SAGA : Norman Sergeants

PonFe Haziran 28, 2022

Hi, The bulk of the Normand army was made of freeman, obliged to serve their liege lord in what was already a feudal systeme of governance. The duchy of Normandy made great use of professional mercenary soldier from France, Flanders, Italy or Spain. They called sergeants. So with the SAGA rules, the Norman abilities are largely oriented to Horsemen and shooting troops.Spearmen Sergeants are useless than the crossbow warriors but it's impossible for me to build a Norman warband without spearmen.

The first unit of sergeant I painted is lightly armored with the emblematic Norman gambeson. A gambeson (or aketon or padded jack or arming doublet) is a padded defensive jacket, worn as armour separately, or combined with mail or plate armour. Gambesons were produced with a sewing technique called quilting. Usually constructed of linen or wool, the stuffing varied, and could be for example scrap cloth or horse hair.

The second unit is heavily armored with chain mail and protected by another Norman iconic item: The kite Shield. This shield is a large, almond-shaped shield rounded at the top and curving down to a point at the bottom. The term "kite shield" is a reference to the shield's unique shape, and is derived from its supposed similarity to a flying kite, although "leaf-shaped shield" and "almond shield" have also been used in recent literature. Since the most prominent examples of this shield have appeared on the Bayeux Tapestry, the kite shield has become closely associated with Norman warfare.

A last word about the Norman Helmet, yep, are they painted or not? In fact I don’t know but it’s better to obtain a color full army. I think, the Knights/Sergeants helmets was probably sometimes painted but I I also believe that a lot of the spangenhelm style helmets were metal frames with layered leather inserts, and that the paintings of those helmets we see reflect that. The Bayeux Tapestry show many painted helmets.