Crusader Knight on wounded Horse

Here are some pictures of the 6th Knight, a Swedish Crusader Knight from the House of Snakenborg on his wounded dead horse...

I´m not sure if the The House of Snakenborg was present in Sweden during the 13th century, they probably established them selfs in Sweden in the 1360´s during the regency by King Albert of Mecklenburg. The House of Snakenborg probably originate from the City of Schnackenburg in Mecklenburg, but as there was many Germans trade connections to Sweden during the 13th Century I have choose to includ them in my Crusading force, and the CoA are cool to:)

Read more about the House of Snakenborg and the British connection here;)

The other 5 Crusader Knights will arrive tomorrow...

The mini are an old Foundry Norman Knight that I had in my bitbox, he got a new helmet and shield

Swedish Ledung Soldiers

Here comes the pictures of the last 12 Swedish Ledung Soldiers for my Baltic Crusade project, now there are only 6 Knights left and I plan to have them here during the week:)

Harold Godwinson & one of His Brothers...

Here are some pictures of the Gripping Beast miniature "Harold Godwinson & His Brothers" or at least one of his brothers. The last brother havent yet decided which side to part with...

Harold was drafted for my Baltic Heathen force and one of his Brothers sided with the Swedish Crusaders as they offer him a new shiny helmet and shield:)

Lion Rampant AAR #3

Here comes some pictures from one more of my and Jonas test games of Lion Rampant. This time we run a escort scenario there the Heathen was heading back from a sucessfull raid and was intercepted by a crusading force.

Onece again we used half sized forces on a 120x90cm table.

OOB

Baltic Heathen Hoast 
1x6 Elit Warriors w Leader
2x12 Warriors
1x6 Skirmish archers (escorting the sledge with the loot)

Swedish Crusaders Hoast 
1x6 Knights w Leader
2x12 Ledung Soldiers (mix of spear and bow)

The victorious Heathen emerge from the forest with their loot and sees the Crusader blocking force, theres no time for a retreat...

The Crusader Knights, that was allowed to enter from a flank, makes a swift advande to ride down the Heathens... 

The Heathen Warlord sends a group of warriors...in the open... to meat the threat from the Knights. At the same time he and his Hird with the Skirmishers and the loot tries to get away in a realy heroic manner...

The Knights that have turned out to be real killers crushes the first group of heathen warriors and continue their tour in to a frech group of heathens...

Not a good day for the Heathen warlord...at least he still have the loot...

In the progress of killing all the Heathen Warriors the Knights have taken some cassulties and are forced to retreat and regroup after the slaughter of the second Heathen Warrior group.

Seeing all his Warriors slaughtered and fleeing the Heathen Warlord tries ti make a swift advance away from the knights...

After regrouping the Crusader Knights continue their hunt for heathen charging the Heathen warlord and his Hird, but ow they meet their equivalents and it all ends in a fierce battle there all the Knights in the Bishops retinue are killd... 

The Bishop gets surounded by heathens and it seems like he will soon be a saint...BUT in some miraculously way he manage to escape...

The Heathen Skrimishers have tried to move as fast as possible to get away with the loot, but a group og Crusader Ledugn Soldiers manage to get close and threathen them...

To save the situation the Heathen Warlord and the few men left od his hird charges the Crusadeing Infantry it all ends in disaster for the Heathens as the Warlord and all his Hird are wiped out...

With only the Heathen Skirmishers left the Bishop heroic hunt them down and recapture the loot !

This was a nice game, but we both concluded that the Knights might be a little to good;) on the other hand the Heathens didn´t make use of anny terrain in which they have the upper hand against their opponents.

Next game will be with full forces and on a 120x180 table so we will get a chanse to try out the rules in the size Dan have planed.

I just have to finish the last Crusader units...

WIP Crusader Knights

As the Heathens are finished I now working on the 2 last units of Swedish Crusaders, 12 ledung soldiers and also 6 Knighs.

Here are a WIP of the Knighs and the Banner for the Knights.

The Banner will be for the House of Bjälbo also known as the House of Folkung.

The last 12 Heathens

At last my Blatic Crusade Heathens are finished, here are some pictures of the last 12 warriors. Just some Crusaders left....

Some pictures of the first 6 minis here and pictures of the next 6 minis a bit further down.

