Thegn Eadric command stand

When trying to recreate the world of St Gurnard's in 28mm tabletop games, there is an implied requirement to provide little metal and plastic (but mainly metal, right?) representations of all the many personages which Osbert's chronicle mentions. Some of these, like the Godwinson brothers and King Edward are well known to us, while others, such as Aeschild and Odd Brynjarsson, are unique in the historical record to Osbert's chronicle.

Someone who features frequently in Osbert's work is his lord, Thegn Eadric, to whom Osbert acted as confessor and in which role he encountered so many of the figures who influenced English history in the C11th. It might seem that having his name and his life so closely detailed might aid with the identification of the physical site of St Gurnard's and corroborate Osbert's narrative. Unfortunately, Eadric is a fairly common Anglo-Saxon name and so this has created more problems rather than less, as over the years different academics have proposed different sites for the Abbey, each fairly plausible but giving rise to many unpleasant scholarly feuds.

This command stand has been my usual tabletop representation of Eadric. He and his banner-bearer were created with leftover bits of Gripping Beast plastic kits. However, it seems to me that his helmet style is slightly out of date for an C11th Thegn who would probably be wearing the latest style of armour.

I've had this Crusader Miniatures version of Harold Godwinson knocking about for a while. I'm not sure about the historicity of the surcoat but I like the figures and it gives me the opportunity to have foot and mounted versions of Eadric. 

So, that's the plan. I will need to rustle up figures to carry his banner, of course. Osbert only mentions in passing that it consisted of a dragon's head so hopefully I can create one which is different enough to the one carried by the old figures that both can be used on the tabletop without confusion.

Victrix Anglo-Saxon Test

The Victrix test figure spent a lot longer on the "to do" pile than I had intended, as is always the way.

I think he came out OK. The details on the figure are nicely done and very refined, although the poses aren't really customisable in any useful sense, and I wouldn't want lots of this pose (or the others on the sprue) in an army. I replaced his plastic spear with wire. I have an idea to use him to represent Leofric, a freeman Osbert frequently mentions in his manuscript, in which case he'll be incorporated onto a command stand as a standard bearer.

The gambeson really marks him out at an C11th sort of chap. To be honest I've no idea how accurate such an item would be for an Englishman at the time of the Conquest, but it certainly makes one think Early Medieval rather than Late Antiquity.

If he is going to represent Leofric then a counterpart figure in "civilian" clothes will have to be sought out....

Axe, and ye shall receive.

Hot off the painting table is this unit of 24 Anglo-Saxons with Dane axes. For infantry I'm leaning towards units of 24 figures in three ranks of eight. This looks like a good sized unit to me, and makes a nice target to aim for when painting. 36 figures might be even better, but I think they'd be a bit unwieldy on the tabletop unless you had a huge 12 x 8 foot table or something.

Although I normally base figures individually on 20mm square bases, I've decided to base command figures together. In Warhammer Ancient Battles, and some of its successor games, the unit champion, musician and standard bearer always die last so there wouldn't be a requirement to remove them individually. Additionally, multi-based figures are just easier to deal with.

Most of these figures are Saxon Miniatures (now absorbed into the Warlord Games mega-corp) and Gripping Beast and therefore sculpted by Colin Patten, the doyen of dark age figures. However, a few Foundry figures have also crept in so that the unit is composed of all unique poses. The Foundry figures are quite tubby in comparison and have clearly been enjoying rather too many pre-battle feasts.

Tubby Foundry on the left, slimjim Saxon Miniatures on the right

From the back you can see a number of the figures have kite shields. Very C11th!