And England ruled as Normans wish;

Blithe world in England never will be more,

Till England 's rid of all the four.

While attending the NoVA open, I stopped by the Footsore stand and learned to play Saga. I also picked up a Saxon army. So what does this have to do with the Norman above? Well, Bill Thornhill gave my son a pack of models to paint. Any while teaching my son to paint a Saxon warlord, I used this Norman to show him with. At one point I had been working on a Warhammer Ancients Shieldwall Norman army and had acquired a lot of Crusader Normans. I've long since sold off all but four of the foot knights (hmmm...perfect size for a Saga unit of Hearthguard!).

Now, I really love the Crusader Normans. Mark Sims is a great sculptor and has the old school GW style I love with slightly exaggerated proportions. And I would love to have an Saga force of them.

But then I saw these:

Courtesy of https://www.facebook.com/FootsoreMiniatures/

Damn. Those look good. Really good.

Now, I'm not convinced that the two brands scale terribly well. As seen below, the height is pretty close, although the Crusader is a little taller. But it's in the proportions. The Crusader is bulkier than the Footsore model. And, to be honest, I like that bulkiness as it helps convey the "bully-boy" portrayal of the Normans I grew up with from the way my down-South, Anglo-Saxon descended family portrayed them as when talking about family history (not that we really know if we're either!).


So, what does everyone think?