Tod's Workshop, Arrows vs Armour 3 Kickstarter Launch!

A new project from Tod's Workshop on YouTube, the Arrows vs Armour 3 Kickstarter Launch!

If you're interested it may well be worth your while in making a donation. The last series of videos, Arrows vs Armour 2, were extremely informative, threw up as many questions as thewy answered, and are by far the best test of the Medieval Warbow vs armour videos including all the nuance the tests  entailed. No shooting at a flat sheet of modern steel with this lot!

Burgundian Ordonnance 'Archers' Pike

I've decided upon an army for next year's Swordpoint Medieval event in Swindon and settled on Burgundian Ordonnance. Hopefully it will perform a little better then Charles the Bold managed with his army against the Swiss!!

The first unit is going to be a unit of Burgundian Archers with the front rank of the unit to be made up of Pikemen and the last three with longbows. The Ordonnance Archers were well trained and drilled to fight in such a formation though whether or not it was actually employed on the battlefields of Grandson, Morat or Nancy is open to debate. Such battles were were often jumbled affairs due to the decisiveness, manoeuvrabilty and swiftness of the Swiss thus not really allowing for Charles's expensive well equipped army to fully deploy as he would have liked.

The Ordinance of 1473 says:

"Furthermore, my lord [the duke] ordains that, in order that the said troops, may be better trained and exercised in the use of arms and better practiced and instructed when something happens, when they are in garrison, or have time and leisure to do this, the captains of the squadrons and the chambres are from time to time to take some of their men-at-arms out in the fields, sometimes partly, sometimes fully armed, to practice charging with the lance, keeping in close formation while charging, how to charge briskly, to defend their ensigns, to withdraw on command, and to rally, each helping the other, when so ordered, and how to withstand a charge. In like manner they are to exercise the archers and their horses, to get them used to dismounting and drawing their bows. They must learn how to attach their horses together by their bridles and make them walk forwards directly behind them, attaching the horses of three archers by their bridles saddle-bow of the page of whose man-at-arms they belong; also to march briskly forwards and to fire without breaking rank. The pikemen must be made to advance in close formation in front of the said archers, kneel at a sign from them, holding their pikes lowered to the level of a horse’s back to that the archers can fire over the said pikemen as if over a wall. Thus, if the pikemen see that the enemy is breaking rank, they will be near enough to charge them in good order according to their instructions."

The First Three:

I will be adding feathered plumes to roughly half the miniatures in the unit to emphasise the fact that these were permanently employed as a professional cadre of Ordonnance Archers. As well as the plumes I have added few heads from the Perry Miniatures WR 60 Light Cavalry box and some heads from the WR 20 Plastic Mercenaries 'European Infantry' box sets and some metal plumes from the EA6 Swiss Heads pack. They have been pinned into place and tidied up with some (nice new) ProCreate putty with a bit of sculpting work thrown in. Bucklers have been added as well to give them the more homogeneous look of professional liveried soldiers.

Next Four Mini's:

There are another five miniatures for the front rank but there was little point in taking any pictures as all I have done is added the bucklers and clued the pikes in place.

The Bodkins First Outing at The Other Partizan: Berne, Baby Berne! (Formerly from Gewalthaufen Blog)

Disclaimer: I didn't paint up any of the miniatures for the Berne, Baby Berne! game but was a member of the then Bodkins whose aim it was to put on as many high quality Late Medieval games as was possible.

I was about five or ten minutes late and had to rush through to the front of the queue past many cross looking wargamers to get into the hall on time for the start of the game. What a sight there was to behold! I knew that a Swiss Burgundian affair with it's massed Swiss pikes and supporting troops scraping with the exquisitely decked out Burgundian army of Charles the Bold was going to be a great beautiful looking game but nothing could have prepared me for the sight that was to greet me as I walked up to the game!

For once I don't really feel like I have to say very much at all, the images will do all the talking for me. I would like to heartily thank Dave Andrews, David Imrie and Simon Chick for painting up such beautiful looking armies! To say they were beautifully painted is in fact to do them an injustice and no images of the mini's will ever capture the magic of actually seeing them in the flesh! I'd also ;like to thank Jack Glanville who kept us straight on the rules- we would have been somewhat lost without him as David and I seem to have collectively forgotten how to play a rule set that we played quite a lot of when I was at the Edinburgh club a few years ago.

This was The Bodkins first outing and the Berne, Baby Berne did not disappoint! The next game we will be showcasing will not be revealed until very near the time but it is scheduled for Partizan in it's new premises next year.

Now then, onto the lusciousness that was the game:

I think that's enough eye candy to be going on with for now! Tomorrow there will be more from Partizan.

Bye for now.