Mercian Knights on the Conquest Trail

Well in no time at all I finished Milestone 4 and pushed forward onto 5 . 12 more crossbowmen done and and the Mage

Firstly here are the Crossbowmen, done a bit darker than the 1st unit, mainly as I put a Angrax Earshshade over the top which I don’t think I did with the 1st unit.

Now the Mage

Having Recovered (somewhat) The battered Sir Pentyn, took his leave of the practice field and having removed his battered armour and changed into what he called his  uncombat fatigues (most called it court finery but having spent most of his life weaving through the art of court diplomacy and etiquette , he thought his name was more fitting). He walked from his tent( Tent he thought when he 1st saw it, it was more like a cloth palace, festooned with furs, drapes tapestries and benches , it was more comfortable than his room back on the estate, no wonder his dad liked roughing it, he had wanted a simpler tent but Sir Gero’s had insisted he used it for propriety, Mentally he had nicknamed it Versaille, though he could never think why!) to the battered gate house that was all that was left of the walls of this abandoned settlement they were using for the meet. Been abandoned a few years since the New Spire had appeared just across the border, , no one that had lived here felt comfortable with Gerry being so close and all had packed their bags and left. They were using the tower as a field headquarters  ( he felt silly using his tent) and the Mage had acquired the room at the top for what she called ‘experiments’. They had added a wooden watch post to the stone work, and a very nervous looking sentry stood perched on the top , with one eye one the surrounding area and  one to the one corner of the watchtower floor over the room where the Mage was working.

As he approached the old stairway to the upper level, he spotted Sir Otello his fathers old drill instructor, and currently the drill instructor for the whole muster. His dark balding head still showed no indication of ageing since his fathers day, It was rumoured his family still had the lost secret of long life believed to have been the norm in the Old Dominion.

‘You coming to see Lady Pamella as well Oty?’

‘Yes my lord’ he replied, ‘I want to ask her about the cats that keep appearing and disappearing all over the place, ‘

he paused and  smiled   ‘Though its keeping the Guards on their toes,  the bloody things keep appearing in the most unfortunate places and there have been a few ‘ accidents in the latrines’ shall we say…,’

‘Ah!!!!!’ Sir Pentyn grimaced the mental picture appearing unwarrented in his head

‘She’s err experimenting again with a new spell again I take it’ he added.

‘Yes Sir , I’m all for a bit of magical help but would rather it wasn’t helping the enemy’.

Sir Pentyn nodded and both ascended the stairs of the old gatehouse up to the battlements and door to the small room which currenty had an odd shade of purple to the stonework, passing an embarressed and worried guard with sparkily armour.

‘Seems some of the magic is overflowing doesnt it’ he remarked to the guard carefully not mentioning the fact that he now had cat ears and long whiskers.

He reached the door and politely knocked on the door, the , the state of the guard being particularly on his mind. The door creaked open in a manner very familiar to those who like old horror Movies. The Opening revealed a scene to  which the term Sit Pentyn thought may have been the origin of the word Catastrophe,  as everywhere you looked in the room their were cats, cats of all colours , none of them being colours he would normally think of as cat colours,  red , green, purple, silver , blue , and various combinations of these colours   perhaps the most alarming part of it was the cat in the middle of the Room ( he assumed it was a cat, the helmet had Ear bulges) that was Green and  Black , had a helmet with a Golden visor and the no 117 on his chest, even more alarming was the fact it was 8ft tall and was having to stoop because of the ceiling. To make matters worse the door he now realised had been opened by what he now realised was another cat, which was standing on its hind legs , had a neat black hair cut and appeared to be wearing a Blue shirt with a strange spear head shaped gold emblem on it.

Before he could even make his brain utter a startled cry on the the scene unfolding before his eyes a femine voice from somewhere in the room ( it was only later he realised the room was eerily quite  without any what he would call catty sounds , or more importantly that particular smell)

Oh! Bugger……..Gazuntite!

