Håtunaleken – The Full Host of King Birger Magnusson

As I now have finished my host for our club project Håtunaleken, about the feuding royal brothers in early 14th century Sweden, I decided to take some pictures of the assembled units. To me, it's always very satisfying seeing a finished project like this.

This is a full 24 points retinue for Lion Rampant consisting of:
Mounted Men-at-Arms (Drilled) 7 points
Foot Men-at-Arms 6 points
Foot Serjeants 4 points
Foot Yeomen (Mixed Weapons) 5 points
Bidowers 2 points

Leading from the front, swinging his big axe and accompanied
by his personal bodyguard, is the king himself.
In the background can be seen the fearsome knights,
ready to make short work of any rebellious brothers.

The miniatures are a mix of Black Tree Design, Curtey's and Gripping Beast. There are some headswaps hidden amongst the units, with new heads from Curtey's and West Wind.

I had my first game with the complete host this past Monday – and it was a complete and utter disaster! More about this humiliating defeat in Dalauppror's upcoming AAR I'm sure ...

And to finish it all off, here is the last part of the story of the Second Feud of Brothers. When we left the three royal brothers – Birger, Erik and Valdemar – Sweden had just fought a civil war with the king Birger on one side and the younger brothers duke Erik and duke Valdemar on the other. Since Birger and Erik through marriage, had the support of the Danish and the Norwegian kings respectively, neither side was strong enough and the fighting was inconclusive. Instead, on initiative of the two other kings, in 1310 a peace treaty was signed and Sweden was now definitely split between the brothers and in practice ruled as three independent kingdoms. However, as the "legitimate" king Birger had, in his own opinion at least, drawn the shortest straw, he naturally wanted to restore his power and unite the kingdom under himself once again.

Here are the king's trusted knektar (serjeants),
and in front of them some skirmishing peasants.

In December 1317, as a sign of reconciliation, king Birger invited the dukes Erik and Valdemar to Nyköpings hus (Nyköping Castle). When they arrived they were told only they could stay at the castle, since there wasn't enough room to house all their men. Instead, the men had to make camp in the city itself.

On the night between December 10th and 11th, the dukes were arrested by a company of crossbow men. According to the legends, the king himself was present at the arrests and is told to have said:

Minnes idher nakot aff Haatwna leek?
Fulgörla minnes han mik!
Thenne er ey bätre än hin!

(Do you remember the Håtuna Games?
All too well I remember them!
This one will not be any better!)

The dukes were then imprisoned in the dungeons, while in the morning all their men were also arrested. These particular events have became known as "Nyköpings gästbud" (Nyköping Banquet).

However, Birger had misjudged the political situation: rather than acknowledge him as king, the dukes' supporters rose up against Birger and Sweden was once again thrown into a civil war.

Finally the allmoge, peasants armed with a mix of spears,
polearms and crossbows. (Sorry about the blurry picture!)

When Nyköping castle was besieged in the summer of 1318, Birger and his queen were forced to flee to the island Gotland and then further on to Denmark. In the meantime, their son, Magnus, was left in charge of the defenders of the castle. However, they could not hold out against the attacking forces and Magnus was also forced to flee towards Gotland. During the flight he was captured and later executed in Stockholm in 1320. When the dukes' supporters broke into the castle they found both Erik and Valdemar dead in the dungeons. How they died remains unclear to this day – were they murdered or did they die of starvation?

Birger ended his days in exile in Denmark 1321, while duke Erik's only son Magnus Eriksson was chosen as king of Sweden in 1319 at the age of three. Prior to this, he had been declared king of Norway after his grandfather king Håkon Magnusson had died, and thus he was destined to become a very powerful man indeed. King Magnus was a very interesting person, for many reasons, but this is another story best left for another time!

Have a great weekend everyone and thank you very much for reading!

Håtunaleken – Bidowers for King Birger

Hello everyone, long time no see etc etc. It's summer/vacation time, which strangely enough means I'm more busy than ever. The unexpected bonus of having small kids I guess. Anyway, time to update the long neglected old blog with some painted miniatures – my final unit for the Håtunaleken club project no less.

This is a unit of skirmishers, or bidowers as they are called in Lion Rampant. Very nice for screening your advancing troops and harassing the enemy.

The models are all from Black Tree Design and started out as Anglo-Saxons. A couple of them got new heads from West Wind Miniatures for a bit of variety. These are the hooded ones and the blond fella.

As they are meant to represent poor peasants, hunters and other wood folks I went for a really muted palette. To add some interest I picked out some details in contrasting colours.

I'm in the process of sorting out some picture of the full host and will post these in the coming week.

Thank you very much for reading!

Håtunaleken – Allmoge for The King's Host

The king Birger Magnusson has rallied some more troops to his banner. This time he's reinforced by a unit of allmoge – yeomen armed with a mix of spears, pole arms and crossbows.

