Alternative Bretonnians

[wolfie65Participant 1229xp 1]

Donning hard hat, shovel and pick axe to dig through my rather overstuffed storage room, I miraculously managed to unearth the 5th edition WHFB box containing my unpainted Medievals/Bretonnians – mostly Citadel and Grenadier – in an attempt to maybe, possibly prepare for the release of The Old World, supposedly scheduled for February.

No shortage of Knights of the Realm  and plastic Archers – when I ordered the set in ’97, the Mail Order Trolls screwed up and sent me 2 boxes instead of the one I paid for – at least 1 regiment of Men-at-Arms (from the Men of Averaign line by Black Tree Design), 2 if I ignore scale and include the 25 mm Grenadier D&D models hat look appropriately medieval.

1 6th edition box of 3 Pegasus Knights (plus 1 Hero on Pegasus, painted and ready to go)

1 extra Sorceress on Unicorn (plus 1 painted), 1 set of Betrand the Brigand (Black Tree Design), 3 or 4 Knights Errant, 6 complete Mounted Squires plus 2 who do not have horses, 1 foot Knight (Grail, by the looks of him), a few Grail Knights with horses and a Frog. I seem to recall he goes with the Sorceress, maybe she’s supposed to kiss him. Or maybe he’s a Lustrian spy.

Looks like I’m going to need some more Squires – at least 2 horses for the ones who don’t have any – more Knights Errant and perhaps another regiment of Men-at-Arms. I like my armies – even in fantasy games – to look ‘realistic’ in terms of composition, meaning no elite-only armies for me, not even in 5th edition, which HEAVILY favored the top down approach to army building.

My first go-to option would be Black Tree Design, their Men of Averaign are a very close match for Citadel figures, it takes an expert to tell the difference once they’re painted and on the table, and they’re metal, which greatly appeals to the Old School gamer in me, a better feel, no need to spend hours assembling each figure from 15 different fiddly little plastic parts off a sprue -most of which goes to waste in a landfill or clogs up storage space waiting for some obscure hobby use like decorating  building.

Warlord don’t have anything Medieval, any other suggestions ?

 

[somegeezer 18346xp 0]

The Perrys’ medieval offerings are lovely but perhaps a bit small stood alongside their GW brethren.

If you want chunky to go with your Citadel collection, a look at Fireforge might be worthwhile.

[bloodmoonorcParticipant 1762xp 0]

Claymore Castings, Wargames Foundry, Antediluvian Miniatures. I’m thinking Claymore and I have a bunch of Foundry. The Perry figures are more svelte than the GW figures.

[onlyonepinman 18056xp 0]

Fireforge.  You can either buy from their historical ranges (Western Armies and Crusaders) or you can go for their fantasy range and buy Albion which has a range of Bretonnian style Knights and Pegasus Knights.  The scale is slightly smaller than 6th ed Bretonians, probably closer to the 4th/5th edition models.  But will probably work with any historical miniatures you might already have in your collection.  There isn’t really any need to go anywhere else (including GW) to get mist of your Bretonnian army.  Just buy everything from FireForge.  In fact, in the Saga Age of Magic, there is a human army shown as an example warband which looks exactly like a Bretonnian army, only it is completely made up of Fireforge models.  To the untrained eye, you would think it was a legit Bretonnian army

[torros 23802xp 0]

Also maybe Front Rank now via Gripping Beast

[wolfie65Participant 1229xp 0]

Those are all very nice, thanks !

I’m not really worried about scale or…girth….after all, real people aren’t all the same size, some are almost 7′ while others barely clear 4′. Looking through more less organized boxes, I found a few recasts from  Ral Partha’s King Arthur range – as far as I’m concerned, Ral Partha made some of the most beautiful and iconic fantasy figures ever – they are rather small and slim next to the large, chunky Citadel or Black Tree Design ones, but that’s ok. Who says the King has to be the hugest guy around, Bretonnians aren’t Orks…….

I think the 2 Squires missing horses may get some from Warlord Games, they have a Pike & Shotte horse sprue that looks pretty good, I also have a partial sprue of Warlord ECW cavalry I dug out of a now defunct local games store’s bits box with 2 equally horseless guys on it (who might join my Empire outriders), so that would work out very nicely for both of them.

[amachan 25655xp 0]

I used Fireforge Games together with Bad Squiddo Games and some other miniatures here and there for either conversions and such for my Scandinavian Bretonnia-like fantasy army the Order of Heimdallr. I can highly recommend them especially for the rank and file troops.

You can have a look at my project and my army here: https://www.beastsofwar.com/project/1401206/?order=asc

I should really make a more up-to-date army picture of them…

[wolfie65Participant 1229xp 1]

That is a fantastic project ! I love how in-depth you went with your research. I’m doing something similar with my expanding Empire army, more or less based on my memories and experiences growing up. I’ve designed a city, too, but haven’t the room to put it anywhere.

If you go to Scandinavia, make sure to bring PLENTY of money. If memory serves, 1 loaf of basic sliced supermarket bread cost the equivalent of US$ 5 in the mid-80s and I’m pretty sure that hasn’t gotten any better…..

You may like VargVikernesReuploads on Odysee and Carolyn Emrick on archive.org

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