The beginnings of an army for Dux Brittaniarum

I've recently begun with the building of a Sub-Roman (Romano-British) army for Dux Brittaniarum.
It'll be an all metal army, a first for me, comprising mostly of Newline Designs for the ordinary troops,
and Wargames Foundry for the characters and archers.

The starting army as a whole.

The characters are all from the 'King Arthur with Champions and Characters' pack from WF.

The Tribunus with the Labarum-bearer and his Sacerdos.

The two Decurios.

 

For now I have the shieldbearer of the pack as my Champion, but I'm contemplating of putting
him in the priests place on the Tribunus stand; and instead use the Brynhildr figure from
Bad Squiddo Games as Champion.

The Newline Designs figures are from two packs: Early Saxons and Gothic Warriors. I really
like these figures for their old school appearance. Not quite as detailed as other companies,
they do however paint up well and are relatively cheap too. That's a big plus for me since I have
to do the hobby on a limited budget.

The Comanipulares.

The Milites.

The Sagitarii

First of three units of Numeri.

Apart from spears, shields and basing this unit is finished. I really like how these ND figures look.
Although the stances of the figures are limited, their spear arms are easily bended in new postions
and makes each figure look more unique to one another.
These were painted simple too, each part got a single color, then washed with Vallejo's 'Umber wash',
and then got a quick drybrush. I must say I'm pleased with the result.

Bought these figures on last Crisis event from their booth, nice fellows and all. I guessing I'll be standing
at that booth again next Crisis. (If they come over to the mainland of course)

Dismounted Ordonnance Knights

This dismounted unit of Burgundian knights is  a veritable mix of plastic parts. For the most part they are Perry foot knights, with some heads from the mounted MaA-box, two pair of arms from the WoTR box and shield and plumes from some old GW stuff I had lying around. The red sashes of the standard bearer are simple strips of paper glued in position with a drop of superglue. the horses are metal ones from Front Rank's WoTR range.

The next units will be a dismounted unit of Italian mercenary serjeants and a decorative general & base.

"De Goedwillighen" Antwerp crossbowmen

According to tradition, in 1181, Henry I of Brabant (taking over from his father, Godfrey III of Louvain, since 1172, but only becoming Duke in 1190) granted the crossbowmen of "de Oude Voetboog" a guildsign as well as a special marking, a crossbow with the initials DGW; De Goedwillighen (the Goodwilling).
The guild must of course be older than this 12th Century anecdote, for it would be doubtful that Duke would grant such honors to a new unproven organisation. But this is the oldest known source.

A Burgundian cross in the colors of Antwerp,
the Antwerp coat-of-arms,
the cross of saint George,
and the same with the initials of
'Antwerp' and 'de Goedwillighen'

But only in 1306 Antwerp officially recognizes the guild, "de Oude Voetboog" (the Old Footbow), maybe then it was just known as de "de Voetboog" until in 1385 another guild, called "de Jonge Voetboog" (the Young Footbow) was founded.

Later it would become known as the Antwerp Guild of Saint George. I assume that Saint George became the patron saint of crossbowmen in Brabant and Flanders since every crossbow guild was named after him, from Ypres to Antwerp,  and wore his crest (red cross on a white field).

According to Floris Prims, a priest who compiled the history of Antwerp between 1927 and 1948, Antwerp and Charles the Bold made an agreement, on May 22 1472, for a fixed number of troops to be supplied for the ducal army.

"30 Hommes-d'armes et 30 crennequiniers who are bound and charged with service, each to be horsed and equipped as is necessary."

Further in the text the hommes d'armes are referred to as lances. And maybe these sixty men had additional men with them so it could double or even triple the number of people needed to be sent on campaign.

The first of these campaigns was began just one month later, against France in the Neslé area, and ended in early November. In June 1473 the men from Antwerp marched with the ducal army towards Guelders and captured Nijmegen. In 1474 Antwerp sent their troops for the eleven month siege of Neuss.

