Two Points of Anglo Danes Join the Painted Warband

It's taken a little while, but the 8 man unit of Dane axe wielding huscarls is painted and varnished! Without further ado meet the new gang...

Dane axes provide some serious clout to these armoured hearthguard. In SAGA games, Dane Axes add +1 to die rolls in melee; crucially they don't lower armour by 1. This means that if the huscarls are fighting fatigue stricken unarmoured troops such as levy, the huscarls could be hitting on a d6 roll of 2 (if fatigue is spent). Normally armour can't be reduced to 1, but since the Dane Axe adds 1 to the attackers d6 roll it's still auto hit time. Tasty!

The downside to the Dane Axe is that it requires two hands. This means that in melee, the huscarls can't use shields and only have an armour of 4 instead of the normal 5 that other non-mounted hearthguard benefit from. The huscarls still carry shields though and can use them as protection against missile armed troops. The huscarls therefore retain an armour of 5 against shooting. In melee the shields are thrown over the huscarl's shoulder and carried on their backs.

I can't take credit for painting the shields. All shields were finished using transfers from the excellent Little Big Men.