Well we are at the end of a year that will become notorious.
A year when humanity staggered from the blows of a simple virus. It is perhaps a reminder that nature always has the upper hand no matter how sophisticated our societies have become.
I guess there are plenty of historical parallels to this type of massive societal correction. Not in the same vein but I read recently about how the particularly bad 9th century weather or should I say mini climate change dealt the Carolingians numerous bad harvests damaging their always vunerable Empire. Except even if it were decisive, the roaring vikings is a much more exciting concept of Empire destruction.
Yet right now the Dark Ages have become just that – the Dark Ages as in a box with a lid on it! Right now it is the 19th Century that dominates Wargames in the mind of Norber the Wargaming Erratic.
Before we go and embark on another year there is just enough time to reflect on the fact that 2020 has proven to be rather a good year for my wargaming.
The year got going with a trip to Vapnartak, notable for the fact that it proved to be my one and only show of 2020.
Lithuanian Knights gather to charge the Teutons – figures by WillWarWeb I believe
Playing (LIVE) the Lance and Longbow Society game of Tannenberg 1410 made it all the more important as it turned out. It was my last face to face gaming of 2020.
I was into Carolingians at the time of Vapnartak.
The scary plastic soldier review horses of Carolingia!
so which soldiers marched across my painting table in 2020?
well in 2018 I had managed zero painting while in 2019 I painted and based 32 “normans in the south infantry” and 11 “normans in the south” archers.
in 2020 I managed
12 Carolingians including the man himself – comprising the much maligned (by plastic soldier review) horses which actually give my bases some nice dynamics – in my humble view
10 Anglo Norman archers
24 Normans in the South (NITS – I can’t resist an abbreviation) Cavalry
21 Ottonian foot which look very much like anglo danes or could pass for NITS foot soldiers
43 Anglo Danes were my biggest effort
A fine array of some Anglo Saxons, Anglo Danes and Ottonians
I finished the year with 4 slavs posing as Picts in my “to be” great army of Danes, Scots, Northumbrians and Norsemen which would fight Athelstan again at Brunanburh
And then the proverbial wheels came off the Dark Ages cart.
Right now the painting table has plastic Union Infantry posing as Piedmont Line Infantry along with some venerable Warrior Miniatures French Dragoons posing as – well French Dragoons. And they are metal!!!
Piedmontese in frock coats – shame about the squished stove pipe hats
I must say I had a good year with basing – finally getting a look for my mediterranean NITS – ok Normans in the South project.
Vikings aka Ottonians aka Anglo Danes aka NITS – the beauty of dark ages
In fact I have decided it will work for pretty much everything dark ages.
On the gaming front I started solo gaming with an unexpected purchase. Neil Shuck had recommended War & Conquest shortly before jumping ship with another ancients ruleset.
One of the many offspring writers/thinkers that Games Workshop brought to our wargames world.Sea peoples and desert tribes close in on Libyian bowmen
I gave it a go with my bronze age one hour wargame figures based using my hybrid impetus basing of 80mm x 60mm for 1/72 plastics. Ever awkward – probably just as well I don’t need to satisfy a live opponent. I rather liked the feel of the rules even though the play through was so limited.
And then with Covid19 lock down in full swing and some fine weather I had other distractions including lots of gardening .
I really like simple flowers with a few petalsThe colours are just fantastic
INTERMISSION
Intermission even surprised me – that was not in the plan
INTERMISSION
And of course there is always some track laying to do……………..
Eventually the dark ages gaming started in late August with numerous shieldwall rule tests – I did really enjoy them all. The biggest surprise was playing gridded wargames using Mike Smith’s Table Top Battles.
My lst shieldwall battle took place in late October and many games and rulesets later was swiftly followed by a thoroughly enjoyable game of Dux Britanniarum by Too Fat Lardies.
My vintage Garrison Vikings got a run out.
I fleshed out some campaign plans as per the rules advice and then…………nothing. I was just starting some Pictish Warriors when I read the wrong article.
On the way the renaissance troll introduced me to Faux Napoleonics for fantasy – here is my own 1970’s era Faux Fantasy Orc veering towards napoleonics?
Next minute it is baggy pants Zoaves, Spikey helms and far too much rifling. OK so it is still rather pedestrian Piedmontese – these proto Italians are quite conservative chaps – very un Napoleonic.
Will they really look like Piedmontese or just Union men on the wrong continent?
And since then two battles have been fought – one with Practical Wargaming by Charles Wesencraft and the other using 19th Century Wargames by Neil Thomas.
Whats in the container? – rescued from a dim corner of the erratic’s tardis store………Warrior Miniatures – yes they are metal and yes the brown paint was administered back around 1975!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! thats a long time on the paint table – 45 years ish. But probably not a record.
And so I wish you all a graceful end to the year 2020 and hope that 2021 brings you all that you hope for.
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.
a rare look at organisation in early medieval Italy?
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.
A refreshing look at anglo saxons in a european context
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.
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.
This is definitely not a book of illustrations for those who see Charlemagne as a an Emperor surrounded by classically dressed roman troops albeit with uniquely quirky Carolingian Crested Helmets. Instead you get a stoic view of the Carolingians defending their fragile EmpireA passionate story “for” the Vandals
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?
Tempting mini biographies of each of the “faint” rulers at end of empire
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.
My go to read of the “fall”A new (for me) and revealing story of the wider europe offering a different view of the Roman Empire and its long northern european border world
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.
No stirrups in Gregory’s time but that is the fun of this contentious period – every day archeaology throws up new facts about these times and inevitably provides new material for historians to argue over
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.
a good light general read about a ruler usually ignored in the english history themes of the anglo saxons versus the vikings which at this time tend to be introspective.
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.
good introduction to the Mercians and their battles – a good corrective for the overt West Saxon story of the english
“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.
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.
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.
The beige clothed spearman gets short shrift in the plastic soldier review
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 like the poses mid centre – a Thegn? in a cloak with upright spear and another in mail with a type of club
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!
middle right and above some nice animated shieldwall figures get ready to attack
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.
The red/green/yellow colours that thread their way through this set are based on an article from Medieval Warfare
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.
As I said I get two elements here as I will put 11 or so figures on a base with some suggestion of a shield wall, maybe just forming.
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”.
So these first two bases of Norman cavalry have their slightly arid ground cover and bit of green vegetation to liven things up. The base style comes from Impetus ideas about using the greater space to create more of a diorama look instead of the serried ranks style. It works for these Normans I think.A nice variety of weaponry and also other equipment means these chaps can also become Carolingian and OttoniansA nominal couched lance is provided although the helmet is a puzzle. All coat d’arms horse colours are on show
The Wargaming Erratic 