Danish/Scanian Leidang and Hird, Foteviken 1134

The Scanian Hird, these are the really tough guys. They had weapon and armor that was quite up to date( or so I assume)

As some of you might know I was recruited by Michael(Dalauppror) to help him out with a gaming project that will be displayed at Salute this year. The project has been called Project F. The project covers the battle of Foteviken 1134. It took place in present day Scania in southern Sweden, but back then this was part of Denmark. The battle was more or less a part of Danish civil war. Details about the battle , the rules used and the demo game that will run at Salute can be found on the Dalauppror blog. 

I have created a piece of Scenery for this project( a church) and I have now completed some units as well. I was supposed to paint 4 Leidang units(foot levy)and one Hird( the retinue of a king or a higher noble). As bonus I painted up some skirmishers as well.

Below you see some examples of what I painted. It is three Leidang units and a small unit of skirmishers. The minis are a wild mix of what I had in my bit box and a box of plastic minis from Conquest miniatures. The Scandinavians had left the Viking era by the time this battle took place, but the weapons and armor used was probably a sort of mix of old Viking and this a bit more modern for it's day.

The Leidang was basically armed peasants, a levy called upon when the King needed to wage war. Not necessarily just for defensive tasks.

Leidang number 2. Quite few of these peasants seems to be quite well off. They have chain mail and proper weapons.

Leidang number 3

The skirmishers, the guys withe missile weapons.