Today, a base of Burgundian men at arms. Following the assassination of Duke John the Fearless by the Dauphin in 1419, Burgundy became an ally of Henry V’s England under his son, Duke Philip the Good until the 1430s. If I refight Agincourt, this base will happily slot into the French army, but will usually be used alongside the English.

There is some debate about whether Burgundians fought as a unit at Verneuil, but they certainly did so at Cravant. In any case, Burgundians fought alongside the English throughout the 1420s. The most famous example is probably Jean de Wavrin, who later wrote a chronicle of his career.

The unit displays the banner of Burgundy, and features the Sire de L’Isle Adam in the front rank, and Wavrin with a cut down lance on the right of the rear rank. I am not completely happy with the heraldry on these two, and may come back to tidy it up at a later date.

Perry plastics again, from the English men at arms sprue. Based as ever on 2p pieces and then movement tray from Warbases.

The Army of Scotland was a key part of the Dauphin’s forces from 1419-1424, and Scots continued to serve in French forces long after the army of Scotland ceased to exist as a formal entity after the Battle of Verneuil.

The force is believed to have been 6000-7000 strong and resembled the English with the majority of troops being archers, although not quite as archer heavy as English forces.

An old discussion on TMP on the Battle of Verneuil postulated that the supposed make up of the force of 3500-4000 archers and 2000-2500 men at arms was flawed in that Scotland would not be able to mobilise that many men at arms for voluntary overseas service. As a result, I have decided to represent the force with two bases of men at arms, 6 bases of archers and two bases of spearmen, which are now complete.

The banners are the cross of St Andrew and the banner of Sir John Stewart of Darnley, who fought with the army of Scotland throughout the 1420s.

All Perry plastics again, on 2p pieces and Warbases sabots.

Another update with a freshly finished base of French Men at Arms. These were assembled from my first box of Perry Miniatures Agincourt French Infantry. The banners provided with the figures focus heavily on the Battle of Agincourt, so these guys are currently under the banner of St Denis. This banner was used in French armies as a national symbol in the same way as the cross of St George was used by the English. My intention is to use the cross banners to indicate which unit contains the general in games of Impetus. The sabot arrangement allows this to be exchanged between units where necessary – e.g. for the English at Cravant it will be with the Earl of Salisbury, but at Verneuil it will be with the Duke of Bedford.

The Agincourt Foot Knights box has a couple of banners that are useful for the 1420s, and the rest I have created myself using the wonders of the internet and MS Paint! These will make an appearance with the next batch of French men at arms that are currently awaiting paint.

So, onto the figures. All are, as ever, Perry plastics, based on 2p pieces and then on sabot trays from Warbases. There are a few identifiable figures. In the front rank, left to right are:

Jean Poton de Xaintrailles, with axe

Etienne de Vignolles (known as La Hire), with hand and a half sword

Jean d’Harcourt, Vicomte d’Aumale, with pole axe

Comte de Nevers, with hammer and shield (an anachronism as Philip II was killed at Agincourt and his son who succeeded to the title was only born in 1414!)

On the far right of the rear rank is Gilles de Rais

A short post with some recently based French crossbowmen. “Archers”, both with crossbow and longbow, made up a significant proportion of French forces of the period, with one archer to every two men at arms. These bases are painted with the liveries of the cities of Orleans (black), and Nevers (green). Note the white cross of St Denis displayed as a field sign on the breast for recognition on the field of battle.

This post shows my completed progress so far. I have about the same amount again painted but as yet unbased and/or missing banners. I will add these as and when I finish them off.

So, with no further ado, my first English stands. All figures are Perry miniatures plastics, assembled directly from the English Army box. They are individually based on 2p coins and then in movement trays from Warbases.

The Duke of Bedford

Following the death of Henry V, John Plantagenet, Duke of Bedford, was appointed regent of France, a post he held until his death in 1435. I have portrayed him in quartered crosses of St George and St Denis, as he was reported to have worn at the Battle of Verneuil. Also visible are Sir John Fastolf (front rank with warhammer) and peeking out from the rear rank, Lord Scales.

The Earl of Salisbury

One of the most successful English commanders in France until his death at the siege of Orléans in 1429, Salisbury commanded the English army at Cravant in 1423 and was second in command to Bedford at Verneuil. Also visible are Lord Willoughby (front rank) and Lord Poynings (rear rank). Sir John Grey is in there too, obscured by the man at arms with cut down lance!

Archers

Three stands of archers, eventually there will be eleven! As previously noted, there were usually three archers to every man at arms in English armies of this period. I have the archers at seven to a base to show their (presumed) looser order – and to reduce the number I will need to paint!

