The Barons War – Outremer arrived

I backed the first Barons War Kickstarter back in 2019, and last year I went for the big pledge in the Outremer campaign, their 4th Barons War crowdfunding.

There were two motivations for me to do that, the first was this would grant me a second force for my Crusade themed project and I'd finale have the chance to have a personal sculpt done, and in this case even by Paul Hicks himself.

And the miniatures arrived in two batches. The first covering my unique sculpt and some bonus content (shown further below) and the second one was my main pledge, covering the Antagonist set of miniatures and a few additional codes, that I went for.The miniatures came in ziplock bags with laser cut mdf bases, unfortunately no padding or foam included, which some of the weapons didn't fancy.

A few characters were included in the campaign, in both on foot and mounted variants. This would provide me with a Muslim commander, an Imam and a banner bearer, all three of them on foot and on horse. And there were two additional heroes, a Turcopole Guide and Mamluk Champion. In addition to those, I got myself the two sets of specialists, covering Naffatun, Flame Throwers and Assassins. This would be used as fillers in regular games, but would provide me with interesting options in smaller games like Osprey's Outremer.

As I want to use these miniatures with a variety of different rule sets, from Saga, Rampant to Barons War itself and others, I needed some proper core units, providing me with around 8 to 12 miniatures each. For that reason I added set #3 to the spear man #1 + #2 from the core pledge, and added the swordsmen as well as the mixed christian set of 4, as I could easily convert them into further poses by covering the crosses on their bodies. And as I needed some fire power, I went for the third archer set  to give a total of 12.

The entire batch of spears is unusable, and I'll replace them with either brass rods or plastic ones. All in all, the metal feels a bit soft, so the swords etc. are bent, and I have to see what I can repair / rescue.

As for the cavalry, a few of the codes came with the main pledge, so I rounded them up to have 6 of the light cavalry and 4 of the medium cavalry, that would provide me with mounted units large enough for saga or rampant. Horses are partially a bit deformed or not properly casted and will need some clean up to properly fit on a base.

And in addition to these, I already have the Camel Cavalry, that I converted from Perry Miniatures.

As I went for the big pledge, I had the chance to have a unique sculpt done and I wanted to have a hero sculpted for my Spanish Crusaders. I went for a Spanish Noblemen from the late 12^th century and went through the designing process with Andy and Paul, and described what I wanted. Unfortunately, the ressource were rather scarce, and only found very little graphic information for example from Osprey books.

I didn't want a king or someone high ranking, more like a Duke (Duque), who protects part of Northern Spain, Cantabria (actually the home town on my mothers side, it was an important harbour city in the Middle Ages and had an Abbey founded in the 9^th century, housing the relics of Saint Emeterius, who would provide the later name for the city Santander). I found statues of King Alfonso IX of Leon, so maybe a less fancy version of him on a horse would be good orientation. Or Alfonso VI, again a Spanish King, I really like the pose Caballero Miniatures did, maybe in a simpler variant, more reasonable for a Duke (less ornaments on the helmet, but I like the cloak with the fur top). Yet, Alfonso is early to mid 11^th century, so  this would have to be considered. And as I had the chance to have a kite shield with a coat of arms, I asked for a simplified Castle for Castille and maybe SANT EMERIO curved above (for Saint Emeterius).

And they delivered! Paul got in touch with me, showed me work in progress, if we were on track and I was very happy. Only added some studs to the helmet and finished the shield. Really impressive.

In the first shipment that arrived, I got 8 copies of my sculpts. Why 8? Didn't the pledge cover 10? Yes, it did, but I wrote to Andy and asked, if some of the others who pledged an unique sculpted would be interested in swapping a cast each. And two of the three did, so I got Dawson's Scottish highland chieftain with dane ax and bow, and Seth's Templar, who is sculpted after his Brother (he had other family members sculpted in the earlier campaigns).

A quick mockup of the mounted noble on a Perry horse, and I had to pack a blister, which will have a special place in my collection. I will pack a few of the casts like these and talk with some other people in the hobby, to see how we can collect some money to put towards a charity. Maybe a raffle, maybe an auction, open for suggestions!

My spanish crusaders are mostly build from Perry Miniatures Normans, and I wrote in the earlier articles on this project, how great the Barons War miniatures fit with the Perrys, and you can see how properly he mixes with the other mounted knights.

The Antagonist pledge, my early participation and the sum of my pledge, unlocked some special characters. I got a free Templar commander, a monk (who fits great with my theme) and three reliques carriers. Once again a great addition to the theme of my army, as Santander is founded on an Abbey, where the relics of Saint Emeterius were buried/housed. I got two mounted templars and 8 on foot, some of their weapons are heavily bent and I might need to replace those. One of the bodies will probably be used for a on foot variant of my personal sculpt, as I don't need that many templars.

So this is my haul from the Barons War Outremer kickstarter. I'll keep you posted on the progress, as I not only have the miniatures, but terrain started for this as well. Currently thinking on the more specific theme of the Moors, it's very likely around the Almohad Caliphate (late 12th, early 13th century) and they even have a flag. And I am unsure on how serious, I want to go for the names and such, but we'll see.