At which point all the cats in the room vanished except the one holding the door  who merely raised one eyebrow and muttered ‘Illogical!’. Leaving only the aforementioned cat  and the graceful female shape that was his mage  The Lady Pamella’.

‘Oh don’t mind him thats my Familiaw in his new fowm , Mw Sock!, despite his new size and stwange clothing he is still basically a cat’

In addition I have added a Noble Lord, The Drill Instructor and a Mage if you hadn’t guessed.

All done with GW contrast, apart from the Metallics and the detail on faces and other Fleshy parts.

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.

Well earlier than expected I have completed this Milestone.

Firstly I finished my unit of Miltia with polearms. Nothing spectacular here  as with the bowmen pretty much followed John’s painting guides, with only a final waterd down coat of Agrax Eartshade  and a bit of detail on faces ,though with these GW Gulliman Flesh Contrast did most of work.

Sort of in between above to stop the monotony I worked on the Household Guard. Did a little bit of customising here with the addition of a sheild from one of the spares from the Knights kits

Below is the attached pdf of my revised list

All there was , was pain, it was the alpha and the omega, but as all it knew was pain that was a concept it had yet to realise. It seemed it only knew pain, no memory  (again an unknown concept) of anything but pain or any future but pain existed. But as an eternity seemed to pass he ( somewhere that concept occurred to him , another concept,  he was a he as odd fragments of a reality seemed to return to him) where all through pain was still the center of his being, odd bits of other sensations began to enter his reality.  He seemed to be curled around the pain , his body, another new concept now to have other less painful aches around this pain. Light , yes that bright thing that flooded into his pain, seemed to be moving, as the sky ( new concepts all the time now) came into view. 

He felt hands on his body ( whoa how many concepts where there) as it was rolled over on to his back and a very concerned looking helmeted head appeared in his vision)

An even more concerned voice  ( the new concepts were at least now providing something other than pain) asked,

‘Sire are you alright? You let your guard down and I nearly skewered you with my Lance…………..You armour seems to have taken most of it but you did have a nasty fall from your horse,  I’m terribly sorry if I have hurt you but you must brace your sheild in a way that it deflects rather than it absorbs the blow of your opponent’s blow or this will happen everytime’

Thats all very well he thought, but can somebody or something get rid of the mind numbing pain in his stomach (most of his reality had come back to Sir Pentyn with an equal mind numbing crash with the same sort of force that he later realised was the point of a couched lance colliding with his stupidly unprotected armoured stomach) and the aches from all 4 of his limbs as he forced himself to sit up. He was kow able to semi focus on other things than his pain as he became aware of his surroundings,  things such as the practice field, his horse standing to one side with what looked like an embarrassed look on its face. A gaggle of men standing around him in various levels of armour including the heavily and very shiney armoured form of his friend and mentor Sir Gero’s Lupodoplolus.

Sir Gero’s Lupodoplolus known as the bannerman by all in Mercia was perhaps this realities truly brave men…..as in not that he was fearless, there more than enough of those idiots,  and he would like to fear less,  as in most things gave him the willies,  that he was able to function amazingly well because of his fears was the truly btave thing.  He had never meant to be a knight and warrior,  never wanted to be one or even cosidered it possible. He had been one of Sir Pentyns Grandfathers Stewards,  a servant who had expected his only future was to at some point raise to the rank of Butler, if fate hadn’t taken a hand.

Being a servant for the Degrasse family wasn’t an onerous position,  although they maybe on the whole military klutz’s they were canny businessmen and landholders,  particularly when it came to their workforce,  they never gave the impression that they they were better than their servants and hands and were generally found to be mucking in just about every job that needed to be done except polishing ( they never could really get the hang of that and is why they actually hires servants as in , ‘lets get in the professional’s’ polishers had a high standing in the DeGrasse houusehold), it wasthe fact that old Sir Mowin , reckoned they were only Lords because somewhere back in the past, one of his ancestors was a bigger murdering theiveing bastard than all the rest.