And finally some group shots:

Intent

As explained in my last post, my intention is to aim for opposing forces to refight the Battle of Verneuil, 1424. However, ideally I want the collection to be flexible enough to be used for all the battles of the 1420s, and possibly some either side. The battles this includes are:

1421 – Battle of Baugé https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Baug%C3%A9

1423 – Battle of La Brossinière  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_La_Brossini%C3%A8re

1423 – Battle of Cravant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cravant

1424 – Battle of Verneuil  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Verneuil

1426 – Battle of St James https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_St._James

1429 – Battle of The Herrings https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Herrings

1429 – Battle of Patay https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Patay

I intend to complete the project using Perry Miniatures plastic sets. However, the majority of the battles included some sort of mounted element, and the Mounted Men at Arms for the Agincourt to Orleans range has not yet been released – though it will be the next release according to the news from this year’s Salute (https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=108711.0).

Luckily, the Battle of Cravant seems to have been fought exclusively by infantry forces, so this represents a good starting point to get troops onto the table. It also includes a river crossing for which the terrain will double up for Baugé. Cravant (as per all the other battles) is also significantly smaller than Verneuil.

Rules

In order to determine the requirements as far as figures go, I need to determine which ruleset(s) I intend to use. I have two in mind – Impetus for larger battles, and Lion Rampant for smaller actions and possibly future sieges. There is not much science to this selection, other than I have previously played some Basic Impetus (the free version, not the newly published commercial rules) and it seemed to represent later medieval warfare quite well. It has some mechanics that will definitely be needed, such as archers’ stakes and the ability for a unit to make multiple moves in the same turn, and no obvious show stoppers.

As for Lion Rampant, it is a popular set that is good for a reasonable number of models, and I also have a Wargames Illustrated issue containing siege rules (more on this in a future post).

Impetus suggests that each base (120mm x 40-60mm for 28mm figures) represents 600-1200 men on an infantry base, and 400-600 on a cavalry base. My belief is that for medieval warfare, where armies were generally smaller, this representation is at the lower end – i.e. 600 infantry and 400 cavalry.

Lion Rampant uses individually based figures, each representing a single man.

Requirements

Based on the above, I can develop what figures I will need. With Verneuil as the end goal, what will I need? Unlike Agincourt, there is less disagreement on the numbers involved. It is generally accepted that around 9000 English troops faced around 15000 French, Scottish and Lombard soldiers.

In this period, English forces were split for professional duty on the continent into archers and men at arms (which included everyone from the king down to squires). There was also a split between foot and mounted for pay reasons, but English armies almost exclusively fought on foot. The ratio for different troop types was commonly 1 man at arms per 3 archers.

9000 troops at 600 men per base comes to 15 bases. An approximate 1:3 ratio will turn this into 11 bases of archers and 4 bases of men at arms.

The French forces and their allies and mercenaries are slightly more complex. It appears that French royal armies generally used a similar split between men at arms and archers (usually, but not exclusively crossbowmen rather than longbowmen), but at a ratio of 2 men at arms to 1 archer. My belief is that the “men at arms” is a broader description than in England, and would include general infantry troops as well, though I am still researching this – any knowledge welcome in the comments!

The Scottish forces are fairly similar to the English, including longbow archers as the dominant troop type, as well as men at arms and general infantry. There were around 6000-6500 at Verneuil.

Lombards and other allies were generally recruited as mounted men at arms. These formed a significant number of troops at the Battle of Verneil – possibly as many as 3000.

Discounting the mounted contingent for the moment, I will look to represent 6000 French and 6000 Scottish troops – 10 bases each. The Scots will have 2 bases of men at arms, 2 bases of spear armed infantry and 6 bases of archers. The French will have 4 bases of men at arms, 3 bases of general infantry and 3 bases of crossbowmen.

 

 

I have always been a history buff, and since I was very young, have especially loved medieval history. The Hundred Years War, with the classic story of lowly English archers defeating wealthy French knights at Crecy, Poitiers and Agincourt always stuck with me. Naturally, with study at higher levels, I now know that the story is somewhat more complex, and the history and ways of fighting will form part of this project blog.

In the meantime, how did I get to this point? Well, since the release of the Perry twins Agincourt to Orleans range, I have been sorely tempted to invest. My hobby budget unfortunately does not stretch to serried ranks of metal figures, but with the advent of their plastic sets, the time seemed opportune to take the plunge and create a wargaming project on my first love.

The range title is quite specific – Agincourt to Orleans. In date terms, this covers 1415-1429. Although the figures will still be reasonably accurate for a few years before and after, there had been no campaign in France before 1415 since the 1360s, and the armour of the men at arms begins to change into the fuller plate armour familiar in the Wars of the Roses period at some time in the 1430s. I have decided to focus on the 1420s – from the Battle of Bauge in 1421 (English defeat) to the Battle of Patay, the end of the Loire campaign in 1429 (also an English defeat!). The largest battle of this period was the Battle of Verneuil in 1424, which was of a similar size (or possibly larger) than Agincourt. Building armies for this will be the main goal.