Bishop Thurstan’s Array at Northallerton

 

Why Bishop Thurstan and not Walter Espec or some secular Norman Lord?  Thurstan sorted out the squabbling Norman barons and played a key role in mobilising the English to fight alongside their Norman overlords. Political boundaries were quite mutable at the time and there were ethnic tensions. 

The Harrying of the North would still have been fresh in the popular memory.  Such horrors are not quickly forgotten. 

King David (Dauíd mac Maíl Choluim) already had English subjects. Indeed his mother had been an English Princess. Refugees had been welcomed. The English might have considered if they would do better in a Greater Scotland.  

Thurstan seems to have decided them against it. 

In his favour he was a known champion of Northern Church Rights, a skilled politician, and it was an era when religious authority was taken very seriously.  It was also a time of brutal military incursions and King David's invasion followed that pattern.

The English nobility of the North had been in exile at Constantinople or Scotland for two generations.  They were not coming back. The ethnic English of the North were leaderless.

Thurstan was probably as good as it got. His name might make one assume he was of English stock.  Not so, he was born in France. Yet he had a sure touch in Northern politics as his dealings with Fergus King of Galloway attest.  

He was also a dab hand on the international stage securing the support of two successive Popes against the encroachments of the See of Canterbury.

We know the Norman knights opted to fight dismounted. A wise decision against the long spears of the Scots. Our Normans will be Elite Footmen.  Only 6 figures in  the unit yet they are formidable. 

One of the attractive things about LRv2 is its sliding representative scale. It enables me to represent these Norman Barons as a single base of 6 figures rather than 6 on two bases. The latter just looked wrong. A bit thin I thought. The single base will fight as 6 figures with12 dice. They fought in the front line.  Here they are again.

 

Also in the front line were the retainers of the Norman Lords.  Here, a decision was required.  We know that the soldiers were spearmen and archers. 

I could opt for two separate units or two mixed units. For the fun of it, and due to Shipway’s novel, I chose mixed units. Is this right? Maybe, shading to probably.

The second line comprised of the better off English. I see them as Heavy Infantry in two units. These figures are Feudal Castings from Steve Shaw. 

They are very handy fellows indeed. They can form the core of the Anglo-Danes at Hastings. One unit can take its place in King David's "Warband" representing his English subjects. 

The pair of them will benefit from the presence of a Holy Man. This will help morale, another nice touch from LRv2. They are substituting for Thurstan's cart mounted Cross. I don't have one.

The Scots at Northallerton – Lion Rampant

 

I cannot recall ever seeing the Scots array at Northallerton on the table top. It has always interested me because of its diverse components.  George Shipway featured the battle in his lively novel Knight in Anarchy. In it he repeats an old Tudor lie but you cannot have everything.

When Steve Shaw of Feudal Castings released a suitable range of 15mm figures I was in like a flash.  These are they, arranged according to Lion Rampant v2.

Here are my Fearsome Warrior Galwegians.  One Chronicler credits the men of Galway as using long spears. I could have done that. However, a Mr Walsh devoted some serious time to researching Galwegian armament.  He concluded that it was Axes, Swords and Javelins for those warriors. Having read the evidence I’ve gone with that.  The Galwegians led the attack and broke the Anglo-Norman first line.  Others did less well. Northallerton was not a Scots victory.

As you can see the Galwegians are wearing a lot of black.  Black wool was common in Galway and it makes them stand out.  Here are the LRv2 Stat’s.  You can see they are an expensive unit.

The troop type is “Warriors”.

Models per unit	12	points	6
Attack	5+	Attack Value	3+
Move	6+	Defence Value	6+
Shoot	-	Shoot Value	-
Courage	4+	Maximum Move	8”
Armour	2	Special Rules	Flexible, Wild Charge, Counter Charge Against  Infantry, Fearsome.

In our period Normans had accrued to the Scots Throne. We need a unit of them too.  King David (Dauíd mac Maíl Choluim)  or his son Henry will be there. The Leader unit then. These Knights are from Gladiator, Josef Ochmann sculpts.  As 15mm ranges go the Gladiator Feudal range is rather special.  Get them while you can. Fighting 15s who retail them intends to retire in October '25.

Interestingly, some of those Normans were actually Bretons. They could converse easily enough with the Cumbrians. The root of both the Breton and Cumbric language being Brythonic.

The troop type is “Elite Cavalry”.

Models per unit	6	points	6
Attack	5+	Attack Value	3+
Move	7+	Defence Value	5+
Shoot	-	Shoot Value	-
Courage	3+	Maximum Move	10”
Armour	4	Special Rules	Wild Charge, Counter Charge

The bulk of the "Warband" is comprised of spearmen, long spears is the consensus. I think the Light Infantry LRv2 category suits them better than Heavy Infantry.

I'm using two variants, first a Veteran unit representing the Cumbrians. King David had fought and politicked his way to the throne. He was a Cumbrian. 

The troop type is “Light Infantry”.

Models per unit	12	points	5
Attack	6+	Attack Value	5+
Move	5+	Defence Value	4+
Shoot	6+	Shoot Value
Courage	4+	Maximum Move	8”
Armour	2	Special Rules	Wall of Spears

A similar unit but less enamoured with King David.

Models per unit	12	points	3
Attack	6+	Attack Value	5+
Move	5+	Defence Value	4+
Shoot	-	Shoot Value	-
Courage	4+	Maximum Move	8”
Armour	2	Special Rules	Wall of Spears

Our final two units are of Skirmishers.  They both look like this.

