Robin Hood & Tournaments of Jousting and More (5)

March 3, 2024

A sad tale of woe?  Or just a long delay until the next posting?  Back working on my Robin Hood figures and here is what should be the final organization - except for the unarmed civilians and, perhaps, a foot unit or two to assign to the king and the prince.  Or not.  Still to be decided.

ROBIN HOOD PRIMARY COLLECTION


Robin Hood, mounted and dismounted         1 man, 1 woman on foot escort

Azeem, mounted and dismounted         2 young men as foot escort

Little John, mounted and dismounted         2 men as foot escort

Friar Tuck, mounted and dismounted         2 men as foot escort

Will Scarlet, mounted and dismounted         2 men as foot escort

Much the miller’s son, mounted and dismounted         2 men as foot escort

Alan-a-Dale, mounted and dismounted         2 men as foot escort

Lady Marian, mounted and dismounted         2 women foot escort

Longbowmen 12 foot - Robin Hood

Longbowmen 12 foot - Will Scarlet

Longbowmen 12 foot - Much the miller’s son

Swordsmen 12 foot - Alan-a-Dale

Spearmen 12 foot - Azeem

Staffmen         12 foot - Little John

Staff and Macemen 12 foot - Friar Tuck

Malcolm of Locksley, mounted and dismounted 2 men as foot escort

Entourage: 4 mtd and 4 dismtd (Larcwide, Slean, Baldice, Norian)

    

Merlin     - foot only, no escort

Guinevere     - foot only, no escort

King Richard, mounted and dismounted 6 (or 7) men and women foot

                                2 and 2 mounted men and women

Half barded mounted escort, 12 mounted (can also use as Prince John’s mounted escort)

Fully barded mounted escort, 12 mounted

—  — -- -- 

Sheriff of Nottingham, Robert de Rainault, mtd and dismtd 2 men, 1 woman on foot escort

Guy of Gisborne, mounted and dismounted         2 men as foot escort

Bishop of Hereford, mounted and dismounted         2 men as foot escort

Niedre de Mort, mounted and dismounted         2 men as foot escort

Prior Vincent of Emmet, mounted and dismounted 2 men as foot escort

Captain Ralph of Huntingdon, mounted and dismounted 2 men as foot escort

Sir Godfrey, mounted and dismounted                 2 men as foot escort

Crossbowmen 12 foot - Sheriff of Nottingham

Longbowmen 12 foot - Captain Ralph of Huntingdon

Swordsmen 12 foot - Guy of Gisborne

Sword and Spearmen 12 foot - Captain Ralph of Huntingdon

Axeman         12 foot - Sir Godfrey 

Spearmen 12 foot - Bishop of Hereford

Spearmen 12 foot - Prior Vincent of Emmet

Prince John, mounted and foot                 2 men as foot escort

Bishop of Black Canons - foot only, no escort

Morgana                 - foot only, no escort


List above does not include unarmed civilians to populate villages, castles, etc., which are multi-purpose for Robin Hood, Jousting, Picts, Viking raiding games, and some for Three Musketeers if workable.  (Extra figure with Sheriff is the Tax Collector)


Additional figures also organized for Normans, Saxon, Picts - and Vikings for raiding games.

Possible additional characters if desired: Will Stutley - Robin’s Friend, Sir Richard of Lea

 
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A bigger change is I will now also be using this page to keep track of my newest sub-adventure if you will, taking a bunch of extra figures from the above and building up a Middle Ages Jousting and More tournament game.  Also have a few orders winging their way to me for this same purpose, filling in some holes, etc.  I plan to build eight full teams with each team having 3 mounted/dismounted knights, 3 squires, and various pages and other figures - and all painted to some pseudo-heraldic color scheme for each team.  

Plan is to build a noble's gallery flanked by higher borne folk and further flanked by ground level galleries for the 'groundlings' or common people; already have most of the figures to populate the galleries.  Already have plenty of tents and castles, need to build some merchants stalls.  Will need to build the tilting yard and an arena for hand-to-hand combats and an archery range.  

This is being added here because some of the items will be used in Robin Hood games.

January 15, 2015

The redux begins here.

