IV/57 Low Countries (Ghent)

For my 8th showcase army for the year I have a rather special one; IV/57 a, b & c Low Countries (Ghent). Rather special because I regard this army as a Fanaticus team effort. All the historical research for this army was done on the Forum by Goragrad and Timurilank with me greedily stealing all their links to flags, notes on uniforms, heraldry and army composition. Thanks guys! I hope I have made good use of your input.
So about this army – it all started with the Alternative Armies ME1 Flemish HI Spearman figure, which I had used before in my Teutonic and Later Crusader armies. It is an excellent little figure, well-proportioned and takes paint well – so how nice to have a whole army of them. Then Goragrad and Timurilank gave me the excuse to do just that with a very colourful army with loads of flags…..what’s not to like!

The figures are all from Alternative Armies. I bought the figures mail order in July and started painting them last month. So they are all new paints, except 3, which I reused from a Mediaeval German Army, but even then they got new tunics. They are mostly ME1 Flemish HI Spearman, peasants or Knights, which are MEC4 Frankish Knight 13thC which were the closest to the historical sources. Some conversion on the peasants to make them “Whitehoods,” basically a thin strip of foil wrapped into a hat shape round the end of a paintbrush and superglued into place. Wire pikes from Xyston are time consuming and fiddly – but worth it! The flags came from Timurilank’s suggested link www.krigsspil.dk/download/download_3.html

 
The historical accuracy of this army is pretty good, thanks to Goragrad and Timurilank’s guidance. A few minor issues to admit to. I rejected Goragrad’s advice about black or red pikes and opted for wood colour only because they looked better. The knights use heraldry taken from the Battle of the Golden Spurs, which Ghent didn’t participate in, this is because I couldn’t find any decent heraldry from Ghent. Also, a few minor heraldic mistakes on the guildsmen (which if anyone can spot I’ll admit to) and which I couldn’t be bothered to repaint. Finally there is the anachronism of my using the same core figures for the a, b & c armies. The core army is from about 1320 and I added extra guildsmen, an organ gun and halberdiers so it can play out to 1478…but in 1478 the pikemen would look radically different.

 
Overall I love the look of this army. It is so colourful with the red and yellow tunics and the predominately red shields and flags and the uniform look of the army is appealing. I think the whitehoods look great – and add a talking point to the army. The plancon men (both 4Bd and 3Bd options) are also unusual and it is my first organ gun. I really enjoyed painting it – so much so that were I ever to di a BBDAB army I’d add to this with another, probably the red and white quarters of Damme.

 
I have no idea how this army will fight as it has yet to get onto the table but with an aggression of 0 it’ll normally fight on home ground . Given all the pike I suspect it’ll be hard to beat in the open. I can’t see why I’d want the 5Hd over more pike and if the gun gets placed in a good position it could do a lot of damage. Paul what are the stats for this army like?

So now some photos:

First the early option with the Knights, 7Hd and the 3Bd Plancon option.

Next the middle option with a Pike General, the White hoods, Organ gun and 4Bd Plancon.

Finally  the late option, with lots of pike and the 4Bd Halberdier option.