Artizan Viking Bondi

Just finished a pack of 6 Artizan Bondi armed with spears and thought I'd post a couple of pics (ok, still to finish the bases). The figures are what you'd expect from Artizan - very nice. The tunics flow very nicely and the faces and beards are well sculpted. The poses are quite similar, but that's OK, they'll be mixed in with the Gripping Beast units so they will be spread out. That's also why I just did three of each basic colour scheme, too. Some bits were a bit hurried as I just wanted to get them out the way, but that's fine as they will be bulking out a 30 strong unit. Compared to the Gripping Beast figures, I think the GB ones are a little more characterful and varied. Once the bases are finished and I'm putting them in the box with the GB I might take some side-by-side comparison shots.

Overall, the Artizan are a bit cheaper if you buy from other sources rather than direct from the web site, but not by much (about 20p a figure). A strong showing from Artizan and I would recommend them without any reservations!  

A Cattle Raid

Last Tuesday my freshly painted Viking army got their first outing on the table and it was a really fun, tense game. George had intended to bring his Saxons, but an incident involving his foot and a step meant that they now need to go in for some repairs! So instead he brought his Romano-British forces and used them instead. OK, a little anachronistic, but still very Dark Ages! The scenario we played was the Cattle Raid from the Age of Arthur book and the Vikings were aptly determined as the raiders. In this game, the Vikings have raided a village while the main body of the defenders are away, but they have returned just in time to intercept the Norsemen leaving with the livestock and some villagers for the slave trade! There are 3 groups of 'baggage' that the raiders have to escort off the table and winning or losing revolves mainly around that. So I placed my forces in front of the road with the Bondi on the flanks. I gave them thrusting spears with the idea that they should be able to hold the flanks while the Hirdmen did the dirty work. The Hird was in the centre with throwing spears and javelins with the aim of taking the fight to the enemy. The bow armed Bondi were out on my right, which turned out to be the wrong flank, as I wanted them to weaken the cavalry that was inevitably going to be present. However, George massed them all against my left! And so to the battle!

Unfortunately I only had the camera in my phone and the lighting at the club can be a little low at some of the tables, so apologies for the fuzziness of some of the pictures. 

After the first couple of turns the Vikings have surged forward  as befits their nature! The baggage is out of shot on the road to the left. The Romano-British knights have thrown themselves against the Bondi on my left. The Hird over there (with the king) have started to turn to get them in the flank.

The Romano-British skirmishers in the centre have been driven back and the Hird are getting excited about chopping up the Welsh allies in the centre (white shields). The other enemy have formed a shield wall behind their skirmishers while the Viking bowmen have come up to disperse them.

The knights crash into the unfortunate Bondi. Despite the thrusting spears and rankss, this unit just could not cope with the better quality knights and the two characters in their midst.

The Viking King eyes up the Welsh cavalry beyond, waiting to see the outcome of the knights' charge and whether  he needs to lead his Hird against them or block the approach of the farther away horsemen.

After two vicious rounds of combat the Bondi break and flee, but are cut down to a man. The victorious knights descend upon the captured baggage and free one group. They are too late to save the farthest group, so it's one apiece! Who will secure the last group to the right of the picture?

The knights barely have time to cut the bonds of the women and children and turn their mounts before the Viking king brings his Hirdmen around and charges towards them! The decisive moment of the battle approaches! 

Meanwhile, in the centre the Welsh allies fled before the ferocious charge of the Hird and they did  not stop until safety was reached in the hills far from the battle. On the right, the skirmishers continued to exchange arrows. Eventually the Viking numbers would tell and the Romano-British archers would run, leaving the shield wall to also get whittled away to nothing.

Having seen off the Welsh foot, the Hird move around to pin the Welsh light horse on their ponies. It is imperative that their King be left to deal with the enemy king without interruption! Over the last turns the Hird would charge time and again, but the Welsh would flee from them, just to return thanks to their leaders skilled direction. However, eventually the fight would be forced and the fighting ability of the professional Vikings would tell.

On the left the battle is decided! In a furious charge the Viking King  led his Hird against the knights and he singled out the one known as Arthur. In a single blow he felled the Romano-British general and all about him his fellow warriors cleaved and hewed at their enemies. The knights morale broke at the sight of their fallen hero and they turned and fled. The remaining baggage was firmly in the hands of the raiders!

