I crossed the Rubicon. Aftering being paralysed by choice for a long long time, I have settled on a 13th century medieval project in the Low Countries. The general idea is to model the units as generic, allowing them to be used for the various counties, duchies and prince-bishoprics but there will be 1-3 household units for the various bigger ‘principalities' and corresponding command bases. I'll be starting out with the household troops for the Counts of Holland and the Prince-Bishop of Utrecht. 

The units will be based for Milites Mundi, but with 60x30mm based instead of the 80x40mm bases. The command bases remain 30mm and 20mm round bases. A cavalry base will represent roughly 100 mounted men, a closed order unit 250 men and a skirmish base 50 men. Dismounted knights or ministerialen would count for roughly 200 men instead of the 250. The numbers will be doubled for big battles like the Battle of Bouvines (1214).

There are enough battles and campaigns to be fought in this period and region. From the Loon War (Succession war for the county of Holland), The Drentian revolt against the Bishop of Utrecht, the Drenter Crusade, the Stedinger Crusade (technically outside the Low Countries but many of the crusaders were from the Low Countries). The Counts of Holland fought multiple times in West-Frisia and Frisia itself and had multiple conflicts with the Bishop of Utrecht and the Counts of Flanders. And then there are of course the various rebellions by noblemen and peasants alike.

I am going to use the Early Holy Roman Empire (1138 to 1440) army list for Swordpoint and Milites Mundi and made a list for the various units and their corresponding Baccus products: 

Mounted Knights - Frankish knights - mid 13thC

Mounted Ministerialen - Frankish knights - late 12thC

Dismounted Knights - Dismounted Men at Arms

Dismounted Minsterialen - Dismounted Men at Arms

Militia - Scottish Spearmen

Militia Archers - English Archers

Militia Crossbowmen - 

Levy - Welsh Spearmen

Levy Archers - Welsh Archers

Levy Crossbowmen -

Mercenary Spearmen - Frankish Spearmen

Mercenary Crossbowmen - Frankish Crossbowmen

Mounted Mercenary Knights - Frankish knights - mid 13thC

The Brabançons, mercenaries from particularly the Duchy of Brabant, also had pikemen. For those I will use the Levy Pikemen from the Late Medieval range. 

I am starting off with 9 mounted knight bases, 9 mounted ministerialen, 3 dismounted knight bases and a number of command bases.

The command bases will include the Bishop of Utrecht, mounted and accompanied by two monks and at least a mounted bannerbearer on a 30mm base. The County of Holland will get two 30mm bases; one to represent the Count of Holland and one to represent William II of Holland, Count of Holland and Zeeland and German King. Other commanders that I will be painting up as well will be the Count of Flanders, the Duke of Brabant, Count of Gelre and a generic commander to represent rebelling lord. Additionally I will make a 20mm command base for each count, duke and bishop as well and a bunch of named and generic lords. Each army will be divided into three battailes with a 30mm command base leading the centre and 20mm bases leading the van- and rearguard. 

King Willem II of Holland fell through the ice during his pacification of West-Frisia (1256) and killed by peasants. His son Floris V, Count of Holland and Zeeland, conquered West-Frisia and recovered the body of his father.

Well, Mr Mountain-Goat this does look to be a very promising project and I will follow it with interest. I was alerted to the medieval history of the Low Countries through the History with Hilbert channel on YouTube, although my own wargaming preference is for the Thirty Years War and the Nine Years War periods of the C17th involving the Dutch.

Thank you! Ah, yes History with Hilbert is great. Dutch medieval history is quite obscure on YouTube and in English literature. The Thirty Years War and the Nine Years War are also very interesting! 

I am going to make some amendments to the basing. I was listening to the God's Own Scale podcast (episode 29 with Jon from Grynmauch solo wargaming blog) and was intrigued by his basing system, which reminded me of the Little Wars TV 1066 basing (20x20 or 25x25) but a bit smaller (15x15). Checked out his blog and fell for the looks. I think it will also provide a lot of nuance for a campaign. Instead of getting a few big units from vassals, cities and mercenaries. You get a multiple small bases of various types that can be combined into small and large units. Instead of having generic units, I can add specific unit command bases. 

 The link to Jon's blog, showing a battle for his WoTR campaign, can also reconmend his other stuff: https://grymauch.blogspot.com/2018/05/kingmaker-campaign-battle-of-milford.html#more
 

My order will arrive within a couple of days! Can't wait to start painting. So its time to figure out which noblemen will get priority in their creation. My focus lay on the County of Holland and the Loon War but also on the Battle of Bouvines. The kings of Scotland and England are also on the list, because why not. They will include:

Willem II of Holland
Counts of Holland
Bishop of Utrecht
Count of Loon
Count of Gelre
Duke of Brabant
Count of Bouogne
Count of Dreux
Duke of Burgundy
Holy Roman Emperor
King of France
King of England
King of Scotland

I have also done a mock up of a potential Samurai army, virtually going back to some wargame rules I started working on years back before I truly commited to the hobby. Its also based on Grymauch style. 

Good luck, sounds great!

Thanks Whirlwind!

They have arrived today, so started organising the command stands! Added a Bishop hat to the Bishop of Utrecht with some greenstuff. 

It looks a very promising start to your project. Interesting to see that where I live, next door to Appingedam, was well within Friesland at the time.

Having been super busy with my thesis and my last university course, I completely neglected this project but in the end of January/ begin February I completed my masters and ordered for myself the infantry. They succesfully crossed the Channel but upon arrival in the Low Countries orders were a bit fudged (apparment letter dropped off). So now they are mustered at my neigbours castle (mailbox) for two weeks already, but the castellan isn't home and our leigelord hasn't been able to contact them either. 

In the meantime I have been thinking about a board and stuck on whenever I want a fully modelar board or something more akin to the 1066 boards, were the houses, fields and forests are seperate. For wheat fields I found a sheet with yellow static grass, that I can easily cut up, at a local train model store. Rather happy with that.

In terms of rules I have decided to fully go with Ravenfeast Big Battles using custom units. All units will be based on 20x20 or 25x25 bases 

Here are WIP images of the Count of Holland and the Prince-Bishop of Utrecht

 

Good to see this project taking off again. It inspires me to take a look at the feudal ranges again.