studiotomahawk.freeforums.org

Hi

Im starting an Anglo-Danish Warband.

The Warriors (Ceorls/Thegns), would these be wearing armour like chain mail or not?

Armour is not directly relevant. The important thing is to be able to distinguish the troop types. If you think of the Warlord as a thegn then his warriors will be ceorls, and probably would not have armour; if you think of him as an earl then even his warriors would be armoued. I tend to use spearmen (generally unarmoured) as warriors, with armoured sword and axe-men as hearthguard, as appropriate. For Anglo-Danes you have the extra distinguishing factor of dae axes (if you want them) while another feature the hearthguard could have would be kite shields rather than round for warriors.

Peter

Normally the Thegn would likely have chainmail

Most warriors couldn't afford it but some would. They'd all have a shield and Helmet.

Thegn wrote:Normally the Thegn would likely have chainmail

Most warriors couldn't afford it but some would. They'd all have a shield and Helmet.

That sounds like the reply of a re-enactor (most historical re-enactors I know are well informed). Although I am not sure about the helmet.

quick option would be to have half and half, and field in 2 ranks, with the unarmoured lads behind - maybe not ideal, but allows use of more GB plastics

oddly they were not as badly off as one supposes, you would think smell and mud would be thier main protection - but

I,m reading Dark Age Battles (look it up on amazon) and in there he addresses the same question, he quotes from a text of the period saying roughly

even though a thaign may posses a helmet,sheild,spear and mail he is less than a freeman who posses x ammount of land.
basically just because he,s got the kit he,s still a smelly peasant and had better know his station.

but it implies the theigns were reasonably armed and armoured. - a so a mix of armour would be fair amoungst the theigns , all would have sheilds and spears , the rest goes from baldrick to smart man about the battlefield.

although Dark age battles is a bit before the saga period , more alfreds time , its a very good book and well worth a read, - designed very much with the wargamer in mind.

peter