It was a fact that the only reason Sir Gero’s family was not only stiil alive and working for the family was Sif Mowin’s altruism.  He had spared all their lives when he had overun the baggage train of one of the varous skirmishs the Hundred Kingdoms had with the Southern Cities, stopping his men from slaughtering the various servants in the train , capturing them instead. Considered worthless and not worth ransoming they were only to happy to accept a postion with the old knight when the war ended.

Sir Geros had grown up as a boy on the  De Grasse estate, knowing he would enter service, and that is how it had stood till fate interceded.

Now is you ask Sir Geros about his many brave deeds , he will argue he is not brave but in his own word s ‘ Just a Jammy Git’. If one looks at the facts this isn’t entirely untrue.

He 1st appeared to be anything but a Servant on a wet misserable night some 15 years before, a 25 year old Sir Geros had been about to retire from his daily duties when the house was alarmed by the news of an approaching Nord Raiding party approaching the manor. Only a small number of Men at arms wsre available to defend the house as most had gone to the local muster called for an earlier raid and hadn’t returned.

When the Sgt at Arms asked for one of the household staff to ride off to fetch help as he couldn’t afford to lose one of the few able soldiers, he had found himself ‘volunteering’ as he was the only one with any ability in horse riding. So he was hoisted on an old Carthorse, decked in some ill fitting bits of armour and given the Sgts Sword ( Its still the one hanging from Sir Gero’ s belt).

Off he went with his still rudementary riding skills and a vague idea of where the mustered troops were to get help. He was only a couple of miles away when ahead on the road he spotted a band of nords , he turned to head back to find another band behind him, so almost in a blind panic, he spured his horse forward, took up what he thought was a martial pose and charged forward, closing his eyes as he came into contact. Blindly swinging his sword to thumps , clangs and the odd scream ( one of them he believes was his) his horse seemed to shudder, hit a couple of things and then pick up speed again. Opening his eyes he saw a a clear road and heard the whistle of arrows going past his head, not daring to look back he decided to put as much distance as he could from the Nords. By luck rather than good judgment he blundered into the camp and haltingly as his mouth wasn’t working to well raised the alarm. So the Manor was saved, the Nords routed , and in the aftermath a patrol had found the scene of Sir Gero’s skirmish,  to find 5 dead Nords, two crushed by a horse and 3 with various vicious sword wounds. So Sir Gero’s legend was born, it grew in the telling, but it wax sufficient for Sir Mowin to raise Geros from steward to Man at Arms.

Sir Geros trained hard as he didnt think his good fortune would last and became both a good horseman and an able soldier, and as before,  this is how it would have remained if his continuing luck hadnt put him in the wrong place at the right time. For in many of the early battles of his life he somehow found himself holding the bannor, when the bannorman had fallen and all around was chaos. Eventually Sir Pentyns father Sir Walter, had knighted him when after a rather costly engagement with the Spires had found Sir Geros again rallying the survivors of the charge, around his banner  to the comment ‘ Blimey Gero’s you have the banner again, you seem to like it so much I better you make you my Bannerman’.  It hadnt gone unnoticed by Sir Walter that the now Sir Geros was surrounded by fallen Spire drones. That was some 9 years before and Sir Geros is still Bannerman with all his limbs intact, an incredibly long period for a Bannerman in the DeGrasse service.

As is my want thst is my rather lengthy onto to my 1st figure for milestone 3    a mounted Standard bearer ,  I,’d like to say Sir Geros was my idea, but his history was Borrowed from the Horseclans set of Novels by Robert Adams.

As I decided he was a Knight with out retinue, I didnt give him a cloak, but as an ex servant he would be sticler for polished armour so brightened his up with GW Necro compound.

I also did the final 4 Men at Arms  although not in Milestone 3 force wanted to get them out of the way and have at least one half of the armies in the starter set done.

So here is my finished home made banner

The design is based on the old Knights Mercian banner design that we used to use for our old medieval participation games, here modified with the livery of the 3 main Knights.

