Post by paddy649 on Dec 8, 2018 11:46:19 GMT
At the start of the year I promised to showcase 12 armies in 2018. With less than a month left I’ve only posted 8 – so had better get moving. The truth is I find the painting far more enjoyable than the photographing and posting and I have actually got 6 new armies painted up to showcase standard ready to be photographed. So today I gave up some prime painting time to get my camera out and post these.
For my 9th showcase army I continue the theme of pike, lots of pike, to bring you the Scots Common Army. I was intending to finish this army for Winter PAWS but came up one week short but at least it shows that they are all new paints. The figures are all from Alternative Armies with MEC4 Frankish Knight 13thC forming the core of the mounted. This figure is nearly identical to a picture of Robert the Bruce on the front cover of a history book I have about him – so a total “shoe in.” I went for ME31 Scottish Pikeman the core of the foot rather than ME2 MI spearman with the shield replaced for a small round one. There is method in my madness! This will be the basis of several Scots DBA armies to fight a Campaign based on the Scots Wars of Succession, these will include pikemen from both the Scottish Boroughs and the feudal levy spearmen. Those from the boroughs were better equipped and more uniformed and are the ones in this army.....the rabble will follow later.
The historical accuracy of this army is good. The heraldry for the knights is taken directly from the Battle Bannockburn records and museum. This makes the core army from 1314 but I added extra figures so it could play the full-time range of the list. The heraldry for the pike took some research. They are dressed in historical (if rather dull) hodden grey quilted jerkins and all the flags and shields come from city seals, crests or shields of the time. Many but not all were in use in 1314 but all are good (bar one possibly 2 – can you spot them?) are good before 1513. The flags were mainly ripped off from pictures of 1930s cigarette cards found on the internet and appropriately photoshopped. I couldn’t resist putting Willian Wallace in to lead the 7Hd element, I made the Galwegians Clan Campbell and the Islesmen were Clan MacDonald led by Angus Og. When it came to the Highland bow I gave in to temptation and used a little tartan despite hanging my head in shame for historical accuracy…but they look good. Overall I love the look of this army. Despite a base colour of grey it is still rather colourful.
I don’t expect that this army will be a killer army. It has an aggression of 3 which will often deprive its pikemen of the terrain they need. It does offer lots of lots of options but only for a select few of its elements while retaining a pike/knights core. However, looking back at past tournament records I note that Scots Common Armies have previously won a few tournaments – so I may be very wrong about how this army plays. Any experiences with it?
Now the photos:
The whole army (with knights)
The whole army (all the pike options)
A close up of the mounted troops
For my 9th showcase army I continue the theme of pike, lots of pike, to bring you the Scots Common Army. I was intending to finish this army for Winter PAWS but came up one week short but at least it shows that they are all new paints. The figures are all from Alternative Armies with MEC4 Frankish Knight 13thC forming the core of the mounted. This figure is nearly identical to a picture of Robert the Bruce on the front cover of a history book I have about him – so a total “shoe in.” I went for ME31 Scottish Pikeman the core of the foot rather than ME2 MI spearman with the shield replaced for a small round one. There is method in my madness! This will be the basis of several Scots DBA armies to fight a Campaign based on the Scots Wars of Succession, these will include pikemen from both the Scottish Boroughs and the feudal levy spearmen. Those from the boroughs were better equipped and more uniformed and are the ones in this army.....the rabble will follow later.
The historical accuracy of this army is good. The heraldry for the knights is taken directly from the Battle Bannockburn records and museum. This makes the core army from 1314 but I added extra figures so it could play the full-time range of the list. The heraldry for the pike took some research. They are dressed in historical (if rather dull) hodden grey quilted jerkins and all the flags and shields come from city seals, crests or shields of the time. Many but not all were in use in 1314 but all are good (bar one possibly 2 – can you spot them?) are good before 1513. The flags were mainly ripped off from pictures of 1930s cigarette cards found on the internet and appropriately photoshopped. I couldn’t resist putting Willian Wallace in to lead the 7Hd element, I made the Galwegians Clan Campbell and the Islesmen were Clan MacDonald led by Angus Og. When it came to the Highland bow I gave in to temptation and used a little tartan despite hanging my head in shame for historical accuracy…but they look good. Overall I love the look of this army. Despite a base colour of grey it is still rather colourful.
I don’t expect that this army will be a killer army. It has an aggression of 3 which will often deprive its pikemen of the terrain they need. It does offer lots of lots of options but only for a select few of its elements while retaining a pike/knights core. However, looking back at past tournament records I note that Scots Common Armies have previously won a few tournaments – so I may be very wrong about how this army plays. Any experiences with it?
Now the photos:
The whole army (with knights)
The whole army (all the pike options)
A close up of the mounted troops
