Stretching the collection

This past July I began refurbishing the Late Medieval collection and parcelling out completed elements into DBA armies. The first efforts produced the Scots Common, Tudor English, Danish Union, Swedish, Italian Condotta, French Ordonnance, Medieval German and Free Canton, all have been posted here with photos.

I enjoy the standard DBA game and more so when doubling the number of elements to make a single command. The look of the game is much improved and it better simulates the dynamics of battle such as depth of deployment and placement of reserves. The French Ordonnance and Medieval German collections are two such armies and subsequent orders to Legio Heroica produced the Later Polish and Hungarian.

Reading more about the late medieval early Renaissance whetted the appetite for more armies, but rather than spend more time painting additional figures I looked to alternative solutions to “stretch the collection”.

An old post at TMP (The Miniatures Page) from James Roach of Olicanalad’s Games presented an excellent option (see link below). Briefly, flags, banners and gonfalons are removable which allows generic looking troops types to switch allegiance. German knights in wedge formation can be Imperial knights or of the Teutonic Order, Swiss and Landsknecht pikemen have extra flags to denote their employer being either France, Germany or Spain) and longbowmen can now be seen among the ranks representing England, Picardy or Burgundy.

The flags are drawn to three different sizes, the largest for generals, gonfalons for cavalry and smaller flags for foot troops. Below is one example being the Early Burgundian (Philip the Good) displaying removable flags on mounted and foot elements. 

Thank you, James, for the tip. “Top Tip – flags," James Roach, blogger of Olicanalad’s Games.

 Early Burgundian