Flemish Mercenaries

First up today are 8 Flemish mercenaries by Gripping Beast.  Famous for their heavy spearmen, the Flemish served as mercenaries for the Franks and Normans. At the Battle of Hastings, they were part of William’s army. After the conquest of England, they offered their services to local magnates.   

In SAGA,  Flemish mercenaries can be included in a warband as Swords for Hire. The Flemish are 8 foot warriors with an Armour of 5, reflecting their heavy equipment and formation. Their movement is reduced to S in open terrain and they do not generate Saga dice. The Flemish may be activated once a turn for free. They do not benefit from any SAGA abilities. Lastly, when engaged in melee by an enemy unit or are the target of a shooting, the Flemish are treated as being in hard cover. In short, Flemish mercenaries are a slow but powerful defensive unit, useful for holding objectives and terrain.

A few weeks back, fellow blogger and painter Iowa Grognard asked if I'd paint these for him. Having followed Jeff's AWI painting for years, I was thrilled to do so.  Jeff and his wife both play SAGA and he anticipates a bidding war for the Flemish sellswords. To round out the job, I also painted two Anglo-Saxon warlords.  Basing was left undone so Jeff can match these to his current collection. Thanks Jeff for this splendid opportunity.  It is a lucky man who shares this hobby with his spouse!

We're 2 weeks away from the start of fall, a season routinely cut short by winter here in Minnesota.  I've been on the hunt for winter painting projects and I found a good one. This lot traveled all the way from Denmark to get into my painting queue. I've painted up a bit of WW II for Chain of Command but none of it ended up in my own collection.  This is my first step to fielding a WWII force and also putting Chris Stoesen's "In the Name of Roma!" to work in an East Front campaign.