Burgundians for Billhooks...

Long time followers of the blog may recall around 2009/10 I tried to restart my near three decades old Burgundian project but after an initial burst of enthusiasm it rather fell by the wayside. Fast forward slightly over a decade and following the release of Never Mind The Billhooks I signed myself up to the Mr BIG Billhooks event at Bristol Independent Gaming giving myself a deadline to get a 130 point army painted up for the event. 

There's nothing like a deadline to get things done is there?

With a handful of exceptions all the miniatures are from the old Citadel C23 Wars of the Roses range (still in production from Foundry) some of which are nearly 40 years old, some old OOP Corvus Miniatures, a few Old Glory Wars of the Roses figures which fit in well with the Citadel figures size and style wise and the old Grenadier cannon I painted up in 2010.

The leaders...

Charles the Bold, Antoine de Bourgogne (the Bastard of Burgundy) and Philippe de Clèves a mix of Citadel (Foundry) and Old Glory (the latter provide a really useful mounted command pack that added some variety).

The Gendarmes...

Two groups of Gendarmes (Knights) all old Citadel (Foundry). I have another sixteen sat half painted... :-)

I really wanted the Gendarmes to stand out visually and was keen to have lots of banners (somewhat inspired by the cover of the deluxe rulebook). Initial attempts to source Burgundian banners was of limited success but I come across the Flags, Pennons and Banners blog which was heaven sent providing all I needed and more!

Pike and Archers block...

I rebased the pike I based on on multiple bases back in 2010, the figures largely OOP Corvus ones (anyone know what happened to them?) with odd Grenadier and Citadel to beef up the ranks. These banners were hand painted (in enamels) back when I was 17!

Archers...

Old ex-Citadel longbow with Flags, Pennons and Banners banner. I have painted up a second unit for bigger games.

Crossbowmen...

Same as the archers, a unit of ex-Citadel crossbow. Again a second unit was painted at the same time. I hadn't released that Burgundian crossbow come with Pavises for free in Billhooks, so I will be painting some up in due course (well getting some decals for them I suspect).

Handgunners...

My skirmishers were a group of handgunners. Nice though the ex-Citadel figures are they are all variants off one pose which is a shame, fortunately Old Glory came to the rescue though I now have enough spare to make a proper unit not just a skirmish group...

Cannon...

The old Grenadier cannon which I painted up 13 years ago, but rebased and a third gunner added, an old Games Workshop figure which might be a villager of some sort, I don't recall.

This gave me the 130 point army I needed for the event, the plan is to boost this up to twice the size by doubling up on each unit. The crossbow and archers are already done, the remanning pike partially rebased, I just need to finish the second batch of Gendarmes and dig out a cannon - then probably paint some Swiss opposition!

How did they do at Mr BIG Billhooks? Find out soon...