Wednesday 17 January 2024

War of the Roses Welsh Spearmen

Some of the contemporary Wars of the Roses sources speak of Welsh 'spears' fighting (usually) for the Lancastrians. Now the chances are that spears was just another way of saying bills and that these troops were pretty much identical to their "English" counterparts. However it does give an opportunity for a bit of converting to get a unit that looks a little different on the table and so I thought I'd make one.



Mostly a case of using the spear arms from the Perry set along with a few more from the Agincourt set and then some more still from some of the Gripping Beast and Fireforge sets. I kept armour to a minimum as well, figuring that being from Wales maybe they were generally more poorly equipped and used one or two of the Agincourt heads too - to imply using older equipment. I was intending to mix in some of the GB or Warlord heads, but they're massively oversized and looked quite silly on the Perry torsos. I also tried to use a bare head from the Perry NWF British who had a suitable "Welsh" looking moustache, but it was too small and wee. I did manage to use a Perry Napoleonic bare head.

So there we are a unit of spears. I think in most games they'll just count as billmen, but their slightly more rustic appearance means I could use them as levy.

2 comments: