Current retinues so far

Looking back over my posts, i noticed i hadn't shown my current painted war bands! Being obsessed with cavalry at late, i forgot about the foot sloggers!

So here they are, pretty much finished...

Kaliads:

Soldiers, or warriors if i was playing Dux Britanniarum. Still need to add 2 shields!!!

The 'levy', lesser armed Kaliads, but (hopefully) tough behind their large shields. Might add a couple more though.

I have added flags since i took these photos, so need another update to show them!

Almost forgot the crossbowmen.

Runissians:

The champion has been finished by the way...

I've tried to put the newer ones nearer the front so you can see them.

WIP Kindarrian commander

I've done his banner bearer, so i thought it was about time i started on the actual Kindarrian commander!

The horse was shown some posts ago. For the actual commander i've only done limited conversion, with the plume and aventail/camail. I was messing around with the pose for ages, cutting up arms and trying to make him point forward, but in the end i plumped for the 'pointing his lance in the air' pose.

The lance needs to be glued on, but it makes him top heavy so i'll wait until all is dry!

I was also considering adding a cloak, but i think it looks fine without, might look too 'busy' otherwise.

This is how it'll look when glued (i'm holding it on, hand is out of shot).

For Straagen! For the King!

Four Kindarrian cavalry ready for war.

The red and yellow men were in the last post, just done the basing since then. I also did a banner bearer riding a converted horse and another heavy lancer.

The banner bearer is carrying the lord's banner, so he wears rich armour and deserves some extra attention. I thought of doing white horse trapping with blue stripe and crosses, but swapped them. The lord will have the same trapping on his horse.

All freehand, of course.

The lancer will be part of the lord's household. He wears his own symbol (four yellow diamonds on blue) as he might be a younger son of a noble, but no soldiers will wear his colours. The blue keeps him similar to his lord.

Now i just need to make the lord!

Jorfar and stralot

In English, a mounted noble and a lighter horseman.

Instead of waiting for the plastic pile to build up and up, i'm painting some of the cavalry i have been amassing lately, starting with these two:

'What is your plan, sir?'
'To beat the French Runissians!'

A jorfar is a Kindarrian noble, and this one is quiet rich or has managed to loot himself plenty of armour. The best armour (and most expensive) has shoulder plates, faulds, the lot, and if you go down a scale there's lots more chain mail.

I chose red and yellow because it clashed with the dark armour.

The stralot, or a regular, un-noble horseman. He wears a red and yellow tunic under a padded jack and coat of plates.

I'll probably add a couple more lighter horsemen with red and yellow, but no more as i want to go to town with the colours on these men!

More blooming WIPs

Tired of this yet?

More cavalry, again a mix of Perry and Fireforge. I might need to order more soon but for the moment i'm really enjoying doing some mounted men. Being the 'elite' i can go to town a bit with fancy armour and what not, and after making English medieval forces and nearly done 2 Dux Brit forces on foot, i've got enough infantry for now.

Kaliads, the light lancer and a mounted crossbowman both finished.

The mounted crossbowman has Perry armoured bill arms. I like him as i only used miliput on the coif. Nice, simple, and quick!

The scout, all done too. I though about giving him a shield, but he looks good without one. He's a scout after all, no need to carry a heavy shield around. Also, he will be wearing a coat of plates once painted.

The heavies! Kindarrian heavy lancers. Unlike the Kaliads, the Kindarrians prefer heavier armour and no longer use javelins, leaving them to be used by the lighter cavalry, the stralots. So these men are jorfar, or nobles, cream of the Kindarrian armies and equipped in fashionable armour.

Note no crouched lancers here!

I'll make a stralot or two for every jorfar, some with lances to support the nobles, or lighter with javelins for harassing the enemy before the charge goes in.

Some horses. The left hand one appeared last post, now with chest armour and a head. The head looks a bit big, perhaps because of the feathers! Whoever will be riding this beast will be a mean fighter, probably a high ranking noble and a rich one too.

The headless horse will not have any metal armour, i'll add some additional decoration to the front and, once finished, will be the mount for the standard bearer, carrying the flag of the leader.

Cavalry and horses

For a change, i've decided to do some cavalry for a while as i've done mostly infantry, so i need a little break from them! As such, my next band (the Kindarrians i mentioned last post) will be mostly cavalry.

A couple of WIPs. Not sure if i went a bit over the top with the miliput with the left hand man. There's hardly any of the original model left! He will be a Runissian or Kindarrian, and the right one will be a Kaliad. Some extra horse tackle added for variation.

I also changed the horse for the Kaliad banner bearer to a calmer looking ambler. The horse is a conversion...

...as you can see here. Two halves cut and stuck back together, an idea taken from the Lead Adventure Forum.

More horses, this time with some cloth barding and just fancy saddle. These two are conversions again with the same half-half treatment as above.

