| khurasanminiatures | 07 Oct 2009 7:16 p.m. PST |
We're very pleased to release a set of 15mm Viking heavy cavalry, armoured riders with spears and shields. There are two poses of horse and two poses of riders. They may be seen here: link |
| Ivan DBA | 07 Oct 2009 7:24 p.m. PST |
Cool! An unusual, but needed, subject! |
| Ivor Dangleberry | 07 Oct 2009 8:32 p.m. PST |
Lovely figures, just as you've come to expect from this bunch. How common were Viking cavalry? Were they just used for scouting, transport from one pillage to another etc? |
| khurasanminiatures | 08 Oct 2009 3:14 a.m. PST |
They may have been used in battle as well -- for instance the Fild of Glory list allows the Huscarls to be cavalry or foot. These models service that option. |
| Cerdic | 08 Oct 2009 3:37 a.m. PST |
Everything I have read points to the Vikings using horses for transport not battle. 'Course, just because we have no evidence doesn't mean it didn't happen! |
| khurasanminiatures | 08 Oct 2009 4:30 a.m. PST |
Strongly suspect that there isn't no evidence, pardon the dub neg! I can see it being ambiguous though. Anyway, these models are there to service a list need. And some games do actually permit use of mounted figurines to represent mounted foot, so there's always that!  |
| Sundance | 08 Oct 2009 4:58 a.m. PST |
Agreed with Cerdic and khurasan – everything I've seen suggests that they used horses for transport then dismounted to fight on foot. Unlike the Saxons, I've never even seen an argument made that they used cavalry. |
| Who asked this joker | 08 Oct 2009 5:46 a.m. PST |
Dan Mersey (Glutter of Ravens) would strongly disagree with the nay sayers. He thinks Saxons did use horses to a small extent in battle as evidenced with some grave goods found in England. Horses are found buried next to warriors. If they were not so important (war horses) I doubt they would get such treatment. There have been horse remains found in or near viking graves as well. |
| Wombling Free | 08 Oct 2009 7:13 a.m. PST |
Guy Halsall's 'Warfare and Society in the Barbarian West' certainly has me believing more readily that the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons used cavalry in some battles. What is interesting is his view that warriors trained for both mounted and dismounted combat during this period, and that they fulfilled whichever function was needed at the time. This goes against our modern need to categorise and pigeon-hole unit types into one or the other. The fact that horses are buried with warriors does not necessarily mean that they were warhorses. Horses were status symbols too and the burial of a person with a horse could just as easily be a symbol of that person's status in life, or of their family's status. It might also be worth looking into the religious symbolism of the horse in Viking Age societies. I heard a paper at a conference a few years back on the subject but cannot remember much of it off the top of my head (I've slept since then), but I seem to recall that it would have some bearing on the discussion. |
| camelspider | 08 Oct 2009 8:02 a.m. PST |
Guy Halsall's 'Warfare and Society in the Barbarian West' certainly has me believing more readily that the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons used cavalry in some battles. What is interesting is his view that warriors trained for both mounted and dismounted combat during this period, and that they fulfilled whichever function was needed at the time. This goes against our modern need to categorise and pigeon-hole unit types into one or the other. I believe this is what is cited in the Field of Glory army list book (Wolves from the Sea) as evidence supporting the inclusion of Viking and Saxon cavalry. |
| Eli Arndt | 08 Oct 2009 8:39 a.m. PST |
It seems odd to me that the Vikings would have completely ignored cavalry when the entire world (pretty much)around them was using it to one degree or another. Were they great mounted warriors? That's another point for debate, but I don't see it as far-fetched that the intelligent and innovative northmen would have turned a blind eye to mounted combat, especially as they started running into increasing resistance from organized forces. -Eli |
| jeffrsonk | 08 Oct 2009 9:00 a.m. PST |
The Egpytians buried cats along with their masters, but I don't think that meant they used those cats in battle. I don't consider the burial of horses along with Vikings, taken by itself, to be convincing evidence that Vikings rode horses into battle. To my mind, if they were important enough to bury with a man because of their use in war, they would have been important enough to record as such in the sagas. This is not to say that it never happened, just that it was rare. Clearly, the Normans picked up on it after they settled in Normandy, but at that point we don't really consider them to be Vikings anymore. |
| Dropship Horizon | 08 Oct 2009 1:48 p.m. PST |
but I don't think that meant they used those cats in battle. You've put a picture in my head! Cry havoc! And unleash the moggies of war! LOL
Cheers
Mark |
receives a gift from his wife…
