Looks like I'm going to need a bigger bag

I got the minis out of my cellar for Britcon, tomorrow, and it has dawned on me that I'm going to need a rather bigger bag than I'd planned! This will be a Hapsburg Burgundian army, built around a core of Liégeois militia that I've never used, and Burgundian pike, which I have. I had to use a few bits to proxy for pike and for German crossbowmen. Happily, it's a mostly plastic army, since I'm going to Nottingham by train!

Here are some previous closeups of the militia, who are very much the stars of the show. These are raw pikemen in TtS! parlance. Hell, they look good! The flags are for the different guilds and were very kindly made for me by Mats Elzinga.

Liegeois Civic Militia

 

As a by-product of my big Swiss project, I ended up with a lot of Perry plastic minis that didn't look quite right for the land of mountains and superior hard cheeses, either because they are wearing gambesons or carrying bucklers or in the wrong clothing colours. Some of these minis are superbly painted by the likes of David Imrie and Lionel Bechara. It occurred to me that I could conscript them into the Burgundian army as the numerous civic militias of the Low Countries cities, who wore uniforms and marched to war under the banners of their guilds. They served the Dukes of Burgundy (and later the Habsburgs) with considerable reluctance and inefficiency.

n.b. You can click on the images for a close-up.

Unfortunately, I didn't have the right flags. At this point Mats Elzinga very kindly stepped forward and volunteered to produce a set of flags for the guilds of the city of Liege. I have eight guilds represented here. They all wear red except for the Meuniers (appropriately, the Millers) who have a yellow and black clothing theme, based on their guild flag. A few guilds had blue themes, perhaps a future project.

I found his flags were so pretty that I needed to paint more units in order to be able to use them all, so Shaun McTague very kindly painted up another 40 or so minis, which I highlighted. My chum Ian Notter flocked them- a considerable undertaking as they are very densely based in blocks of 16 and it's very hard to get in amongst the feet. I added tufts and flowers.

And here they are, all together! There are 99 minis, in all. I'm not entirely sure what I'll use them for, yet- possibly to fight a projected French army, since I rather doubt that they fought the Swiss (at least under their guild flags). But I'm delighted to own them. There are at least three or four lists in the To the Strongest! Medieval Army List book that I could use them in. I have told Mats that if he produces more flags for other cities (Antwerp would be really nice) then I'll make up some more units.

A huge thank you to Mats and everyone else who helped. I gather Mats will be producing the flags commercially, at some stage, they are quite lovely and without them I wouldn't have persisted with the project.

Flagtastic

Mats Elzinga has very kindly made me up some beautiful Liégeois guild flags for my Low Countries Militia, who are clearly becoming more than a side-project. Above is the flag for the Meuniers (appropriately, the Millers) Guild- most of the minis are ex David Imrie.

Below the city flag with minis that are painted by me or Shaun McTague. Mats is going to do flags for the other guilds, too, so I will need to get a lot more minis painted! I don't mind this, though, as I have lots of spare plastic minis that suit this army rather better than they do Italian or Swiss hosts.

In other news, there's a palpable sense, here in the UK, that the tyranny of Covid is finally coming to an end. I'm busy dusting off half-finished projects from last year and planning events for Q3 that might, actually, happen! I am sifting through my lead-reserves and planning a real table-groaner.  :-)

Busman's Holiday

Whilst building the Swiss army I have picked up a lot of figures that are really well painted but which look slightly less Swiss, to me, than most. This can be because they have padded gambesons, which one doesn't see a lot (any?) Swiss in, or have shields. The front rankers above were superbly painted by David Imrie but fall into this category. I also have quite a few other minis painted by Shaun McTague that look rather northern European.

 

I have decided to use a lot of these minis in a different army. They will become Low Countries city militia, from Ghent or Antwerp or wherever. Apparently these militia came to the musters dressed in distinctive colours city or guild colours, such as red and yellow, which is very convenient as I have a fair few in those colours. I can give them guild flags, the one in the image which is from the Perry box art. These will become a block of 48 in 4 ranks.

I can then use them in various armies within the Medieval Army List book that will suit- notably the Low Countries list, Burgundian and the Hapsburg Burgundian lists, so they should see some action! I have lots of similar unpainted minis, too, so other formations can follow in due course. I'd like to be able to field the armies for Guinegate 1479.

In other news I came across some rather well-written TtS! medieval scenarios on another site- well worth a look!