I wish I had the time between work, family (two kids) and my other hobbies (art sized sculpting, metalwork and drawing). And yes, I would need some experience in making wargaming figures.. Anyway, if I had the capacityI would set up a couple of awesome kickstarters for historical gaming. There are surprisingly few kickstarters/indiegogos for historical wargaming so the right combination of people should be able to convince folks to provide backing to start filling some of the gaps that are out there.
The first line I would want are minis that take over timewise where Fireforge Games minis stop. Figures that would be useful for early condottiere and city state combat, for the early Hundred Years War, War between Swedes and Russians (Novgorod), and fighting between Teutonics and their allies versus Baltic peoples. The time range covered would be around 1330–1360). The offerings from Fireforge Games could provide some of the lesser warriors or those from European backwaters (that use old equipment and fashions) and this new line would start by setting up the troop types that are particular to the new period, and the wealthier troops. I’m thinking that the new troops should be set up so that both men-at-arms with more British fashion and with more continental (French, German) fashion can be assembled. The Italians had a style of their own but can to a great extent be represented by French and German styles. Making sure to cover British style is sensible from a business angle since people from Great Britain are a big part of the wargaming market, and they are definitely into gaming their own history (Battle of Crécy anyone).
The main differences from the armour style that can be found in the Fireforge Games boxes is that armour would include more plate defences, including splinted limb protection, and the torso would be protected by a coats-of-plates. Coats of plates came in a variety of styles but were generally smaller plates riveted to a fabric and/or leather cover. Some of the plate defences that existed earlier were enlarged and sometimes developed into more complex shapes. Like knee and elbow protection. Surcoats were still worn at this time but became shorter (or completely absent like in German areas towards the end of this period). Some surcoats were very short in the front and longer in the back. Helmets worn by men-at-arms were mainly bascinets of different heights and shapes. Mounted knights could wear a great helm over the bascinet. At this time the great helm transitioned from barrel to sugar loaf shape. If visors were attached to the bascinets they would be of a flat or round shape and not the pointed visor of the later 14th century.
Daggers and swords see some changes from the 13th to early/mid 14th century and knights started using the pollaxe. And the pike and halberd became popular with infantry. Some wore smaller shields and new shield shapes were used. Although people like to point out that the increase in plate armour and two handed weaponry meant the shield became obsolete, in this period shields were definitely still widely used and even required in some places. There are tons of things to say about the arms and armour development of this period but I can’t be arsed to write more right now. The attached pictures can illustrate some of my points.
I agree with you on that mid-medieval period. When I heard Fireforge was making Teutonic Knights I thought it would cover the 1330s up to 1410 to include the main part of Polish-Teutonic wars but I was disappointed. I would love to see a big unit of knights on massive chargers in partial plate with bascinet helmets- visors lowered and ready to do god’s will.
That would be a sight, A logical follow up period from my imaginary 1330-60 period would be around 1380-1415 when the peaked visors, great bascinets and all white armour came to the fore. (The 1360-80 period could be covered by combining bits from the two main periods.) And I would like proportions of the figures to be closer to Perry Miniatures rather than Fireforge Games. But make sure that for instance arms could be exchanged with Fireforge Games figures.
If a picture says a thousand words, then this particular article said exactly 11562 words, not counting the title of the post.
Intersting reads here. I suppose the early Swedish-Russian wars fail to generate large interest not only because of a smaller portion of living ancestors (in comparison to Napoleonics, World War II and Lord of the Rings – last one was a joke, “hahaha”… ) but mainly because of the lack of sources and stories.
May I propose that I write up some half-truth stories of the time in question and post them here as a guest writer?
I strongly encourage half true stories about Swedish history. You might want to tone down that we Swedes thought we crusaded against Orthodox Christians for Catholicism only to turn our back to Catholicism a couple of hundred years later..
Okay, we have a deal then! I might tone down some things and I mightn’t – we’ll see where the old pen takes me.