This was a really fun game. It was very fluid and full of movement, rather than just two battle lines clashing. I think if George had been more aggressive with his Welsh horse he could have caught the last baggage group and won the battle, but as it was he let me pull him into a fight he couldn't really win. But we both really enjoyed it and that's what matters the most. And it just proved again that WAB really shines in Dark Ages battles with the heroes meeting up to the expectations of the Sagas and poems!

More Vikings - Gripping Beast Hird Command

Here's the next batch of Vikings finished, apart from finishing off the bases and adding flags. This time I got both the Hirdmen command groups from Gripping Beast and I will mix in half the Crusader 2-handed axe figures and some plastic Hirdmen to make two 18 man strong units. All I need to do to achieve that is one sprue of the plastics and I should have enough to put a reasonable amount of points on the table (as well as a Jarl or King, of course). I would quite like some more archers, too, and some Thralls. Oh, and Ulfhednar. And berserkers. And....!

So here's the first command group (which is also listed as Command One on the GB web site). This is my favourite group of the two as I think the sculpts are just a bit more characterful. I didn't actually intend to put so much blue together as I painted both groups mixed together and I didn't think about what figures would go into what unit, but I suppose it doesn't really matter. I didn't quite get the light right for these pics, either, but they'll just have to do.

I just noticed that I didn't paint the standard bearer's brooch!

And here's the second group. As I alluded to already, I don't think this group is quite as good. The poses are actually quite good, it's just they're not quite as interesting in my opinion and the sculpting on the standard bearer is a little incongruous with the rest. Don't get me wrong, they're still cracking figures, but if I could only have one, I would go with the first.

As with the rest of the Vikings apart from the archers, the bases still need fully decorated, but I'll just blitz through them all in one sitting when all units are ready.

Reflections and some Vikings

Happy New Year! Well, the past year wasn't really a stellar one for me. Real life really threw a few curve balls my way and I am actually glad to see the back of 2011. Worst of all was the loss of my mother to cancer coupled with a few rough months at work, but through it all I found that this hobby helped keep me sane as it was a nice constant through all the turmoil. I've always found painting to be very relaxing and I can forget all the troubles for that couple of hours, so that has been a real help in 2011. That's why, over the middle of the year the blog saw posts about painting individual figures rather than units. I just didn't have the energy or focus for painting mass blocks, so I concentrated on letting my imagination a bit more free with fantasy figures.

However, the last couple of months have smoothed out considerably and I got into a bit of a Viking groove and have painted a couple of units. This year I really aim to push on and fill out the Viking army to about 1500 or 2000 points in WAB. At the club, George has a large Saxon contingent and Graham is building a Norman list, so we should be able to get them on the table soon. Also, I want to complete the 15mm Republican Roman army I began so many moons ago. I've bought a bunch more figures from Essex and Magister Militum and should have enough for a 75 point Armati army. Further to that, I have always liked the aesthetics of ancient pike armies, so I will try to expand on my Seleucid DBA army and build that up to Armati strength, too. And through it all I want to complete my Malifaux crews. The core of Perdita's Guild crew is complete, but I want to add a couple of options and I need to finish the Resurrectionists. So 2012 is going to be a year of consolidation. The only new thing I want to start is 15mm Napoleonics which I got some figures from Santa for.

Oh...and I will try to get some more board gaming in. The past week saw about four games of CC:Ancients and I'd forgotten how good that is! I have my eye on at least another one, too, so watch out for that. But for now, here's the Vikings as they stand so far:

Crusader 2-Handed Axe Hirdmen

Gripping Beast Plastic Hirdmen

Gripping Beast Bondi with bows

Gripping Beast Bondi Unit 1

Gripping Beast Bondi Unit 2

Lock up your daughters!

Just to prove that I am still around and do occasionally still paint some things I thought I'd post a picture of a work in progress - the Vikings! Since SAGA was announced Vikings and the Dark Ages in general are totally in vohgue, but these are actually a WAB army in the making. I've also finished 10 Hirdmen and 12 Bondi archers, except for the basing which I'll do all together. Yes...I've been sidetracked from the Malifaux painting, but I have another two of the Ortegas mostly finished and just need to push on to finish the full crew.

The boys are back in town!

Also, to prove that I actually game from time to time, too, here's a picture of a pretty good game of Shako II played at the club last Tuesday. My French infantry brigade (the lines in the foreground) saw off a Russian grenadier brigade which tried to break my lines at bayonet point! Much fun was had all round! I really like the rules and hope to play a bit more in future!