This is the first in a sporadic series of looking at the strengths and weaknesses of different armies and some of the things you might need to consider if you are thinking or using this army.
There are a lot of things that you need to think about when building and using this army.
The first thing that you have some very good infantry that can be difficult to shift. Superior fighters in Shieldwall with a cheap second rank of Fyrd - what is not to like. You almost certainly want to give the Thegns light armour for that little bit more durability against missile fire and in combat. This takes them to 22pts per base, there is a temptation to tool them up but this quickly eats into the points available to you. Giving them Javelins, Throwing Spear and Veteran suddenly makes them 28pts per base, and the Fyrd would also have to take Throwing Spear as well (all Saxon units have to have the same type of spear). This means that one unit of six bases is now 132pts. I would suggest that you do not need to take Javelins or make them Veteran unless you have a few points left over that you can find no other use for! I would keep the Throwing spear upgrade, this gives you a six base unit that now costs 120pts. It may not seem a lot per unit but you can spend those points better elsewhere.
Why go for the Throwing Spear and not Javelins? It can be argued that the Javelins give greater versatility you can throw them at pesky skirmishers who are in the way or use them in the first round of combat. Normally I would agree, but the Javelins cannot be used in the first round of combat when your unit is also a warband, whilst Throwing Spears can! Some people who I have seen playing with the Later Saxons seem to forget that they are basically a 'warband' army because of the rule about units within 12" of the King/Earl are not 'impetuous'. They may not be impetuous, but they are still warband in all other respects. So if they charge and win the combat by 1, then the opponent still reads their result one line lower than usual. As with all warband armies you want to maximise the number of attacks that you can put out on the charge so that you give yourself the best opportunity possible to 'read the result one line lower'!
To maximise the attacks you also want to ensure that as many units as possible have a commander with them. Ealdorman give you +2 attacks (after the recent errata). In total you can take 5 Ealdorman alongside your free King/Eorl. This is 100pts leaving you 900pts for troops. At 120pts a unit you could have 7 units of Thegn/Fyrd or if you have gone tooled up you could get 6 units. In both cases with a few points left over.
It can be quite tempting to go for wall to wall Thegns across the battlefield and it can look pretty formidable and somewhat dispiriting to your opponent. However, if you go down this path you are likely to find that the units on the end of the line are more than 12" away from the general and so revert to being 'impetuous'. Your opponent will exploit this and pull you out of position and potentially exposing the units flank to lurking cavalry or open order troops. You also have nothing to deal with any rough terrain that you have to deal with and a canny opponent may put a terrain piece of two in akward places to disrupt your battle line.
I have been known to refuse a flank with my Saxons and then pivot on a piece of terrain to allow my Saxons to march along the length of the battlefield whilst keeping my flanks protected! Whilst easy in theory putting it into practice does not always work and often your opponent can keep out of the way of this slow moving juggernaut whilst they chip away at you.
So how can you effectively supplement this close order behemoth. The list allows you have up to 10% of your troops as cavalary, and this means mounted Thegns. These are very ordinary and at 18pts a base with the light armour upgrade it means you can have a maximum of five bases in a 1000pts army. They are ordinary fighters with a 4+ save. You need to be very careful who you attack with these guys as they will not last long. They do potentially have a place as a mobile reserve and to allow you to counter your opponents cavalry, just don't expect them to win the the game all by themselves.
You may get a better bang for your buck from the Special troops or Allies allowance where you can take up to 25% of your force from. Special troops include Vikings, where the ability to field them in open order at 15pts a base can allow you to have a unit that is both effective and allows you to operate in difficult terrain. You can upgrade them with light armour, Javelins (now a better option than Throwing Spears as they are not Warband) or double handed axes which is always an unpleasant surprise for your opponent.
Skirmishers are also special troops and have their own errata so that they cost 4pts per base rather than 49! However, there are restrictions on how many bow armed skirmishers you can have. I always think that you need a few skirmishers with sling or bow to help counter one of the weaknesses of this list. Your opponent will be able to concentrate his fire on one or two of your units and even in Shieldwall it is all to easy to become discouraged and give up momentum tokens and the occasional base. Having your own skirmishers with bows etc will give your opponent more to think about.
You may have allies from the Dark Age Britain and Ireland, Early Medieval Wales or Later Irish lists. The Welsh list gives you access to cheap bowmen, and some better cavalry but then you will not be able to afford the Vikings as well! Choices, choices!
It is to easy to see the Late Saxon's as a very static army waiting to be charged, and to some extent there is some truth in this. You will be charged, but you are superior fighting Shieldwall, you expect to be charged and then slowly grind your opponent to pulp!
So make sure you are always in Shieldwall as often as possible! So for instance if you about face, that is half your move, if you do anything else you will not be in Shieldwall, so moving backwards is not an option (doubly so if the enemy is within 8" as a warband you can't move away from the enemy!). So be as careful in you deployment and movement as possible.
Also remember that you do not need depth bonus to be in Shieldwall (unlike a unit that has the Phalanx rule), so you could deploy in a single rank and still enjoy the benefit of being in Shieldwall. This may be an effective tactic if your opponent has a lot of cavalry that you want to stop getting on to your flanks or rear!
The Later Saxons are a tough nut to crack if played well, but may not have the dash and elan that some players look for.
Happy gaming.