1. Well its done, a week post the OTT lads but I started later so I let myself  off.

1x  Imperial Commander as below  done

4 x Men at Arms as below done

12 x Steel legion Done

Now these got done two diferent ways, the 1st batch of 6 were base coated in GW contrast corax white as the base but the 2nd batch I went for GW Leadbelter as the base as having watched Justins update on the weekender it looked easier and it was,  so ‘When Justins right he’s right’ held sway here.

I may have mentioned my little (hah) sojourn into the World of conquest started with the 2 player starter set ( yes I have done some Spires but that will be another project). The bulk of the figures for the 100 Kingdoms are the men at arms, this set I believe before the use of standards so the extra sprue with replacement arms for Standard and Leader were not part of set. From my previous entries you can see I have only 4 figures left , but I held off as wanted to do  command group . I had already cut out the standard from the foil off a wine bottle (please note I had to work hard drinking various wines to find just the right bit of foil!).

So how to mount it( que @warzan inuendo) Now I could have used the Gerry method of searching through various boxes for the collections of spears I have acquired over the years  but am not as organised as Gerry (plus one house move since) so have only a vague idea of which they are in and an even vaguer idea of where the box is, so the project was put on hold till I found time to look for them.

This was till.last night when whilst checking another wine bottle for suitable foil I had a bright idea! ( stop screaming everyone)

I remembered that the militia figures had the options for either pole arm or bows, I have built one unit of boes and one polearm from the wave one box so had 3 sprues of spare pole arms. There for I removed one from the sprue snipping it of at the wrist smoothing of the polearm to make it a simple spear. I then cut of the sword hand from one of the men at arms arms!

It was then a simple matter to stick the new hand and pole to arm. The now removed sword was then carved to remove the hand leaving the hilt, and one side of the sword flattened out to make a sheived sword.

Allowing a couple of hours for the new hand to bond to the arm  I then made the cross piece for the standard  this was the nobbly bit of the bottom of one spare polearm stuck on the end of another bottom half of a pole arm.

The rest of the conversion was simple , for the command figures I did away with the bulky sheilds and used two spare Knight Shields and two spare helms to finish off a fairly simple conversion . (I know have plans for the spare sheilds from the militia.

‘Sinistre Dexter, Sinistre Dexter’ , echoed through the Spartan office that had been his home for the past year , the noise accompanied the thump of boots on the cobbles of the parade square , sometimes almost in time to the gravely voice shouting the time.

Jahnus Waynicus  Imperial Tribune , Commander of tbe Burnt Buzzard Legions, Marshal of River Wolf……… (3 hours of honours later) and thoroughly good egg, stared out of the window at the motley group of militia being drilled outside . It was a scene he mused that he had seen before hundreds of times in hundreds of wor.. stop it …..he was reliving his strange dreams of funny hats , seven shooting gon’s , useless marines , and for some reason the word  ‘get of your milk and drink your horse stuck in his mind! 

Damn it he thought,he should be dreaming of Winning wars, of burning maidens, screaming villages , killing babies and saving evil men, or some variant of that, he was never good at the details. As long as it involved heroic charges , lots of dashing sword play and gratuitous violence   with  of course some heroic posing  for the ladies.

His musing was rudely broken by the sound reminiscent of a battering ram crashing through a gate, but he knew it was the sound of Centurion Cratered, knocking on his door, he quickly drew him self together and stood all of his 6ft height (with 4″  platforms in bis armored boots).

‘Enter’ he squeaked, the sound coming out like chicken having is neck wrung.

He checked himself, drew deep breath and said ‘ Come……In Pigrim’ ,  this time in a deep drawl , an accent he had perfected it sounded manly even  if it completely confused the nobility of the provinces,  they never could place where it came from.  Which they wouldn’t as it was a product of his strange dreams ( a flash of a foul black liquid called coffin , a plate of strange yellow seeds in a pan his mind and a place called Tex’s Ass became images in his mind)

A Huge walking chest of steel entered the room and he stared up at the helmeted head that only showed the eyes of the Centurion.  He hoped it was the Centurion,  it was his armour at least, he’d never seen any of the faces of the Cohort of Steel Legion that had been assigned to him as escort.

