The Barons War – Free book adventure

The idea to get a game going in the Barons War era was with a poor warband from Galloway with a mix of Douglas Ferguson livery. And a Northern England contingent to face them. Galloway was in many respects it’s own Kingdom separate from Scotland and as such a volatile region.

Apparently Galloway was very Irish Gael in this period, with links to Man and Dublin. Sources such as John of Furdun mention Alexander “raising an army of Scots, Gallowegians and knights from the borders.” Unfortunately that is as much detail a they mention.

But in actual fact… “Thankfully” that is as much detail as they mention, because this gives me license to game in the gaps. I can Have a small group of Galloglas for some flavour and some big axes. Some of my early (maybe part Flemish by some accounts) Douglas Scots ancestors as knights and a few sergeants with the Galloway lion shields. Some levy and archers to pad out the list. Joy. I think a plan is coming together.

I asked if this mini was in the right era for Barons War on their FB group page. I was reminded that the Perry twins sculpted the GW Bretonnians and they would typically leaned into the historical side of fantasy in their minis. Most people said he fits in fine, but perhaps the helm is a bit ahead of it’s time. I now wish I had more of them, but this was a one off find in a friend’s bits box. They were letting me forage through their bits box because they wanted to lend fresh parts from kits I have never had to feed my love of kitbashing. I think I still have Conquest Games plastic Medieval archer minis spare to flesh out my first lists and hopefully blend fine with this fine fellow.

Another bits box find. The body is from an unknown source. (Though had a suggestion that it might be a Bretonian peasant of some kind). It had several studs on the surcoat which seem to be more of a Hollywood convention rather than something historical. I clipped and trimmed off the studs. The arms connect at the elbow not the shoulder which is not typical amongst most of my collection of minis. The helmet is from an Oathmark Human sprue. With little chain mail on display I chose to paint his chest to look like a leather tabard, but the suggestion is that there’s mail beneath his puffed out clothes.

The de Percy family stood against King John after the Magna Carta was clearly not being upheld by the King. With my initial primary school level understanding it felt like the Magna Carta ended the war, but in actual fact it only really represented an armistice. The fact that promises had now been made and not upheld only seemed to add fuel to the fire. The conflict erupted again, now almost as a duty and a requirement to uphold the signed pledges made, rather than just disagreements and grumblings of discontented Barons.

The Scots under William fought on the side of John previous to the Barons’ War. Alexander II seemed to lean towards the side of John also. The lands of Galloway though technically still autonomous at the time generally followed the line of their larger neighbour. King John called upon the Lords of Galloway to fight against the Welsh in conflicts before the Barons’ War but I haven’t seen much about them fighting in the Baron’s War. The Lords of Galloway had interests in lands in Ireland, ruled over some of the isles between Scotland and Ireland and appeared to be admired militarily.
My excuse for pitching these nobles at each other is partly the later feud the Douglas’ and Percy’s had and partly the scale of the game. These are literally just 25 to 50 men against 25 to 50 men encounters and each unit is not trying to represent a regiment, just the 4 or 5 men in each unit. So can I game in the gaps of history and say that a rouge Galloway laird, The Douglas family not yet established as one of the powerhouse families of this era, chose to take a small retinue into de Percy lands to upset the apple cart and technically support King John as an old ally of theirs? I think so. And could de Percy, in open warfare with the King, strike out in a small way against his Gaelic / Scots allies so long as it didn’t incite a wider conflict in the North? I think so.

When I look to swell my ranks to a higher points game I think these archers will get a few more men, remain green, but Alwyn with the huge sword will be added to my foot sergeants with double handed swords instead. With more points to play with that unit can be pushed up to veteran perhaps so they pack more of a punch.

I had always heard about galloglas / galloglass warriors from Ireland and the fact that they fought in the same styles and with the same gear for centuries. The Dürer Galloglass sketch has been one of the few sketches taken / survived of this fearsome, much sought after mercenary warrior class but much later in the period. Thankfully nothing about their look stands out as late medieval so they will give my retinue the Galwegian Irish Scots flavour I was hoping for.

I asked the below on The Barons’ War FacePage.

“I don’t mind if things stray from the historically accurate. It’s a game. Acting out a skirmish that never happened this way with toy soldiers.

That said… We know perhaps what the Knights and Barons had shield designs and colours wise because of the snippets of heraldic history from the age… But would the retinue have the same shield design as their lord, or would there be a distinction. I know the colours on their tabards etc. would help link them to their lord, but what about shield design?”

The consensus was that the knights often kept their heraldry strictly to the head of the family / strictly to the person earning their knighthood, but occasionally sons of the Lord / Baron.

The heraldry conventions hadn’t been as formalised as it was later in the period and apparently uniform tabards that matched your Baron’s family colours etc. were also a way off being a convention of war.

The Douglas battle cry was “A Douglas, A Douglas!” which suggests to me that you had better shout who you are for fear of being stabbed by your own side. That the name carried an element of fear that would perhaps make a less determined combatant find someone else to fight or somewhere else to be.