This army (Viking Raiders) was inspired by a pack of War and Empire brand figures titled "Vikings with Plunder". I built this army for the Triumph! rules set, but it would probably work for other rulesets that use 40mm wide basing like De Bellis Antiquatatis (DBA) or similar rulesets. My idea wasto put at least one plundering figure on each stand of Raiders in this army.
The army composition in Triumph! terms is three Elite Foot (Huscarles), eight Raiders (undisciplined marauders), one Skirmisher, and one battle card (Pack Train and Herds) which allows more flexibility when placing the Viking camp.
I admit I didn't do much research other than looking at likely clothing colors. The War and Empire and Old Glory figures seem reasonably accurate though. I paid the most attention to making sure the figures chosen and composition of figures on the stand all looked good together and had a theme. There are quite a few conversions.
The Army Arrayed. The General and his Huscarles in the center present a fairly orderly appearance and almost all are wearing mail armor. The Raiders have all kinds of loot including a calf, two pigs, a pack horse, chests and sacks, and a female prisoner riding on a horse and looking behind her. They have minimal armor, or none.
The standard bearer is a female. She was converted from an Old Glory Shield Maiden by scraping away her goofy TV-series armor and adding a proper Viking dress.
The banner is a golden hare, which seemed a good choice for a fast-moving force.
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Side Views. The Viking shield patterns were kept simple and include quite a few of plain unpainted wood. Likewise there are only a few pieces of clothing with patterns. Best to leave the expensive clothing and gear at home when going raiding.
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The Raiders. The idea was to make them look like undisciplined looters, but at the same time retaining enough cohesion to fight when resistance is met. I did include one stand of shield maidens here because I have three daughters and a daughter-in-law and thought it would be fun to include them.
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Highlighted Stands
. The leftmost stand has a warrior converted from a trumpet blower into a warrior upending a drinking horn. The left center stand (facing away from the camera) has a warrior that looked like he was holding a bag up towards the enemy so that didn't make sense, so I turned him around and put him next to a pack horse. The right center stand features a converted Xyston hoplite drinking from a gold cup. He has two other warriors behind him hauling loot, leaving one exasperated comrade to do the fighting. The right stand actually has two pigs. One is a big hog being led by a rope and another is a piglet under a warriors arm.
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The Army Advancing. Some final shots.
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begins his series on how to paint a 15mm DBA army well, in a reasonable time frame.
