Smøl Saxons

 

Wiglaf Miniatures 18mm unarmoured Saxon warriors

I’ve been obsessed with post-Roman and early medieval Britain for decades. It was only a matter of time before I decided I wanted to game the period. For a ruleset I picked up a copy of Dux Bellorum: Arthurian Wargaming Rules AD367-793 by Daniel Mersey, which is essentially an update of his 1998 Glutter of Ravens ruleset. Mr Mersey is probably best known as the author of Lion Rampant and Dragon Rampant, which have been our go-to rules for beer and pretzel games nights for a fair while now.

Dux Bellorum itself is an ‘element’ based wargame and uses a system of Leadership Points to represent charismatic warlords attempting to influence the battle. I like this mechanic as it presents an opportunity to use cunning to break the grind of shieldwall-style combat. The rules also allow you to purchase Strategies for your army, everything from an experienced general to excessive amounts of mead to stampeding livestock. 

Ruleset chosen, it was time to build some armies. While there are many wonderful 28mm ranges for this period available, I don’t actually have enough room to play 28mm mass battle games at home. For this project I wanted a game I could play on the kitchen table.

The obvious solution would have been DBA-style basing, but 3-4 guys stood in a line just doesn't do it for me. I thought maybe I could fill up a 40x20mm base with 10mm minis instead to get that 'warband' look, but having bought some packs of the lovely Pendraken Late Romans I realised my eyes just couldn't take it. Damn!

Forged in Battle 15mm Saxon raiders

Plan B was to increase the base size and go with 15mm. 60x30mm bases is definitely the upper limit of what will work in the space I have, but at least I'd be able to cram the minis in. I bought a couple of packs of the Forged in Battle Saxons to get me started. These bases are predominately from the WE-GX05 armoured raiders pack, with a few bods from the WE-GX01 noble infantry adding a bit of variety. 

Forged in Battle Saxons

I made a schoolboy error on the first two bases and forgot to leave space for a cohesion die holder. As a workaround, I mounted the dice holders and some extra nobles on 2p pieces to accompany their units across the battlefield.

Cohesion markers

I really like the Forged in Battle range. There’s a bit of variation in scale, between 15mm to 17mm to the eyeline, but the sculpts themselves are a cut above most of the other offerings out there. That said, when I heard that Daniel Mersey was launching his own 18mm minis line, Wiglaf Miniatures, specifically designed for the 7th century and sculpted by the genius that is Mark Copplestone, I knew I’d be going all in.

Wiglaf Miniatures unarmoured Vendel culture warriors

At the time of writing, Wiglaf have minis for armoured and unarmoured Saxon and Vendel culture warriors, some personality packs, skirmishers and Saxon cavalry. Welsh and Irish are in the pipeline, but may not be available for a while. I have enough Wiglafs to build the majority of options on the Saxon list. I just need to finish painting them…

Wiglaf Miniatures armoured Saxon warriors and Warlord

With the cavalry I reversed my basing policy of cramming on minis, as I think that cavalry in this period would have operated as ‘light cavalry’. If I ever get round to going back a couple of centuries and building an Arthurian force, then obviously King Arthur would be based as heavy cav to capture that Sword at Sunset vibe.

Wiglaf Miniatures Saxon cavalry

I was dubious that Forged in Battle and Wiglaf would work together. You can see from the size comparison photo that the Wiglaf lads are noticeably larger, but I don’t think this will be as apparent at 2’ away when the dice start to roll. I have a vague plan about finishing the Saxons and some Welsh opposition in time for Xmas so I can play some knockabout games with the kids over the holidays. There, I’ve written that down now so I can’t weasel out of painting the rest. 

Forged in Battle 15mm Welsh heavy cavalry and Wiglaf 18mm Saxon cavalry