Time to get back in the shine !

 I seem to have been painting 40mm Wars of the Roses for months.  Since about February I've done very little else as far as painting and modelling are concerned. Other projects have very definitely take a back sent.

British rifles- the 95th. Mostly Stadden but the chap with the fixed sword is a Hinchliffe.
 The look is deliberately retro.

 So now the Durham game is done it is time to give the WOTR a bit of a rest and go and do something else. Mind you the WOTR is only resting . I still want to finish the "cart of War" that I collected the components for but ran out of time to complete are also some more pieces from Irregular to add in to the forces. Currently the WOTR is the only one of my 40mm projects that has much life in it. I'm seriously thinking of selling the 40mm ACW and Napoleonic forces and possibly the Dark ages ones as well but only if I can get a respectable price for them- especially the ACW  which has a good bit of professionally painted stuff in it as well as  plenty of my own work when I could see better than I can now.  Actually the 40mm ECW/TYW project still has a bit of life as I have some half done Imperialist Cuirassiers on the table as well as a couple of other figures in various stages of dress. That is a collection that is definitely not in the sale possibility.

Another of the same. The office figure is suppoed to be Harry Smith- somehow he can't get anyone to post his letter for him!! 

So what do I do next- some more shiny dudes as they were on the desk anyway and"Shinyloo" is as good as table ready . After that some 28mm ECW I think unless something else takes my fancy ... I still have some more Moderns I want to add to my forces and I really need to get properly stuck into the 15mm ECW for the Dunkirk Dunes idea.
 However I have now finally finished all the "Shinyloo" British riflemen I have  so here are a ferw pics of them skulking behind some ancient Britains  plastic hedges which are roughly the same age as they are. All are Stadden 30mm except for a couple of Hinchliffe I acquired already painted to a fine standard in a job lot of assorted toys I got from ebay.

So all in all plenty to be going on with. Rules and games- who needs 'em  more stuff to do in the real world.

How many rules do you need?

There is no doubt in my mind that the hobby is changing . Parts of it are  possibly in their death throes. In 20 years even assuming it survives it will be unrecognisable to the previous generations. (As incidentally will the by then  non-existant UK. With England a poor 3rd world rump that everyone in the rest of the world ignores unless it is as a holiday theme park for "Heritage" excursions)
Good or bad does not enter into it. A hobby  of sorts will still exist but will it be wargaming as we know  NOW it and  should we actually give a toss since most of us will be dead.

 It is however interesting and amusing to speculate upon the possible outcomes of some current trends- if indeed they are trends or merely fashion blips.
 Will the current passion for seemingly endless releases of similar "skirmish wargames"  continue? Will "serious" wargames be drowned in a sea of lightweight fluff?

 Will there still be a military book industry- 

Well yes of course in some form simply because there are plenty of people interested in Military History that would not come within a mile of a wargames table. Some days I can see their point!  The "reality gap" between the modern hobby's roots in Military History and many of today's "games" gets wider and wider. This trend is likely to continue simply because games companies want to sell you a different game next week in a prettier box that requires even less effort on your part. Also you had better get bored with it pretty quickly (you will) so they can sell you another one. In a prettier box but actually the same as the one you just bought- except for page 4 of the 8 page rulebook. This of course has 2 different stats for the  Death -Ray or Chaos Doomblade   or whatever silly name the d6 WITH SKULLZ on has in THAT box.

 Yes of course I'm being waspish and facetious- It's my job! 

Of course it may do to the other extreme- 10 hour games with 5000  figures a side and  50 lashes for each button out of place on those 10mm infantry but I think the former case is the more likely.

Will there still be a Model Soldier industry?

Now this one I am less sure about and the answer is probably - though how much of it will be historical is more open to question. The "miniatures gaming industry" is awash with so many similar sci-fant skirmish -a-likes  ranging from funny  WW2 (with or without Zombies) to  Steptoe in space- taking in sundry sub-Tolkien dwarf-fiddling along the way-all from blokes who want to be Games Workshop -2. so dystopian nastiness abounds (just like the UK in 2017 then) and same old same old in a different box is the rule. There is nothing new under the (plastic) sun.