As in the slow and methodical reduction of my collection of figures to a more manageable level.  So, in this year of benign neglect, I've already started the winnowing.  Tonight I pulled out the boxes holding these figures and made a modest reduction.  Now there are all of 660 figures in this collection and evenly matched between Robin's side and the Sheriff's side.  One thing I've settled on, at least for the peripheral periods, is to have each collection designed to accommodate only six players.  While a more detailed new listing will await another day, basically there are now just six foot units per side of 3 heroic and 12 basic figures per unit, two mounted units per side of 12 men on horseback with 12 dismounts, and two Heroic mounted stands per side.  There are also five villages per side with each village having a mounted leader stand plus 12 women and children, 12 men per village.  Then there are 12 casualties per side and a group of ten dogs and five handlers for each side.  I'm pretty sure that will allow for a fine game.  Next up - though it sort of started this process - is the Viking set up.  Hoping for a much, much larger reduction there and already winnowed down ships and crews a bit.

March 14, 2013


I alluded to this on the main page but I should comment here as well.  Last weekend I took some time to rummage around in the spare figures containers and was able to find figures for the headmen of the two villages missing them.  I also found three more mounted figures for the King's forces so that I can break that group into two nine figure groups.  Also found appropriate figures to bring up the sheriff's foot groupings to 24 each, including the character stand, so that now those groups can be at 12 figures each.  That leaves the only "odd out" group Robin's cavalry which is 12 figures instead of 9 like the other mounted units.  But since they will be of lesser quality that should work out fine.  And if it doesn't I can just put aside one stand.

June 3, 2012

The order has arrived (a few days ago) and been sorted and now I can give a 'final' listing of how it is all organized:

Robin Hood and his archers - 12 men plus Robin mounted with a sidekick - a Saracen on foot.
Alan-a-Dale and his archers - 12 men
Will Scarlet and his swordsmen - 12 men
Much the Miller's son and his swordsmen - 12 men
Friar Tuck and his quarterstaffmen - 12 men
Little John and his quarterstaffmen - 12 men
Maid Marian on foot with two companions and mounted with a foot companion.
Marian's arhcers - 12 men
The spearmen - 12 men
The cavalry - 12 men on horseback with 12 dismounts, all spear armed.

The Villagers
Mounted headman with foot, 12 men and boys, 12 women and children
Mounted headman with foot, 12 men and boys, 12 women and children
(actually, the above have few children because they are mostly up in arms rather than peacable)
12 men and boys, 12 women and children
12 men and boys, 12 women and children
(if I can find a couple of mounted civilian men - or women, these two villages will get headmen)

Sheriff and his crossbowmen - 3 + 18 men plus sheriff mounted with a foot sidekick
     9 cavalry with dismounts, sword armed.
Guy of Gisborne and his swordsmen - 3 + 18 men
     9 cavalry with dismounts, spear armed
Bishop and his spearmen - 3 + 18 men
     9 cavalry with dismounts, sword and spear armed
Wizard - 3 men

The Villagers
Bishop's village 2/1 men/women, 12 priests, 12 nuns
Mounted headman with foot, 12 men and boys, 12 women and children
Mounted headman with foot, 12 men and boys, 12 women and children
Mounted headman with foot, 12 men and boys, 12 women and children
Mounted headman with foot, 12 men and boys, 12 women and children
Mounted headwoman with foot, 12 men and boys, 12 women and children

King's Forces (but which king?):

Commmand - 1 mounted man with 1 foot (not the king, decidedly not)
15 cavalry with dismounts, spear armed

12 spearmen
12 spearmen (mostly)
12 axemen (mostly)
12 axemen
12 spearmen
6 crews for 2 catapults

Most of the king's forces are already painted, the rest requires preparation and painting.  Oh, there are a few odd bits still to be 'designed' in - I have 24 casualty figures, probably use as unit morale indicators.  Also, have a pack of Saxon war dogs and Irish wolf hounds, two handlers and ten dogs per pack.

And of buildings I have the following: a large castle with an inner and outer bailey, a church with a side yard (need another building and two more side yards to create the monastery/cloister I have in mind), a celtic farmstead, a celtic village of nine huts, six saxon A frame huts, six viking huts, a town of twelve buildings, fourteen tents (need either one or four more, probably four to allow two nine tent camps), plus a border tower and a tower keep.  Perhaps seeing that listing of buildings will allow you to understand why there are so many villagers.  Robin needs to have rich to rob from and poor to give to, not so?

