The Road to APRILlage Part 1: January

January is a difficult time of year: The mornings are dark, the evenings are darker, and you don’t even have any big winter-themed events to look forward to. It’s a time of year that’s so rubbish, doctors have had to come up with a diagnosis for people who are affected by the depressing darkness. What can man do against such darkness? Surely we must just accept that this is what winter is like, haunted by the Spirit of Roast Dinners Past? But no, I will not go quietly into the ridiculously long night. I decided to set myself a challenge, to keep my spirits up, and a date to work towards. But what to do?

Pillage - Credit: Victrix

I’ve loved Victrix models for a long time, so when they teamed up with Guillaume Rousselot to publish an early medieval skirmish game called Pillage, I knew I had to try it. Then my friend Lee, resident purveyor of puns, came up with APRILlage for a title, so my decision was made. Now I have three months to get my warband sorted, sort any game specific scenery or objectives, and find out how to play, before doing something special in April.

Starting a Warband

Some people will start with reading the rules, so they can plan the most elite warband possible. This is not my way: My troops will be armed in a historically plausible way, and if this means I lose more games than I win, then that is the cost of doing things properly.

First I needed to choose which warband I wanted. Victrix produce multiple warband kits that provide loads of options for each individual faction. I was very tempted by the Arthurian set, but then I realised I could actually make a warband out of the remnants of my Norman and Saxon army sets that I had. Not many people would call me financially responsible, but building a Saxon warband seemed like the right thing to do, because I could do that right now, without even waiting for kits to be posted to me.

I decided to start with a list at 250 gold pieces. This is a small game in the grand scheme of things, but is a reasonable amount of models to learn the game with. Every warband needs a leader, so a Saxon chief with a sword, maille, and shield seemed to fit the bill. A little bit of clipping and milliput allowed me to change the position of his head to get a very dramatic hero pose as well. Sorted.

Next I needed some huscarls, mailled bodyguard warriors typified by two handed axes. Looking at how expensive they were made me baulk a bit: Fully equipped, each one was more expensive than the chief, but they are an iconic Saxon troop type, so I needed some. Two seemed to be a reasonable amount that didn't break the bank, so I assembled them. Something to bear in mind when using the two-handed weapons on the sprue is that each is matched to an individual body, so don't clip off both models and their axes in one go before assembling. That would be a silly thing to do. Ahem.

Heroic posing is a required part of being a Chieftain. Photo by Zac

Finally I needed some basic warriors to stand around and support the actual fighters. Historically, most farmers were expected to turn up and fight for their Thane when called, usually bringing a shield and a spear with them. Looking at how many Gold Pieces I had left, I could afford to have four of these brave but poorly equipped warriors in my force. Unfortunately, I had used most of the unarmoured Saxon warriors in my larger army, so I started looking for alternatives. I found that I had some left over unarmoured Normans, which would do. I needed to make them look more Saxon though.

Out came the clippers and hobby knife. The Bayeux Tapestry generally differentiates the two sides by giving Normans a pretty severe “undercut” hairstyle, and the Saxons some magnificent mustaches. Far be it from me to argue with the seamstresses of the 11th century. Heads came off, and were replaced with bewhiskered ones. Victrix do have some strange ways of attaching heads and helmets, but I was pleasantly surprised by how easy this was.

Mustaches are a required part of being a Saxon. Photo by Zac

Painting My Warband

Seven models to paint in one month should be pretty easy, but I have a young family and a lot of hobbies, so for me it is better described as manageable. Victrix Miniatures have some really crisp detail, so they really take drybrushing well, so working up from a dark primer fitted the models. In order to be historical I needed to go with rich colours and non-uniform: reds blues and yellows for the richer members of the warband, and a few more browns and greens for the poorer Fyrdsmen, although they also got some small bits of the brighter, posher colours too.

All of my models had helmets on, but I also wanted to make it clear who the boss was with this as well. Giving the Chieftain's helm an extra highlight layer, and darkening in Fyrdsmen's helms with Agrax Earthshade gave some more visual cues as to who is who on the battlefield.

Mostly painted, but shields are looking a little ropey Photo by Zac

Finally, it was time to paint the shields. I like to do these separately, as I like to undercoat the backs in black, to get some nice brown drybrushing going on, and the fronts in light grey, so that the faces can be really vibrant. I took my designs from the Victrix shield transfers, and the bayeux tapestry, although I freehanded them on because I'm one of those strange people who enjoy that kind of thing. Once they were painted, I glued them onto their models so that I could finish them off with a wash of Agrax Earthshade and bit of battle damage. Its best to do this while they're attached, so that the shades and highlights are the right way up in the finished piece.

Agrax Earthshade is a required part of any colour scheme. Photo by Zac

Finally, after a quick base, its all done, and I have a small warband ready to Pillage or De-Pillage some poor Saxon hamlet. Lee also managed to paint his full 250GP, which is very shocking in our circle. He's actually painting faster than Scott now, so we're going to have to start re-writing all of our jokes. This means that next month we'll get in our first game and think about what else I want to add to the gang. I'm very excited, and I hope you are too.

Closing Thoughts

If you want, you could always join us! Grab a Pillage warband and comment below with your progress over the next three months, getting ready for Aprillage!

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Tags: historicals | pillage