 Doubtless there will still be private producers making the stuff that interests them but the accessible public face may well be almost entirely non- historical  or even non- war Wargames so new chaps- assuming there are any such may well have an even harder time  than now- especially if they are historically minded. But then they will probably be immersed in the latest VR world- sitting on an automated  kermode for 18 hours a day eating grasshopper and beetle burgers from a (recycled) plastic bag. Not seeing an actual human being for months on end - if ever -living a virtual life from a festering bedroom -only opening the door to accept the next pizza or burger delivery.

Will there still be Wargames shows?

Now this one is a hard call- I honestly don't know. Speaking commercially many perhaps most shows simply are not worth the effort of hiring a van. There was a time when even the smallest show was worth the advertising time. This is no longer the case. Back in the 1990s I did 26 shows a year and could have done more if I chose. This year- 2017- I will do a total of 7. I know of some companies who do none at all and are happy that way. Personally I still value customer contact both by phone and face to face at shows.. Though again I know of outfits who will not speak to the people who put bread in their mouths without the  interdiction of a computer interface or sometimes even at all.
 The drive to greater personal isolation and therefore  outside control continues-. We are entering an age of Totalitarianism by commercial pressure- usually by Insurance companies so wargamers may become even more personally isolated  because of factors outside the hobby. This will of course mean that games companies will have to produce smaller and  simpler  boxed games that Daddy can play with Tarquin or Jocasta for the odd half -hour that their attention span lasts before the next burst of social media input fries their brains .

Of course in the Orwellian nightmare that will be  Gaminland no dissension will be allowed, no departure from the 2 foot square table or the ready painted plastic spaceship or day-glo elf(unless by special  Gaming Police dispensation it is a 4 foot square table). Those caught reading Chandler or Reid or Young sent to  CORRECTICON  A convention of re-education and force read  Martin and  strapped helpless and screaming  to Lion Rampant games !!


I suspect a few larger shows will survive and even thrive- given a stable economy- which of course went out of the window last June- but given current trends they will be mostly sci-fant and games will be merely those put on by the games companies for their own advertising needs. To the "commercial=popular therefore MUST be good" type of games player this will be hog heaven but to those of you who prefer diversity and individual thought perhaps not so splendid. Those of us who like toy soldiers  in numbers more than a couple of dozen will all be dead by then.
 Of course we might all get fed up and take up something interesting like Alligator wrestling or Crochet so that we don't suffer what Zabadak called "meh"  after you have been to yet another same old same old show. Now I'm not at that point yet by a long chalk- but maybe I can just see it from here.

Am I going round the bend.

 Quite possibly with the unmitigated gold star f**k up perpetrated by the sorry bunch of self-centred  non-entities masquerading as a government that you have saddled  the country with since this time last year. The strane on the brane(quoting Molesworth) has been enuff to last a lifftime .
 Nevertheless within the hobby the short term -i.e. the next couple of years, looks OK at the moment- new stuff coming out from Blue Moon , Raven Banner and Drabant- and those are just 3 of the companies I deal with . Other miniatures companies also producing historical stuff despite the deluge of same old same old sci-fant.

Rules, Games, Games Rules

  Rules are really beginning to get up my nose. Or perhaps we have to call them "Games" now. Especially as I realise that in the last couple of years I've spent more money on the bloody things that I did in the previous 10 years.
 What did I get for my shekels. 4 Ospreys and 3 hardbacks and 1 softback
 to whit
 The Hardbacks
 Black Powder- which is pretty awful . Hard to find stuff in the book and historical bunk to book. Full of errors and gamsey rubbish.Sort of OK ish with smaller scales if you  be bothered to wade through all the tripe to find the good bits - of which there are some.

Pike and Shotte- Better but still not good-  some silly formations and troop distinctions that bear only an occasional resemblance to the actuality mar what is a not too bad rule set if you know your period. However these days the urge to "play the game" at the expense of period whilst not universal is pretty common. Sacrificing period for mere dice rolling does not inspire me.

7TV A splendid idea and probably not a bad game but the cost to get a decent set up is a bit prohibitive especially for something  where  the likelihood of  multiple games is pretty remote and EACH of those games possibly require a different set up with some different characters- at around 3-4 quid a figure. plus specialist scenery and props- find me a decent 1/50th ish scale Jag mkII or a Ford Capri or Ford Transit(this last I can get but it is not cheap) or what about a Dofge Charger orFord pickup.
 I have not given up on this but it is far harder to get it right than say an ECW army.

