Not one to be deterred by the fact that our current participation game is still in the construction phase (6 weeks to go ), I’ve come up with a vague plan to do the Battle of Leuven as a demo / participation game next year. This was a little affair back in 891, the tail end of the Carolingian period, where the Frankish (then) king Arnulf of Carinthia came all the way over to Leuven to beat up a part of the Viking Great Army that had decided to winter there. The resulting battle was a resounding Frankish victory and is said to have coloured the banks of the Dijle red with the blood of the Vikings. Good stuff, in other words.

As to figures for this battle, the Vikings are easy — after Romans and Celts they must be the most popular subject for miniature manufacturers to tackle, so pretty much everyone and his dog does them. Carolingian Franks (let alone later Carolingian Franks) are a different matter, however. So far, I have found (in the One True Scale of 25-28mm of course):

• Old Glory - PLC range
• Essex Miniatures - Ancients range
• Chiltern Miniatures - Frankish range - ex-Whitecross, apparently

For the Old Glory and Essex, I have a fairly good idea of what to expect (filler and static poses, respectively), but I have not seen the Chiltern figures up close. On the pictures (well, picture) on the site, they look a tad goofily posed, so an in the flesh inspection is called for. Luckily, Chiltern is coming to Crisis, so I’ll have a chance to look at them there.

Are there any readers out there who have experience with any of these ranges, or that know of other manufacturers that do suitable figures? And while I’m at it, are the silly helmets (the inverted boat shape thingies) based on solid evidence or is that just one of those memes that is based on a single source and has been propagated throughout miniature wargamehood?

Technorati tags: miniatures Carolingian