Raiders of Birk - Northern Alliance Project Log

A furore Normannorum libera nos, Domine,
“From the fury of the Northmen deliver us, O Lord.”

  • a medieval prayer (attributed)

I’ve just started to paint my army, and i’m still a few miniatures short of phase one of building it, so this is going to be more of a project log than a army display. i’ve always been a fan of the Vikings, so when it came to deciding what army to collect for Kings of War, the choice was fairly simple for me. as a bonus, i’ve designed this to double as a KoW historical army as well. Phase one is Vikings, so a lot of infantry.

Phase one is 2 regiments of Spearmen, 2 regiments of warriors with hand weapons, 2 regiments of archers, 4 regiments of warriors with daneaxes, and several characters… general, hero, banner bearer, musician. not enough for a tourney level army but a good start. currently i’m short the models for one regiment of daneaxe-men and the archers.

a few sample pics from when i was verifying model count for the bases to ensure it isn’t too crowded (i’m using slightly above Minimum model count.), and then the first four models to get painted…


Phase two of the army build will focus on expanding into some cavalry and other options… Phase one allows me to build a 1500pt historical army for vikings. Phase Two will switch to a faction that would look good alongside vikings but can also be run as a separate historical army on its own (allowing me to run game if i want to), Dark Age Scots/Picts. which will be Cavalry, Levy, and Archers, as well as a few more characters.

if/when finish both of those i’ll either do a Phase 3 (i’ve been eyeing some Arthurian Romano British for heavier infantry and cavalry) or branch off into a pure fantasy army.

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well, my plans are all skewed now, because as soon as i finish the vikings, i now have 90% of a Roman army thanks to the generosity of my brother. for the moment i’m giving it its own thread, though once i start assembling and painting the Legion i’ll post stuff here.

in addition, i have another project (yeah i know, i’m crazy, probably too much at once), to build a “fortlet” for use as a castle in Siege games. inspired by Saxon Burhs and iron age hill forts to a degree, but mainly by Roman forts. in particular i am plannng on drawing lots of inspiration from Roman Mile Fort 21 in Cumbria, which had some features i thought interesting. in that it had turf walls with pallisade (rather than the more common stone seen closer to hadrian’s wall and the Antonine Wall), which is a look i wanted so i can use it for lots of different factions, as well as buildings built right into the wall itself, which is honestly very uncommon for roman forts. but having buildings (barracks, offices, etc) right up against the walls lets me put in some nice wide steps for units to be placed “guarding the walls” without absurdly wide walkways. plus it will add visual appeal, make it look more like a walled town than just a berm with some spiky trees on it.

I already have my baseplates and much of the raw material i need. still gotta find some foam to make the lower walls.

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Love the idea of the fort.

Vikings are fun - if you stick them on the back burner until v3 rolls out, you may find a viable northern alliance army is doable?

at the rate i paint i’ll probably not even have a regiment of spearmen read by the time it comes out. much less the twelve hundred points or so of units i have for the army so far.

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more painting done on the first regiment

group shot, 2/3rds done

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Nice! I would maybe work in a light wash over their faces and clothes to get a bit of depth in them, but the paintjob is really neat as it is. Looking forward to seeing them based!

they’ve actually received a wash already. either i need to do it again with a different shade or it just doesn’t show up well in the pics.

It is possible that the camera is not picking it up, but it doesn’t look like the wash took. An unpleasant advice is also the mold lines: they really should be removed, particularly on the left-most dude in the last picture. It makes a big difference, and will not mess with the washing

16-20+ guys on a base. I wouldn’t worry too much about mold lines. Just do the basics. 2,000 points of KoM may mean 200 models to paint.

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i’d thought i’d gotten the mold lines before priming, but i keep finding them. it probably shouldn’t be a big deal… they aren’t obvious unless you look very close. once the Shields are added they probably won’t be very visable anyway.

and actually i’m using 12 man regiments for the vikings. a bit above minimum model count. partly budgetary issues when i started this project, partly because the Norse tended to fight in somewhat loose formation, and fewer men fits that better.

i’m considering using 16 per regiment for the Romans though. partly because that is two Contubernium (and thus fits the army style) but also because they do fight in tightly ranked units. though i’ll have to buy a few more small boxes of Legionaries and Praetorians. by the time i’m ready to start that army i should have enough saved up to get the extras i need, as well as the non-infantry figures.

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update: got my 3rd edition book, and have decided that yes i am going to make them Northern Alliance. also that since i’m not going with the “ice and snow” visuals, i should do something more interesting…

Dragons.

yep, i’m going all How to Train Your Dragon on this army. got a Valfuryix coming form the Reaper Bones 5 kickstarter to be a lord on chimera (though it won’t arrive will 2021 most liekly. :frowning: ) and i’ve been brainstorming options to ‘dragonify’ the ice elementals, timberwolves, and other critters in the army. so far the only one i’ve not found an option for is the frostfangs. (darn it)

with that i have i can build the following:
Human Clansmen (Horde) 230pts
Huscarls (regiment) 225pts
Huscarls (regiment) 225pts
Pack Hunters (regiment w/ Javelins) 155pts
Pack Hunters (regiment w/ Javelins) 155pts
Lord (w/ Snow Fox, Horn of Winter) 110pts
Thegn (w/ Snowfox, Talanaar’s standard) 75pts
Skald 55pts
Orlof the Barbarian 135pts
----------------------
1385pts

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