English Mounted Archers (I)

The battle of Bauge was primarily fought on the English side by the mounted men at arms, led by Thomas duke of Clarence and other knights. The chroniclers tell that the earl of Salisbury followed Clarence with a contingent of archers, possibly comprising of the rest of the English army, or just an element of it given the apparent haste with which Clarence had set off to engage the Franco-Scots.

Salisbury’s archers appeared to have arrived at Vieil Bauge on the aftermath of the fighting and death of Clarence. They did engage with the enemy who held the field on the 22nd March. Instead they returned the following day and were able to retrieve the bodies of slain noblemen, including Clarence whose remains were eventually to be interned in Canterbury Cathedral and to bury other dead. They then retreated towards Normandy via Le Mans, evading the pursuing Scots.

For the game I’m adding the opportunity for Salisbury’s archers to arrive and fight – something which may just tip the balance? Their arrival will be decided on a randomised basis.

So I need to make some mounted English archers – who’ll then shoot and fight on foot. I’m using the new Perry Agincourt Mounted Knights box again. There are 2 bodies (separate legs and torsos) on each sprue with men wearing padded gambeson and arm options for bows, swords, covered bows, arrow sacks etc. I’ve created some variations by using heads, arms and cut-down torsos from the Perry Agincourt English archers and French foots sprues, also the (smaller) arrow bags and a pair of arms from the WotR Light Cavalry box too. I plan to add a few ‘period correct’ arrow bags from the new box to the saddles, when they’re all painted.

Again painting approach for men and their mounts will need to be speedy…


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English Knights for Bauge 1421

The English knights for Bauge are completed – sorry that I didn’t have an opportunity to create a posting about my work in progress with these – the Salute deadline is looming closer (…worryingly).

These are all Perry plastics from the recent Agincourt Mounted Knights box. I’ve based them on 50x100mm bases, which matches the frontage of the rest of my HYW collection. I’ve really cheated a little by basing them with a 50mm frontage but placing only 3 models on each (an idea from Lewis, who I occasionally game with). They are relatively speedy paints, so the final detail/highlight that I’d usually apply is missing from both horses and riders.  Washes on the base colours and a single highlight in most cases - but they’ll look OK in the cavernous semi-gloom of Salute.

Most figure builds are out-the-box, although with the mounts I’ve removed some tack (the straps across the rump and some studs, as I get fed up with painting these en masse). As per previous post, I’ve fiddled with some chamfrons and the peytral (removing some orbs and painting them as leather, rather than steel).

There will be 3 units of English men at arms for the game; each denoted by a leader and their displayed coat of arms – duke of Clarence, Lord Roos and the earl of Huntington (flags by GMB). The rest of the bases I want to be ‘agnostic’ so that they can also be used as French in future games (such as Patay).

I’ve done a couple of caparisoned horses. It seems that caparison were probably not commonly worn by the early 15^th century apart from tournaments, although contemporary illustrations do show them, however this is possibly an artistic device to denote kings and leaders through the display of their heraldic arms? So Lord Roos sits on a Fireforge plastic horse (with Perry head) and Clarence on a Steel Fist Miniatures – both requiring some surgery to cut away the insides of the riders’ legs and the addition of saddles with modelling putty, to make a good fit.

I’m indebted to Matt Williamson of Le Hotel de Herce for his knowledge and insights on the mediaeval and modern battlefield site and information on English knights at the battle. Consequently I’ve adjusted the table layout slightly to reflect the most likely terrain for the battle (more on that anon).

Now on to creating English mounted archers…quickly!