Conversions from The Work Bench - Fezian And Beersteiner Reinforcements

 As the next fantasy campaign gets nearer I decided I needed some more Fezian musketeers and also some heavy cavalry for Beerstein.

  In my category list 'Heavies' are actually not the heaviest troop type but a category above 'lights' and below full chain mail or full plate. In other words, they have chest and usually head protection as well as, normally a shield. The new heavies can also have firearms but no shield.

  So far, our troops have, to a degree, moved from medieval to 'horse and musket'. Increasingly, English Civil War troops are supplying the core for armies.

 I have a number of Herald/Britains horse guard surplus to requirements. Some lacked arms but others also underwent 'reassignment' surgery. Originally I intended to give them an ECW look with brimmed hats. I looked into my spare heads box and found that most of the brimmed hat heads were too cowboy or Indian Wars looking. Then I found a bunch of nice tricorne heads. I had not intended to use tricorne hats in my troops until we had officially moved our world into the 18th century equivalent. But it turned out that these blokes have become the vanguard of fashion. I haven't decided if I'll put them on larger horses as these mounts are a bit puny.

  

                         I decided that the officer could retain some more medieval attributes. he now has a Timpo helmeted head and a chainmail sleeve! His sword also looks like a broadsword. Ah, the joys of creating troops for a fantasy world!

        Here are the Fezian muskets. My intention with Fezia is that it participates in military modernization but lags a little. Their matchlock troop choice had been limited to one unit of muskets per army but I have now upped that to two which means I have to create another unit. (Bogavania and Beerstein can have three matchlock units per army). I decided I didn't want to fancy a conversion job but enough alteration to the ECW figures to make them recognizable as quite different. I cut strips of toilet paper and glued them with Modge Podge around the existing hats which, in most cases, did not need to be trimmed down. They also received coats of the same stuff. Some of the turbans were also continued over lower faces to make an Arab looking finish. I don't like my troops to look like entirely identical clones and individual differences add character. The turbans were also coated in liquid green Stuff. The other thing I did was to trim off socks and ties to represent bare legs.  I also added Green Stuff beards to a number of figures.

  The following photos appear in reversed order from initial conversion to first part of painting.

 The figure which was going to be the standard bearer has been lost; drop something on my garage floor and chances are it won't be found for a long time! That means another conversion. Curses! I had to remove the left hand and remold it with Green Stuff. It is a bid fiddly but not too difficult.

 As we are now having a period of hot weather I intend to go camping by a creek for a week. I might take these fellows along to finish painting them.

  What else? Oh yes, I am ploughing through my army lists and working out supplies. A campaign goes for 12 plus map moves (just like out tabletop games). That means needing potentially 12 credits for each unit. A wagon carries ten credits and an army might have 12 units so that is a lot of wagons. Alternatively, I can assume a lot of units will eventually perish and less supplies, long term are needed, at least in the hexes which are (probably) front line. The supplies can also be kept in castles and other sites to be collected as needed.

I have assumed that an army can also get its supplies from an adjacent hex (if no enemy force comes between). In any case, my initial troop lists will need to be trimmed, probably of some of the expensive units like knights. The thing is, although supposedly increasingly outmoded they are excellent shock troops. Some of the armies also have a single longbow unit as, in my rules they outrange the muskets and can move a half move and still shoot. They are about two credits more expensive than the matchlocks though.

 The other thing is, my plans for a navy and new castle might have to be put on hold.