Mercian Knights on the Conquest Trail

Sir Pentyn Rose unsteadily to his feet, holding on desperately to the arms of Sir Geros and one of his Household Guard. Unaware he was the current center of attention of two  slightly amused pairs of  eyes.

‘ He did that to you’

,’Yup …..but I (emphasis here) didn’t fall of my Horse!’ Was the slightly agrieved reply.

‘Made you walk very stiffly for a week though! And your sheild was completely buggered  cost you a fortune for a replacement,  after you spent the following week trying to hammer the dent out.

There was an even more agreived reply as the voices owner like his friend only really liked spending his money on beer( wine if not avail) women and song and tended to waste the rest).

‘Was a good sheild that , had a few more battles in it! Only good for frying eggs on now…and and the bruised ribs hurt  even going for a shit was painful. How come you didn’t cop for a Sir Geros tumble?’

‘Oh!!!!!! Just Jammy I suppose , I should have come a cropper like you, but I bloody sneezed as we closed, got a Helmet full of snot, flinched, raised my sheild by accident and his Lance went under my arm and missed completely. ‘

‘One in a million really,’

‘Yeah and you never told him that though did you  he still thinks it was your Knitly skills (the voices owner never called themselves Knights but preferred..)’

‘Wasn’t going to let a pat on the back from Sir Gero’s  go spare was I, a bit of praise from him on the manly art of jousting goes along way with the ladies, got a discount all week at Madam Maples.’

Now the two voices belonged to mercenary Knights (very Liberal description) who had just returned from a long and very boring patrol of the area.  Neither had anytime in camp on their arrival having been sent to scout as the company had arrived. Both now were sitting slumped on their equally slumped looking horses (as much as a fully armoured Knight and charger could look slumped). It was not like they hadn’t seen it all many times before.

The 1st of the Voices belonged to Sir Bert Hinstock, Bob to his mates, a mercenary Knight of the famed ‘Fox’s Lancers.’

The 2nd was Sir Nivek Hallbroom, Kevin to his friends,  his formal name reversed at the insistence of his sister who thought it sounded more noble…..Bob didn’t have a sister! Also a member of the Lancers.

The Company had arrived that morning, Sir Gero’s being attached to them by Sir Pentyn to learn the latest techniques for the use of cavalry from their esteemed commander Captain Jaime Fox, and his equally famous partner , the famed Black Widow Natalie Kerenskish one of the few women to gain Knightly status.

The company originating from somewhere outside the 100 Kingdoms, they didn’t reveal their origins and most of their employers had learned not to ask, appeared some 15 years before. Neither of our two ‘heroes ‘ had been with them at the start , both hailed from Cros Lebeuf ( hail it was a bloody storm they both would relate) and had been recruited on the basis of their steady service with other military units. The Lancers preferred steady as opposed to heroic or showy , preferring men who didn’t constantly want to charge of and gain glory but knew how to take orders. The Lancers were not fancy or spectacular as were some of the steel legion, but were steady dependable troops.

Both were  Knights in name only, ‘Sir’ status was a tradition in Cros Lebeuf for all armoured cavalry, to set them apart from lighter cavalry. Their helms were less gaudy without the spectacular plumes favoured by the nobility. They were also unusual in the side weapons they carried   Kevin had a customised curved light sword made of quality layered steel, made by a Dweghorn Smith,  that he called ‘Katy Ana’s for some reason. Bob had a Halberd head on a cut down axe handle, This was a weapon that had saved his life, when he had been dismounted in battle and surrounded by Spires Drones, he had used it to some effect to hold them off long enough to be rescued. As such it had pride of place on a strap hanging on his back.

As was his want Kevin had read all the rules on chivalry and had convinced Bob to try them out, when they officially got their ‘Sir’ status.

It had lasted a week….to the comment from Sir Bob ‘Sod this have you seen what the nobles get up to…let’s go down the pub’  and life had returned to normal.

if anything could be said to be spectacular about either men, it was an amazing ability ‘to be somewhere else when everything is happening ‘.

This is not to say they are cowards or activily try to avoid combat , in fact they have been involved in some fierce fights but always they are on the periphery of the main action, or on detachment etc  a couple of times being the only survivors of their unit purely by the fact they weren’t there. This skill hadn’t escaped the notice of their Commander  who generally assigned them to scout areas where he didn’t want to find the opposition, or to provide a guard for vital supply runs.

‘Well that was exciting ‘ commented Kevin who could only derive so much enjoyment out of watching one of the nobility get nobbled

‘More than I can say for our little detour, thank whatever this weeks diety is ? (they didn’t do religion) Bob laconically replied.

Blowed if I know, scenery was nice,bit greener than we are used to. Wonder if we should make up our own Gods?  Answered Kevin.

‘Topic of conversation for the bar  l, Stu has been here all morning so he’s bound to have one set up….Err wasn’t a religion set up by a bloke in a bar for a bet?

Asked Bob.

Rudy Hubbies or something he was   ‘ The all seeing Rudyard of the Methodists sect  their great Messiah! Was the reply.

‘Thought so, let’s get to those barrels of Dragons breath Stu traded with that Dweghorn merchant’. Said Bob has he stirred his horse forward, his thoughts turning to the taste of the heady brew.

As you may have guessed I have added two more Household Knights to my army as part of Milestone 4. Did a bit of customising in that I used some of the spare helms from the Household Guard/Guild Legion box set, and added a cut down spare halbard to one. I got 3 more Knights that were freebies on last months Minature Wargaming and will probably do the same with them.

This milestone should be a quick finish, as having added above and adding two stands of Men arms , all I will need is a Mage and a 2nd unit of Crossbowmen.