Wondering whether to do the left hand horse in a full cloth barding, or have it will some metal barding on the front. I'm leaning towards the latter and use it as a horse for a noble of some sort.

Attacking the unpainted pile

Getting back into the swing of painting after a while not doing any. Continuing my alternate medievals as, although i might be gaming and thinking about the 15th century, i have enough figures for the moment.

Although they're not based, i thought i'd share them.

Kaliads. I tried blued armour on the champion (left with big axe) and was not sure if i over did it. Looks alright now though.

A couple of Runissians, including the third noble for the starter force. As he is noble, i decided he should have his own 'coat of arms', his family symbol that he wears to set him apart from the other soldiers who wear their lord's symbol.

Bird, person or mythical creature, who knows?

Also painted my first cavalry for this setting, a Kaliad noble or retainer and a Runissian.

For the infantry, i've tried to keep the colours similar, as, being common men, they have no symbol of their own and will wear their leader's colours. The cavalry, however, will be much more mixed as it is composed of nobles, who each have some followings in their colours.

This means the cavalry will have more 'flare' than the foot sloggers. The only exception is the Runissians, as many Runissian nobles choose to fight on foot.

Couple of other views.

And this is what will most likely be happening in reality:

'Back to the north, Runissian dog!'

I'm rather enjoying doing cavalry, and i've got plans to do a new band soon, this time of Kindarrians, horsemen who live east of Runissia.

Dux Bel French vs Lowlands battle #1

Here it is, the report for my first Dux Bellorum on the continent game. Posted a bit later than planned, but the pictures take an age to load up! Anyway...

This battle pitched the militia forces of a small Lowland town against the company of a French captain looking for some land to nap and loot for his soldiers. Nothing too historical here.

The French had the following:

Mounted companions

2 units out mounted gendarmes (men-at-arms)

1 unit of mounted coustilliers

1 unit of heavy infantry

3 units of crossbowmen

7 Leadership points (for boosting combat and morale)

The Lowlanders brought the following to the battle:

Foot companions

2 units of heavy infantry with pikes

4 units of militia infantry with pikes

1 unit of crossbowmen

1 unit of mounted poorterij (men-at-arms)

1 unit of mouted coustilliers

2 units of skirmishers

6 LPs

The opening moves. The Lowlanders planned to advance as quickly as possible to stop the French cavalry from maneuvering, with the cavalry to take out the archers (who in this battle were actual archers :-p)

The French captain looks at the advancing enemy while his archers advance to open fire.

Seeing an opportunity, the captain charges a unit of skirmishers that strays too far forward. The infantry are too far away to help and the captain deprives the Lowlanders of an LP.

For every unit lost, you loose an LP, meaning you get less and less bonuses as the battle rolls on, handy way of representing confusion and the chaos of battle.

In the following turn, the Lowland cavalry charge, having taken no losses from archery at the beginning of the turn. The infantry also manage to get into contact. Despite being charging cavalry, the French archers hold (thanks to LPs, used to save losses) excpet on their right where the militiamen force back some archers. The lighter coustilliers, however, are thrown back by the French heavy infantry.

End of third turn view.

Being a brave French man, the captain charges the mass pikes of the Lowlands. Despite the penalties imposed on him by the pikes, he hopes to hold out until his men can win elsewhere on the field.

Meanwhile...

2 units of Lowlanders decide today's a day off, and refuse to pass a bravery test to move.

the following combat does not go well, as he and the gendarms take losses, but manage to inflict enough to get a draw, unfortunately.

The Poorteri slowly cut through the archers, but the coustilliers pull back, battered with a threatened flank. The Lowland infantry on the right just watches.

The Lowland infantry pile on the pressure and hem in on the weakened cavalry. Things are not looking good for the French.

LPs keep the archers in play (albeit at with only 1 or 2 points of cohesion left) and the heavy infantry join in the swing the balance in favour of the French on their left.

On the right, some gendarms ride down the Lowland archers, but the cavalry in the center are suffering. Coutrai all over?

As the French wanted, they now however have 2 units of cavalry ready to attack the infantry's flanks, but in a classic show of dice rolling, both fail, the gendarms even loosing a point cohesion! The captain must fight another round alone in the center.

Pour sainte Denis!

Thanks to their armour and courage (ie, LPs) the French captain holds on, and manages to inflict some casualties. He is lucky the heavy infantry at his flank failed to move.

The following turn, everyone gets stuck in. The Lowland poorterij are driven off, fleeing the field, and in the center the French cavalry crash down on the Lowland infantry flanks, causing enough losses to force the rest of the force to test for morale. Men begin to run, and at the end only a few men stand with the Lowland leader, the rest having run in the general direction of home.

Still waiting to advance, there will be some arguments in the camp about the performance of these chaps!