As befits such a motley crew, the miniatures are a mix of Curtey's and Black Tree Design. One of the BTD minis had a cone helmet with a nose guard, typical 11th century stuff and not really suitable for the 14th century – even the rural Swedes weren't that much behind the fashion of the times by then. To bring him forward a couple of centuries I chopped his head off (a-ha!) and gave him a new one from one of the West Wind head sprues I have around. He's the one with the red and white shield on his back. The head fitted reasonably well, but for some reason it looks a bit weird from a certain angle. Oh well.

As they are in essence a bunch of peasants, I painted them mainly in muted colours but with some details in the colours of the House of Bjälbo to show their allegiance to the king.

This was my first experience with Curtey's miniatures and they were jolly nice, although perhaps they look a bit "squat". Might just be my preference though ...

During the games in our club campaign Håtunaleken, I have felt a distinct lack of missile troops for my host, so this unit is a welcome addition indeed.

Thank you all for reading!

Pictish Raiders

From the north they came ...

A month or so back, I realized I hadn't put up any pictures of the Pict raiding force I finished last year, so when I got the time I arranged some terrain and took some photos. Then things got in the way, as they have a tendency to do, and it took me a good while to sort out the pictures – but this week I finally took the time to finish the last few of them.

The whole warband ready to raid (click for larger image).

The force consists of the following models: one Lord with a champion and standard-bearer (the last one is for decoration only and have no effect in the Dux Britanniarum rules), one minor Noble, one group of four bow-armed skirmishers (should be crossbows according to the rules apparently, but there you go), one group of four skirmishers armed with javelins, one group of four skirmish cavalry and four groups of six raiders each.

Here is the Lord Gartnait son of Girom with his champion Caltram son of Uoret to his right. Behind him stands the trusty standard-bearer Lutrin and to the left stands proud Erip son of Domelch, a minor Noble.

Skirmishing cavalry, armed with javelins.

Skirmishers with bows.

Skirmishers with javelins.

First group of raiders.

Second group of raiders.

Third group of raiders.

Fourth group of raiders.

The miniatures are an eclectic mix of Black Tree Design, Gripping Beast, Old Glory and West Wind. Shield transfers and banner from Little Big Men Studios.

With the long (looong!) awaited Raiders supplement for the excellent Dux Britanniarum from Too Fat Lardies finally being about to be released – "in the beginning of April" is that I'm hearing – I'm getting very excited to at last be able to field this force.

Thanks for looking, have a great weekend everyone!

Dark Ages Saxons 6

This week I have finished the second unit of gedrihts for my Saxon warband for Dux Britanniarum.

The miniatures are mainly from Musketeer Miniatures with one model from West Wind mixed in for a bit of variety (the miniature with the blue cloak in the pictures).

Shield transfers, as usual, from the great Little Big Men Studios. The shields are in the same style as the other unit's to set them both apart as elites.

This is the final regular unit for this warband, and all that's left to paint now are a couple of characters.

Thanks for reading, have a great weekend everyone!

Dark Ages Saxons 5

After almost two months I can at last post another update to my Saxon project. I had just begun painting this unit when work hit me hard and this project was completely halted. But during the Christmas vacation I finally had the time to continue with these miniatures and here they are at last – the first unit of gedrihts, the elite warriors of the Saxons. As such they are suitably armoured up and clad in the some of the brightest coloured and finest patterned clothing this side of the Mare Germanicum.

The second miniature from the right is from West Wind,
the rest are from Musketeer Miniatures. 

The miniatures are from Musketeer and West Wind. To be honest, when it comes to these particular miniatures, the quality of the sculpts of former is leagues above the latter, but it's always nice with some variety in a skirimish warband.

Not a sight you are likely to see very often!

The shield transfers are from Little Big Men Studios. I went for a sort of unified look with the shields, to try and tie the warriors together as a unit.

Tough guys spoiling for a fight. And a good look
at the lovely shield transfers from LBMS.

The second unit of gedrihts is on the painting table at the moment, and should be ready next week.

Thanks for looking! Have a great week everyone!

Dark Ages Saxons 4

Here is the final group of warriors for my Saxon warband for Dux Britanniarum.

The miniatures are from Musketeer and West Wind (the second mini from the right, in the picture above), and the shield transfers are from Little Big Men Studios.

And a final look at these hairy fellas.

With the rabble done, I can now concentrate on the elite gedriht and the characters. My plan is to use a bit more colour on these, and with more patterns on their clothes, to make them stand out against the muted palette of the skirmishers and common warriors.

Thanks for looking!

Dark Ages Saxons 3

This past week has been crazy busy at work and as a consequence I've come home most nights feeling utterly knackered. Despite this I've still found the time and energy to press on with the Saxon horde through sheer force of will (well, almost!), and here is the result of that feat: another unit of warriors.

L to R: Musketeer, West Wind, WW, M, M, M

The miniatures are the usual mix of Musketeer and West Wind, with shield transfers from Little Big Men Studios.

As you can see, I'm still experimenting with my photo setup. I think the daylight bulbs I'm using may be a bit too bright, as they kill some of the more subtle tones. It's most noticeable on the blue cloak in the picture above – it doesn't look quite as flat in reality!

