing assumption is for 28mm – 120mm x 80mm or 4 number 60x40DBX bases grouped together. I am using Impetus 80mm wide bases for 1/72 plastics which vary between 20 and 25 mm high so fit well. I use 60 mm deep bases to allow some diorama type basing – this suits the plastic sets which you buy in bulk in lots of different poses. Typically a Dark Infantry base might have 8 figures on it rising to 10 or 11 if they are the professional guard of the rule or his “hearth” guard or household troops. I like to see some variety and my wargaming approach is that “what you see is sort of what you might get” rather than “WYSIWYG” or what you see is what you get.
The Frankish Armies list comprises
Nobles (Heavy Cavalry) 3 to 6 elements
Retainers (Light Cavalry) 1 to 3 elements
Spearmen (Dark Age Infantry) 1 to 4 elements
Archers (Light Infantry – bow) 0 to 2 elements
His description says this list works for Carolingian, Ottonian and Norman forces. So thats ideal.
Right now I have
4 Heavy Cavalry (need ideally 12)
1 Light Cavalry (need ideally 6)
6 Dark Age Infantry (need ideally 8)
3 Light Infantry (need ideally 4)
Actually to start with I want to use two similar armies for local feuding – hence the numbers shown in brackets above.
I have some more saxons on the go who can at a stretch cover for ottonians and maybe southern normans/lombards? I can soon rustle up some light infantry bow.
So to get this little project to it’s first stage of having two flexible armies, of 8 elements each, i need to get some more cavalry painted.
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Intermission
In the old days at cinemas they used to have an intermission between the films – the short low budget one before the main film as I recall.
Today the intermission is about Spring and nature getting its act together.
One of my lockdown deliveries has been War & Conquest. Now this bit is convoluted – I started painting figures to my music collection after radio became too distracting, then moved to classic fm to avoid more distractions of just listening! then encountered Meeples and Miniatures and Neil Shuck (by then 200 plus epsiodes under his belt). I am very late to a lot of parties – sometimes getting there long after they have finished so to speak. Gradually not getting too distracted until this guy emails Neil Shuck to say he’s gone back and listened from the start to M&M podcasts.
What? so there is a completely accessible archive?
So I started listening to them instead – the early ones. The problem was that back then Neil was more on about historic wargames and being a solo presenter devoted more minutes to pure reviews.
As a result I am buying bits and pieces – all of which were last in fashion in the Noughties! And spending more time listening than painting – uugh.
Since then I have acquired Memoir 44 (boardgame), Snowdogs (boardgame) and recently War and Conquest wargame rules based on Neil’s decade old review. Ok some review content is dated but I reckon a good game stays a good game. Neil has already moved on to Sword and Spear as his circa 2014 “go to” wargames rules for ancients but there was something about his review of War and Conquest.
I took a chance and bought them. I have read them and not been dissappointed. Quite simply I have not read a set of rules like these since “Charge or How to Play Wargames” by Lawford and Young.
It is the way they (both books) are written and presented that makes the connection for me plus the sheer enthusiasm of the authors for gaming with model figures across a table top.
In all other respects the two rulesets are strange bedfellows and this is not surprising being authored 44 years apart.
Hopefully I will play them and not be put off.
War & Conquest – epic battles in the ancient and medieval world – are written by Rob Broom and published by Scarab Minaitures. A 2011 publication that is exactly what Neil said back then – a book worth owning and reading in its own right – even if you don’t use the rules!
1/72 Strelets Saxons on the painting table
So these figures will make me just 2 impetus style bases. I opted to switch to 80mm bases after finding an old solo wargamer article that gave some ideas for budget gaming say in a period that was not your main interest. Typically you ignored the traditional DBX rules of figures per base but still kept the frontages.
And then I discovered IMPETUS wargames rules – a great set that liberated my attitudes to basing. Essentially the rules offered a compromise between 15mm on 80mm and 28 mm on 120mm wide bases. They showed plastic 1/72 figures on the 80mm or 120 mm base widths. Either way the basing in Impetus was aimed at making the showing of your figures an important part of the game. It also promoted a diversity of figures showing more a mini diorama than rank upon rank of identical soldiers.
I like the strelets anglo saxons as they offer a range of armoured and unarmoured figures with perhaps a greater emphasis on swords and axes than some would like. As usual Plastic Soldier Review did have some complaints like the spearman above holding his spear awkwardly at shoulder/chin level and being a bit two dimensional. I rather liked him and kept him in even though he is one of the few in these two element groups not wearing mail.
I have moved to plastics because my butterfly interests have caused me to pursue so many different periods and armies usually to dead ends.
So at least my budgets are low! Still perhaps that makes it easier to abandon the plan or project? Sadly I think it would be the case with metals – actually it is, as I possess plenty of 1970’s unpainted metals!
I do feel that strelets anglo saxons have a certain animation which is not always present from their sculptors. They are a bit chunky and a bit inconsistent. I can live with the chunky well fed chaps and I like height, shape and size irregularities in my figures.
Medieval Warfare published by Karwansaray of Zutphen, Netherlands ran an article that caught my “Normans in the South” eye simply because of the date 1018. Just two years earlier a Norman pilgrimage to Mont Saint’ Angelo in Rome kick started the Norman adventure in Italy. So I was after some context and this innocent article led me David Bachrach, Count Dirk III and the Ottonians. I digress, the battle of Vlaardingen was fought between Count Dirks men and the Ottonian forces which included men from from Cologne, Liege and Utrecht as well as Lotharingians. The Ottonian or Frankish soldiers are shown in an interesting mix of red, green and yellow shield markings. I decided my saxons would look a bit like some of these men of the Empire.
Go buy the magazine MW VIII-3. Since I started taking these magazines I found numerous interesting articles and I like the mix of content – good photos, artwork and book references to expnad your reading round the subject.
So I get two options – saxons for any anglo saxon army plus these guys can be frankish troops who may even head south under the Emperor Henry II into the early years of “Normans in the South”.
The Wargaming Erratic 