Models per unit	6	points	2
Attack	7+	Attack Value	6
Move	5+	Defence Value	4+
Shoot	7+	Shoot Value	5+/12 range
Courage	5+	Maximum Move	8”
Armour	1	Special Rules	Skirmish, Hard to Target, Evade, Fast

I have a variant of this "Warband" with Bloodthirsty Galwegians, one unit of Skirmishers and the Aggressive Skill for King David.

I already have the figures for other in period LRv2 Warbands.  We will see them as they come. I'll start with Bishop Thurstan's Anglo-Normans for Northallerton. There are some interesting choices to be made there.

For the future we will see North and South Welsh "Warbands" and the same for Moray and The Isles. Almost all comprised of Steve Shaw castings. I can also put together an Irish "Warband" with variants and a few more too.  

A little Later and I can do both sides at Otterburn also with Steve Shaw figures .

For me LRv2 is proving to be the catalyst for getting old collections back on the table top.

Chariots Rampant? Evolution

 

The classic chariot was a powerful mobile missile platform. Its Composite Bow outranged the Self Bows of foot archers. 

Imagine standing in the battle line hoping the chariots didn't come for you. 

No one could cope with it and chariot technology was adopted far and wide.  What next?

Someone, somewhere, decided that a chariot with an added close fighter should be able to catch a classic chariot and spear its archer.  

This seemed to have worked. It was likely pioneered by the Hittites. And then?

Four horse chariots appeared with 4, or 3, crewmen only one of which was an archer. The chariot was now able to multi task, missilery and close fighting. No one seems to have thought that increased missilery would adequately protect the chariot against immediate threats. Otherwise we would have 3, or 2, archers and a driver.

Chariots had started off as all-purpose weapons dominating the battlefield with missilery. Now chariots were optimised for seeing off other chariots. The odds presumably being 50/50 on success. Dominance depended upon having more chariots than the other side.

Chariots were expensive, food and lodgings for the crew, ditto the horses. Likewise for trainers and technicians. Five of the latter per chariot seem to have been required.  More chariots meant more expenditure. An Arms Race in fact.

Then came the Sea Peoples and Cavalry and the great days of the chariot were over.

All the same it is quite an evolutionary journey. We need to differentiate between classic chariots and multi- purpose chariots because they did different things. I have not thought yet about how to do this with LRv2. It should be simple enough.

What of the Mycenaean Chariot? No use at all for missilery; it only carried a heavily armoured close fighter. It was very good for tackling other chariots . Maybe that was what it was for. Did the opponents joust? Of course not. 

Rather, you come up alongside and spear the other lad. Better still, if you can cut across behind the foe you can safely spear him in the back. Think dog fight.

If no chariot foes presented the Dendra armoured warrior could dismount, having preserved his energy, and spear a few lesser protected fellows. 

On this page you see my chariot collection so far. I now have enough to test some game concepts.

Chariots Rampant? The Libyans

 

It is said that the Libyans got chariot technology from the Egyptians and swords from the Sea Peoples.  As ever people want the good stuff and manage to secure it.  I wonder if the Egyptians supplied chariot drivers as well as the vehicles.  It would have considerably sped up the process of fielding chariots.

Anyhow, as we have seen chariot units cost 6 Points. Here are the stat's. 

Models per unit	2	points	6
Attack	7+	Attack Value	6
Move	5	Defence Value	5+
Shoot	6	Shoot Value	4+ Range 18”
Courage	4+	Maximum Move	12
Armour	4	Special Rules	Fearsome, Skirmish, Evade

The unit above shows considerable Sea Peoples influence. The warriors wear armour and have bronze swords and shields. No helmets.  The feather plumes worn by Libyan warriors had significant cultural import.  They indicated warrior status. 

This is my sole armoured Libyan foot unit sold by Fighting 15s as the “Mighty Mesh-Wesh”.  The troop type is “Warriors” and they cost 6 points.

Models per unit	12	points	6
Attack	6+	Attack Value	5+
Move	5+	Defence Value	4+
Shoot	6+	Shoot Value	5+ Range 6”
Courage	4+	Maximum Move	8”
Armour	3	Special Rules	Flexible, Wild Charge, Counter Charge versus Infantry, Fast.

I’ve opted for making most of my Libyans Warriors in LRv2 speak.  

These warriors are of the standard type for LRv2. No upgrades, that means we get 2 units of them for 8 points.

Models per unit	12	points	4
Attack	6+	Attack Value	5+
Move	5+	Defence Value	4+
Shoot	6+	Shoot Value	5+ Range 6”
Courage	4+	Maximum Move	8”
Armour	2	Special Rules	Flexible, Wild Charge, Counter Charge versus Infantry, Fast.

 

 

Libyan Archers here. This time I will take them as 2 units of 6 Skirmishers for the final 4 points of our 24 point Libyan Warband. I could equally field them as a unit of 12 Archers.

Models per unit	6	points	2
Attack	7+	Attack Value	6+
Move	5+	Defence Value	6+
Shoot	7+	Shoot Value	5+ Range 12”
Courage	5+	Maximum Move	8”
Armour	1	Special Rules	Hard to Target, Skirmish, Evade; Fast.

As most of my Libyan units are unenhanced by upgrades we get more warriors on the battle field.  That seems about right to me.

For bigger games the Libyans can team up with the Sea Peoples as they did historically. Mine will have to fight the Hittites as I have no Egyptians.  Another view of the Skirmishing archers below.

It occurs to me in passing that in15mm this outfit is quite affordable . Two chariots, 12 archers and 36 warriors.  Of course when I bought these they came in packs of 10 figures.  All the same it is a heartening thought.