Battle of Shrewsbury 1069; Anglo Danish Huscarl Unit Planning

When I am planning a unit to fit a certain rule set or more accurately to fit a number of different rule sets I like to plan or map out where each individual miniature is going to sit. This is not always necessary, for example Hail Caesar has a very loose guide to how your miniatures should be situated on a base which is great and as long as your miniatures are roughly 20mm wide, the rest really doesn't matter.

That said I do like my armies to fit as many rule basing conventions as possible for reasons that are obvious, especially to a wargamer who has had to re-base an army once or twice! So, with this idea in mind I have planned this unit so they will fit Hail Caesar, Swordpoint, WAB 1.5 and with luck, a number of other rule sets that I might find myself playing.

As the title of this post suggests the miniatures on the bases below will be forming the front ranks of the Anglo Danish Huscarl unit. For anyone interested the miniatures are a mixture of the new Matthew Bickley sculpts by Footsore Miniatures, Saxon Miniatures and Gripping Beast. As far as 11th Century Saxons go these companies are by far my favourites. I do like and own some of the Matthew Bickley sculpted Late Saxons by Wargames Foundry miniatures but I have refrained from using any in this unit.

Here is the second set of bases that will rank up nicely behind the bases above. It was a little fiddly getting the miniatures to fit temporarily on the 40mm x 40mm bases as one has to take into account that shields, swords and spears will be added. Not to mention that for the unit to look convincing in a shieldwall formation one really has to aim at getting 4 miniatures per base. I will probably make a little more wiggle room with a casualty or two. Also, before cleaning and base coating the miniatures I will be cutting down some of the base sizes in order to make it easier to move them around after painting and to rank up a little better.

Lastly, here's the Eadric the Wild Command base. It is sized for Swordpoint and to be honest, the bigger the command base the better as it allows for much more leeway in terms of artistic license. I guess it is a natural inclination of a rules writer to think more about the mechanics of the game and less about aesthetics. 

Next, I'm going to be re-basing my existing Anglo Danish Huscarl unit as well as the Ceorls. Prepare for some choice Anglo Saxon language as as well as pics!