These Late Medieval figures were a mostly unexpected acquisition, and an indirect consequence of my acquiring part of the collection of the (sadly) late Bill McHugh, which was chiefly focused on his excellent Hittite troops.
At the time I got them, in all honesty, I had no idea what I would ever do with them!
Then came a great many play-by Zoom games set during the Wars pf the Roses with the new Test of Resolve rules, followed by the plans of Tim and David to run a bunch of WotR games at Historicon 2022.
With the new baggage rules (Airline, not wargames!), it would not be practical for them to bring any troops with them. Thus I found myself, along with long time wargames freind, Ken Baggaley. Essentially all of the infantry are done, and many were used in games last month. There remains about 40 or so Knights on cloth barded horses. Those will need more tough up and lance repairs. They are "small" 25's, and will likely make to core of a French HYW army. I'll just need to find some small 25 mm infantry to go with the, Come to thuink of it I have some that Joe gave me 20 + years ago, that would probably be very suitable. Hmm...
As IO was doing this Review, I realized that I have never done a review of my small Teutonic Knights army.
It is composed almost entirely of mid 1970's Minifigs.
The figures were more inspired by the motion picture "Alexander Nevsky" than strictly historical garb, specifically the Battle of the Ice in 1242, where Alexander and his foot soldiers defeated the Teutonic Knights and their Estonian allies.
Not a large force, but it has seen quite a lot of action over the 40 + years since I painted them!
Sergeants, Knights, and a few members of the Order itself.
Infantry, including spearmen, crossbowmen, skirmish archers, and axe throwers
More Sergeants and Knights.\
Some Medieval war engines for support and or Castle sieges!
Nice parade there, Peter! I have some of those Minifigs Teutonic Knights too, purchased around the same time, I would imagine. I vandalised the helmets about fifteen years ago and repurposed them as Scots knights in the War of Independence (Bannockburn etc) when my gaming buddy Julian and I were playing a few games in that era.
ReplyDeleteThey were state of the art when they came out! Repurposing is common in our hobby, especially for earlier eras (and when we were younger and had more time than money!)
DeleteMinifigs still do good service
ReplyDeleteIf I recall correctly, the Alexander Nevsky range was among the first of the "New" and larger minifigs. The clean sculpts still look very good today, I agree.
DeleteI can distinctly remember being in my local Minifgs shop just about when the Alexander Nevsky range came out - they were good sellers, and because they looked slightly fantastical a lot of them were bought by A/D&D players (including me!)...
DeleteWe also used a number of figures from the range (Teutonic side) as characters for our D&D games! In fact, I think that's how this collection started out, to represent the "Household" troops of each of the major player characters as they attained sufficient stature!
DeleteGreat looking and useful medieval force and lovely Teutons, good news that your going to expand to include French for the 100 years war, I've got a basic impetus 28mm French army, lots of French and English 25mm knights and boxes of Perry plastic figures for the period, I was going to base them for impetus but I think I'll do them for kings of war and still be able to use them for To the Strongest/hail Caesar as they're the games I'm most likely to play, the minifigs remind me of my teenage years looking at grainy black and white photos and dreaming!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Agincourt, Crecy, and Poitiers may be coming soon to a table near me!
DeleteAnother lovely parade Peter. Your Teutonic knights looks great, and I like the use of the red shields to break up the wall of white.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lawrence. I have a lot of affection for my small Teutonioc force!
DeleteThe mediaeval period does not 'grab' me as a wargaming era, but the armies always look wonderful, like yours in this post and the previous one!
ReplyDeleteRegards, James
I would agree with you, James. The HYW , Wars of the Roses, and the Hussite wars are more interesting. I could see doing Normans, Saxons, and Vikings some day perhaps. On the other hand, way back in college we had a great little mini-campaign where each player was a French noble vying for control of the Crown, a bit a la Kingmaker! If I we used Chainmail rules and armies based upon them... lots of alliances and broken promises, plus some marauding Vikings courtesy of Joe!
DeleteThat'd be great. I'd enjoy reading about it and viewing it vicariously for sure! :)
DeleteVery minimal outline (recollection is hazy after more than 45 years!):
DeleteAside from the Vikings, each player had one of the traditional regions of France; IIRC, I had the Dauphine, another player had Aquitaine, and so on. Most of the players were Seniors at UConn who would be graduating in a few months, while I was the youngest guy in the group as a Freshman. Each province had a certain number of troops, which varied by the population and importance of the province and its ruler. The make up of the forces varied somewhat by region as well. In other words the proportion of mounted Knights, Heavy foot, medium foot, crossbowmen, and archers was varied. Battles were fought with the Chainmail rules. Alliances (and double-crossing treachery) were both allowed and encouraged. IIRC, I formed an alliance with another powerful noble, but suffered a major double cross. The winner was to be crowned the next King of France.