So there you got the background, I've made this army list to help me choose what units I needed to start collect and paint.
The armylist is inspired from the army list found in "Hail Caesar Army lists II - Late antiquity to early medieval" from Warlord Games that I highly recommend.
I tried to use the same tone of words and unit compositions found there but giving it its own twist or flavour. I have looked mainly at the Feudal Scots, Early Russian and the Feudal German list for inspirations as I find these the most logical to start from. Im no expert in this subject and I am more then welcome ideas on how to adopt or change the list. See this list more as a starting list more then a finished product, a work in progress.
Hopefully I haven't made the list too good or too bad but in balance with the other lists.
This list are mainly meant to represent Denmark, Sweden and Norway. I know the army compositions of these varied but also over time and I tried to have options incorporated in the list to alter these as you see fitting for a certain battle or year.
The term Knight in this list is meant to represent nobles actually knighted and men not knighted but thought in same manners, this is for simplicity.
The term Mercenary could represent the numerous German troops that thought in Scandinavia from time to time or troops recruited locally or from neighbouring Scandinavian countries.
Medieval Scandinavia, 11th - 13th Century.
Army compositions:
Knights, up to 50%. This includes mounted or dismounted Knights and Leidang units with Knights fighting in front rank.
Infantry 50%+. At least half of the units in the army must be infantry other then skirmishers
Leidang, 50%+ of infantry. At least half of the infantry must be Leidang medium infantry.
Divisions 4+ units. Divisions must contain at least 4 units, and must be led by a commander.
Unit
|
Clash
|
Sustained
|
Short range
|
Long range
|
Moral save
|
Stamina
|
Special
|
Points
|
Dismounted Knights, Heavy infantry -Make unit Tought Fighters
|
7
|
7
|
3/0
|
0
|
4+
|
6
|
Stubborn
+Tough fighter
|
29pts
+1pts
|
Feudal Heavy infantry - Give unit Long spears
|
7
|
7
|
3
3/0 |
0
|
4+
|
6
|
26pts
+3pts
| |
Feudal Medium infantry - Give unit Long spears
|
6
|
6
|
3
3/0 |
0
|
5+
|
6
|
23pts
+3pts
| |
Leidang Medium infantry - Make unit mixed rank archers.
- Add Dism, Knights in front rank
|
6
6
|
6
6
|
3
3 |
0
2
|
5+
5+
|
6
6
|
Shieldwall
Shieldwall
Shieldwall, Stubborn, Tought fighters
|
24prs
+2pts
+3pts
|
Medium infantry Crossbowmen - make unit small
|
5
4
|
5
4
|
3
2
|
3
2
|
5+
5+
|
6
4
|
24pts
-6pts
| |
Light infantry archers - make unit small
|
4
3
|
4
3
|
3
2
|
3
2
|
0
0
|
6
4
|
20pts
-6pts
| |
Skirmishers with javalins
|
3
|
2
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
4
|
11pts
| |
Svennar, medium cavalry
-Make Svennar Heavy cavalry - Give Heavy unit Lance |
8
9
|
5
6
|
3
3
3/0
|
0
0
|
5+
4+
|
6
6
|
27pts
+3pts
+3pts
| |
Knight, heavy Cavalry, Lance
- Make unit Cataphract cavalry
|
9
|
6
|
3/0
|
0
|
4+
|
6
|
+Stubborn
|
33pts
+4pts
|
Mercenary Heavy infantry
- Give unit Long spear
|
7
|
7
|
3
3/0
|
0
|
5+
|
6
|
Drilled
Drilled
|
29pts
+3pts
|
Mercenary Medium infantry
- Give unit Long spear
|
6
|
6
|
3
3/0
|
0
|
5+
|
6
|
Drilled
Drilled
|
26pts
+3pts
|
Mercenary Knight, Heavy Cavalry, Lance
- Make unit Cataphract cavalry
|
9
|
6
|
3/0
|
0
|
4+
|
6
|
Eager
+Stubborn
|
33pts
+4pts
|
Commanders: One commander must be provided per division. All commanders including the general have leadership 8 and is free.
