Snekkes on the Dneiper

 A box of good stuff from Baggage Train arrived this morning.  I have not bought anything from them before but having chanced upon them online I decided to try out their wares, specifically some 10mm scale Viking era ships and an assortment of terrain to go with them.  The quality appears very good on first inspection and I look forward to having them on my painting desk in Hong Kong in a couple of weeks time.

The terrain pieces are some dark age buildings, a small farm, river banks and a marsh.

In addition, there is a very nice river-side landing point with a small warehouse and three boats

A closer view of the detailing on the inside of the Viking ship seen in the lede photograph, together with a closer view of the mast and yard, figureheads, shields, steering oar and supports for when the mast is dismounted.  A cloth sail and rigging code are provided if you want to have them in sailing mode but I think I will do all of them up in rowing mode.

I have bought three of these Viking era ships, which I reckon to be of the medium sized (snekke?) type, suited to river use and taking a crew of 30-40 men.  I need to sort out what figures I can use as crew and how to arrange banks of oars to indicate when they are in transit that can be removed when the ships are brought ashore and the crew head off for raiding and recreation.

My intention is to use all these pieces for the Eastern European campaign that I am planning  following the movement of Scandinavian raiders and traders down the rivers from the Baltic and then along the Dneiper to the Black Sea and Byzantium, or along the Volga to the Islamic lands to the south.  This will provide a context for battles between different Viking groups, between Vikings and Slavs and other peoples of the forest lands, and then between Vikings and Khazars or other peoples of the Steppes.  Nothing has yet been painted and no campaign maps drawn, but the resources are coming together nicely.