Hunking warriors of Steel, Legionaries of Legend, the smallest nicknamed ‘Tich’ was 6ft 4″” , Cratered was at least 6’6″ , and he was not the tallest. A man who loved to tell him on the march to Crosse Lebeauf how ,

‘They were only small men, now if you want to see big lads you ought to see those Nord’s , now they were big  lad’s and then theres their giants’, He only stopped  him  going to greater detail by  giving the centurion a sideways withering stare.

From somewhere in the armour a gruff voice shouted ( a voice that immediately made you want to stand to attention)

‘Lads are all ready for the march , and Captain Forgeinson, is waiting outside Sir’

‘Lads’ Waynicus mused thinking of the walking steel walls in his command,   he suddenly had a malicious thought that inside all that armour was a little ‘man’who looked like Captain Parsnips batman Nobby Nobbs*

*( No attempt a rename here,  every armed force in the world has a Nobby Nobbs, its a universal constant, all talk with husky  sandpaper of  a voice  , all  an  accent from the Eastend of somewhere,  a vaguely human form, and even on worlds without a tobacco derivative, seemed to have a something smouldering perched on one ear . No matter the reality all have  a name in their respective language  that equates to Nobby Nobbs)

who worked the armour with a set of fiendish strings and levers.

‘Send him in’ he carefully said ( his real squeaky voice was always  trying to sneak out) and steeled himself for the vision that would enter,

Captain Forgeinson was impressive, not by any measure was he a normal member of the watch. As tall as Cratered in his stocking feet, built like  ( Cratered’s words )’ a shit brickhouse’, and the face of the Kings of Legend ( the ones not mad, deranged ,homicidal murderers,  or pedophiles) a Killer of monsters etc. He had muscles in places he didn’t even  have places.

‘AH Captain are your men ready for the march to the De Grasse county’

Having heard them in the parade ground ‘march’ was perhaps stretching it a bit.

‘And how are you after your accident yesterday? You seem all healed up’

How the man was standing up amazed him, one of his idiot militia bowmen had managed to hit him with an arrow during target practice, and  he was standing behind them! (pity would have been a good shot if aimed) Hit him in the stomach, the man should be dead never mind standing, but he merely pulled out the arrow and got the blacksmith to quarterise it, never made a squeak at either like the mythical Golem , plus he could have sworn he heard a clang when it hit and he man wasn’t even wearing his armour! Must have had a secret protective!

‘Ya!  It vas just a scratch Zir, Ze men  still are a  bit ruff round the edges, but Feldwebel  Grimsdike believes he vill have them ready by ze time ve reach ower destination. ‘

Funny Jahnus mused, the Captain spoke as if Imperial was his 2nd language, he had a bit of a Dweghorn accent.

‘ As long as your men are ready to face the Gerries…er Spires’

Damn he thought he’d picked up that strange nickname the Steel Legion used for the Spires, ‘ Gourdeheads’ thir normal nickname  he understood it fitted their helmets but why ‘Gerries’?

‘‘Yah mine Commander they vill be and Ven we have terminated all the spire  ve’ll be back!’ slight pause ‘ to defend sis city again.’

It’ s like he’s practiced that phrase Jahnus thought as hegrabbed his helmet and followed the two men out of the office.

Well my avid readers may wonder was all that about…. Its time for an update on how I’m getting on with my building of Milestone 2, and thought I’d begin with a bit of narrative about my band of ‘eroes’.

This may give you an idea of who I painted 1st in the upgrade

I actually started with the Imperial Officer our Jahnus Waynicus , certain aspects of his armour and the the history of the Old Dominion gave me a somehow Roman feel to their legions with kit updated for late medieval/early renaissance .

So here he his , fairly easy paint job with contrasts mainly with only his face being picked out.

His armour was the gun metal paint from the starter set , with an thin overcoat of Contrast Basilicum Grey

I also did 4 more Men at arms to beef unit to 20 and the Veteran.So far only the 1st 4 of the Noble Lords Retinue as Intend to convert the lst 4 into a command group as you didn’t get the standard option with the original 2 player starter set .