Special rule: Shieldwall - The unit may close rank as a heavy infantry unit.
Bröte- A field defence often erected to block roads and enemy movements in the heavy wooded terrain of Scandinavia. Perfect roadblock and then to spring ambushes from the sides of enemy columns.
The exact rules for this I havn´t decided yet, I looked at the wagon laagers on page 39 of the "Hail Caesar Army lists II - Late antiquity to early medieval" but Im afraid this will be too good in combination with heavy or medium infantry units. But maybe just count units behind a Bröte as in cover giving it +1in moral save and hindering cavalry from attacking.
I have thought about including some more kind of light infantry units to easy up on movements in forest terrain in the future.
Please add you opinion or thoughts about the list. Even if you dont know the HC rules or the specific time or place. Maybe you have an opinion about the army composition, thought or worries about balance or something else. Maybe the spelling or names on the units, whatever it is. It would help me to expand and further develop this army list.
As I said earlier, Im no expert but this is my impressions on the subject according to my sources or past knowledge
Thanks for reading all this.
Having Leidang medium infantry as 25% of the force is a good balance to the amount of heavy cavalry in this army list. I was a bit disappointed to see you try to "super" up the units in the list.
ReplyDeleteHow about:
Leidang Med Infantry 6/6/3/0/+5/6 23 pts no special rules
Leidang Med archers 5/5/3/3/+5/6 24 pts no special rules
Leidang Heavy archers with knights 6/6/3/2/+4/6 27pts; Stubborn +3, Tought fighters +1
Leidang Heavy archers do not count for the Leidang requirement.
Big thanks for the input.
ReplyDeleteThe amount of Heavy Cavalry I see as a big problem. I copied ideas from the Scottish list but I think I have to look at the wordings to get the amount of mounted troops down.
"super" up ? Is it the abuility of the Leidang to close rank you dont like?
Or the abuility to have mixed unit with archers?
The Leidung was introduced as a sort of homeguard but could be used offensively.
..Every time the king announced a ledung would one man bearing arms being drafted from each Hamna (an area) with shield and sword, spears and iron hat, armor and bow with three dozen arrows…
My impression is that they still trained and thought in the old Viking tradition of shieldwalls but with better equipment with archers in the rear ranks.
Wealthier was soldiers with better equipment was placed in the units to stiffen them up.
I wanted a unit that would have a slight edge over similarly equipped units of other contemporary forces as they still trained regularly in this formation. And I think the Shieldwall rule and the mixed archers is enough for this.
The ability to mix in heavy fighters in front rank is an idea taken from the Scottish list and I think is only fitting to have this ability as most nobles thought in this way atleast in the earlier part of the medieval Scandinavia. And by having it counting as “knight” in this way it lowers the amount of mounted knights being able to be fielded.
If I get your thinking right you would rather have the Leidang troops divided with archers in one unit and close combat men in one.
The result with your Leidang heavy archer unit would achieve about the same result but with 4+ armor instead of 5+ with a special rule for closing ranks that heavy infantry get for free. And by not counting the unit as the required number of Leidang troops you stops the unit from being the most numerous way of fielding it, which is good.
What I want in the list is a way of having nobles fight on foot, having a way of trying to explain to why heavy cavalry took such long time to establish itself more than the explanations that cavalry aint good in woods as heavy and medium infantry have the same problem rulewise. So maybe mixed archers could get that 6 to hit and force the knights back.
And If I introduce rules to build Bröte were terrain allows it this will only enhance this.
Don’t get me wrong here, I really really like your inputs and ideas.
Thanks
If anyone reading this, the termn Feudal should be replace as none of the Scandinavian nations really had a working feudal system. So that term will have to be replaced in an futures variant of this list.
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