Oathgrave: 23. Oathmark human army I.

The Oathmark army intro series comes to the end (yet). Because now, it came to the fourth race from the basic rulebook: humans. I know, Oathbreakers were released, and so there is also the undead faction, but we in the family don’t own undead units (except 11 skeletons, 7 ghouls/zombies and some character miniatures). So what does Northstar has for humans? This will be the shortest list, because it’s the only faction (expect the undeads), which has only one plastix box:

Human Infantry: the meanwhile common, 30 miniatures with the options of making (full) units of spearman (yes, at last, they are really men), archers and soldiers, with additional bits for champions and standard bearers. They have a dark-age Magnum P.I. design (lots of mustaches). I cant tell much more about this box, because I don’t own it. Why? Because for humans, there are oceans of options from seas of manufacturers out on the market, no need to be fantasy, historical ranges fit as well. And I fell in love with another range…
Blister pack with metal champions. Two of the minis are nothing special, but the older looking man, who is holding his helmet in his hand, is really good.
Blister pack with the usual king/wizard/musician. I like them, the poses are nice, but as I choose another line of figures, it’s not for me.

That was quick… Short list, where I don’t have anything. But what do I have then?

I was searching for human minis for my army, and I made some rules: must be cheap, must have options for a lot of different units, and must have a fitting size. There are a lot of beautiful sets from dark ages (vikings and so), but there I miss the option of showing the three different armor levels of the units (no armor, light armor, heavy armor), because they are typically without armor or with chainmails. I hade to continue my search in another age. I didn’t wanted to go to an earlier period, roman infantry would feel odd next to goblins, so I took the next main step in historical miniatures: early medieval (crusades). That would fit well, there are some sets on the market, but I didn’t find anything what I really liked (although Fireforged games has a nice line-up), most of the heavy armored troops carry giant ornaments on their helmets (ok, I could have cut them). So lets jump to the next age: late medieval (100 years war, War of the roses), and there I must find something because the next historical period would be the renaissance which would look odd again next to other races of the game. Aren’t as many plastic boxes here, but there is a manufacturer, who has everything in nice quality for a very reasonable price: Perry Miniatures!

There are archers, different infantry types, heavily armored knights on foot and on horses, so the whole human infantry can be covered (except the rangers and mounted rangers, but they are anyway a bit special). And another advantage is, that you can have single sprues also, no need to buy complete boxes! So I started to build my army, based on Perrys Agincourt and War of the Roses ranges.

There is a lot of mix and match between the different sets, but I try to remember whit is made from what. They are not ready painted (of course), but I have plans in my head, and I already designed banners for them (about that in a later post):

15 Spearman from english army (AO40) and french infantry (AO50) with shields from European mercenaries (WR20): Long spears, big shields (pavaises actually), light armor. Whit-blue main colors, with a red lobster on the shield, because it looks cool. In my kingdom they will be the troops from the rich fishermen’s guild.
15 Soldiers from english army (AO40) and french infantry (AO50): Mixed hand weapons (axes and swords), bucklers and light armor. Yellow-blue, with keys on the banner. They are the poorly equipped city guard.
25 Archers from english army (AO40) and french infantry (AO50) and war of the roses infantry (WR1): Bow and light armor, for two units: 10 men white-green with a deer, and 15 white-red with arrow heads. Both are regular troops of the king, and they can be united, if a bigger archer unit is needed.
20 Linebreakers (mostly) from Agnicourt foot knights (AO60) and (partially) from War of the Roses foot knights (WR50) with some mixed weapons: heavy armor with giant axes, halberds, hammers (and some swords). They banner is yellow-black, and they are well trained fighters of the king, where the troops are filled up from the poorer noble houses (in hope for money and glory), who have no money for a warhorse. This is represented on the cloaks, where the colors are uniform, but the patterns are individual, from the coat of arms of their family. The only (almost) ready painted unit I have…
15 Warriors from war of the roses foot knights (WR50) with shields from Frostgrave Knights box (copied with blue stuff): the palace guard, heavily armored fighters with sword and shield, in the kings colors (red-yellow), they serve the king, and only the king. Maybe I will use the dwarven soldier attributes for them (difference is +1 activation).
5 Engineers from war of the roses infantry (WR1) with mixed weapons: As I read the engineer rules in Battlesworn, I knew, I need to have at least one unit of them. They colors are gray and green, representing a road on a field. I modified the weapons so, that they look a bit more like tools.
5 Cavalry from Agincourt mounted knights (AO70): less equipped cavalry with hand weapons and small shields on unarmored horses. A lighter, cheaper mounted unit for flanking and chasing the enemy, in red and blue. Professionals, who didn’t want to give up their families for a knightly order.
5 Heavy Cavalry from Agincourt mounted knights (AO70) (with converted shields from Oathmark Elf Light Infantry box): the steamrollers of the battlefield with heavy armor, long lances, big shields (I cut the elven shields asymmetric, to fit closely to the horses, I think it looks cool) on armored mounts. A knightly order, black and white with a red griffon as their sign. Here do serve the second sons of the wealthiest noble families, who are trained to fight on a horse since their childhood. They have to give up their former live, so there is no place for individualism.
5 Cavalry/Heavy Cavalry from Agincourt mounted knights (AO70) (with converted shields from Oathmark Elf Light Infantry box): an intermediate cavalry, with heavy armor and big shield (but another conversion), but with swords and unbarded horses. The colors are XXX. Another knightly order, or some better equipped regular cavalry? I don’t know, but they can be used as cavalry, and heavy cavalry, as the army list requires.