2mm HYW English / Anglo-Breton Army c1350

A slight change of plan for the next couple of weeks, as I put the Lion Rampant / Ecorcheurs army to one side and paint up this lot. Here we have an early Hundred Years War or War of Breton Succession army, using the Antonine Miniatures Strength and Honour 2mm range. 

At the front there's a single unit of mounted men at arms, with two dismounted men at arms units to the immediate left. At the back left are two units of spearmen, Welsh or otherwise, while on the right are four units of longbowmen in wedge formation. 

I'd add another unit of dismounted men at arms but I've run out of the bits I need for that, with an order placed today for some additional pieces to use for the French - Breton side. I've already put together a base of mounted knights for them but need more pieces to do the crossbows, spearmen and so on.

The rules for this are a bit sketchy to say the least, but I'll start off with Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargames, albeit tweaked to add a bit more detail or even mashed together with his Ancient and Medieval rules? I might even write my own rules, who knows? The plan is to use my neglected collection of Hexon terrain as a quick fix, so that I can try out the rules for some solo wargaming as soon as possible.

Lion Rampant Longbows Blocking In

I've completed most of the blocking in on the Perry Miniatures longbowmen, with just the leather bits, arrow sheafs and longbows to do. They look a bit odd in terms of colours but this is the basecoat and will be followed by one or two lighter shades, using my very old but still serviceable Foundry triad pots. I'm hoping things will speed up a bit after the blocking in is completed, but I'm a very slow painter, especially in 28mm having not painted anything this big for years!

Parabellum Miniatures Trebuchet

This rather impressive 28mm 3D printed trebuchet arrived in the post today from Parabellum Miniatures, a company that I haven't ordered from before but will be doing so again, based on the quality of their models. I've dry fitted it together to show what it looks like in comparison with a Perry Miniatures figure, and I think it looks very good indeed. You can also assemble it as a launching model, with parts supplied in he kit for the sling and trough, but I'm going to build mine loaded and ready to go. The range also includes bombards and siege equipment, which allows you to assemble a full on siege line, if you wanted to have that as a theme for your scenarios. Excellent!

Mounted Longbowmen for Lion Rampant

I'm thinking about adding another unit to the plastic traffic jam of Lion Rampant figures that is currently sitting on my painting table. This would either be a second unit of twelve longbowmen or a unit of six mounted archers, rated as heavy cavalry in the rule book. I have a Perry Miniatures boxed set of mounted knights which includes two figures in gambeson per sprue, which will give me enough for a unit of six, especially if I use spare arms from the English and French infantry sets for added variety. I'll have a look at gluing something together at the weekend, while cracking on with painting the pedestrian equivalents.

One Hour Ancient and Medieval Skirmish Wargaming

I was having a chat about medieval wargaming projects at the club last night, primarily Lion Rampant and The Barons' War, when this set of simple, diceless skirmish rules popped up in the conversation. When I got back home for my curry and glass of plonk, I dug out my own copy and had another read through. As a fall back option for small skirmishes, patrols and raids in the Hundred Years War, or even in the Anglo Saxon era, these look really promising. I particularly like the diceless, card based activation and combat system, which is a bit different and offers a lot of player interaction. In the meantime, it's back to the work bench and on to the blocking in on the first unit of longbowmen!

Never Mind the Billhooks Delux

Fairly early on, when planning the medieval projects for this year, I dismissed Never Mind the Billhooks as being way too much work, requiring upwards of about 100 figures for each army. I was reading the rules for painting advice today and thought it might actually be a long term goal to assemble an English army for the Hundred Years War, after building a core from my Lion Rampant / Ecorcheurs! retinue. It's something to aspire to at least but I doubt I'll get there until much later in the process, if at all?! 

Longbowmen Blocking In

The English Retinue Assembled 

The longbowmen unit ready for blocking in

I'm kicking off the Lion Rampant retinue painting this week with a unit of twelve veteran longbowmen. The blocking in will start with the aketons, either using Foundry Moss or Foundry Cadaverous green, in two or possibly three stages. It's all a bit suck it and see but I'm going to aim for a consistent and fairly limited range of colours in the palette, together with some light ink washes to add some depth. 

