Håtunaleken – Allmoge for The King's Host

The king Birger Magnusson has rallied some more troops to his banner. This time he's reinforced by a unit of allmoge – yeomen armed with a mix of spears, pole arms and crossbows.

As befits such a motley crew, the miniatures are a mix of Curtey's and Black Tree Design. One of the BTD minis had a cone helmet with a nose guard, typical 11th century stuff and not really suitable for the 14th century – even the rural Swedes weren't that much behind the fashion of the times by then. To bring him forward a couple of centuries I chopped his head off (a-ha!) and gave him a new one from one of the West Wind head sprues I have around. He's the one with the red and white shield on his back. The head fitted reasonably well, but for some reason it looks a bit weird from a certain angle. Oh well.

As they are in essence a bunch of peasants, I painted them mainly in muted colours but with some details in the colours of the House of Bjälbo to show their allegiance to the king.

This was my first experience with Curtey's miniatures and they were jolly nice, although perhaps they look a bit "squat". Might just be my preference though ...

During the games in our club campaign Håtunaleken, I have felt a distinct lack of missile troops for my host, so this unit is a welcome addition indeed.

Thank you all for reading!