Now 4 Ospreys
En Garde- Not a bad set of rules for low level  skirmishes. Though perhaps a bit  fiddly. Definitely has potential for 40mm use.
 Lion Rampant/Pikemans Lament.
 The same crap in different covers. I honestly fail to see why they are even remotely popular. Childish and simplistic and especially PL- actually  run counter to the history if purports to be inspired by

Honours of War. I have not yet made up my mind about these. They are not rubbish by any means but the one size fits all unit sizes and formations are a big downer (despite the optional rules for larger or smaller units)  but very common in lots of "games" these days. It is as if the writers don't want to tax the poor players brain with anything that might resemble they way things were done in the period under consideration. Yet there is still useful stuff here especially for smaller size figure games.
 However as I now study my own (very recently aquired) copy I see more potential if I can solve the "standard unit" problem to my own satisfaction.
 Of the rules bought over the last couple of years these are probably the best.
and finally
 Cold War Commander
 This is the absolute pits- makes Lion Rampant look historical, What utter dross.  No organisation worth a damn and no way of using the rules with your own. Long winded and simplistic- which is quite hard to do. The gamiest game of them all . To be rubbish it would have to improve.

So 8  different- well 7 different- sets of rules/games. Using them I have played a total of 3 games- 2 of which were Black Powder the other beoing Honours of War in 10mm  which - with a bit of tweaking will be essayed again I think.

However in toto these 8 sets have cost  me about a ton or maybe a bit more. I'd estimate that about half of that is money down the drain. The "quality" and limitations of many more recent "games" has been at least partly responsible for a partial reversion to retro wargaming. Team Yankee seems to be not a great deal more than a posher prettier version of Charles Grants WW2 rules - with a bit of Lionel Tarr thrown in. There is nothing  in many of these sets that an averagely knowledgeable chap could not do himself so why I have spent a ton plus looking for better rules ,in retrospect , I cannot imgine.

What you must decide.

Is exactly which bits of the above are satire, parody or merely taking the p""".and which bits are interpretations of o cold hard facts and which to be candid(e) 

 are all for the best in this the best of all possible worlds.


Seriously for a moment I invite your comments- unlike at least one other blog I visited and temporarily commented on very recently I will not delete stuff I personally don't agree with - as long as it is not libellous or illegal- discussion and differing opinions are paradoxically one of the things we may be losing in the social media age. 

The Battle of Brassicthorpe 10 June 1467- the Durham show.

So yes it was all done and dusted and all went well. No more Wars of the Roses for a while.
 What AM I moaning on about?
 The Durham Wargames Group Open Day of course.
 We had a full turnout of T.W.A.T.S for the game a total of 7 members and a couple of visitors..
 The table provided by the DWG was splendid giving us 10 feet by 6 of playing space plus a 2 feet by 6 space at one end for all the bits and pieces that accrue on a game  that must not be on the playing space.

General view of the table early in the day- Yorkists at the top  behind the hedge line

Despite the fact that the game was to use 40mm figures the actual building were all "28mm"- though technically those I had scratch built- around half of those on the table -were to 1/50th scale. Tobe honest this was a bit of a stopgap as I'd simply not had the time to built a medieval town in 1/43rd scale which would have been accurate as to scaling but , very possibly, would not have looked half as good as the result we had on the day. The rest of the buildings were old Hudson and Allen foam models- almost unobtainable today but still looking miles better than many of those lazer cut flatpack things that you see about the place.
Models were mostly my own- the ex Brook Miniatures 40mm range now available from Old Glory UK
http://www.oldgloryuk.com/wars-of-the-roses-and-late-medieval/43/178/443/455

Others were by Irregular Miniatures and the wagon by Doug Miller.
 Painting was either by me or James Main.

The Earl of Oxford's Lancastrian - arrive late but begin their advance. 

Rules were a slightly adapted  version of Tony Clipsom's set "Foray"  which gave us far more flexibility that Lion Rampant- which it was suggested on another blog  was what we were using..

The game itself was a close affair with the advantage swinging first one way then the other. First the Lancastirans- defending the town had a hard time for Yorkist archery. Then as more Lancatrian troops arrived the balance swung a little. Lancastrian artillery then broke a Yorkist unit- which refused to rally for some time- some truly Bum dice there Jim. It was so rough for the Yorkists that they had no choice but to charge the Lancastrian battle line but in the ensuing melee they were vindicated - 2 Lancastian banners falling and the units breaking immediately. Some Truly Bum dice there too Liam.
 At this point with their battle line in tatters the Lancastrians conceded.

