Slitherine

Looking at putting a "dark ages" army on my Xmas wish list but can't decide on the 3 favourites Viking, Anglo-Danish and Norman.

So far I've looked at the core of the army and they all look pretty similar (I'm sure someone can put me right there though)

Viking
3 BGs 6 HF, Arm, Sup, Und, HW 3 LF Unp, Sup, Und, Bow
5 BGs 8 HF, Prot, Ave, Und, Off Spear
690 pts inc 4 TCs

Anglo-Danish
2 BGs 8 HF, Arm, Sup, Und, HW
5 BGs HF, Arm, Ave, Und, Off Spear
692pts inc 4 TCs

Normans
3 BGs Kn, Arm, Sup, Und, Lancer, Swrd
3 BGs HF, Arm, Sup, Und, Off Spear
668pts inc 4 TCs

So there's points to spare to get to 800 with all of them.

Any views on which is better and what to add to bring it up to 800pts.

I have been mulling over the same armies. On balance, I am inclined towards the Normans, even though their list is a bit austere.
The redeeming factor IMO is the Duke William option to dismount some of the lancers to make the armored, superior, offensive spear heavy foot.

Anglo-Danes also have a lot of armor, but much of it is average, and they do not have the cavalry numbers that the Normans enjoy. On the other hand, their choices in allies give them some medium foot via the Welsh, which the Normans are almost entirely lacking.

The Vikings don't seem to offer anything that the Anglo-Danes or Normans cannot do as well or better, except the third rank light foot, and the 'cool' factor of running "wolves from the sea". Frankly, I find their list underwhelming for variety, interest and flexibility.

With a whopping eight games under my belt, I will be happy to be corrected if I have underestimated the Anglo-Danes or the Vikings, as I like them both historically.

For bumping your points I would give the Normans some archers and crossbowmen, and I would give the Anglo-Danes and Vikings an ally who would bring medium foot into the mix.

Skullzgrinda wrote:Anglo-Danes also have a lot of armor, but much of it is average

Being average doesn't really matter here. There's not much that will beat a line of armoured offensive spear.

I would suggest that you make them all!

khurasan_miniatures wrote:I would suggest that you make them all!

Anyone would think you make a nice range of figures for each of those armies.

Khurasan Miniatures do all three including mount Huscarls so they would be my choice.

BlackPrince wrote:Khurasan Miniatures do all three including mount Huscarls so they would be my choice.

How interchangeable are AngloDanish and Vikings, I might just end up doing both armies with each other as allies.

Khurasan Miniatures used the same sculptor for both ramges so they should work well together.

Speaking very, very generally the Anglo-Danes would be more likely to use leggings/hose and the Vikings more likely to use trousers. The Vikings would have round shields whereas by mid 11th c the English were well on their way to adopting the kite shield. All of these differences are reflected in our ranges, but there's a lot of interchangability. For instance the Saxon foot would also look fine as eastern franks.

The idea was to base it on an army for King Cnut (mainly as that's how I play or something similar they said) that'd be early 11th century so round shields and viking looking would work???

Cnut's army appears to have been largely Danish, so I think so.

khurasan_miniatures wrote:Cnut's army appears to have been largely Danish, so I think so.

Excellent, Keeping the AD huscarls and Viking Huscarls seperate that means I can mix in some of the AD spearmen into the Viking spearmen and it won't look odd.