I again darkened their Armour with Basilicum grey to get a darker metallic to match his nibs.

I have also started on the two regiments, that will make up the bulk of the 2nd Milestone,with 6 Steel Legion , again a mix of contrast over the base corax white and gun metal as above .

I then had a go at the militia  archers, pretty much copied  Johns idea but used a blue for the tunics as opposed to the red he used, though I’m using  that for the pole armed militia . I did a bit more detail on the faces and finished off with a thinned down GW Agrax Earthshade wash, about 50/50 water to get  a bit more definition over the contrast paints. Bow strings were done with UHU glue , its normally difficult to stop it stringing but in this case with a bit of care it can work for you.

Well I have finished Milestone, a week late, but I didn’t start till a couple of weeks late, so not bad.

Anyway here they are all together.

Slight change I only managed 16 men at arms, but it fits the milestone for 600 pts better.

Well using the fun Army builder sorting out the build for milestone 2 is easy  , this is the plan:

In the great wide mutiliverse life can be found in most , diverse in  form with equally diverse types  of worlds and stars , it should be noted  that the universes without life have no one to report it. In all this diversity, there does appear to some amazing  coincidences, Life often in many seems to take the same general form and various theologians, Wizards and Scientists have waxed long on the various forms that Evolution  or Creation  can take(it is a good idea when they discus the merits of either to wear a tin helmet , armour of some sort and have a good long book to read, preferably in the next county). But the general consensous when they are not hitting each other is that certain basic designs are the most efficient  or ‘bloody minded’ depending on which theology  you go for .

It is i a constant amazement to many ,that the lifeform called ‘man’ seems to inhabit a large number of them (all theologians have debated this and in ‘man’s ‘ case they all go for ‘bloody minded’ )

Creation had previously  developed the life form  Elf  in may ways a better design , but the races overinflated sense of its own self importance,  is annoying, plus creation etc  had forgotten an off switch.

It may take Billions of years but if left to there own devices Elves completely fill up their universe’s with elves leaving no room for anything else.

Anyone visiting  from an other universe will  only find wall to wall elves.  The conversation will  likely go like this:

Oh ! look an elf , oh another elf , and there’s an elf that is pretending be a tree, .whats that sticking its elbow in me ..ooh an elf…what am I standing on another bloody elf!

Despite a low breeding rate quickly, their lack of  natural  mortality , a  predation for removing   any unnatural forms of death ,whilst slowly breeding, elves in even the biggest universe will  fill it up with Elves , no matter how enviromentally friendly they are.

Mankind it( creation/supreme being take your pick), considered was the fix ,the basic design is functional, it is only the central program that they run  iton that is problematical!!!!!

With so many universes having the life form called man ,it is perhaps unsurprising that their various ‘Civilisations’ appear to look very similar at the various stages of their development , all over their  galaxies  the pre space spanning  civilizations, towns  and cities have a  similar look. generally a unfinished, sprawling mess, that can be best described as   ‘grubby’.

(Perhaps this explains why the have a tendency to call their home planet a variant of the name ‘mud’ as in that’s what the majority of human’s spend most of their time in)

All reach a period which equates to late medieval, these cities generally take the form of aseries of glorified mud huts around a central collection of spectacular architecture. These Central buildings are the only ones that seem to stay constant, if one fast forwards time, surviving the various fires  plagues, wars  and the machinations  of ‘ experts’ such as Alchemists, Wizards , Scientists, etc  (here the only variation is in the size of the explosion and the particular shade of purple smoke it creates)

So it would be no suprise that the Great city  of Cross Lesbeuf  in the 100 Kingdoms,  looks like many of it breatheren  across the various multiverses. and that at its center is a  building which in various languages equates to Palace.

Cross Lesbeuf’s palace is one of the more unusual ones in that it is not inhabited by a King or Emperor but a Patrician. In theory this  an elected post, as in one man one vote and he is the ……you get the rest!

