Ok heres my dilemma.
My current Hobby project is a Historical Anglo-Saxon force for Gripping Beasts new game SAGA, using Gripping Beast and Wargames Factory models. And I'm really liking these models, much more than GW's Rohan (infantry).
However, SBG is and always will be my favourite game system, and I'd like to use my Saxons in SBG if possible. The idea of Anglo-Saxon style Rohan Shieldwalls really appeal to me. But the current Rohan rules don't appeal to me, so I'm considering ways in which the rules for Rohan infantry can be modified. A look through the various Wikipedia articles on LOTR led me to the "Kingdom of Rhovanion".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RhovanionQuote:
As the Third Age progressed, several tribes and princes of Northmen occupied areas of Rhovanion, living in the Vales of Anduin, around and in the great forest, and across the grassy plains. By T.A. 1250 one of these princes, Vidugavia, claimed the title "King of Rhovanion", though his realm lay only between Mirkwood and the River Running. Vidugavia allied himself with Gondor (which claimed much of the southern part of Rhovanion); his daughter Vidumavi married into Gondor's royal house, and his grandson Vinitharya became King Eldacar of Gondor in T.A. 1432.
Oh, and this is interesting - from the wiki article on the Kings of Gondor.
Quote:
Valacar r. 1366–1432. Married Vidumavi, princess of Rhovanion. Later in his reign, unrest grew in the coastal provinces.
Vinitharya, crowned as Eldacar, reigned 1432–1437. Deposed and driven into exile in Rhovanion by his distant relative, Castamir.
Castamir usurped the throne during the Kin-strife in 1437, killed in 1447
Eldacar restored, r. 1447–1490
Vidugavia was an early King of "Rhovanion" who allied himself with Gondor . His daughter, "Princess" Vidumavi was married to the 20th King of Gondor (Valacar).. Their son, Eldacar the 21st King of Gondor was ousted by Castamir who had the support of the pure-blood Numenorian Nobles who resented Eldacar as the son of a non-Numenorian. (racists
). Castamir was defeated and killed, with his remaining supporters fleeing south to Harad and capturing/founding the City of Umbar in its present state. Eldacar was restored to the throne of Gondor. This whole saga is known as the Kin Strife
(there was at least one SBG scenario based on this, with 3 Hasharin vs A Gondor King and Warriors of Minas Tirith. I can't remember which book or White Dwarf it was from though).
Quote:
The Kin-strife was a disastrous civil war in Gondor.
The unrest that created the Kin-strife began when Valacar, the son of the Gondorian king Rómendacil II, married a woman of the Northmen of Rhovanion, Vidumavi. She bore him a son Eldacar, but many Gondorians of Númenórean blood were angered by this mixing of blood of Middle Men and Númenóreans, and the coastal provinces grew increasingly restless as Valacar aged.
When in 1432 of the Third Age Eldacar succeeded his father the unrest grew into open rebellion, as many Gondorians saw Eldacar as a halfbreed who had no right to rule. The chief of them was his distant relative Castamir the Usurper, Captain of Ships, who in T.A. 1437 besieged Eldacar in Osgiliath and forced him into exile. During the siege Osgiliath was burned, and the great Dome of Stars was destroyed, and the palantír kept there was lost. Castamir also murdered Eldacar's son and heir Ornendil. Eldacar fled to his relatives in Rhovanion.
A full decade later, in T.A. 1447, a rebellion against Castamir's cruel rule took place, and Eldacar returned with Rhovanion troops. Many Dúnedain joined him. Eldacar managed to kill Castamir at the Battle of the Crossings of Erui, but Castamir's sons and many of their supporters fled south. After a siege lasting a year Pelargir fell to Eldacar and the surviving rebels left for Umbar. Eldacar could not follow them, as the fleet was under Castamir's control.
Not only did Gondor lose the city of Umbar for four centuries and gain a new enemy in the Corsairs of Umbar, descendants of Castamir's sons, but also many of the Númenóreans of purest blood were killed during the civil war, leaving Gondor weakened.
The Kin-strife was, along with the Great Plague, one of the chief reasons for the abandonment of the fortresses in and surrounding Mordor, and the first disaster leading to Gondor's slow decline . Another reason for the abandoning of the provinces of Gondor in Mordor was because of the increasing threat of the ringwraiths.
The Kingdom of Rhovanion appears to have persisted until the time of the Great Plague, after which they were conquered by the Wainriders.
Quote:
The Great Plague of T.A. 1636 began the long decline of Rhovanion. It was heavily felt in this land, killing off roughly half the people and half of their horses. When the Wainriders came from the east and assailed the people of Rhovanion in T.A. 1851, most of their kingdoms were destroyed and the remaining people enslaved. Gondor withdrew its eastern border to the Anduin. About this time the Éothéod formed in the lower Vales of Anduin from people fleeing west from the Wainriders. A revolt against the Wainriders in T.A. 1899 was suppressed. When the Wainriders were finally defeated by Gondor and the Northmen in T.A. 1944, eastern Rhovanion was so exhausted that it makes few appearances in the later history of the Third Age.[6]
Furthermore, they are related to the Rohirrim, because the original Eotheod - the ancestors of Eorl the Young, first King of Rohan - claimed to descend from these Kings of Rhovanion.
Quote:
Much later, the history of the House of Eorl states that "The forefathers of Eorl claimed descent from kings of Rhovanion, whose realm lay beyond Mirkwood before the invasions of the Wainriders, and thus they accounted themselves kinsmen of the kings of Gondor descended from Eldacar."
So, it seems to me that I've found the perfect concept for a homebrew faction.
It ticks all the boxes - they're distant ancestors of the Rohirrim, so the Anglo-Saxon theme shared by Rohan is probably applicable. Shieldwalls, and other classic features of Dark Age warfare would be relevant. What do you think?
Keep in mind that I mostly just play at a gaming club and not GW anymore, so as long as my opponents agree theres nothing stopping me from using non-GW proxied models or coming up with my own rules. The people in my club are fairly relaxed when it comes to houseruling etc, and a few even design their own games. And I doubt they'll be adopting the new Warband Sourcebooks anytime soon so that won't be a problem.
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