Unfortunately, it looks like the situation at work will continue for a couple of more weeks, maybe even as long a until Christmas, and I'm not sure if I'll able to keep up the desired pace in this project during this time. We shall have to see I guess ...

Thanks for reading and have a great week everyone!

Dark Ages Saxons 2

The Saxon horde continues to grow this week with the addition of the first group of warriors. These are a mix of duguth (older and more experienced warriors) and geoguth (younger up and comers). This bunch of hairy raiders is little more colourful than the skirmishers – but not by much and mainly thanks to their shields!

L to R: Musketeer Miniatures (MM), MM, MM, West Wind, MM, MM

The miniatures are from West Wind and Musketeer and the shield transfers are from Little Big Men Studios. The Musketeer models are quite nice, but I would have liked some even more menacing looking types. Also, there were quite a bit of flash and mold lines on the miniatures, which made cleaning them up a bit of a chore. I really don't like cleaning up models ...

I've been experimenting with my new daylight bulbs and an improvised lightbox. It think the photos came out all right for a first try, but it will take some more trial and error before I'm satisfied.

Finally, a warm welcome to the new followers Panzer Kaput and Legion Games (do you have a blog, I couldn't see one linked from your profile?).

Thanks for looking everyone, there will be more Saxons in a week or so!

Dark Ages Saxons 1

By now I think most of you know that despite occasional detours into other periods, my real passion lies in the so called "dark ages" and especially the British Isles during the 5-7th centuries. So unsurprisingly, for my next trick ... ahem, I mean project I will paint up a force of everyone's favourite Germanic raiders for Dux Britanniarum: yes, finally it's Saxon time!

This is the standard starting-force straight out of the rulebook and consists of:

1 Lord
1 Champion
2 Nobles
12 Elites
18 Warriors
4 Skirmishers with bows

The miniatures will be a mix of Musketeer and West Wind, as well as a couple from Gripping Beast.

I have decided to forego the smaller bucklers and instead use regular-sized shields as I just think it looks much better. Also, I've read somewhere that the historical evidence for bucklers is somewhat ambiguous. But mainly, as I said, I just think the large shields look better.

Anyway, here is the first unit to be finished – the skirmishers.

I've gone for a very muted palette on these, as I like to do for my skirmishers. It makes their job of hiding in the bushes to surprise the enemy easier.

The miniatures are from West Wind, and very nice they are too.

Have a nice week everyone, and thanks for reading!

Pictish Raiders 8

Well then, here are the final models for my Pictish Raiders force for the upcoming expansion to Dux Britanniarum. These are the Lord, his Champion and a lesser Noble. And for a little extra flavour I added a standard-bearer to accompany the Lord in battles.

L to R: Champion (GB), standard-bearer (WW), Lord (WW)
and Noble (GB).

The miniatures are from Gripping Beast and Westwind. I spent a little more time painting these models, adding some extra highlights etc, like I usually do for commanders and I'm pretty happy with how they all turned out. Unfortunately the light is really weird today, making it impossible to take decent photos (the champion's white cloak is not that flat looking for example) but these will have to do.

As usual, the shield transfers and the banner are from Little Big Men Studios.

The Lord and the standard-bearer are mounted on a custom made sabot command base for greater flexibility.

I had this one made by special order from Warbases, along with a couple of other variants as well. More about these in a later post.

And with these miniatures, this project is now finished. For now at least! I have some more stuff I want to add, some nice extras, but as I'm no real hurry these will be done in-between other projects.

When I have the time, I will take some snaps of the whole force assembled.

Now, all I have to do is wait for all this Chain of Command hysteria to die down and for Too Fat Lardies to finally publish the Raiders supplement so I can try out my new warband ...

Finally, a long overdue greeting to the new followers: Mike D, Remco de Groot, Emilio and Willie Anderson. Welcome! I hope you'll like my blog and find much inspiration here. Do make yourselves at home.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Pictish Raiders 7

This is the finished skirmish cavalry for my Pictish raiders force for Dux Britanniarum. The miniatures are a mix of Black Tree Design and Westwind.

BTD, WW, BTD, WW

In reality, I imagine the Picts would have ridden sturdy ponies, but since these horse models are a bit on the small side they look OK to me.

As usual, the shield transfers are from Little Big Men Studios.

The BTD cavalry are as nice as the rest of the range, but unfortunately there's only three poses and they're all a bit static. A couple of more sculpts with more animation would have been nice.

With these skirmishers done it's just a couple of characters left before the whole force is finished. Nice!

Oh, and another thing: it seems this blog reached 10 000 total hits sometime during the last weekend, which of course is a very nice milestone. Back in April the total hits reached 5 000, which was some 15 months after I started. Well, it certainly seems the monthly hits are increasing as the next 5 000 was reached in just 4,5 months. Of course, counting hits is a fairly blunt instrument when gauging how your website is doing, but at least it gives you some indication ...

Anyway, I just want to say a big "Thank you!" to all visitors, especially if you're not a Russian spambot and also if you took the time to comment on one of the posts.

Have a great week everyone and thanks for reading!