6mm Viking Age

[Osmoses]

The start of a Viking Age project in 6mm. The ultimate aim is Brunanburh, but that will need a lot of figures given the nature of the bases. To begin with, I'm going to do enough Vikings and Saxons for a few games and go from there. Bases are 40mm square, all figures are by Baccus:







The first few games are likely to be 'raid' games, probably using Peter Pig's Viking rules. Those rules use a lot of buildings, so it's an opportunity to put together some Saxon village bases. Ultimately, I'll need 12 bases, this is the first. 10 cm square base buildings by Leven, other accessories by Perfect Six:

[Gibby]

Now THAT is a shieldwall! Amazing! 
 
Really shows what 6mm can do!

[Inkpaduta]

That is truly something. Looks like a real army.

[Kelly_]

Great job on the shields, very cinematic.  But the village might need some small touch ups, it looks like those chickens are scratching up all of the grass!

[DivisMal]

Stunning pictures! I love both the idea and what you are doing with those bases.

[Osmoses]

Great job on the shields, very cinematic.  But the village might need some small touch ups, it looks like those chickens are scratching up all of the grass!

Wait til you see the mess the pigs have made 

[LouieN]

That looks epic. Great stuff

[Osmoses]

Another 2 village bases done.

[Little Odo]

Fantastic work. They look incredible!

[Pattus Magnus]

The figures and village bases all look excellent. As others have said, your bases really depict a deployed shieldwall well!

[Osmoses]

Saxon line to match the Viking one:



And the two shieldwalls together:





I think I need to do about another 5 bases per side to start doing some games, but I might have a bit of a break before pushing on with them...

[fred]

Very impressive!

Proper armies (and you are only part way there!)

I like the village tiles too

[Aethelflaeda was framed]

very nice looking units. Evocative for sure.  Curious to know if there is any source of historical info on how deep the ranks were in a shield wall or is it more speculation?  These look a lot deeper being 5-6 ranks than what i would have thought was practical.  I always assumed a shield wall might be no more than 4 ranks deep as even a 8 ft spear hasn’t much reach beyond the third rank.

[Osmoses]

It's always going to be somewhat speculative given the lack of detailed information. Snorri Sturluson descibes a shieldwall that is 5 ranks deep, but that's writing centuries after. I assume the formation has to be deep enough that the enemy can't easily punch through it, so I went with five ranks, with the front 3 or 4 actually fighting and those behind throwing rocks and missiles.

I imagine in reality, depth would be variable. You may thin your line when outnumbered to match your opponent's frontage, or have more depth where you expected to breach the opponent's line, the better to exploit it.

I had planned to ultimately add some 'straggler' bases to the rear of the bases to give a more irregular feel, and these could be used to have some kind of game effect depending on rules used. Though, as these would be largely decorative, and the project is pretty ambitious as it is, I don't know when or if I'll get round to them.

[Osmoses]

Added another village base: