Yet more reading matter has arrived for my current flavour – the Anglo Saxons. I should say Anglo-Saxons here is deemed to cover Northumbrians, Mercians, East Anglians, West, East, South Saxons and the men of Kent. And of course their top adversaries – the vikings.
Tom Holland authored Athelstan in penguins monarchs series; Harriet Harvey Wood has chosen Edward the Elder as the focus of “the making of England”; “The age of Athelstan” by Paul Hill is one of his 4 books that look at the world of the anglo saxons; “Cometh the Hour” by Annie Whitehead is a novel about the Mercians.
So currently I have just finished Paul Hills “The Anglo Saxons at War 800 – 1066” and Gareth Willams Osprey No27 Combat series book – “Viking Warrior versus Anglo-Saxon Warrior”.
And there are yet more books for me to read
On impulse I bought this book having read about anglo saxon fortifications in Paul Harris’ anglo saxon warfare 800-1066 – one thing leads to another……I already had part 1 and my currently parked Normans in the South project must include some stone castles surely?stretching the boundaries of my self imposed dark age end date of 1100 but again there are some books that I find I cant resist – Medieval Italian warfare being one theme.At the other end of the period we have the romans. I have enjoyed both authors through their other publications. They seem happy to go out on a limb and it does not hurt to read about contrary thinking when it comes to history or archeaology for that matter.I like Francis Pryor and this is a book that I have meant to read many times – now I have no excuse.And wargames rules – well I can’t resist. Another Neil Shuck recommendation. I have read through it and will hopefully give it a go maybe using my dark age armies when they are ready.strelets 1/72 anglo saxons gathering…..
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.
A saxon dark age infantry element for IMPETUS. at 80mm wide with here 10 figures it works out a lot cheaper than 4 DBX bases of say 16 number 28mm figures packed together. I like the fact that you don’t get repetition in the figures although if you buy enough boxes you can achieve that look.
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.
The Wargaming Erratic 