Blood & Crowns: Crecy

My English force for Blood & Crowns continues. I’ve been building to 200 points, with an eye towards expansion to 300+ at some point.

Knight Banneret, with 4 Retinue Men at Arms

5x Men at Arms w/ Poleaxes

6x Archers w/ a Vintenar

6x Footmen

6x Footmen

This list has served me fine so far, with enough units to cover a wide area and better force combats on my terms.

I’ve finished 3 of the Men at Arms from the Poleaxe unit. The armor was done to look properly battle-worn, but not too shabby. These are nobility after all. The odd colored scabbard for their arming swords adds some needed color. The center member is wearing a tabard, with his personal heraldry. All the Men at Arms for the army come from Perry Miniatures plastic sets.

The Archers I posted previously were made up of the GW 4th ed Bretonnian bowmen, but these models are all from Medbury. The details are very nice, and they paint up well. The Vintenar stands in the center. The small base with the arrow bundles in the ground represent the ‘ammo’ counter for the unit for use in game.

Last up are the humble Footmen. I can field them in groups of 6 or as a solid 12-man unit. So far I’ve enjoyed the flexibility of the smaller units, but they do suffer when the fighting gets fierce. If I add a Veteran member to the unit at some point, the member with his sword held aloft will get promoted.

All but two models are Medbury, another nice group of sculpts. They show a variety of wealth, with some bearing a lord’s heraldry, while others carry simple target shields or bucklers.

More to come. An advantage to Blood & Crowns is the relatively small armies, so I should finish the rest of the army soon enough.

Blood & Crowns

So my painting desk has taken a bit of a digression… with the arrival of the Blood & Crowns rules, I’ve started on an English army for the Hundred Years War, circa 1346, the Battle of Crecy. This was early in the war, but the battle was the prototypical encounter seen again in Poitiers and Agincourt.

I’ve already done an army on this theme, a 15mm force for Field of Glory. I can fall back on my old research for this 28mm version.

These pics represent the start of the force. I’m building 200 points, but that’s just the beginning.

First are some of the infamous Archers. I’ll be collecting more miniatures, but for now the men of the unit are from GW’s 5th ed Bretonnians. They serve well, and mixed with other companies’ sculpts will look fine. I swapped one Archer’s head to add more variety, and gave him a proper sword.

The leader, a Vintenar, however, is a 3D print from ProxyWars Miniatures. I neede him to really be obvious on the table. I love his ‘V’ sign, a nice taunt to the Frenchies.

The second pic are some the stout Footmen, a unit of spears. The majority of the spearmen will be Medbury Miniatures, but I snuck in a Foot Sergeant from Fireforge (the footman with the blue striped shield).

Looking forward to the rest of the force. I’ve got some armored Men at Arms and more Footmen on the way.

Edit: Here’s a pic of my Archers during a recent game. The background is from a book of painted scenes, Jon Hodgson Backdrops. Check them out. The pic is a bit awkward, but with proper staging and lighting it will be great. This will be quite useful in the future for photographing my miniatures.