The Lancastrian artillery lie in wait. 

 There were just over 170 40mm figures on the table so it was not huge. Nevertheless there was enough interest for a total of 8 players of and on throughout the day- which of course was the point.

Yorkist Men -at Arms failing to rally. Fuzzy hand of God possibly swearing !! 

As for the show itself it was as you would expect for a small event. Friendly - sometimes a little crowded and good fun.
 I actually spent some cash! I bought some more 40mm Medivals from Irregular which will go to add to the Wars of the Roses forces Pavisiers and cavalry which my range does not have. They blend in pretty well in terms of size.
 And Guess what? I bought a book !  An account of Benedict Arnold's invasion of Canada at the beginning of the AWI. Published in 1901 and only a tenner- why would I not.

So as always a good day had by all. Assuming we are invited we will be back to the Durham show next year- and yes it does very much look as if it will be the only event in the North-East I attend- of which more in a later post- but nevertheless I do enjoy this event. We will have to start thinking about next year's game.

Well done Durham Wargames Group.

Now a break form painting Wars of the Roses.........

In the home stretch.

Well here we are in the last few days before the Durham Wargames Group Open Day  next Saturday. The last few figures need to be finished but all the clever stuff has been done and the scenario is almost devised. Needless to say silly phrases(in the context of a show demo game) like "quick and easy" and "fun to play(especially if you have the mental capacity of a backward haddock)" are not a major part of the lexicon here. Having said that however Tony Clipsom's set Foray are not exactly mentally stretching either, they are simple  enough but do have a good bit of flavour, repay period tactics and yet despite all of that should qualify to be "fun"  without that dreaded epithet meaning  "intellectually vacant" as so often seems to be the case these days.
 Now some of you may feel that I'm attaching and unwonted importance to the Durham Wargames Group Open Day . After all it is a pretty small show as shows go and I'm not even *officially" trading there.

Banners and Standards. All of these will appear in the game. Most are hand painted except the 2 superb cloth printed one by John Hutchinson.  Standard bearers are mostly conversions  from basic figures requiring head and arm swaps.

 There are two sets of reasons for this
 Group  1/.
 It is a fun  show which I and the rest of the T.W.A,T.S enjoy.
We have been invited to do games there for around 10 years or a bit less now so always try to  put on a decent effort. See previous post. The D.W.G. always make us feel welcome.
 It is the only show we do as a group.
 (Though we did once put on a Naval game at the Border Reivers  show at very short notice. I'm still unsure if any of the current "committee" noticed)
 For those of our group who work the Old Glory stand it is a sort of pressure off "busmans holiday" where we can wear our punters hats for a day.

The wagon is a Doug Miller piece and is a bugger to put together. The 3 Courrour cavalry are by Irregular and are rather nice. 

Group 2/.
It is quite possible that Durham Wargames Group Open Day will be the ONLY event  I do in the North-East this year.
I am no longer the sponsor of the Border Reivers event.  Earlier this year I received a somewhat brusque letter from the new committee telling me they had "terminated the relationship".This has been on the cards for a while but the letter was still an unpleasant surprise as my efforts to talk to them(at the Derby show and others) had met with stonewalling despite their accusation that I no longer gave  any input .... Hmmm still trying to work that one out. .
 However I don't mind the fact of no longer being the sponsor  that is their decision,though the matter could have been handled better
 So far this year I have not received an invitation to the event and I have NEVER in 26 years gone to any show I don't receive and invitation to- in other words I don't ask to be invited , never have never will. It is not  appropriate.
Now if they choose not to invite me fine- they tell me in said letter I can have a free stand- if the show goes ahead- for "past services"  However last year was hardly worth getting a van for even as sponsor so if I am invited I will have to take a view on it but if I'm not well that's £250.00  Van Hire Diesel and crew wages I don't have to shell out. So either way I shan't lose any sleep.

Close up of one of the Irregular cavalry figures. Whilst a bit rough in the casting they do repay careful painting . This particular figure comes with some head variation and is very useful indeed. So much so I've ordered some more to be collected at the show. 

Now none of this matters in the bigger picture of our hobby except to say that I'll continue to go to the Durham Wagames Group Open Day as long as the continue to invite us.
 If it is the only show we do in the North East that's fine too. We will still enjoy it.
 Maybe the rest are not worth the effort.

