The Barons War 4 – Outremer (The Crusader States)

Almost 800 backers support the of Barons War Outremer campaign and pledged nearly 95,000 GBP towards this goal.

So, why did I participate in this campaign? I talked about it here - Spanish Crusaders vs. Moors. I am looking for miniatures for the Moors on the Iberian Peninsular, even though as the Muslim Warriors of this campaign aren't a 100% perfect fit (being more about the Ayyubid of the Middle Eastern regions and not Almoravid or Almohad of Northern Africa / conquered souther Spain), but should still be "generic" enough, to make it work with some minor tweaks here and there.

And I treated myself, to something special. I got myself the large pledge, an unique sculpt by Paul Hicks. They had these in the past campaigns as well, and they were quite popular, so I made sure to pledge early. As part of this pledge, I got the initial Antagonist set of miniatures as well.

This would set me up with some Franks, that I probably wouldn't need, as I already have enough Crusaders from my Perry stock. But it would provide me with;

• 8 muslim warriors with spears
• 8 muslim bowmen
• 2 medium cavalry miniatures
• and 4 light cavalry miniatures

That for itself, would only give me about 2 units at foot (at least for SAGA, as for Lion Rampant, those would need another set to go for 12 models), and only enough mounted miniatures for half units, so I'd need to boost that up, as these would be at least four points of SAGA and 6 for Lion Rampant.

Therefore I added a couple of individual sets to my pledge, to complete the units and warband. I went with the third code of warriors with spears, the swordsmen and the third set of bowmen. That's an additional 21 GBP to the pledge. As for the cavalry, another light cavalry and medium cavalry set, would at least give me the option to bring them two 6 and 4 (but boosted with individual characters to bring them to full unit strength). Another 14 GBP. The character sets that are available and not part of the free goodies, were the Imam (both mounted and on foot), the banner men (both variants) and a mounted commander, enough to make the medium sized cavalry a full 6 models. Yet, another 20 GBP. And as I couldn't miss out on the Naffatun, Assassins and Flamethrowers, I went with these as well. They would build either a special unit of their own and / or bring the other infantry units to full strength, depending on the rule set. Adding the final 21 GBP to my additional pledge, sum 76 GBP on top of the main pledge. Yet, I'm not fully decided if I swap the second Naffatun blister, for the Christian spearmen.

Why didn't I go with the Mameluks or Turcopoles? Both sets have really nice sculpts and there is nothing wrong with them. The Mameluks were not the best fit for the force, as they were clearly middle eastern and wouldn't fit that Moors topic. With the Turcopoles, who were mostly Greeks, Turks or Syrians, that was a similar case. And I wanted a cavalry unit to stand out more, so I had an interesting conversion idea in mind, but more on that once the miniatures are here.

Being an early pledger, I already unlocked a free monk, along with some stretch goals down the line for size of my pledge. And we get another one, or rather two miniatures at the end for the size of the campaign.

• free Monk
• free Muslim Commander
• free Knight Order Commander
• free reliques carriers
• Turcopole Guide and Mamluk Champion

This would set me up, with two units of spearmen at ~12 soldiers each, a unit of bowmen at 12 soldiers, a unit of light cavalry and another of medium cavalry, along with some command miniatures. For SAGA that would be enough for about 6 points, In case of Lion Rampant the two cavalry units (Mounted Serjeants and Mtd Yeoman) would be 8 points, a unit of archer at 4 pts, and two units of foot yeomen at 3 points each. With 18 Points a bit short of a "proper" 24 points list, but still playable (and another cavalry unit would bring me up to the needed points along with using the Naffatun as bidowers for 2 points).

But now for the most interesting part - the unique sculpt. I have to be honest, it is tricky, really tricky to choose something. I want to have a spanish noble from the 12th century, preferred mounted as a miniature. I just don't really know how he would look. I currently have the Perry sculpts of Godfrey of Bouillon as a the commander of my spanish reconquista forces, and he's taking the role of a Duke (spanish Duque) within the Kingdom of Castille, who would protect the Cantabrian Sea / Bay of Biscaya. A rank low enough to give him a certain respect and power, but not high enough to create any problems with my "historical accuracy" or similar. To give you an idea, what Paul has sculpted for others, here are the Sir John pledges from the last campaign.

It's most likely a male person, with chain mail, a kite shield and maybe a tunic. Not a closed helmet, I'd like to see the (bearded) face, maybe a Cervelliere. There is a super low amount of detail on the spanish knights, didn't find much online or in the Osprey books. But maybe something along the lines of Alfonso IX, but toned down a bit (he's a King, a bit high measure for a Duke). Really looking forward to that, as this is one of my (final) hobby goals. I am mentioned in a rule book, I have my share of limited miniatures and been to locations, so having a hand-made miniature commissioned is on the bucket list and then even be as lucky, as have it done by one of my favourite sculptors of all time, is such an amazing thing on top.

From what I understand, I get a few casts of these, and already made arrangements to swap my sculpt with the others, to have access to their unique sculpts. I will use two of mine for the foot and mounted variant, but intend to raffle of the overstock. Most likely for something cancer related as I did in the past. We'll see, but it is my full intention to do something useful with it. I am aware, this is no Obi Wan Star Wars Legion or Thunderhawk painted by Emil, but I hope for the best.