‘Lord  Doctorni looked at the reports coming from Mercia’s border with the Spire, an irritated frown crossed his thin face, a quite terrifying prospect as  mere raise of an eyebrow  causes the bravest nobles and merchants to reach for a porcelain potty . It wasn’t an ugly face, it was best described as sharp ,  sharp enough to cut atoms in half. Even  Spires Merchant Princes on their odd occasions that they have met Doctorini are always leave the meeting  feeling for 1st times in their long lives that were the student not the master,  that they had somehow missed something , been tricked, instinctively mentally ticking  of all their body parts to ensure they still had them.

He looked up at his aide and secretary Mr. Lupid Squint, who if Doctorini is the epitome of the look of an assassin,  (polite assassin it must be said, a he cuts your throat or quietly impales you  on his stiletto,  you strangely know that  your ast thought  would be ‘ he was very polite’).

Squint on the other hand looked like clerk, and if evolution had a niche for a clerk he would be it, like most he is invisible   appearing like magic when required . Such men would make goods  assassin , though this would involve some soft of ambition (if clerks do assasinate someone it is because they  were always assasins pretending ) Squint  had absolutely none 

‘Is Lord De Grasse still raising a fuss about the Spires activities  on his border.’

He asked Sqint in an almost totally disinterested manner.

‘Yes Sire, he has got his son Sir Pentyn raising the regiment’s in his area as his gout is playing up something  fearce’

‘ Thank God for that, what do we know about his son Squint ‘,

Doctorini mused. The current Lord De Grasse was could best be described  as ‘tactically challenged,’ his thankfully short military career had been renowned for his ability to get more of his own men killed than the enemy,  only noble rank and political clout had saved him from having an accident in a scorpion pit.

  It was a strange fact that with the De Grasse family either raised military Geniuses or total clutz’s,(though having looked at the record of the family’s military exploits he wondered if the difference was just the former were luckier)  it was one or the other, nothing  in between.

‘He does ‘ Squint replied

‘Seem to be the exception to the rule My Lord, a rather steady lad by all accounts, even  more exceptional in that he actually decided it might be an advantage ,( long pause)if he actually studied warfare, he enrolled at the  imperial college, came 1st in his class ,he has been followed it with tutelage in the field  from the redoubtable Sir Gero’s Sire.

A rare look of surprise crossed Doctotini’s face. 

‘That is exceptional , I assume you mean the samous Gero’s of the Imperial Bannerman fame ?

Are we sure that Sir Pentyn is actually a legitimate aire of De Grasse?’

‘Yes my Lord, he does seem to be lacking the family trait for bloody minded stupidity , he only appears to be lacking in  experience of commanding large formations of troops in the field.’

Doctorini mused on the last comment , and he instantly came up with a shrewd answer that would solve two of his problems, the border one ,and how to deal with it ,as well  as a way to get the Imperial Troops that were languishing in the city from under foot, bored soldiers were always a problem.

‘Is that Imperial Tribune, whats his name, still pestering for an assignment Tiddlesworth ?’

‘You mean Jahnus Waynicus Sire,

Apparently he is bored, he  hasn’t won any wars lately,  put anyone to the sword or  enslaved whole villages lately , plus the Dweghorn killed all the Dragons centuries ago so he hasn’t got a hobby . Shall I send him and his cohort of Steel Legion ?’

‘Yes and attach a couple of companies of the City Militia they have been training , it will give that lad Captain Steelforginson some experience of commanding troops in the field’.

Doctorini in his mind pictured the man, a man  who would be a recruitment posters dream,  over 6ft , manly jaw, heroic stare the face of one of the Kings of Myth, friendly , stupid and honest (which Doctorini knew would make for a bad king but he knew ‘Turnip’ as he was called was anything but)

If he was away, it would stop  him upsetting the guilds (particulaly the theives guild) if  we sent him off for a bit he mused, briefly before the matter was forgotten in the huge volume of thoughts that were involved in  the matters of state.

I started the build with the two player starter box, and then  brought the 100 kingdoms starter army , so having painted most of the former wanted to add some units of the latter and the Box of Steel Legion , so here is the list as is :

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.