Mercian Knights on the Conquest Trail

Well a week later than the Otters I have finished (apart from a bit of basing) The 1st milstone . The Red , Blue/White and Black Knights (the Boss) are now virtually complete.

Banners are made from my favourite source, the foil of wine bottles.

With the Boss, I wanted a much darker look to his armour , so did a dark steel base and then tried GW contrast Black Templar over the top

D…..Drr! (add sound effect from family fortunes)

looked to give metallic look but dried pretty mush standard black. Lived with it and virtually finished figure , then last night started on the Imperial officer , did same base colour on armour and then went for GW Basilcum Grey which is a very dark gray  but less pigmented, and got the effect I wanted, so there was a quick repaint of all the plate armoured bits on Horse and Knight and voila the contrast I wanted between his black livery and Armour.

Having done the 1st half of the Men at arms I then completed the Mercanary crossbowmen   using similar techniques to the Men at Arms.

well I have managed to paint my 1st two base units, not sure I’ll finish enough for 1st Milestone but its a start.

One of the things I have realised is to reduce the no of figures I do at a session from 6 to 4 , I like to finish a group of figures in a day, and 6 was turning it in to a bit of a chore. Plus I have decided to vary the no of men at arms for each Knight , the 3rd of the Household Knights is less wealthy with a smaller holding , so only has 4 men rather than 6  which means I can Increase the Noble Lords retinue to 8, allowing for a standard bearer.

I am also being more selective in the figure builds with the 3rd Knights retinue being less heavily armored , picking the Torso’s with leather and cloth armour.

This leaves the best Armour and the longer clothing for the noble lords retinue and Standard bearer.

The White Knight

Following the livery of the 1st group of men at arms.

I have completed the 1st 12 man Men at Arms unit  which shows that it is made of the Knights retinues.

I like many have been thinking about the background for my little band. I am continuing with the idea of it being in the Kingdom of Mercia, with Knightly retinues , but as I painted up the 1st few Mercinary  crossbowmen and looked at the boxes  of militia the style of their helmets and armour reminded me a lot of a certain aurthors book covers. so…….

King(nee patrician)dom of Mercia

Mercia is an unusual kingdom it that it does not have a current King and has not had one for a couple of hundred years. Their last king has developed  certain  historical notoriety for being beheaded by his own people for being a murderous prat….. Even more scandalously than that, it was at the hands of outraged nobles,  but was that man who removed him and the man holding the axe was a lowly member of the City Militia.

Since then it has been ruled by a Patrician who is in theory is voted into office  by the major noble families of the Kingdom , (on the understanding that on the whole they will retain a considerable amount of Autonomy in their own fiefdoms) and the City Guilds of the kingdoms main settlement. This is City Known thoughout the 100 Kingdom’sand beyond is the(in)famous center of  Mercian power, the twin named city of Cross Lesbeuf , as in Lesbeuf on the River Cross. This rapidly expanding city straddles both sides of the river and is becoming the center of trade and commerce for not not only the kingdom but of the whole province.

For 15 years the Patrician’s post has been held by Lord Doctorini, an amazingly long  period in the post  as most of his predecessors have suffered as series of unfortunate accidents within a few years of becoming Patrician. Doctorini’s has managed an amazing longevity in the post which can not be said for most of his rivals and critics  which it must be noted have suffered  a similar set of unfortunate accidents incidents which again it must be noted have trailed off over the last 5 years, It must also be noted though possibly  a coincidence  hat the City Assassins guild has had a noticeable drop in members.

The city is fairly cosmopolitan in makeup with small bands of most races and cultures can be found in its various enclaves all seem to get on fairly amicably with the Patrician Saviouz Faire approach to city life, though this is not without some disquiet from the more traditional ruling class, though they have politely not made much issue with it ever Since Lord Rancid’s unfortunate accident with a snake pit.

Over the period of the Patricians rule open conflict with its neighbours has been actively avoided , diplomacy, bribery , negotiation etc have been the main tools of state, based on the idea whatever is lost through above can be sto…negotiated back at a later date. The merchants guild  merely viewed the average attacking army  as potential customers rather than antagonists using the parlance

‘No visitor to Cross Lebuef should leave with more in their pockets than they entered.’

As such it armed force has been pretty much left up to the noble lords to organised, tending to be feudal in nature organised more for defence against Nord raiders than anything.

With the rising threat of the Spires and the Dweghorn the Patrician has  ‘asked’the various guild leaders to organise armed militias from within their guilds (most only too willing to avoid accidentally feeding the the cities snake population) Militia’s which can in emergencies  be added to the forces provided by the province’s Lords.

Trained by the small core of the  City watch and often used in civil emergencies they are noted for their enthusiasm if not  always their professionalism (particularly the butcher’s guild).

In addition the Patrician is not above hiring mercenary units though preferring to hire units that are home grown . These more often than not comprise of ex local lads  made good.

Lad’s who went off looking for adventure ,learning  a dishonest trade  civilising and bringing ‘peace’to savage people’s and helping to ‘redistribute’ the wealth of less developed lands .