Front row: GB Jomsviking, GB Jarl Sigvaldi, GB Jomsviking

Back Row: GB Jomsviking and 2x GB but I don´t know which range?

and here pictures of the last 6 minis...

Front Row: 3x GB Jomsviking

Back Row: 2x GB  but I don´t know which range? and a GB Jomsviking

Lion Rampant AAR#2

Here comes a second AAR from one of my and Jonas test games of Dan Merseys new Medieval Wargaming rules Lion Rampant that are planed to be published early 2014 by Osprey as a part of  the Wargame serie.

It´s very nice to have the chanse to contribute to Dan´s rules, especially as he have incorporated several of my ideeas in to the rules...or at least in the latest draft I got...but I hope they will be in the finished product to;)

As I still haven´t painted enought Baltic Crusades minis for 2 full forces per the rules, these 2 forces are of about half size and the gaming area are 120x90mm. We just playout a straight forward battle game to test the game rules.

OOB

Baltic Heathen Hoast

1x6 Elit Warriors w Leader

2x12 Warriors

1x6 Skirmish archers

Swedish Crusaders Hoast

1x6 Knights w Leader

2x12 Ledung Soldiers (mix of spear and bow)

Set-up, Bishop Thomas of Åbo used his 2 units of Ledung Soldiers to screean the Knights... The Tavastian Warlord Tursas ordered his two units of Warriors to make a swift advance and the Skirmishers to cover the left flank...

The Crusaders made a more cautious advance and form the Ledung Soldiers in to shieldwall formation for a steady deffence and to make use of their bows and crossbows as soon as the Heathen have advanced within range...

For all activation of units you have to make a activation roll with 2D6. The difficulty levle depends on the troop type and what action you want them to performe, charging are for example more easy for Knights then Ledung Soldiers...

As the Crusaders have initially chosen a more defensive tactic the Heathen continued to move forward... 

As soon as you fail a activation roll there are a turn over to the opponent, in this game leading to that the Heathen Skirmisher got stuck in the forest...

In the heat of battle I forgot to take some pictures, but here you can see how one of the Swedish Ledung units after a close encounter with the Heathen Warriors are retreating to a safer possition behind the Knights...  

In close combat each mini in a group contribute, even if not in physical contact with a enemy mini. All units involved in a combat that have taken casualtys have to check moral, so a combat can end with both sides retreat or flee...             

The Bishop saw an opportunety and charged, the already damaged group of heathens, with his knights...Charging Knights are devestating...

a doubble 1 for moral roll are NOT good ...

At the same time as the Knight convinced the Heathens to accept the new faith, the Ledung Soldiers made good use of their Bows and Crossbows manage to chase away the second group of Heathen Warriors...

As the retreating heathen warriors also failed to rally they had to make a move avay from the enemy and left the table, in a matter of minutes the Tavastian Warlord Tursas was left alone with his Hird, so he decided to retreat and fight another day...leaving the Crusaders as Winners of the day:)

In less than one houre we ended this game. We both thought that the Heathens would win the game then they managed to win the first combat, but they soon found out that Knights are cracking enemys...

The rules worked over all fine, we still made some notes for Dan to think of. Looking forward to continue our playtesting.

WIP#2 Ledung Warriors

Continued the painting of the last unit of Swedish Ledung Soldiers...

Have a nice weekend !

WIP Ledung Warriors

I start to see the end of the first part of my Baltic Crusade Project, left to do are:

• 12 Heathen Warriors - Almost done pictures in a day or so...
• 6 Swedish Crusader Knights - Not started.
• 12 Swedish Ledung Soldiers - Made some small conversions as you can see in the picture below, they are now all primed and the painting can start...

Heathen Warlord

Let me introduce the Heathen Warlord and his Hird. Now I only got 12 Hethens left to finish and the Heathen warband are complete, at least for now...

I also have some Swedish Crusades left, 12 Ledung soldiers and 6 Mounted Knights, to finish part 1 of my Baltic Crusade Project.

The minis in the pictures are: Front Row: 3xGripping Beast Jomsvikings.

Back row are first the Gripping Beast Scot giveaway from Northern Fury, the bannerman are from the Gripping Beast Jomsviking box and the last to the far right is the Gripping Beast Harold Godwinson mini.