Blue Pigs on my Fingers !!

 Having to put the various badges on the liveried retainers has made me realise why I hate decals!
 Now of the contingents I've chosen for this game 4 of the 6 I happen to have decals for which I aquired when I  bought up the Brooks Miniatures 40mm Wars of the Roses range so I have
 Ragged staffs for Warwick
 Red Griffins for Clifford
 White Lions for Mowbray
 and
 Blue Boars for Oxford-
 What a bloody fiddle and faff to get them in the right place in the right order. The dammed things stick to everything - especially fingers-  but the place you want 'em. But it is done- all but 4 blue pigs for Oxford- how many of them will end up on my fingers.....again.
 Still it will be worth it. Looking forward to seeing this lot all laid out  on the 10 feet by 6 table on Saturday.
 Come along and see us- and the other games etc at the Durham Wargames Group Open day Vane tempest Gilesgate Durham.
 It will be a good day.

Contingent upon being finished in time

My next gig so to speak is the Durham show on June 10th. Now Old Glory UK don't trade there as there simply isn't any space and frankly the show - whilst very enjoyable is just too small. So as we have done for the past several years we- that is the Tantobie Warfare and Tactical Society- will be running a demo game.
 Unlike many other demo crews around the country we will be running a different game from last year. if you recall last year Jim the Builder ran a 10mm Seven years War battle with over 2000 little 10mm dudes on the table.
 Indeed as I try to recall the games we have run at this show in the past I get quite a list of different periods and sixes.
 Off the top of my head I recall
 40mm American Civil War-possibly twice 2 different games including one where I deliberately changed the rules every few moves and made the players change sides.
28mm English Civil War
10mm Seven Years War- twice 2 different games
1/600th Russo- Japanese War naval.
28mm War of Austrian Succession.
15mm Modern- "not the Gulf War at all".
 and this year
40mm Wars of the Roses
Many but possibly not all of the games are recorded somewhere on this blog - which is now longer than Ben Hur and War and Peace put together- now THAT is a truly scary thought!

The Earl of Oxford's standard and badge banner.

Not bad for a group that currently only has half-a dozen members and has never reached double figures-well not for very long . If pressed we could probably add 15mm WW2- in at least 2 different theatres and maybe 20mm Cold War goes hot and 15mm Ancients- though this last might take more work just sorting out how many Greeks Shaun and Jim have between them!
 Now no mention is made of rules or "games" here as we would tend to tailor the rules we used to the period and scenario- especially if we are doing a public demo. At least one of the crew would be a dedicated talking head- usually me but all of the crew are capable of, and will talk to interested parties - unlike so many demos I see at shows where you are often ignored and- extremely -shouldered out of the way (that would be a pillock in a flying helmet at Derby a year or so back- tosser... I let him live.)

The Liveried contingent of the Earl of Oxford.

Equally there will always be someone at the table unlike more than one game I saw at Partizan last weekend, though to be fair most of the games were manned all the time and of course, being Partixan I saw none of those "introverts R us " board/card/boutique/skirmish/usually sci-fant games that are sometimes a feature of smaller show(not so far at Durham though) seemingly put on by clubs who just want to play the same game in a different room from their usual club night. Not really appropriate for a show that punters- however few or many- pay to get into. If that kind of crap gets to be the majority game type at shows, then goodbye shows. I don't care if they are "fun to play" ,  A bunch of mumbling unwashed around a 2 foot square board littered with cards is hardly impressive or inspiring and maybe a little hard on the olfactory organs as at York. So we don't do that because it is self centred and pathetic  and if that is being judgemental then I am JUDGE DREDD! .
(I was going to say Judge Jeffries but you have to have read a book or two to know who he was)

Oxford and Northumberland with artillery support

 Nevertheless I am quite proud of our little group and what we can do with just a little effort. So as always I am quite looking forward to the Durham show.
 As for the game my personal target was 120 finished singly  based 40mm figures plus a couple of guns. I have exceeded that by a little with a fortnight to go and some blokes still on the painting table. Jim the Builder will add around 30-40 more figures. Rules will be deliberately simple - but hopefully not simplistic and the table action should actually resemble a 15th century encounter. (so not rampant then) Basically the rules will be an altered version of Tony Clipsom's set Foray but with Imperial measurement instead of metric- somehow it does not seem right for medieval England to be in Millimetres !
Now as inn previous years you can order stuff for me to bring to the show- pay on the day or previously  your choice- though I won't have card facilities on the day as I'm not trading.
 Contact me on info@oldgloryuk.com

See you at the show.