Lion Rampant English Retinue Skirmisher Conversions

The attempt at some kit bashed bidets for the English Retinue worked out quite well this morning, using Perry Miniatures heads and bodies from the Agincourt English and French infantry sets, with arms from the War of the Roses infantry set. The long bows on the War of the Roses arms are shorter than the ones on the Agincourt figures, but that is actually a good thing, as they represent hunting bows rather than war bows, so perfectly useable for a self-contained skirmishing unit. I used the heads without helmets apart from the scale caps on a couple of the figures which I didn't use for the longbow archers. I also used some of the running bodies from the French infantry set to add a bit of dynamism to the poses, perfect for flighty skirmishers nipping out of the bushes for a pot shot at the enemy! 

English Retinue Skirmishers

                 

I have a two point shortfall in the line up for my Lion Rampant English Retinue, which I was going to fill up with some leadership bonus points, but I've been thinking of adding a two point unit instead. This will be either be a unit of six longbow armed bidets, using the Perry Miniatures plastic figures with bare or hooded heads and perhaps some arms from the War of the Roses infantry sprues, or possibly a unit of hand gunners. The metal hand gunner pack looks like a good option for this but I'm not sure if it's appropriate as a skirmishing unit, outside of siege warfare or garrison duties. I'll have a go at building some bidet archers as a proper skirmish unit today and see how I get on...

Skirmish Wargaming Scenarios

I've been going back to my skirmish wargaming roots lately and have been reading the classic Featherstone book on Skirmish Wargaming, with a focus on my medieval projects in 15mm and 28mm. There's a really good narrative scenario here, based on a sally by the English defenders of a besieged castle in 1429 during the Hundred Years War, the objective being to spike a French bombard in the siege lines. This would make a great scenario for Ecorcheurs! or even for Lion Rampant, giving me some ideas for my own games or even a linked campaign based on the background in the book. 

English Retinue Lion Rampant Extras

I've been busy with work the last few days so not much has moved on the work bench front, apart from a six point Lion Rampant units of six elite infantry Men at Arms, bringing the force up to a respectable twenty two points. I am still planning to add ten more longbowmen to round out the retinue but, in practical terms, it's more or less complete. I can also use these for Ecorcheurs! which is an added bonus. This weekend I'm hoping to get started on painting at least one unit...although it's going to be tricky to squeeze in some time due to family commitments.

Jumping the Gun

One of the Lion Rampant scenarios I've always wanted to play is 'Defending the Indefensible', which features an objective to be defended or attacked, depending on which side you are on. The suggestion in the rules is a siege weapon of some sort, so a trebuchet seemed like a very good idea, although a bombard might be more appropriate for the Hundred Years War. Any excuse to field an impressive bit of kit!

I did some burning about and found this 3D printed model of a trebuchet from Parabellum Miniatures, for a very reasonable price tag. I'm not a massive fan of 3D printed stuff but this looks really good, if it survives the UK postal system? The idea will be to model this on a base to act as both a scenic feature in the mini-campaign I'm planning to run, but also as an objective for the aforementioned scenario. 

It's a bit extravagant but why not?

Lion Rampant Heavy Infantry Spearmen

I've just finished assembly of the extra six figures required to field a full four point unit of heavy infantry spearmen for the English Retinue. These use the English archer bodies and heads with arms from the French infantry box set. I also included a leader figure which uses the opposite, armed with a sword and buckler and equipped with a mail coif, no doubt looted from the enemy. I just need to spray undercoat the extra figures before I crack on with the ten additional longbowmen, which I'm hoping to get sorted by the end of the week.

Lion Rampant English Retinue Expansion

You can never have enough longbows!

I've decided to double up and expand the Ecorcheurs! English Retinue to a full 24 point retinue for Lion Rampant, as it only requires an additional twelve to sixteen figures. The first thing to do is to add six additional heavy infantry spearmen, using longbowmen bodies and arms from the French infantry set, to create a twelve strong unit. After that, it's either six more elite infantry men at arms in full harness or ten more longbowmen, the latter to build a second six point unit of veteran archers. Either way I'll be two points short of the full two dozen but I'll make up the difference with a special leadership bonus of +2 points. All this will take longer to prepare and then paint but I'm not in a rush, so will be painting one unit at a time. It will be good to get back to some 28mm painting after years off doing other things!

Lion Rampant Second Edition Short Cuts

I've been reading through the Lion Rampant Second Edition rule book this morning, in order to plan my 15mm War of the Roses project, when I stumbled across the expanded section on reduced size warbands (p101/104). In the original rules there was a brief paragraph on using half sized, twelve point forces but the new version goes into a bit more detail, with three different approaches suggested. These include half sized units, the twelve point retinue angle and a new system using strength points. I realised that with two more 28mm men at arms, I could field four or five half sized units, giving me a decent sized retinue for the Hundred Years War, without the need to assemble and paint another sixteen plus figures. I'll have a think about this but it would be a good way to double up my forces for Lion Rampant and Ecorcheurs! in addition to the War of the Roses 15mm stuff?

