28mm Crusades Test Bases

The start of my Crusaders

Spectacular success in one Project  (Jutland) can often mean spectacular failure in another and 2016 was a very good case in point.

It was, before distraction, my intention to spend the year building up some forces to go Med I Evil on ya all, 3rd Crusade ish to be approximately precise. The thought of some units of heavily armoured Chivalric Cav is enough to get anyone's gaming juices flowing.

Apologies for the dark photos, I just couldn't seem to get the light right on these.

Fireforge Knights as Hospitalliers

So 2017 will see me making another attempt on the Crusades Armies and as this year closes I got round to finishing my test bases for the Armies.  We have decided to use the Deus Vult rules as a starting point, reading through they look quite playable.

Crusader Spear

I have painted up the foot in the colours of the Outremer state of Tripoli, red with a dark yellow cross. The figures come from the Fireforge Foot Sergeants which provides pieces to make up both Spear and Crossbow troops.

Crusader Crossbow 

The Fireforge figures are lovely. Quite chunky with good raised detail, great for painting.  My only quibble would be that to me a lot of the figures look as if they are stooping, mind you if you had just walked from Europe with all your kit to the Holy Land you may well have some back and foot impediments.

For my opposition Army I have gone for the Gripping Beast plastic ranges as a method of getting some units on the table at a reasonable cost, in fact some boxes of figures have been donated to the cause making it even more cost effective  !

The above base is front the Arab Light Cavalry set.

Next up is my test bases of Arab Archers again from the Gripping Beast plastic range.

Followed by a base of Spearmen from the same set.

Hopefully the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge this year will help me blast through some of these so I have enough ready to get some games in around Easter time. I have already built and primed most of the Cavalry I had available so I am already on the front foot for next year's challenge.