The reader must not openly mention that said Mercanary bands seem to have left said lands noticibly leaner in population and in wealth , nor should it be mentioned that much of said re distribution of wealth goes in paying their expenses , not unless said  reader wants to have an unfortunate accident with a Axe or crossbow bolt.

Some may have noticed I have plagiarized from as certain authors novels which may become more apparent as the project develops

Oops!

In getting carried away with the Hobbying  , I forgot to mention my 1st Milestone target Force.

Basically its the 100 Kingdoms Force of the 2 player starter set.

Mounted Noble Lord (Sir Pentyn Degrasse)

3x Household Knights ( Sir Rupert DeBear ,Sir Titus Umbilicus , Sir Roger DeSheep)

24x Men at Arms (Commander Captain Slimes

(Ammended on playing with the Army builder to 12, as 24 would take me way over the 1stmilestone pts target coming to about 827)

12x Mercenary Crossbowmen.

(Commander Captain Parsnip)

He wasn’t going to start a new gaming project he said, He was avoiding Fantasy games He said!

Then He watched @warzans 100 Kingdoms video and that was it!

So my box of Goodies from OTT store turned up Wednesday having ordered Monday( pretty amazing given the big patch of wetstuff in the way).

So after a morning out Friday I started building figures. Not helped by  my amazing ability to build things back to front upside down etc, I built the 1st 6 men at arms . Now I can’t say I  was Initially overly impressed . 1stly when looking at the other In the 100 Kingdoms   they look a bit out of place  most of the other units have a Renaissance feel but these look at best middle Medieval  I know its fantasy but they looked out of place  I suppose you could argue they are provincial troops, using inherited old kit.

( Note having painted the 1st 6 I think its the Sheilds that make them look odd, they are very thick, which isn’t carried over to the Knights Sheilds)

Also a couple of other niggles  no sword scabbards, and some of the moulding was very 10 years ago. Strangely the Crossbowmen  and Knight in same box seem much better.

Having started with the men at arms, I carried on building, 6 mercenary crossbowmen, and one Knight.

Why only one Knight?

A glimmerings of a theme entered my head, rather than do all the men at arms as  a single sheild design and unit/theme, I would do them as little 6 man groups ,  a retinue of men at arms brought by each of the household Knight as part of the Levy raised by the Noble Lord. Each group  would have the livery of their parent Knight.

This would follow the historical model for Musters and a long time a go at a wargames club far far away,  it had also been the model our little group had developed a in  series of participation games.  Based on medieval skirmishs using a little set of rules called Retinue.

Over the years they grew from small skirmishs to castle seiges with hundreds of figures. Our little group gave ourselves the name ‘Knights Mercian’, which flowed over the years through numerous period genres (particularly Battletech).

The figures have long gone, but were a mixture of Citadel historical ( before GW completely switched to 40k and fantasy) and Essex minatures  ( do you remember these Gerry?)

Although there were sheild designs for the figures at the time, they were all hand painted. This Time all the knights will be based on 40k Imperial Knights as I have a fair few decals for those.

So I started on the 1st 6 Men at Arms, I had decided to do the 1st Knight as primarily White, so the odd bits of cloth on these figures were going to be white as well.

Anyway I started by initially putting texture on the bases, using GW texture paint   the particular colour didnt matter, as once it dried I was going to stick the figure on the base and blast it all with Corax White.

I then washed the figures in GW contrast Apothecary white, more to help pick out detail for block painting than anything.

Then it was a bit trial and error  with various contrasts used on the cloth bits, skeleton horde on the padded leather areas and Agaros Dunes on belts. Wychwood was used on gloves and boots. I then used a GW steel on armour, sheild edges excetera. It was a bit of a aluminium silver and left the armour looking a bit toy soldier armourish. So the whole figure got washed in the bad painters truly friend GW Agrax Earthshade, Army Painter Strong tone would work  but can be a bit patchy so add flow improver to stop this happening. I was going to avoid the white cloth areas but went sod it, their real soldiers not tarted lords so it would be bloody amazing if their white tabard would be even remotely white.

I must admit I thought they looked crap at this point, left them overnight  not quite sure how I was going to pull it back.

Anyway next day bright and early I started on the rescue, I dry brushed lightly the white clot area with Corax white contrast base, which took the worst of the stain off  but left it looking nicely stained  but not mud bath.

I then worked on faces and yes I put eyes on them, then picked out the odd bits of face showing behind helms with Army painter Claw 4x a pale cream which looks clsest to flesh ( well mine) of my paints.

This was the point they stopped looking yuk  as they seemed to gain life, then it was mostly tidying up and playing with various metal shade on armour.

I used GW Retributer armour  on buckle clasps , badges on armour and the sheild rivets to break up the armour, then used Contrast Gryph Charger Grey on base tops.

I found some appropriate House Hawksword decals left over from GW Imperial Knights and finished base surrounds in GW mechanus standard grey.

I intend to break up bases with various clumps and patches of static grass.