Malcolm III and William Rufus 1093 - Battle Ravens

Since discovering that the boardgame Battle Ravens translates so well to the tabletop for a wargame with 54mm toy soldiers we thought we'd give it another outing.

  Our first trial of the game was a standard shieldwall encounter between Vikings and Saxons, but the game also offers sets of cards to portray the national characteristics of Scots, Welsh and Normans so we decided to try something different. 

  For a scenario I chose the border raid in 1093 by the Scots of Malcolm III, in support of Saxon refugees, against a frontier outpost held by the Normans of William Rufus. 

A Frisian trader has beached his ship alongside the Norman keep and is unloading his trade goods in exchange for Saxon slaves, when the alarm is sounded!  A Scottish warband has been spotted approaching the stronghold.

The Frisian crew join the Norman garrison and form shieldwall outside the stockade to protect the ship from the Scots and their Saxon allies.

Lessons learned from our previous encounter meant that the action flowed much faster and furiously this time around, more risks were taken and the subtle nuances in the rule system became more apparent. 

The game is played from two static shieldwalls and despite the lack of manoeuvre there is still a great deal of movement as warriors are pushed back and forth to reinforce holes in the line.  

The Playmobil viking ship with sail down serves as the Frisian merchant vessel, it only acts as set dressing but adds depth to the scenario.

The Scots command group, King Malcolm with his retainers and priest.  The standard bearers here and below are conversions by Eric Kemp acquired at the Plastic Warrior Show in May.

There is a temptation to press heavily on one sector of the enemy line and attempt a breakthrough but this can have repercussions later on, in the long run it's often better to give ground and degrade your opponent's forces.  

The game plays comfortably in a couple of hours but you could easily expand it by allowing reinforcements to be fed in at set points.  It would make a great demonstration game at a convention, easy to transport, limited number of figures involved, several participants could take different sections of the shieldwall and the larger figures add a bit of spectacle for the spectators.

It was a close run thing and looked as though honours were even but on closer inspection and a recount the Normans carried the day by one point.

Those with sharp eyes will recognise figures by Timpo, Johilco, DSG, TSSD, Emhar, Cherilea, Del Prado, Jean Hoefler, Elastolin, Jecsan, Reamsa, Oliver, Conte, Fontanini, Replicants, Marx, Armies in Plastic, Starlux, and Cafe Storme.

Romans by Frederick Ping

 A lucky find at the local car boot sale were these two rather undersized Romans, 50mm and solid lead, they've both seen better days and are now rather scuffed but I could see from what remained that they were once figures of quality.  

Under the wooden base I could just make out the words: Hummel Burlington Arcade London W1, which translates as "Expensive!"  For those who've never been there, Burlington Arcade, off London's Piccadilly, is an avenue of eye wateringly expensive shops, one of which was Hummel's where you could buy exclusive connoisseur model figures made by the likes of Richard Courtenay and Frederick Ping.

At some point in history these chaps have changed places, the hand painted title on the black wood plinth states he is a Roman Centurion, but the figure mounted on it is clearly a Legionary while the one to the right with vine cane and transverse horsehair comb on his helmet is the Centurion.  

It wasn't until I got them home that I noticed the "P" enclosing "ing" hand painted in gold on the reverse of the base, the signature mark of Frederick Ping.  

The most notable thing about Ping figures is that he started with a basic mannequin and dressed it using lead sheet, as on the tunic, belts and cloak of these, other elements such as armour were built up with solder.  For this reason his figures tend to be portrait style rather than action figures like those of Courtenay, with whom he collaborated and who's moulds he inherited on that sculptors death.  Another characteristic of Ping are the relatively large square lead bases, and while the figures are generally described as 50mm if you use the modern practice of measuring from the top of the base to the eye line the are more like 45mm.

This image belongs to Gildings Auctioneers of Market Harborough who sold this lot in March 2020, they are mostly figures from Ping's "Clans of the Highlands" series, which were the first to be offered through Hummel's

Ping often worked to commission and among his works were a series of 12 "Worlds Greatest Generals" for Shamus O D Wade and a number of intricate "Theatre Sets" for the actor Peter Cushing, which I was lucky enough to view when they were sold through Phillips Auctioneers.