The Next few weeks ......

After a pretty successful Carronade in Falkirk last weekend (I do like that show) you might think I'd be due a bit of time off. No chance We are at Partizan in Newark- that's Notts in the UK  in case Transatlantic readers were wondering if they had missed something in New Jersey !
After that, a bare 2 weeks later comes the Durham Wargames Group Open Day on June 10th.
 I'm not really trading there -though anyone who wants stuff bringing can email me on info@oldgloryuk.com - save yourself a bit of postage and possibly take advantage of the "6 for5" deal.

Troops from the retinue of John Mowbray Duke of Norfolk. Mostly a Yorkist.

 The main thrust of the day for me will however, be the 40mm Wars of the Roses game Jim the Builder and I are putting together  It will be in the smaller of the 2 min rooms at the show and is growing nicely. The photos show the latest figures I've painted and Jim reckons to have around 40 figures finished by the time of the show which should bring the forces (they are not large enough to be "armies")  to a little under a hundred a side ... maybe.

A couple of individual armigerious gentlemen wearing their coats of arms. Just because I fancied painting them.

Of course one of the madder asides with the Wars of the Roses in that splendid baordgame Kingmaker which manages to capture the feel of the period without being too pedantic. It is the only boardgame I own and is a speldid basis for a campaign. However you can bet that during a wargame of the WOTR someone will begin to utter phrases such as "Mowbray to Framlingham" or Percy to Alnwick" in the same way that some chaps utter lines from Zulu during a Zulu war game.... sad isn't it?

So the plan is for a colourful game at the show- come along it is a small show but worth a look. Details in the picture above.

Why waste time and money on this dross?

Now on to an entirely different matter. I have read the various reviews of the Perry's Travel Battle on TMP and on a couple of the blogs I follow and I still can't see the point other than to make God's Anointed Perry's  some more shekels.  The whole thing is so insipid and brain free. It might be great if you are eight- I recall having a game  called Battle of the Little Big Horn or something that was on a squared board with roughly 40mm plastic US cavalry and Indians. As I recall the figures were even coloured in so already it looked better than this latest effort. I doubt the box it came in was much bigger either but I might be wrong there. The Perry thing look a dammed sight more unattractive with it little Monopoly houses and 2 legged horses.  If you want easy to move about and ready to play there are shedloads of more attractive boardgames out there- and I speak as a non- boardgamer, I've seen interesting looking games with very very pretty counters and maps that beat the shyte out of a couple of gridded plastic squares with a few monopoly houses on - sometimes for  far less money and with more options too.
 If you like  model soldiers in your wargames then TB is pretty much the antithesis of what you are about. for rules dudes the rules seem simplistic to the point of childishness- again great if your are eight(or perhaps if you are 38 and missing being 8) but not really for grown ups.
All this nonsense about  being able to travel with it- see the raised eyebrows of those pert and efficient   girls behind reception in hotels I use as you grasp your Travel Battle box with your luggage (Too mean to watch the porn channel like everyone else is what she is thinking !!!!)  Nah leave me with some shreds of credibility......

But joking apart I really can't see the point. There are far better ways of  having a travelling wargame-though why you need to I still can't fathom-  than this collection of plastikrap.. I wonder which bunch of fanboys will be the first to try to pass it off as a demo at a show- that will be yet another nadir

Drabant Does It Again.

I've just had some more news from  those fine chaps in Russia, Drabant miniatures.  My next shipment will include some new releases.
 The  E range- Nomadic Horse People will have Pechengs added

The Pechengs 

 Tallifer will be added to the Normans

Tallifer- another Norman personality.

and a new pack of Saxons will replace the old A2801 pack with some really smart active figures.
 Anyhow judge for yourselves as here are the pictures.

The new Saxons

As you can see they are well up to the Drabant standard.
 The new Saxons will mix with A2807 the shieldwall to make a pretty impressive unit . I may be even tempted back into the Dark Ages myself.
 I'm actually tempted to  sell my 40mm Viking and Normans and replace them with these fantastic models or maybe I'll just add some to the collection