Peter Pig War of the Roses Reinforcements

We've been away in Devon for a few days visiting things and catching up with the relatives, so nothing has been happening at the workbench. However, the reinforcement packs of figures for my 15mm War of the Roses Lion Rampant project have arrived in my absence. These are the 'new' additions to the existing range, designed to add some variety to the poses. I have to say that these are some of the best figures I've seen from Peter Pig, especially the character packs and the fighting infantry, which are brilliant. I can now move forward with this project as I have a good range of figures to choose from when assembling two retinues, avoiding duplication as much as possible. Brilliant!

Winter Terrain for Ecorcheurs!

One of the obstacles to any project is terrain, especially in 28mm skirmish where you need quite a lot, but I'm planning to re-use some existing winter terrain to keep this down to manageable proportions. I have a small collection of winter terrain from previous Bolt Action and What a Tanker! games that I can use for the Hundred Years War Ecorcheurs! project and can also add some more medieval stuff later on. This is what I originally planned to do for Lion Rampant in 28mm, with the War of the Roses, as winter terrain just looks right for the period. I think this will work well and avoids me having to start from scratch.

15mm War of the Roses with Midgard

The 15mm War of the Roses project slated for later this year is built around Lion Rampant, which is an obvious choice for a small battle, semi-skirmish theme, but I'm also thinking of doubling up using the Midgard rules from Reisswitz Press. I originally assumed these were early medieval, fantasy oriented rules but it was suggested that they would work well for the later medieval period by Dex McHenry, all round good bloke that he is.

I've looked into this further and he's got a very good point, especially as the author has already used the rules for exactly that, with sample army lists available to download for Mortimer's Cross. The advantage of Midgard is that it requires fewer figures than Lion Rampant, with two units of longbowmen in the latter being three units in the former, assuming eight figures per unit, although I could also just stick with the standard twelve figure units for visual effect.

https://mogsymakes.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/wars-of-the-roses-for-midgard-heroic-battles-force-13-14.pdf

This would allow me to build a couple of Lion Rampant retinues while, at the same time, building respectable armies for Midgard. I really need to take a closer look at the rules now, so will order a copy and start some number crunching. All I would need are some movement trays or sabot bases to be able to use the same figures for either set of rules, giving me the opportunity to scale up the 15mm games from semi-skirmishes to small battles.

Thanks Dex!

Lion Rampant 15mm Reinforcements

This has been a very slow burning project of mine, going way back to 2014 when I originally thought of doing it, but a recent birthday gift of a Peter Pig voucher is bringing it back to life. The original idea was set out here:

http://jimswargamesworkbench.blogspot.com/2014/09/lion-rampant-war-of-roses-retinues-in.html

...unfortunately scuppered when I realised there wasn't enough variety in the figure poses to make it look right. A while back, however, Peter Pig released a whole set of new packs to solve that problem, but I've been putting off getting some due to the cost factor.

With the impetus of a twenty five quid voucher this problem has now been solved. I've ordered some packs of levy, retainers and household men at arms plus Margaret of Anjou as a scenario objective (!) and Henry Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, as a retinue commander. 

This year is now definitely going to be focussed on the medieval period, so it's yet another string to my bow to have a 15mm Lion Rampant project waiting in the wings. I'm also thinking of a naval angle for this year, air warfare not being an option for obvious reasons, but more about that at a later date!

Ecorcheurs! English Retinue

In advance of my copy of Ecorcheurs! arriving from Northstar, hopefully at the weekend, I've started planning and assembling an early fifteenth century English Retinue, using the Perry Miniatures plastic box set. Judging from the example retinues on the Ecorcheurs! website, a typical retinue mainly consists of longbowmen with a handful of men at arms in harness, so that's what I've opted for, albeit for the latter period of the Hundred Years War. The retinue will consist of eighteen or so longbowmen and about three or four men at arms, with perhaps a few extras to make up the numbers for Lion Rampant units. I've already glued together about a third of the contingent and hope to get the remainder ready for painting over the half term break. It's been a refreshing break from tiddly planes or ships and I've enjoyed it immensely already!