If you are thinking that is too many figures for a Robin Hood game, stay tuned.

May 22, 2012

The order is off, the payment authorized, and possibly already in the mail and on its way to me.

Now, I guess, if I can find some spare time in this hectic "moment" in my life, I ought to get to work on the castle and the various villages and such for those figures to prance around in, pardon - engage in fierce combat.  I have a celtic farmstead, a Saxon village, a Viking village, and a town plus a monastery with an attached nunnery.  Going to have to give some thought to the terrain - some large trees, of course, and a hazardous water crossing.  But also a road through the forest.  And, me being me, there will be a variety of nature's beasties roaming about the landscape.

Can run a game with up to twelve players easy enough, probably run three to four player games most of the time.  I'm thinking in terms of games where the players aren't quite sure which settlement is the intended target and will have to determine it during the course of the game based on which one happens to be "richest" for the day.  Robin will see opportunity and the Sheriff's men will be worried.  Marian, as always, will be amourous - unless someone comes along to play her and has other ideas.

Enough for now.

May 16, 2012
I've settled on what to order from Splintered Light Miniatures to create my Robin Hood setup.  While I won't list the codes I will describe the forces I will build with the figures.

There will be a mounted Robin Hood and a mounted Maid Marian and each will have their own attendant contingent.  For Robin - the dismounted version - it will be himself and eight more men, excellent archers all - and a group of six villagers.  Marian will have a group of twelve archers, not in the same league as Robin's men, and twelve villagers.  Those are all on foot - each mounted figure will also have a foot figure with it since I base everything in "threes."

Of course, we can't let Robin face the evil forces of the false king alone.  So, Little John will have himself and eight staff men and six villagers.  Will Scarlet will have himself and eight doughty swordsmen and six villagers and the same for Much the Miller's Son.  Alan-a-Dale will get eight archers and six villagers.  And, last but not least, the good Friar Tuck will get eight staff men and six villagers.

Well, okay, there is one more group for the "good guys" and that is a dozen mounted spear men with appropriate figures for dismounts (or as close as can be).  These will be used for certain scenarios that are gestating in the darker corners of my imagination.

And on the other side of the issue of excessive taxation is the rapacious Sheriff of Nottingham who will also have both a mounted and dismounted figure.  He will have under his command a force of nine mounted men with swords with suitable dismounts as well as a force of foot with three leaders and fifteen crossbowmen.  He is, of course, seconded by Guy of Gisborne who has his own foot only stand and similar contingents - the mounted a mix of sword and spear and the foot all swordsmen.  And then there is the Bishop who, like Guy, is on foot and has those similar contingents - the mounted all spears (except the leaders they all have) and the foot all spear.  And bringing up "the rear" is a noxious stand of a giant, a snake loving sort and a dancing man with a staff.  As to a Morgana type, well, that is undecided at this moment - but not out of the question.

If the Sheriff ever gets his entire force together all at once and goes after Robin, he's likely to swing from an Olde English Oak.  Best not let that happen!

All of that may seem rather a lot for a simple Robin Hood game.  Perhaps the observant reader will have realized by now that my incarnation isn't so simple.

Now it's time I were off to bed.





Original Post from 2012

There be a heavy coach traveling a lonely road through a thick forest, and it sinks deep into the dust and likely carries a heavy load.  Perhaps it is gold, the damnable gold of taxes the vile Sheriff collects for his King.  But a log falls across the road and - "swish" & "thwack" - an arrow penetrates but an inch from the eye of the driver and many a man, one quite Merry, dance out of the woods to ensure that it will travel on lighter.
----
Off in the Splintered Lights an order awaits fulfillment and some rollicking adventures will begin.  Well, after the yet to be ordered figures get painted.  When will he get his Normans done!?

Well, it would seem yesterday is the day he get's his Normans done, as in May 13th - at least that is the first time I saw them up on Splintered Light's web site.  Time to put together an order and get it off.  And exercise discipline in keeping the order small enough to be reasonable.  Of course, there are other things to order besides Robin Hood related items, though not generally pertinent here - unless there were elk in England.  The reason for awaiting the Normans was to round out both The Merry Men and those scoundrels who work for the Sheriff.  Off to sort it out.




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