The Last Kingdom and Sagas of the Northmen

THE LAST KINGDOM

Bernard Cornwell's Saxon series features a Saxon born, Viking raised hero named Uhtred at the time of King Alfred. It has been a great series to read, and one that probably inspired me to collect Viking and Saxon miniatures.

Here's a link: The Last Kingdom

 The first two episodes do have a lot to recommend, primarily the acting. Matthew MacFayden as the main character's father is spot on with the book, as is Ian Hart as Beocca, the kindly priest. The actor playing Uhtred, Alexander Draymon,  is fine for the young version of the character. If he can mature into the steely and brutal character from the novels remains to be seen. And any scene with Rutger Hauer is eminently watchable.



My main critique with the first episode is with some of the pacing and story direction. If this is the first episode of an eight part miniseries, and this miniseries intends to only adapt the first book, The Last Kingdom, then this first episode has churned through quite a bit of the book. The heart of Uhtred's story is his internal conflict between his Saxon heritage and his assimilated Viking identity. A great deal of character development is lost when we advance so quicly from Uhtred's childhood abduction by Ragnar into his late teens. One key childhood event that sets up later conflict is shown, but very little of his embrace of the pagan religion. I understand that devoting two episodes out eight to a child may alienate action-seeking viewers, but I think it is essential for understanding Uhtred's torn loyalties between Saxon and Viking.

On a more positive note, the battle at the end of the first episode showed shieldwall combat as two forces pushing and jabbing at each other. Whereas the History Channel's Vikings, a good show with great characters, shows shieldwall combat as two armies forming into walls, and then running like crazy at each other.

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Here are some remaining Gripping Beast plastic Saxons I painted this week with the Last Kingdom as inspiration. My color choices are a bit brighter than the series - thank you Peter Jackson for turning all medieval themed costuming into blacks, browns and greys.

These are one of the oldest plastic Dark Ages sets available, and I think it shows. While better than the Wargames Factory line, the posing and options are limited, and the definition on the chain mail is muddy, especially on the sides.

Nonetheless, they are great for building up an army in a Hail Caesar type game, but for your elite troops in a skirmish game, one might want something with a little more distinctiveness.

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SAGAS OF THE NORTHMEN 

If you are looking for some more Viking themed media, I highly reccomend a new graphic novel I received recently through a Kickstarter I backed.

Sagas of the Northmen is a 64 pages black and white graphic novel. An anthology format, it contains a number of seperate, unconnected stories by multiple artists and writers. Anthology can be hit mess The writing is consistently good and most of the art is excellent - with a few exceptions,

It is a $6.99 digital download currently, with a print edition promised later.

Sagas of the Northmen at Drive Thru Comics 

Anglo-Saxons

The Gripping Beast plastics are a fantastic product, and I have purchased at least one box of all of their releases.  However, the Saxons were one that never caught on for me.  Originally purchased for some Viking and Saxon matchups inspired by Bernard Cornwell's Uhtred series, I assembled the Saxon Thegns, but never got around to painting them.  Other new shiny things caught my eye and a couple of years passed by.

As a firm believer in delayed gratification, I thought I would attack the Lead and Plastic mountain from the direction of items that had been in it the longest, rather than recent or more desirable projects.  So pulled them out last week and got to work.

After painting up a unit of 10 (SAGA's magic number for Saxons), I based them on 25mm round bases from Proxie Models.  Then I hot glued the figure, and filled the lipped base with some PVA glue:

I then added some bits of rock leftover from a Woodland Scenic kit:

After drying, I add bits of moss (green foam) and grass clumps.  

Now only 30 more to go...

I have no real plans to ever play the Anglo-Saxon board in SAGA nor do I have the time or money to build a Hail Caesar size army so maybe they will end up for sale.  I might interested in seeing what is the going rate for some painted minis on eBay or TMP. 

Saxon Church

The  church was central to village life in the Dark Ages and so it is an almost mandatory element of a town game board.  I have already built a small stone chapel, and I was interested in a larger piece that could hold about two dozen figures, possibly large enough to have a portion of the combat inside the church.

Small early medieval churches that are still extant are rare, and rarer still are those that have been unaltered in subsequent centuries.  Nonetheless, a general purpose church for western Europe is not hard to put together. The basic elements are a rough stone walls, and a small tower of stone or timber frame.

For this church, the stones are cast from Hirst Arts, mostly molds #70 and 71.  The tower is made of foam core and craft wood, and the removeable shingled roof is from premade plastic sheets used by model railroaders.  

The good Brother points out a roof in need of repair to the local noblewoman, hint, hint...

For the interior, I am looking at purchasing an altar/pulpit and benches from some fantasy makers. Temporarily, I might go with some papercraft furniture.  

I am make no claims of full authenticity, but it fits in with the period.  Some research I did (post construction) showed that most of the pre-Norman invasion Anglo-Saxon period churches used double windows on the belfry tower and more rounded windows. A link to the article (with illustrations) is below: 

http://www.medievalists.net/files/08100408.pdf 

Raiding a Saxon Church

     Here are some photos from a recent match up of Vikings against Saxons.  I took the Saxons and a friend of mine whose gotten the Saga bug took the Saxons.  The scenario was a raid, Vikings wanted the gold candlesticks and silver plates in a Saxon Church.  Here the two sides have spotted each other across the field.  Some taunting is probably going on.

The Saxons advance.

Here a unit of Berserkers has just decimated some Saxon Huscarls.  Sixteen attack dice can do that.  

The Viking and Saxon warlords face off with their warriors.

The Saxons eventually won the day.  After losing outside, the Saxon warlord made it inside the church and through divine providence, and good dice rolls, proved impossible to dislodge.  After losing half their men, my Vikings figured the small church wasn't worth their effort.  The fact that it was 11:30 PM also didn't help my resolve very much either.  

Figures are mostly plastic Wargames Factory and Gripping Beast.  The church was built from Hirst Arts blocks.