Thursday 1 April 2021

Norman Archers : Hastings

I have continued planning in my head Hastings 1066 and painting away. I know we needed some more Norman archers so picked these up as a Christmas present. I normally paint a maximum of 24 figures but stretched it here to the whole box which is 30 in one go on the basis that they are a very simple scheme.

Annoyingly as I wanted to base them in 6’s, for other potential rulesets you get five bases anyway I do have some more conquest archers, so may do them as well
Happy with the mass effect and of course they can pretty much play in any dark age army, there are a few head shops as some have picked up helmets from fallen enemies etc
I thought I would also get out all my Normans to see how I am doing, at the moment I can squeeze it to six infantry blocks, the archers, about the same number of crossbows, some additional mercenary generic Celtic types and 7 or so units of cavalry. Some of these are actually Saxons but as we know the ladybird book of history tells us the Saxons all fought on foot so they can double as Normans. At a pinch I also have a unit of Al Andalus infantry and they could hide at the back. I think this might be enough for a small version test game and I plan to check out how many Saxons I can muster.

Holiday weekend is planning  some more painting.

Matt 



22 comments:

  1. This is an impressive sight, Matt! Very well done!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Jon I slogged through them in the end.....deep breath more to come 😀

      Delete
  2. The archers look superb and the army as a wjole looks rather impressive

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Neil, it is at least feeling like a proper force, hard not to feel I need a few more though !

      Delete
  3. Wow! Yes, very impressive amount of beautifully painted Dark Age figures, Matt! Inspiring as always.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Many thanks Dean....slow and steady and in the end an army is developing 😀

      Delete
  4. A hefty number to pass over the painting table, but a smashing impact at the end of it. very much looking forward to the Hastings project unfolding. Victrix sent me an e-mail a couple of days ago showing their new Norman mounted ...... they are exquisite!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Norm, yes I got the Victrix email as well and am pretty taken by their cavalry, especially as you can have Al Andalus heads...that is feeling like a nice idea !

      Delete
  5. Very impressive Matt and look forward to seeing them in action on the games table.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Steve........more to come before they can all get on the battlefield together

      Delete
  6. Splendid stuff Matt...
    And very tempting...I have been listening to Lars Brownworth’s Norman Centurys and 12 Byzantine Rulers podcasts... my wargames butterfly doesn’t know what to do with itself.

    https://larsbrownworth.com/

    All the best. Aly

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Aly, my dark age figures started with a small skirmish saga army and now I have Saxons, Normans, Vikings and of course my Al Andalus stuff, who knows where the butterfly will land. If the secret truth be known mine has landed in the Pennisular around 1809 !

      Delete
  7. Now that's what I call massed archery, great production there Matt.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Phil we might just squeeze a few of these into battle for Sunday 😀

      Delete
  8. A great job on the archers Matt and the army as a whole does look good...more cavalry may be in order though? We played a Hastings game on our week long wargaming escape a few years back, using To the Strongest, and the Breton Light Cavalry were wiped out to a man!

    ReplyDelete
  9. 30 in one go is a lot. Congratulations on getting them done. Your Norman army is impressive. It’s always a fun sight to get all your troops together for a group picture. 😀

    ReplyDelete
  10. 30 great looking archers and lovely basing, are these the conquest plastic or someone else?
    Best Iain

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Iain these are the Gripping beast plastics. My only complaint is the slight lack of variation ? For little effort they could have given a couple more variations but they are a good price and pretty easy to paint up 👍

      Delete
  11. These look great Matt, I fear plenty more cavalry are on the cards.
    Cheers
    Stu

    ReplyDelete
  12. One in the eye for Harold then! Nice work on the archers!

    ReplyDelete