Preview December 7th 2005
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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
Norwegian Huskarls doing well against a group of Danish spearmen.
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.
A Danish general with his huskarls has been surrounded by Norwegian geirrmen and huskarls, but manages to resist the Norwegian pressure despite inferior numbers.
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.
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
Norwegian banner
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.
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Re: Preview December 7th 2005
Originally Posted by Mujalumbo
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