He used to be a Saxon King… Until He Took an Arrow in the Eye!
April 24, 2012 by brennon
The folks at Gripping Beast should shortly be stocking one of England's greatest legends, Harold Godwinson. Check him out with his brothers below for SAGA...
Above is Harold Godwinson, Gyrth & Leofwine. I love the massive Dane Axes they are wielding and the paint job on these is just fantastic. Some of you may have picked these guys up at Salute on the weekend, but they should be available on the web to the rest of you soon.
The quintessential "Arrow in the..." joke?
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Best article title ever on this site Ben.
BoW Sam
Haha! Glad you approve 😉
BoW Ben
Oh dear. That internet meme from Skyrim has also reached BoW.
I am really liking how those armor look plus those three are armed with big axes. Sure those axes might not be highly ornanted like in some other lines but in my opinion they don’t need to be as those are rather realistic looking axes.
They were superb weapons. Amazing at breaking down shield walls. I remember watching a show with mike Loades (spl?) about weapons of Britain and he showed off how they would be used. They would have these big burly blokes with the axes charge out of the lines when the enemy got close to hack a hole in the defences then press the boars snout (formation) through the gap.
Such an awesome period of time for weaponry and warfare. Although I assume at the time they didn’t feel so happy about it lol.
BoW Ben
That’s who I heard it from – I can’t find the show where he was telling some volunteers they wouldn’t get lunch until they did the formation changing to the musician’s horn properly on YouTube but I did find this…ignore the Hamster and enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMSscVy86gs
Ah such a good show, I loved Time Commanders. Shame it wasn’t on for very long. And yeah I think there is a ‘Weapons that Made Britain’ thing on Youtube somewhere, but I can’t for the life of me remember where it is lol.
BoW Ben
Cheers for the title – here you go:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czl716bAaTs
This guy’s channel has the whole series! 🙂
“Such an awesome period of time for weaponry and warfare. Although I assume at the time they didn’t feel so happy about it lol. BoW Ben” Personally, I really want to like the period, but for some reason I find it extremely dull. Don’t get me wrong; Saga looks like a great game for the fans of the period, but I really don’t see the appeal – without deviating too far within the historic tabletop gaming, “ancients” for example portray armies of nations of matched tech levels, but there you have vastly different doctrines, weapons, armour … might be I… Read more »
I think part of what does it for me with Dark Ages warfare is that there’s so much mysticism behind it. A lot was driven by belief and heroics, especially when you look at things like the Viking Sagas etc. They held swords, shields, armour in such high regard and were still groups of people who believed in trolls, witches, magic and the Gods. Even when Christianity was taking over. It was also a time of turmoil. Vikings were fighting Saxons, Saxons fighting Normans, everyone fighting everyone within England too. I like the mix and match of weapons and technology,… Read more »
“Dark Age combat was brutal, gritty, muddy, bloody, rusty and plenty of other things too lol.” I think you sum it up perfectly there; knee deep in mud, at eachother’s throats and a pig pen. 😀
Also, I’m guessing you’re a dwarf player. 😛
And don’t for get Saxons fighting Saxons, Vikings fighting Vikings
Lol, Mike Loades is a legend! Bit of a battle though innit, old 1066 and all that.
If anyone wants to recreate the Battle of Hastings they also do Bill the Frog:
http://www.grippingbeast.com/product.php?ItemID=268441454
Great stances on these, like they are bringing their axes down on some poor Norman soldier’s/dirty Norman swine’s head. If I remember my History Channel correctly then the Dane Axe was lethal – you had no defense with no shield save whatever armour you had, but one blow from this would bite deep enough to mean you might not need the protection.
I saw their Saga stuff at Salute, was very nice but I didn’t have enough cash left to buy any. I would definately recommend the models though, they looked very good.
@lucas of course I’m a Dwarf player 😉 What gave it away? lol
Honest to gods, I’ve only just saw your avatar … 😀 Your preference for beer-fueled ragefest of ax warfare on the tabletop doesn’t exactly spell high elves either …
GREAT models.
