Preview December 7th 2005

[Rodion Romanovich]

Preview - Danes and Norwegians - Part I

Preview time! This time the preview features the Norwegians and Danes, the viking factions most active in Western Europe.

Some of the units

https://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y191/LegioXXXUlpiaVictrix/norw_svirrur.jpg
Norwegian svirrur
Spear throwing was considered a manly act in both peacetime and war, and these svirrur (comes from the sound of a thrown spear) form a quite cheap unit of javelinmen used by the Danes and Norwegians.

https://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y191/LegioXXXUlpiaVictrix/dane_spearmen.jpg
Danish spearmen
The spearmen, with their famous shieldwall or fylking, often formed the bulk of the viking armies. These men were supposed to take the charge of the enemy. When the formation was broken, the huskarls and other axe or sword-armed troops filled the gaps.

https://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y191/LegioXXXUlpiaVictrix/norw_geirrmen.jpg
Norwegian Geirrmen
The best of the viking spearmen used chainmail and were quite capable fighters also against enemy infantry. The most professional viking armies would employ mostly professional spearmen like these to form the shieldwall.

https://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y191/LegioXXXUlpiaVictrix/dane_huskarl.jpg
Danish hurkarls
No viking faction would be complete without the infamous huskarls. Being some of the best axemen in the world at the time, these men serve an important purpose both for fighting in the line, flanking and similar.

https://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y191/LegioXXXUlpiaVictrix/dane_horsemen.jpg
Horsemen
While vikings weren't known for their cavalry, the vikings most likely had the knowledge needed to field a basic light cavalry mostly for chasing routers and scouting out enemy positions. The danes at the end of the period fielded some more professional cavalry, but the Norwegians and Swedish never used anything of higher quality until in the late high Medieval period.

https://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y191/LegioXXXUlpiaVictrix/norw_archers.jpg
Norwegian Archers
Without cavalry, the viking armies needed archers for harassing and forcing the enemy into stupid moves. Archers both had the task of demoralizing, harassing and forcing enemy manouvres. As a result, viking archers were often very skilled. Some historians even claim they used longbows, although much evidence suggests these longbows were by no means comparable to those of the Welsh, for instance.

Some special, not very common, units in the Danish and Norwegian armies:

https://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y191/LegioXXXUlpiaVictrix/dane_jomsviking.jpg
Jomsvikings
The joms vikings, according to both sagas and historical facts, were a special elite of vikings gathered in the city of Jomsborg, which seems to have been located along the southern Baltic coast in modern Germany or Poland. It's unclear how much is legend and how much of the tales have some substance to them. In any case, it seems clear that these mean were a dreaded elite with high morale and outstanding combat skills, but rare on the battlefields, which is also how they'll appear in AoVaF.

https://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y191/LegioXXXUlpiaVictrix/dane_berserker.jpg
Danish berserkers
No viking mod would be complete without the legendary berserkers. These men are led into bravery by religious beliefs. The sagas speak of Valhalla, where brave men who died honorably in battle will meet the Gods in the afterlife.

Some of the units in action

https://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y191/LegioXXXUlpiaVictrix/combat1.jpg
Norwegian Huskarls doing well against a group of Danish spearmen.

https://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y191/LegioXXXUlpiaVictrix/combat2.jpg
As the Danish spearmen are about to break, the Norwegians send their horsemen into their rear, while the huskarls continue to chop a way through the surviving Danes.

https://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y191/LegioXXXUlpiaVictrix/combat3.jpg
A Danish general with his huskarls has been surrounded by Norwegian geirrmen and huskarls, but manages to resist the Norwegian pressure despite inferior numbers.

https://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y191/LegioXXXUlpiaVictrix/combat4.jpg
Danish horsemen get a nasty surprise as they foolishly charge an isolated group of Norwegian geirrmen, who manages to turn around to face the threat in time.

https://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y191/LegioXXXUlpiaVictrix/combat5.jpg
The Danish archers desperately resort to their small axes when the Norwegian geirrmen and huskarls charge them from two directions, and put an end the bloody battle.

Danish and Norwegian banners

https://img166.imageshack.us/img166/4868/beggebannernor1be.jpg
Norwegian banner

https://img166.imageshack.us/img166/1375/copyofdanebanner4my.jpg
Danish banner

Thanks to www.photobucket.com and www.imageshack.use for free image hosting.
Some of the displayed content units might be work in progress.

[edyzmedieval]

Excellent!!! OMG...~:cheers:

[Radier]

Great peview! ~:cheers:

[Monarch]

Looks very nice, good work :)

[Antagonist]

Looking good :)

Keep up the good work.

Antagonist

[Mujalumbo]

Daaammmmnnn! Those are some SEXY-lookin' units.

Are the archers going to have an armour-piercing melee attack? (On account of the axes.)

Keep up the good work, men!

[Stormy]

Wow... lovely.

[tutankamon]

Well what can i say other than ~:eek: that's some absolutly fantastic units thre is nothing i can critisise they er magnificant... stil it would do the beserkers good if they had a shield but they er great too without it.. it's just me ~:rolleyes:

[Rodion Romanovich]

Are the archers going to have an armour-piercing melee attack? (On account of the axes.)


Exact unit stats are still being discussed but we have a fairly good idea of what we want in terms of behavior of the units, with the exception for a few details, such as this one. The archers will probably be able to do some harm vs armored opponents when sent charging into their rear, due to their lightness and mobility, but they will for instance not be what militia sergeants in M:TW were. So their strength might end up lying in the charge stats rather than in armor piercing ability.

[Dooz]

Wow, this mod is really coming into it's own. Great job, I love all of it. You've done a very interesting thing with the banners, they look great.

Age of Vikings and Fanatics: Total War has officially joined the ranks of EB and Napoleanic: TW as one of the most anticipated mods... of course it doesn't mean much to anyone, but to hell with you!!!...

[Narayanese]

Looks good!:bow:
:viking: :medievalcheers: ~:)
(but what happened to th spearpoints of those javelins?)

[Viking]

Those banners were superb, and the units looks splendid. Great work. ~:cheers:

[Geoffrey S]

Looks lovely. The detail on shields and banners is top-class; I also really like the way the units look credible, they actually look more warriors who are used to fighting, more gritty than most other mods.

[GoreBag]

Everything looks great, guys, but the spearheads on the javelins confuse me too.

[Archbaker]

The bersekers can't bite their shields when they don't have any. :)

Seriously, this is looking so very great. Colour me impressed.

[Birka Viking]

Very good preview...
cheers..:san_cool:

[infierno]

cheers for the preview

i specially like this

https://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y191/LegioXXXUlpiaVictrix/dane_berserker.jpg

i would like to see more big men with long blonde hairs and bears with animal's furs and terrible axes for the northern factions :º) my dream battles

[al'Callaendor]

very nice work !:san_cheesy:

[Nacheras]

Simply WOOOOW...

Excellent paint, excellent historic accuracy, excellent looking, the best banners I ever see in any RTW mod.

I´m eager to see the asturican and andalusian units in action.

Very, very good work.

[Meneldil]

I´m eager to see the asturican and andalusian units in action.

Very, very good work.


May I say that Skel made his first Andalusian unit and that it totally kick a** :san_wink:

[Balder]

Aaaah man this looks so good!!!
And i second what others said about the banners.

Amazing work guys.:san_smiley:

[Agraes]

AOVAF still THE mod I wait the most :san_grin:

[Fate]

Man, this mod looks load-blowingly good!!