Normans in Italy Pt 2

Well, here are the rest of the Lombards. First up were a test group for me.  I wanted some generic Holy Roman Empire troops.  Just a small unit from a very minor German state that sent some troops to help the Pope in his struggles with the Normans.  I believe they are a mix of WGA Late Romans with some Goth heads added, Gripping Beast Vikings, and the odd head from the Oathmark humans.  In Hail Caesar, they would be a small unit. 

Next is a unit of Swabians.  I knew ever since I read about this unit and how they fought that I had to add them to the army roster.  They are made up of Gripping Beast metal Anglo-Danes with their hands removed and sword hands from GW added.  The Empire soldier sword was just the right size for a hand and a half sword for these guys.  Still need to add a banner to this unit. 

Next is a unit of generic troops.  They are made from Gripping Beast plastic Dark Age Warriors, a  criminally under rated box, and some Dark Age Irish.  There are a few Victrix heads thrown in to add some variety.  The mix of the two units adds to the look of a hastily raised unit of poor farmers to stop the Norman advance.

While I was looking at what to add to the army, I came across a small box that had a bunch of peasants that I put away awhile back.  When I saw that the command sprue of the Victrix Saxons had a priest, I knew that I had to make a unit of peasants.   Most are Black Tree Designs with a health mix of plastic peasants from some board game that I had kicking around.  A few weapon swaps later, boom, a peasant rabble unit to anchor your battle line... or, more likely, to act as a speed bump for heavy horse.  

The last unit is from Conquest Games and represent light horse armed with javelins.  I just cut down the lance to the correct size and added a few more to the off hands.  Easy peasy.  These Conquest Games Normans do paint up nice.  

Finally, the command bases.  In Hail Caesar, the command base size does not matter.  I went back and forth on the size and how to portray the division commanders.  Eventually, I decided on 4 figures for foot and 2 for mounted.  Still need to print the sabot base for the mounted command.  The foot are from Victrix Saxon box and the mounted are spares from the Conquest Games Norman box. 

The shields are all hand painted.  I contemplated about buys transfers but I wanted to spend that money on more figures!  All the sabot bases were 3D designed by me in tinkercad and printed on my 3D printer.  This basing method allows me base the figures individually, for other games like Pillage, and also use large basing for Hail Caesar.  I spent a lot of time looking at how people based their armies and really like the multi figured bases used by Martin over at 7th Son, but could not get completely away from single basing.  This, I feel, is a great compromise. 

Next up are the Byzantines.  Let me know what you think!

Justin