These campaigns brought many financial troubles to the city of Antwerp and the rest of the Low Countries; so by 1476 the Staten-Generaal der Nederlanden (a council of the Low Countries) refused to aid the Duke militarily and finacially, they seemed to know a lost cause when they saw one.

"Quit being such a baby!"

In 1469 there came an ordonnance banning liveries, for it promoted factionalism.
"Too many people claimed protection of the person whose livery they wore, coming and going as they please, armed with armor, swords, javelins, glaives, guns, brandereels (a lead ball on a string), axes and other forbidden sticks or weapons. Too many of these are people of low social standing and workers..."
So recognized guilds and brotherhoods needed a registration of all their members; weapons and the bearing of them  became strictly regularised; and only the "archers of our country" will be able to were a livery and weapons as well as the officers of the Duke and his vassals, within the boundaries of their office.
Also noblemen were only allowed to give liveries to the members of their household.

"I can't stand the sight of blood..."

However I chose to give every man a red vest to give the appearance of uniformity as would have been the likely case of a guild. Red is one of the colors of Saint george as well as the city of Antwerp so it isn't that far of a stretch.

Next up are some Men-at-Arms on foot.

Italian mercenaries in Burgundian service

These were completed last week or so, but today was the first day with enough natural light to make decent photographs.

According to Osprey's 'Armies of Medieval Burgundy' Charles the Bold sought mercenaries in Italy and one Condottiere mentioned by name was Nicola de Monforte, Count of Campobasso.

So my first unit of Italian mercenaries is made up of crossbowmen and handgunners from Campobasso. The unit is a mix of plastic Perry's and old metal 'Marksmen of Miragliano' from GW's Dogs of War. Although the metal figures are a little smaller and fatter than the plastics, they seem to match up well.

I tried to duplicate the arms of Nicola de Monforte on the pavise, however my skills were insufficient to paint the four small red roses in each corner realistically and make look like roses too. So I settled for one larger one in the centre and this one looks more like a four-leaved clover than a five-leaved rose. Crap happens, I suppose.

I converted one plastic figure into a kneeling position to hold the pavise. I know it was done earlier in Flemish, French, Italian and Hungarian armies that one man held the shield with an crossbowman behind him. Maybe no longer in the 1470's but I thought it looked neat none the less. The miniature was converted without any greenstuff or other sorts, just a knife, file and glue.

This metal figure has a simple conversion, he has gotten the plastic handgun and hands from the Perry mercenaries box; perfect fit. The chap next to him is a plastic Perry with an old plastic head from the Mordheim box, fits like a glove.

Next up: another unit of crossbowmen and handgunners, levied from the guilds of Antwerp.

Calling in artillery!

Another piece of the load of lead I got at Crisis 2015, not mentioning the mountain of plastics.

Two pieces of metal Perry's artillery with crew; one for the Swiss and the other for the Burgundians.
Nothing fancy has been done to them apart from two headswaps for the Swiss.
The Burgundians got one headswap and a palissade that hopefully looked like a piece of the Grunhag at Morat. ( Lifted the idea from Mick_in_Switzerland on the Lead Adventure forum ;p )

Burgundian Pikemen

Taking a small break from the Swiss resulted in this unit. A lightly armoured group of pikemen led by an important knight, perhaps a Household one (going by the looks of his splendid outfit and helmet).

All of them are plastic Perry Mercenaries with bits from the WoTR and MaA boxes.
The standard bearer, without a standard, is an ordinary plastic pikeman with strategic cuts to both wrists to get the current flag-waving pose.

You might have noticed that I took a note or two from that excellent blog "Je lay emprins", go check it out if you haven't already.

One final note; it took me a while before I realised that my ancestors lived in the Burgundian Low Countries; Duchy of Brabant to be exact. And I still do today, what made me kind of sad that I don't know more of my country's past. But then again, these are not the things they focus on at all here in the history classes in school.