Jomsvikings! First Three Hearthguards

Sveinn harried in Denmark day and night: he killed men, looted all the property and set fire to the countryside. The country people fled in dismay before him and informed the king.

– Jomsviking Saga

Here are the first 3 of my Jomsvikings for excellent SAGA skirmish game that recently got 2nd edition. Jomsvikings were eastern Vikings from island of Wolin, today’s Poland, and they were mercenary band of marauders, that had strict code of honor though, as pictured in Jomsviking Saga written in XIIIth century. Most famous Jomsviking was future King of Denmark and Norway, Harald Bluetooth – yes, the one that lend his name to the wireless protocol. Official figures by Gripping Beast.

Unlike standard Vikings, in SAGA Jomsvikings are professional mercenary Vikings that don’t have Thralls (or slaves and farmers) – they’re too busy with looting and fighting to conscripts poor peasants, and their warbands consist only of Warriors and Hearthguards (plus Jarl as a Warlord). They look quite effective in game, gathering unique Wrath tokens, but on the other side they have no cavalry, bowmen nor horde of thralls, so might be tricky to use properly. We’ll see how it works out, but until then, I’ll be painting 25-man warband.

All three are Hearthguards because they have chainmail that was still uncommon and very expensive in the age of Vikings. Archeologists very rarely find chainmail in Viking Dark Age archeological sites, so we can assume, that these were rich warriors. Some historians claim they Jomsvikings didn’t exist and their Saga is just medieval historical fiction, but I don’t agree.