GB have always come up with the goods for the Dark Ages – I gave them a slip this year as they where doing brisk buisness, so it where hard getting in there.
As I have a rough idea for a Jomsviking SAGA warband I’ll take it online – This year for me at Salute where all 16-18th century, Tercio Creativo and Black Scorpion
I like the look of the models. As for all the background stuff, I’m lost. Wish I knew more.
Picking up this fine trio was top of my list at Salute I also picked up the Flemish Mercenaries and a few other bits (well a lot of other bits) from Gripping Beast.
I’m busy making another Viking warband to loan out down the club to try and build some interest in the game Saga.
I have 3 warbands so far Anglo Danish, Viking and Anglo Saxon.
Maybe you should contact Warren about becoming a Gaming Tzar for Saga – I have a long term project that is building a Viking Army for Hail Ceasar but SAGA good stop along the way 🙂
What I look forward to is the Plastic Bondi’s for the vikings
@rasmus yes bondi would be good. Plastics are always a bonus when your starting an army or just filling out an existing one with different figures.
To be honest i like it when any new figures come out metal or plastic.
The Dark ages are my favourite period in History and amount of good quality figure that are on the market these days compared to when I first started gaming is staggering.
If you’re looking to start up either Vikings or Anglo-Saxons you could always buy the sets from Wargames Factory. I don’t know how well they would work within the rules of SAGA but in those you get around 30 models for under £20 and you can make them up to be more or less like the models from the metal box sets Gripping Beast do.
As I said, don’t know on how viable they are rules wise but could be a good starter way into the game. Then buy a metal hero for the larger base etc.
BoW Ben
@brennon they would be fine rules wise for saga as you can use any size base round square 20 or 25mm your warlord dosn’t have to be on a larger base either. I have kept my units on their 20mm square bases as I use them for other systems.
Ah awesome. Could simply buy both the armoured pack and the unarmoured pack for each Viking/Anglo-Saxon side and then with a metal mini as your leader have a warband started with a fraction of the cost.
I may need to head down to my local store and actually pick some of this stuff up now.
BoW Ben
I where promised that the Bondis in Plastic – As for Wargames Factory I never found their minis too interesting so I’ll hold on and with 5 boxes of the plastic Viking Hirdmen from Salute 2010 should give me my Viking fix along with a number of metals.
What I missed at Salute this year where that they did some Skraeling warbands with I would have been game for ohhh well they do mail order too 😉
It’s not known who Harold Godwinson was on the Bayeux embroidery (It was an embroidery, not a tapestry.).
He’s either the person under “HARVLD” or “REX”.
Yup, they don’t know if he was shot with the arrow first and then chopped up afterwards, or just run down by the cavalry and hacked up then – and never shot with an arrow at all. A really interesting battle, Hastings.
BoW Ben
@vehementi One theory is that it may be both a bit like an action cartoon
Just thought I’d throw that in.
I picked up a copy of SAGA and some vikings at Salute this weekend. It looks great and it’s on a nice small skirmish scale so I don’t have to spend a bajillion quid on models. I never thought I’d play a historical game but this has a bunch of factions I have grown up with. I’m just hoping they get the Irish sorted soon so’s I can play King Brian v the vikings or rather his brother’s bid for revenge, what’s not to love about a guy who disemboweled his enemy then dragged him round a tree trailing his… Read more »
I’m amazed, a blog on 3 historical Dark age figures has generated 29 comments so far.
Ok a few of them were mine but even so it’s still a lot on a subject that I would expect to only make 5 or 6 responses.
It’s good that we can push the game as an alternative skirmish system out there. The more light this game sees the more people will begin playing it and it will become a viable option for gaming clubs etc.
Certainly one of the games out at the moment I have major shiny syndrome over.
BoW Ben
Yes, there seem to be some new faces in here for a Historical – I just want to see Warren take on Darren from GB 😉
Now there is one for the betting man
Darren certainly looks like he dosn’t take prisoners